The Kegbot At DefCon 05

The annual hacker conference DefCon in Las Vegas this weekend has spawned some pretty innovative stuff, not the least of which is the Kegbot. DefCon attendee Phillip Torrone of Make Magazine writes:

One the coolest projects I’ve seen so far at DEFCON was the kegbot, a linux based keg that dispenses beer as long as you have an iButton key. The system keeps track of who you are, how much you’re drinking and in team mode- where you rank. the Kegbot crew built and deployed a kegbot on site at DEFCON, we were lucky enough to get there and document the building of it!

More pics and instructions on building your own Kegbot at the Make Magazine web site.

Microsoft "Genuine Advantage" cracked in 24 hours

This week Microsoft stopped providing updates to non-genuine versions of its Windows XP operating system. The company has switched over to a full launch of its Windows Genuine Advantage Program as part of its ongoing anti-piracy campaign.

Users will now have to join the WGA authentication program if they want to receive software updates from the Microsoft Download Centre or from Windows Update. However, MS says it will still provide security patches for pirated systems, which will be available via Automatic Updates in Windows.

Well, it was good while it lasted... The protection was cracked within 24 hours...

Before pressing 'Custom' or 'Express' buttons paste this text to the address bar and press enter:

CODE
javascript:void(window.g_sDisableWGACheck='all')

It turns off the trigger for the key check.

Gun Safety

A tale that snopes has verified of a DEA agent who’s caught on video accidentally shooting himself while lecturing on gun safety! He limps around, afterwards, and tries to turn it into some kind of object lesson.

Crap it's Friday Already!

Crap Cleaner may be a system cleaner but it has also removed browser hijacks when nothing else would. CCleaner is a freeware system optimization and privacy tool. It removes unused files from your system - allowing Windows to run faster and freeing up valuable hard disk space. It also cleans traces of your online activities such as your Internet history. But the best part is that it's fast (normally taking less that a second to run) and contains NO Spyware or Adware!

Cleans the following:

* Internet Explorer Cache, History, Cookies, Index.dat.
* Recycle Bin, Temporary files and Log files.
* Recently opened URLs and files.
* Third-party application temp files and recent file lists (MRUs).
Including: Firefox, Opera, Media Player, eMule, Kazaa, Google Toolbar, Netscape, Office XP, Nero, Adobe Acrobat, WinRAR, WinAce, WinZip and more...
* Advanced Registry scanner and cleaner to remove unused and old entries.
Including File Extensions, ActiveX Controls, ClassIDs, ProgIDs, Uninstallers, Shared DLLs, Fonts, Help Files, Application Paths, Icons, Invalid Shortcuts and more... Backup for registry clean.

Scandal at BlackHat?

Cisco Systems and ISS late Wednesday filed for an injunction against a former ISS researcher who exposed vulnerabilities in Cisco’s router operating system at the Black Hat conference at Caesars Palace, Las Vegas • July 23-28, 2005 earlier in the day.

Basically this adds a whole new twist to the router exploit field. Remote code executation via buffer overflow. That in general has not existed in the cisco world because no one had developed it. In the past most router vulnerabilities were denial of service vulnerabilities. See this CRN article for additional details on this event.

Also this year's Black Hat presentations are now online...

Border Security (Border XXX-ings)

Many of us here in the good old USA have gotten into the habit of thinking of Canada as our smarter cousin to the north: a society open to gay marriage, more relaxed attitudes towards (less harmful than alcohol) recreational drugs, health care that covers more people for less cost, etc. So when we find out that Canada can be a big old arrogant dolt like us, it's more shocking than it might otherwise be...

This week, The Smoking Gun got their hands on the "Admissible and Prohibited Titles" list from Canada's Border Patrol -- and, for some of us, (like one gp) it reads almost like a shopping list. (The document officially covers "obscenity, hate speech, and child pornography," but the only material listed is in the "obscenity" category.)

DefConTime

You still have time to head out- DefCon 13 will be held at the Alexis Park in Las Vegas, Nevada, July 29-31.

