So, in class we’ve been talking about privacy, and how it no longer exists on the internet. Most of us use Facebook on the internet, correct? Well, how many of you have have used any of the apps on Facebook? Did you know that those apps have access to everything on your Facebook: friends, pictures, information you post on Facebook, like the town you live in, you’re relationship status, ect…

We watched a video in class about the Facebook stalker. It was kind of a spoof; what if it actually happened? Does your Facebook have the least amount of information on it about you?

With this app on Facebook, it shows exactly what would happen if there were someone looking at your Facebook; in fact if they gained access to it. http://www.takethislollipop.com/ is a really scary application that makes you as a Facebook user re-think every thing you put on Facebook, or any social media website for that matter.

The fact that our generation doesn’t view anything as private anymore is really scary. People put up their address on Facebook and then they do not have their privacy settings so that only friends can see their information. But really, what is the definition of ‘Friend’ on Facebook? Is it someone that your just clicked a button and suddenly you have access to their page of pictures and their wall? Or is it some one that you’d trust to save your life if it had to be done?

Basically, in this day in age, the stuff you can find on the internet is so much different then the stuff that you had to actually look up in books years ago. The internet has made it so much easier to get information at your fingertips. Do you trust people with your information not to abuse it?

Friendly Pineapple?

All you self taught hackers will be interested to know that this fellow, the producer and host of the tech show Hak5, Darren Kitchen has been running a hacked router out of plastic pineapple. This router tricks users into connecting to it instead of the actual router. He can eavesdrop on your conversation at the local coffee shop with his hacked router that’s running this software. Kind of scary.

He’s been at this since “he was old enough to take apart an Atari 2600.” He went from a 14 year old self taught hacker to the producer and host of the tech show Hak5. As they say on the video, the “culture” has come so far that it is acceptable to be called a geek, it’s no longer an insult.

Kitchen isn’t just sticking to hacking, he works for different companies to keep other hackers out. He says in the video, how he thought that he knew a lot about the technology before he started the show in 2005, but there’s always more to learn when it comes to this field. It is one of the fastest growing industries in the world.

To check out the actual show, go to hak5.org

the link to the video is : http://news.discovery.com/videos/tech-cool-jobs-hacker.html

Microsoft vulnerability

In this bulletin from Microsoft, they publicly address a vulnerability that could possibly allow a program to open another program. If you save a file such as .txt, .rtf, .doc, and open it, then under certain conditions, the file will be open other files and run it. This exploitation could allow attackers to gain access to the users information because if there happened to be a corrupted file on your hard drive, one of the files that could be potentially ran is the corrupted file.

Because most users have automatic updates through Microsoft, this takes care of most of the problems. However, those who do not have automatic updates need to check for the updates.

This vulnerability is completely preposterous. How incompetent are Microsoft’s programmers that they are not able to catch something like this before the final program is released to the public? Opening something as simple as a text file should never, under any circumstances, be a vulnerability.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/bulletin/ms11-071

Tenth anniversary of 9/11: how safe are we?

Being that it is the tenth anniversary of September 11^th , I thought I’d be appropriate to bring up national security and see how it has progressed since 2001. In this article from Fox News touches on stolen information could hurt the United States. Leon Panetta, secretary of defense, was quoted to have said that our next “Pearl Harbor” could affect our cyber systems. There were already a big red flag on August 14^th, 2003 when the “Blaster worm” supposedly contributed to disabling utility companies computers.

The government has to work with outside companies to get the newest technology, that’s inevitable. So, that being said, how safe is our security system government wise? The Chinese air force has a division that specializes in using cyber-attacks to cause trouble for other countries air control systems. How would the United States defend against that if something like that were to happen to an airport on one of the coast lines?

With technology increasing at an exponential rate, it’s impossible to be completely secure on the internet. As it is, identifying where an enemy is in cyberspace is hard, and with the possibility that we as a country are not as secure as we were 10 years ago, is really terrifying.

www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/09/10/10-years-after-11-are-americas-cyberdefenses-weaker/