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Har!
If this tech has been in use for 7 years, what far more sophisticated stuff has been developed since then by more secret groups like NSA and others? The depth that CIPAV goes indicates sophisticated users are kidding themselves that they can protect their identities and activities online.
As first reported by Wired.com, the software, called a “computer and internet protocol address verifier,” or CIPAV, is designed to infiltrate a target’s computer and gather a wide range of information, which it secretly sends to an FBI server in eastern Virginia. The FBI’s use of the spyware surfaced in 2007 when the bureau used it to track e-mailed bomb threats against a Washington state high school to a 15-year-old student.
[…]
“While the technique is of indisputable value in certain kinds of cases, we are seeing indications that it is being used needlessly by some agencies, unnecessarily raising difficult legal questions (and a risk of suppression) without any countervailing benefit,” reads a formerly-classified March 7, 2002 memo from the Justice Department’s Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section.The documents, which are heavily redacted, do not detail the CIPAV’s capabilities, but an FBI affidavit in the 2007 case indicate it gathers and reports a computer’s IP address; MAC address; open ports; a list of running programs; the operating system type, version and serial number; preferred internet browser and version; the computer’s registered owner and registered company name; the current logged-in user name and the last-visited URL.
After sending the information to the FBI, the CIPAV settles into a silent “pen register” mode, in which it lurks on the target computer and monitors its internet use, logging the IP address of every server to which the machine connects.
The documents shed some light on how the FBI sneaks the CIPAV onto a target’s machine, hinting that the bureau may be using one or more web browser vulnerabilities. In several of the cases outlined, the FBI hosted the CIPAV on a website, and tricked the target into clicking on a link.
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CAMBRIDGE BAY, Nunavut – A man aboard a small passenger plane fought to push open the aircraft’s door at 23,000 feet over northern Canada and leaped to his death, forcing the pilot to make an emergency landing with the door ajar, police said Thursday.
The Adlair Aviation plane with two pilots and two passengers was flying from Yellowknife to Cambridge Bay, a community in western Nunavut, when the man jumped Wednesday night, said Staff Sgt. Harold Trupish of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
The Beechcraft King Air 200 twin-turboprop was about 110 miles (180 kilometers) from the Cambridge Bay airport when the man jumped, he said. Police were searching for the body of the 20-year-old, whose name was not released. Trupish said the pilots reported the passenger became unruly and they struggled to keep him from pushing the door open and leaping out.
“The plane came in with the door open,” he said. “Somehow they were able to control the aircraft to land. The three other people are all OK.”
It was probably the food.
SYDNEY (AFP) — A Qantas airliner was grounded after four snakes went missing from the cargo hold on a passenger flight from Alice Springs to Melbourne, according to officials.
Twelve baby pythons were packed on the Boeing 737-800 in the outback town on Tuesday, but when it arrived in Australia’s second biggest city there were only eight, Qantas said in a statement. Corporate manager David Epstein told public radio the snakes’ escape was a mystery because the consignment had been properly packaged in a tied calico bag inside a Styrofoam box with air holes punched in it.
“Our people called in a reptile expert and there was a suggestion that some of the baby pythons had eaten the other pythons because apparently it is not uncommon for baby pythons to eat each other,” he said. Qantas staff then weighed the remaining snakes to determine if they were heavier, but they were not. “The only conclusion we could draw was four of them had broken free of the packaging,” Epstein said.
“They’re not endangered, so a decision was made to take the plane out of service and fumigate it, so if these snakes ever turn up on one of our aircraft, they will be very much dead snakes,” he said. The Stimson’s pythons, which the Qantas statement was at pains to point out were “non-venomous infants” about 15 centimetres (six inches) long, can grow up to a metre.
With consumer credit ratings plummeting, more American car owners could soon be driving around with an electronic Big Brother on board.
Business is booming for makers of shut-off devices, which turn engines off when car payments are late. Sales at one manufacturer, Littleton, Colorado-based Passtime, are up 33 percent over last year. CEO Stan Schwarz says the company is cranking up production to meet the demand…
While the devices have mostly been used in the subprime auto loan market, other lenders are looking closely at the technology, manufacturers say. It’s no mystery why interest in the gadgets soaring: the creditworthiness of American consumers is declining as they lose jobs in record numbers and find it harder to tap into home equity…
Consumers could increasingly find themselves in cars with shut-off devices if their credit turns bad and they are forced to shop at dealerships serving the subprime market. These sellers range from small mom-and-pop, “Buy Here, Finance Here” outlets to major dealerships…
The products also include global positioning, or GPS, to speed up the repossession of the vehicle, if necessary.
I still wouldn’t want to be the guy who shows up to repo the car.
A giant set of golden arches outside a McDonald’s in eastern Arizona toppled in high winds Wednesday, crushing a Naperville couple’s Chevy Trailblazer as they sat inside the parked vehicle.