The folks at SANS have some Con-fu - good tips for protecting your system if you do go (or anytime for that matter).

Get there early and head over to the pre-DefCon Summit! TheSummit is a fund raiser for the EFF, a nonprofit group of passionate people - lawyers, technologists, volunteers, and visionaries - working to protect your digital rights.

Woman Accused of Groping Airport Screener

Things that make you go hmmm...

A 62-year-old woman who was upset about being searched at an airport shoved a security screener and then grabbed her breasts, federal prosecutors said. The woman said she reacted in self-defense to "an absolute invasion of my body."

Dintenfass denied that she shoved Gostisha, but admitted putting her hands on the agent's breasts.

"I was mortified that I had done that," she said. "I was reacting to what felt like an absolute invasion of my body."

WiFi Cantennas now “illegal”

What is disturbing about this article are comments like:

Known as "cantennas," they consist of a Pringles can and some hardware worth $5 to $10 but can be used to amplify a wireless signal several miles away.

"They're unsophisticated but reliable, and it's illegal to possess them," said Lozito of the Hi-Tech Crimes Task Force.

also...

It's also illegal to access wireless networks that aren't public. In other words, if you've ever been pleasantly surprised to open your laptop, pull up your browser and have Internet access, that likely means you've just intruded into someone else's unsecured network‚— and really aren't allowed to be there.

How do articles like this get published?

For a more intelligent view- CNet's News.com has one of its excellent FAQ pieces on whether it's legal to mooch WiFi. The bottom line: Uh, we dunno.

Russia’s Biggest Spammer Brutally Murdered in Apartment

Who said SPAM wasn't dangerous...

Vardan Kushnir, notorious for sending spam to each and every citizen of Russia who appeared to have an e-mail, was found dead in his Moscow apartment on Sunday, Interfax reported Monday. He died after suffering repeated blows to the head.

Currently the entire Russian population is being considered a suspect. ;)

Build Your Own Wardriving Box

Our friends at wardriving.ch did an amazing job in building an embedded PC based wardriving box. See the full article for instructions on where to get the materials and how to build the software distribution.

Congress Report: TSA Broke Privacy Laws

The Transportation Security Administration violated privacy protections by secretly collecting personal information on at least 250,000 people, congressional investigators said Friday.

The Government Accountability Office sent a letter to Congress saying the collection violated the Privacy Act, which prohibits the government from compiling information on people without their knowledge.

From the article: The GAO letter said that the TSA also said originally that it wouldn't use and store commercial data about airline passengers. It not only did that, it collected and stored information about the people with similar names.

"As a result, an unknown number of individuals whose personal information was collected were not notified as to how they might access or amend their personal data," the letter said.

It was only after meeting with the GAO, which is overseeing the program, that the TSA published a second notice indicating that it would do the things it had earlier said it wouldn't do.

Oberman said it's not unusual to revise such notices.

"We are conducting a test," he said. "I didn't know what the permutations would be."

Oberman also said that the test has no impact on anyone who travels and that the data will be destroyed when the test is over.

Anybody want to guess when the test will be over?

It's Friday.... Time for the Straight Poop

Big Brother? The rest of the family is lurking online

A lesson for London? Drop a bomb on the subway in Korea and they nab you quick!

If you no longer marvel at the Internet's power to connect and transform the world, you need to hear the story of a woman known to many around the globe as, loosely translated, Dog Poop Girl.

Recently, the woman was on the subway in her native South Korea when her dog decided that this was a good place to do its business.

The woman made no move to clean up the mess, and several fellow travelers got agitated. The woman allegedly grew belligerent in response.

What happened next was a remarkable show of Internet force, and a peek into an unsettling corner of the future.

One of the train riders took pictures of the incident with a camera phone and posted them on a popular Web site. Net dwellers soon began to call her by the unflattering nickname, and issued a call to arms for more information about her.

