You need a tinfoil (okay, stainless steel) wallet, especially if you carry a credit card with an embedded RFID chip. Why? For eight bucks, a bad guy can make your card sing like a bird. Watch:
So that's the bad news. Here's some good news:
Hey, all you Vista users! Microsoft unleashed released Windows Vista Service Pack 1 to Windows Update today.
For those of you Gmail users out there: If you are using a utility called G-Archiver to archive your Google mail, you need to stop using it this instant, uninstall it, and change your Gmail password. Go ahead, I'll wait.
Apple's Mac OS X ships with its own spiffy little built-in web browser: Safari. Safari 2.0x is pretty basic; RSS feeds, bookmarks, all the things you'd expect a modern web browser to do, minus one. It's kind of a big one, too:
While it is likely that these e-mail messages do not pose a credible threat, all life safety issues should be reported to the KU Public Safety Office at (785)864-5900. If you believe yourself to be in immediate physical danger based on an e-mail, telephone, or in-person threat, dial 911 from a campus telephone.
The geekier among us have probably seen articles about Cold Boot Attacks on Encryption Keys. It's possible (if you have good timing and some nice cold storage) to turn off a computer, blast the RAM with some really cold air, boot from a malicious CD-ROM or USB stick, and retrieve the key used to encrypt all the data on the hard drive.
The new year saw NPR's Weekend Edition Sunday covering the topic of cybercrime. Each week, they reported on different aspects of cybersecurity as well as crimes involving the internet. We've linked to the four articles below:
This morning, the folks in ITSO awoke to lots and lots of reports of fraudulent e-mails purporting to come from the KU Credit Union. As you might imagine, these e-mails are bogus, fake, fraudulent, counterfeit, fabricated, ficticious, forged, and any other word you can think of to describe a BIG FAT LIE. They look something like this:
Click to enlarge
The people at F-Secure have identified the first rogue "cleaning" tool aimed at Macintosh users. Folks on the Windows side have been dealing with this for ages--a program (some of them are even advertised on TV, like Stop Sign Antivirus) claims to clean your computer but may be doing other stuff under the hood that you don't like.
UPDATE: January 17, 2008: Engadget reports that the Insignia 10.4" picture frame sold at Best Buy stores also comes with its very own Trojan. Read Engadget's article for more information.
