FOI Topics and Links of the Week
August 10th, 2010 | by Jennifer | Published in Android, cybersecurity, Future of the Internet, Generativity, privacy, wikipedia | 2 Comments
Game on. A featureless update released recently by TI blocks a hack that allowed owners to write their own programs for the company’s Nspire calculator. It’s not immediately obvious what rationale TI used to justify the block. It isn’t under pressure to protect the commercial interests of a partner service provider. And worst case, a buggy calculator isn’t exactly as calamitous as a compromised cell phone. In any event, the competition illustrates what may become an increasingly common arms race between hardware companies trying to lock down their products and consumers who want to load the software of their choice on a device they own.
Disintegrating Droids. The Droid X comes pre-loaded with eFuse technology, which prevents it from booting with unapproved software. Motorola points out that triggering eFuse doesn’t permanently disable the phone — it can re-boot once approved software is reinstalled. Much better.
Neighborhood watch for software vulnerabilities. At the Black Hat security conference last week, Microsoft advocated for cooperation between software companies, researchers, and security vendors to share information on flaws and patches in order to keep users safe. Perhaps cross-pollination at the meeting will spread the idea of mutual aid to website owners as well.
Researcher remotely hacks ATMs. Also at Black Hat, a security researcher demonstrated that he could remotely order stand-alone ATMs to spew cash. While causing a remote ATM to dispense money at will is less appealing to the average thief than cracking open a proximate machine, an accomplice with a laptop in a van nearby could make it a profitable endeavor.
Apple rejects iPad magazine subscription app. Apple has nixed an app from Time, Inc. that would have allowed iPad owners to purchase a digital subscription to Sports Illustrated. Peter Kafka of Media Memo hypothesizes that Apple doesn’t want to give magazine publishers the access to personal user information they would have with an app. But publishers are likely salivating over the targeted advertising potential of mining that data. Plus, single-issue sales through iTunes are cumbersome and inefficient. There may be a confrontation brewing, unless publishers are willing to be satisfied with whatever options Apple grants them.
August 10th, 2010 at 11:29 am (#)
I actually talked with an FBI spokesperson. Regarding the reason they took action about Wikimedia, he said they act when they receive a specific complaint, and someone had made a complaint about them.
August 17th, 2010 at 12:07 pm (#)
Re: Disintegrating Droids: It’s only better if it’s clear that these are not computers, and are owned by Motorola, whose encryption key is burned into the motherboard to control what you can do with information on the device.