The Simplest—And Most Common—Cellphones Are Vulnerable To The “SMS Of Death”
Despite how obsessed we may be with smartphones, it’s the simplest cellphones which are most common—and the most vulnerable. In fact, it seems that many of those phones could be rendered useless by a maliciously crafted SMS. https://gizmodo.com/the-most-popular-phone-in-the-world-5634258 It’s a scene from an as-yet-unmade thriller – across a country, tens of thousands of cell phones…
Breaking GSM Security With a $15 Phone
Whatever assurances have been given about the security of GSM cellphone calls, forget about them now. Speaking at the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) Congress here today, a pair of researchers demonstrated a start-to-finish means of eavesdropping on encrypted GSM cellphone calls and text messages, using only four sub-$15 telephones as network “sniffers,” a laptop computer…
It’s Official: Printer Ink Cartridge Bombs Were Designed to Be Undetectable
We’ve discussed the printer ink cartridge bombs used by a group of terrorists about a month ago and we’ve pondered just how evildoers hide their bombs, but now we’re discovering exactly how terrifyingly well those explosives avoid detection. https://gizmodo.com/a-look-at-the-tech-inside-printer-cartridge-bombs-5678925 Ever since al-Qaeda’s Yemen branch snuck two bomb-packed printers onto cargo aircraft in October, it’s been…
Court Rules That the Government Needs a Warrant Before Secretly Reading Your Email
The government must obtain a court warrant to require internet service providers to turn over stored e-mail to the authorities, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday. The decision by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was the first time an appellate court said Americans had that Fourth Amendment protection. “The government may not compel…
WikiLeaks Releases Secret List of Critical Infrastructure Sites
A secret memo listing critical infrastructure facilities around the world was published by WikiLeaks on Sunday, prompting criticism that the publication could serve as a target-list for terrorists. The cable, written in February 2009 and classified “Secret,” lists more than a hundred facilities that the U.S. considers critical infrastructures or key resources. They include an…
