Secure Future - Coffee Drinking Health Benefits

Not so controversial anymore -- panel says moderate coffee drinking reduces many risks. Coffee contains hundreds of components including substantial amounts of chlorogenic acid, caffeine, magnesium, potassium, vitamin B3, trigonelline, and lignans. Limited evidence suggests that coffee may improve glucose metabolism by reducing the rate of intestinal glucose absorption and by stimulating the secretion of the gut hormone glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) that is beneficial for the secretion of insulin. However, most mechanistic research on coffee and glucose metabolism has been done in animals and in lab tubes and therefore metabolic studies in humans are currently being conducted. Further research may lead to the development or selection of coffee types with improved health effects.

More here.

The Very Secure F-22

On April 10, at Langley Air Force Base, an F-22 pilot, Capt. Brad Spears, was locked inside the cockpit of his aircraft for five hours. No one in the U.S. Air Force or from Lockheed Martin could figure out how to open the aircraft's canopy. At about 1:15 pm, chainsaw-wielding firefighters from the 1st Fighter Wing finally extracted Spears after they cut through the F-22's three-quarter inch-thick polycarbonate canopy.

Total damage to the airplane, according to sources inside the Pentagon: $1.28 million. Not only did the firefighters ruin the canopy, which cost $286,000, they also scuffed the coating on the airplane's skin which will cost about $1 million to replace.

More here.

Friday Fun w/John T Draper (AKA Captain Crunch)

Time to fire-up the wayback machine and get a little hacker history. John T. Draper (born 1944), also known as Captain Crunch, Crunch or Crunchman (after Cap'n Crunch, the mascot of a breakfast cereal), is a former phone phreak.

Read his stories here.

Uncle Sam Issues "Final" Report on Identity Theft

The President’s Task Force on Identity Theft was established by Executive Order 13402 on May 10, 2006 and the task force has just released its "final" report on identity theft. A good use of resources this task force? Maybe not so much, after looking at the IC3 report noted in the prior post below...

Top 10 Internet Crimes of 2006

According to the Internet Crime Complaint Center's 2006 annual report, auction fraud and non-delivery of items purchased are far and away the most common Internet crimes. Number three is good old fashion check fraud. Identity theft is way down near the bottom...

Virginia’s IC3 2006 Internet Crime Report.

Chicago Man Exonerated; Becomes 200th Exoneree Nationwide

This must keep some people awake at night...

In 200th DNA Exoneration Nationwide, Jerry Miller in Chicago Is Proven Innocent 25 Years After Wrongful Conviction

Innocence Project launches “200 Exonerated, Too Many Wrongfully Convicted,” month-long national campaign to address and prevent wrongful convictions

(CHICAGO, IL; April 23, 2007) – With new DNA tests proving that Jerry Miller did not commit a brutal rape in Chicago for which he was convicted in 1982, the Innocence Project said today that Miller is the 200th person in the nation exonerated through DNA evidence.

In 1981, Miller was arrested and charged with kidnapping, raping and robbing a woman in downtown Chicago. He was convicted in 1982 and served 24 years in prison. Eleven months ago, he was released on parole as a registered sex offender, requiring him to wear an electronic monitoring device at all times and prohibiting him from answering his door on Halloween or leaving his job for lunch. Miller, who served more than three years in the military, was 22 years old when he was arrested and is now 48. DNA testing on semen from the rape proves that Miller did not commit the crime – and instead implicates another man as the actual perpetrator.

Silvert Bullet Podcast - Episode 13

On the 13th episode of The Silver Bullet Security Podcast, Gary chats with Ross Anderson, Professor of Security Engineering at the Computer Laboratory at Cambridge University and author of the book Security Engineering. Gary and Ross discuss the effect of posting his excellent book on the net for free, the simple reasons why most systems fail, the economic imbalance between engineers/developers and a system’s users (with respect to who should address security), and why publicly describing attacks is essential to security engineering. They close out by examining the security implications of wearing a kilt.

