Laptop rental companies reach cash-free, pointless settlement with toothless...
The FTC has settled with seven rent-to-own companies and a software company called DesignerWare of North East Pennsylvania for their role in secretly installing spyware on rental laptops, which was...
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Researcher claims feasibility of writing lethal wireless pacemaker viruses
In a presentation at the BreakPoint security conference in Melbourne, IOActive researcher Barnaby Jack described an attack on pacemakers that could, he says, deliver lethal shocks to their owners....
View ArticleKindle user claims Amazon deleted whole library without explanation
According to Martin Bekkelund, a Norwegian Amazon customer identified only as Linn had her Kindle access revoked without warning or explanation. Her account was closed, and her Kindle was remotely...
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Razer Naga gaming mouse requires always-on Internet connection, license...
Channelx99, a poster on the overclock.net forums, says that the Razer Naga gaming mouse comes with special drivers that require your computer to be connected to the Internet at all times in order to...
View ArticleMicrosoft patents spying on you with your TV's camera and fining you if there...
Kotaku's Luke Plunkett delves into a newly disclosed Microsoft patent that covers spying on people in their homes using cameras attached to their TVs, in order to levy fines against them for allowing...
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Congressman calls for ban on 3D printed guns
Well, that was predictable: days after a 3D printed gun fired a few rounds, Rep Steve Israel has called for a ban on of Wiki Weapons. The congressman points out (correctly) that all-plastic 3D printed...
View ArticleVideo from my book tour: Cincinnati presentation
Kevin Loughin came out to my Homeland tour-stop in Cincinnati on Valentine's Day and made a great video of the presentation and Q&A. He was kind enough to post it to YouTube -- thanks, Kevin! Cory...
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Defense Distributed claims working 3D printed handgun
Defense Distributed's Cody Wilson claims he has attained his stated goal of 3D printing a working handgun. There's no footage of it firing yet, nor details on how many rounds it fires before the...
View ArticleComputer scientists to FBI: don't require all our devices to have backdoors...
In an urgent, important blog post, computer scientist and security expert Ed Felten lays out the case against rules requiring manufacturers to put wiretapping backdoors in their communications tools....
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Black Code: how spies, cops and crims are making cyberspace unfit for human...
I reviewed Ronald Diebert's new book Black Code in this weekend's edition of the Globe and Mail. Diebert runs the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto and has been instrumental in several...
View ArticleCory's Sense About Science lecture
I gave the annual Sense About Science lecture last week in London, and The Guardian recorded and podcasted it (MP3). It's based on the Waffle Iron Connected to a Fax Machine talk I gave at Re:publica...
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US entertainment industry to Congress: make it legal for us to deploy...
The hilariously named "Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property" has finally released its report, an 84-page tome that's pretty bonkers. But amidst all that crazy, there's a bit that...
View ArticleImpossible Programs: a great lecture on some of computer science's most...
Here's a 40-minute video in which Tom Stuart gives a talk summarizing one of the chapters from him new book Understanding Computation, describing the halting state problem and how it relates to bugs,...
View ArticleCanada's business groups wants to hack your computer even more than the...
Michael Geist writes, The Internet is buzzing over a new report from the Commission on the Theft of American Intellectual Property that recommends using spyware and ransomware to combat online...
View ArticleWhy the FBI's plan to require weak security in all American technology is a...
Bruce Schneier's editorial on CALEA-II is right on. In case you missed it, CALEA II is the FBI's proposal to require all American computers, mobile devices, operating systems, email programs,...
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Pwning a house
Badly configured home automation systems are easy to locate using Google, and once you discover them, you can seize control of a stranger's entire home: "lights, hot tubs, fans, televisions, water...
View ArticleNSA: National Insecurity
Tom sez, "This clip takes aim at the NSA and their spying, snooping ways - it's made by somegreybloke, and features Jeremiah McDonald (who clocked up 11 million views on YouTube with conversation with...
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High-end CNC machines can't be moved without manufacturers' permission
On Practical Machinst, there's a fascinating thread about the manufacturer's lockdown on a high-priced, high-end Mori Seiki NV5000 A/40 CNC mill. The person who started the thread owns the machine...
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Facial recognition mobile app
A new mobile app called "Nametag" adds facial recognition to phone photos; take a pic of someone and feed it to the app and the app will search Facebook, Twitter, sex offender registries and (if you'd...
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Robots and the law: what's after cyberlaw?
Ryan Calo, the organizer of the annual Stanford conference on Robots and the Law has written a new paper called Robotics and the New Cyberlaw , examining the new legal challenges posed by the presence...
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