According to one blog that has covered the story, "within days, her identity and her past were revealed. Requests for information about her parents and relatives started popping up, and people started to recognize her by the dog and the bag she was carrying," because her face was partially obscured by her hair.

Online discussion groups crackled with chatter about every shred of the woman's life that could be found, and with debate over whether the Internet mob had gone too far. The incident became national news in South Korea and even was discussed in Sunday sermons in Korean churches in the Washington area.

Humiliated in public and indelibly marked, the woman reportedly quit her university.

Japanese Bank Hypes ATM “Slot Machine”

A Japanese bank is offering automatic tellers with a built-in slot machine to jazz up the “boring” experience of withdrawing money from a hole in the wall. Customers who get the words “Super Gold” three times in a line will win about £5, but can only collect the winnings from inside the bank during working hours.

Judging its customers to be financially astute, the bank will inform cash-machine users what odds are on offer. The chances of having a transaction fee waived are about 1 in 10, and the odds of hitting the 1,000 yen jackpot are 1 in 500.

Since the adoption rate for Online Banking has historically mirrored that of ATMs.... Can games at your favorite online banking site be far behind?

So Long Mr. Scott

James Doohan led a varied and eventful life. So much so that his biography "Beam Me Up Scotty!" is a very interesting read. Did you know that Scottys' middle name Montgomery actually comes from Jimmy Doohans' grandfather, a Scottish sea captain by the name of James Montgomery - Jimmy would also seem to have taken after him in that his mother was born when his grandfather was over seventy! Jimmy and his wife Wende were blessed with their youngest child when he was eighty.

On Wednesday 7/20 Doohan died at his home in Redmond, Wash., with his wife of 31 years, Wende, at his side. He had retired from public events last year, not long after announcing he had Alzheimer's disease.

Houston-based Space Services Inc., which specializes in space memorials, plans to send a few grams of Doohan's ashes aboard a rocket later this year. The remains, which will be sealed in an aluminum capsule, will eventually burn up when they re-enter Earth's atmosphere.

More Flash Demos of Hacks from WHAX

http://eks0.free.fr/whax-demos/

Also, here are some other demos incuding one using Whoppix/WHAX on WEP.

Event Log Explorer 1.2

Event Log Explorer allows administrators to view, monitor and analyze events recorded in the Security, System, Application and other logs. The program extends the features of the standard event log viewer by offering detailed filtering capabilities, that allow you to view events by category, event ID, event type, user, as well as by date or keyword match. Event Log Explorer can also export your evnts as HTML or printable text report.

And it is freeware...

Causes of Suicide Terrorism

Here's a very fascinating interview with Robert Pape, a University of Chicago professor who has studied every suicide terrorist attack since 1980.

Financial Security or Things Obaid Hasn't Told You

Deficit Falls

The projected federal budget deficit has decreased by nearly $100 billion thanks to unexpected increases in tax payments. Rising corporate profits, up 40 percent over 2004, provided most of the extra money.

Gas

Does the average price of a gallon of gas at $2.328 got you in the dumps? You should know this - We are still better off than we were in March 1981 when the real cost of fuel hit its all time high. Back them a gallon cost $1.417 the equivalent of $3.107 a gallon today in inflation adjusted dollars!
SUVs rock!

Unemployment Hits Four-Year Low

Unemployment in June fell to 5%, the lowest level in nearly four years. The drop of 224,000, was the greatest monthly decline in more than a decade.

Finger Scanning At Disney Parks Causes Concern

The addition of finger scanning technology at the entrances of Walt Disney World theme parks for all visitors has caused concern among privacy advocates.

"Disney World is now requiring all visitors to have their index and middle fingers scanned to gain entrance to the park. This started for season pass holders, but is now required for everyone." From the article: "'I think it's a step in the wrong direction,' Civil Liberties Union spokesman George Crossley said. 'I think it is a step toward collection of personal information on people regardless of what Disney says.'"

Disney always gave me the willies... This just adds to it. GP, just think of the germs!