Friday faburden fain

 

  Research from the University of Michigan into the ease with which attackers can hack traffic lights.

From the article:
As is typical in large urban areas, the traffic lights in the subject city are networked in a tree-type topology, allowing them to pass information to and receive instruction from a central management point. 

 The network is IP-based, with all the nodes (intersections and management computers) on a single subnet. 

In order to save on installation costs and increase flexibility, the traffic light system uses wireless radios rather than dedicated physical networking links for its communication infrastructure—and that’s the hole the research team exploited. ...

 The 5.8GHz network has no password and uses no encryption; with a proper radio in hand, joining is trivial. ... 

The research team quickly discovered that the debug port was open on the live controllers and could directly "read and write arbitrary memory locations, kill tasks, and even reboot the device (PDF)." 

Debug access to the system also let the researchers look at how the controller communicates to its attached devices—the traffic lights and intersection cameras. 

They quickly discovered that the control system’s communication was totally non-obfuscated and easy to understand—and easy to subvert.

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The United Parcel Service announced that customers' credit and debit card information at 51 franchises in 24 states may have been compromised. 

There are 4,470 franchised center locations throughout the U.S., according to UPS. 

The malware began to infiltrate the system as early as January 20, but the majority of the attacks began after March 26. UPS says the threat was eliminated as of August 11 and that customers can shop safely at all locations.

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The referendum on Scottish independence on September 18th affects more than just residents of the United Kingdom.

 All of the UK's nuclear deterrent is located in Scotland, and Alex Salmond and the Scottish government have pledged to safely remove and permanently ban nuclear weapons from Scottish territory within the first term of a newly independent parliament.

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A new research paper (PDF) outlines security software that scans and scrapes web sites (past and present) to identify patterms leading up to a security breach. It then accurately predicts what websites will be hacked in the future. The tool has an accuracy of up to 66%. Quoting: "The algorithm is designed to automatically detect whether a Web server is likely to become malicious in the future by analyzing a wide array of the site's characteristics: For example, what software does the server run? What keywords are present? How are the Web pages structured? If your website has a whole lot in common with another website that ended up hacked, the classifier will predict a gloomy future. The classifier itself always updates and evolves, the researchers wrote. It can 'quickly adapt to emerging threats.'"

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 I download no apps per month...in fact I never even use apps on my windows 8.1 laptop. I use software still.

Who is telling the truth? Apple or comScore?

Apple boasted 75 billion all-time App Store downloads at its developers conference in June, and followed up by declaring July the best month ever for App Store revenue, with a record number of people downloading apps. Yet most U.S. smartphone owners download zero apps in a typical month, according to comScore’s new mobile app report.

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I used to pick up my mother's "party~line" and the operator would say, "Is that you little David? I am going to tell your mother if you do not put the phone down." The black bakelight phone was big and heavy in my little hand.

I became adept at getting up and smacking the TV on it's side to stop the vertical roll, and I also was good at adjusting the rabbit ears for the best reception with the least amount of snow in the black and white picture.


Cars had monaural crackling AM radios and ash trays along with "wind~wings."

 I recall all of the 4 track tapes stretched  out along the roadside every where I went. Then a few years later it was cassette tapes everywhere along the roads.

"Don't touch my records, you might scratch them."

My tiny Timex computer taught me "Basic" programing language and could do nothing...

 What it feels like to be the last generation to remember life before the internet

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 MAKE THE FUTURE COME FASTER

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You thought that the "Walkman" was the invention of the first head phones...you would be very wrong...
The Evolution of the Headphone

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 There’s at least one line every Marine knows: “Never point a weapon at anything you do not intend to shoot.” The St. Louis County Police Department apparently never received that memo.
 A Former Marine Explains All The Weapons Of War Being Used By Police In Ferguson

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  “last year, in total, British police officers actually fired their weapons three times.”

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 Avoid Jerky treats for your dog!!!

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No one actually has "tipped" a cow. Cow tipping does not exist, only in the minds of city slickers...

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Russian Dash Cam Records A Motorcycle Accident Where Protective Angels Intervened.