Mail BITS

BITS, the business strategy and technology group for the Financial Services Roundtable, announced that it is urging its member companies to adopt three key email security protocols within the next eighteen months. In a white paper published today, entitled The BITS Email Security Toolkit: Protocols and Recommendations for Reducing the Risks, BITS also urges member financial institutions to continue working with Internet Service Providers and other business partners to tackle the problem of unwanted email or spam, phishing and email-deployed malware.

Finding Webcams w/Google

Try using the following queries:

inurl:/view.shtml

or

intitle:”Live View / - AXIS” | inurl:view/view.shtml^

The Hole - video powered by Metacafe

Friday Fun - Lady Taser

Now your Taser can match your shoes!

The TASER C2 can stop a threat up to 15 feet (4.5 meters) away, allowing you to protect yourself and your family from a safe distance. You can also use the C2 as a contact stun device to repel someone - a powerful backup capability.

TASER® technology has proven itself as the safe self-defense choice with over 500,000 uses worldwide. TASER technology is supported by dozens of independent medical reports attesting to its general safety.

Get yours here.

The Right Way

Salient comments from Sheriff Andy Taylor.

FAA Advisory - Boeing 787 Hacking

Gee, no worries here... The Federal Aviation Administration issued an advisory outlining possible wireless security threats to Boeing's 787-8 aircraft.

On-board wired and wireless devices may also have access to parts of
the airplane's digital systems that provide flight critical functions.
These new connectivity capabilities may result in security
vulnerabilities to the airplane's critical systems. For these design
features, the applicable airworthiness regulations do not contain
adequate or appropriate safety standards for protection and security of
airplane systems and data networks against unauthorized access.

Last year was a hot one for UFO sightings

One of Canada’s leading UFO researchers says there were 736 reported sightings across the country last year.

Chris Rutkowski says the 2006 Canadian UFO Survey recorded the third largest number of sightings in its 17-year history and shows there’s still a great deal of interest in unexplained phenomena in the sky.

cDc Launches - Cowfeed

A feed aggregator of all cDc-related content everywhere!

"Based in Lubbock, Texas, CULT OF THE DEAD COW (cDc) is the most-accomplished and longest-running group in the computer underground. Founded in 1984 and widely considered to be the most elite people to ever walk the face of the earth, this think tank has been referred to as both "a bunch of sickos" (Geraldo Rivera) and "the sexiest group of computer hackers there ever was" (Jane Pratt, _Sassy_ and _Jane_ magazines). The cDc is a leading developer of Internet privacy and security tools, which are all free to the public. In addition, the cDc created the first electronic publication, which is still going strong."

Virginia Tech rampage

I wish I could find the appropriate words to explicitly express how underly pathetic and sensationalistic the media coverage of this tragedy has been in general.

In my mind the only issues that should be covered at this juncture are that there has been a terrible and senseless loss of human life and that the only one at fault/to blame here - is the one who pulled the trigger...

Note: on average there are 2.4 US military fatalities every day in IRAQ - 3,308 total so far. Most the same age or younger as the VT students.

Rock Phish

A phishing demo from F-Secure showing examples created with Rock Phish - a phishing kit that allows non-technical folks to create and implement phishing attacks.

Red Tape Chronicles

Red Tape Chronicles is MSNBC.com's effort to unmask government bureaucracy, corporate sneakiness and outright scam artists.

Secure Future? Are mobile phones wiping out our bees?

No bees, no pollination, no food...

If it is phones, then why now?

It seems like the plot of a particularly far-fetched horror film. But some scientists suggest that our love of the mobile phone could cause massive food shortages, as the world's harvests fail.

They are putting forward the theory that radiation given off by mobile phones and other hi-tech gadgets is a possible answer to one of the more bizarre mysteries ever to happen in the natural world - the abrupt disappearance of the bees that pollinate crops. Late last week, some bee-keepers claimed that the phenomenon - which started in the US, then spread to continental Europe - was beginning to hit Britain as well.

Full story here.

Geek Accused of Videotaping Woman in Her Shower

Their mom called Best Buy's Geek Squad for help with their computer. Now two sisters are suing Best Buy, claiming the technician who showed up secretly taped one of them in the shower.

Full story here.

Happy Friday - One From the Vault

"The only winning move is not to play. How about a nice game of chess?"