Retirees Russell and Carolyn Janke suffered multiple injuries. They had stopped at the McDonald’s on the Navajo Nation reservation in Window Rock as they were making their way back to suburban Chicago from their winter home near Tucson. Navajo acting Police Chief Steven Nelson said winds hit 60 mph Wednesday, causing the sign to be blown down from atop a pole across the street from the restaurant.
“It was a freak accident,’’ Nelson said.
Carolyn Janke, 68, was trapped inside the SUV and had to be cut out of the vehicle by rescue crews, Nelson said. Carolyn Janke, who was knocked unconscious, has a fractured spinalcolumn and a fractured sternum, her daughter-in-law said. Russell Janke, 70, a retired engineer, was hit in the head and “has over 70 stitches,” she said.
Ann Janke said she’s desperately trying to get more information about the accident. “How could that sign not be properly secured? That’s what I want to know,” she said. “I’m mad. You don’t think you park under a sign . . . and giant golden arches are going to come smashing down on you.” Nelson said the incident was still under investigation but said,“We have not had any reports of any problems with the sign.’’
But Richardson Laughing, who works nearby, said he has been worried about the sign toppling for a while. “I’ve been working here two years and I’ve seen it blow back and forth in the wind,’’ Laughing told the Navajo Times newspaper. “I’ve been saying to my wife that it’s going to blow over sometime.’’
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Daylife/AP Photo used by permission
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| $300 worth of haircuts in one photo |
With the fiery rhetoric of a prairie populist, Gov. Rick Perry calls on “Texas patriots” to protest against “bailouts, all this stimulus, all this runaway spending” in the nation’s capital.
For weeks, the Republican governor has ratcheted up his railing against the Obama administration and the Democratic Congress. Perry’s call for “states’ rights” and a suggestion that Texas could leave the union if it wanted to made national news this week.
Conservative radio talk show host Rush Limbaugh gave Perry an “Amen, bro,” and host Glenn Beck said he was “thrilled” by Perry’s stand on states’ rights.
The last time Texas did this was when they joined the Confederacy in secession from the Union – opposed to the freeing of slaves.
Four men connected to The Pirate Bay, the world’s most notorious file sharing site, were convicted by a Swedish court Friday of contributory copyright infringement, and each sentenced to a year in prison.
Pirate Bay administrators Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg and Peter Sunde were found guilty in the case, along with Carl Lundström, who was accused of funding the 5-year-old operation.
In addition to jail time, the defendants were ordered to pay damages of 30 million kronor ($3.6 million) to a handful of entertainment companies, including Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Bros, EMI and Columbia Pictures, for the infringement of 33 specific movie and music properties tracked by industry investigators…
The verdicts are a significant symbolic victory for Hollywood, the record labels and the rest of the content industry that claims online piracy costs them billions of dollars in lost sales.
“The Pirate Bay has claimed all the time that their activities are legal,” Henrik Pontén, a lawyer who represented the film and computer game companies in the trial, told the Swedish media. “Now that it has been proven illegal we presume that they will stop.”
Henrik Pontén, the MPAA lawyer, must live in Cloud Cuckoo-land.
BBC NEWS | USA Today owner’s profits slump — Tick-tock, tick-tock.
Gannett, the US’ largest newspaper publisher, saw profits fall 60% during the January to March quarter. The owner of USA Today and Detroit Free Press said a fall in advertising revenue of more than a third was to blame for the drop.Net profit came in at $77.7m (£52.1m), down from $191.8m from year a earlier.
Separately, Abitibibowater, North America’s largest newsprint producer, has filed for bankruptcy after failing to restructure its massive debts. The company said that day-to-day operations would continue as normal during the restructuring process. The decision to file for bankruptcy “ensures business continuity for Abitibibowater and was made only after all other viable options to recapitalise our long-term debt were exhausted,” said the company’s president David Paterson.
Like other US newspapers, Gannett is suffering from a declining circulation as readers increasingly get their news for free online. The group reported a fall in advertising revenue of 34%. Classified adverts were hit particularly hard.
Found by Mike Cosmi.
- Google revenues and sales continue to grow.
- Video games sales slump.
- IBM pushing 28nm trick for the next generation of chips.
- Slingplayer to be killed by Apple. Guess why!
- Microsoft will public beta Office 2010.
- Sun back in the sack with IBM?
- HP tops Dell.
- Pirate Bay Server becomes a museum piece.
Right click here and select ‘Save Link As…’ to download the mp3 file.
Flint Journal – April 16, 2009:
FLINT, Michigan — The University of Michigan-Flint suspended the Beta Sigma Phi sorority for hazing, but not the beer-guzzling, toilet-scrubing, head-shaving type of torture most might imagine.
The list of controversial pledge tasks included driving around drunk people, wearing gaudy name tags, taking tests, riding in cars blindfolded and being forced to scrapbook.
“The university has a zero tolerance policy towards any type of hazing,” said UM-Flint Spokeswoman Jennifer Hogan, who would not disclose details of the suspension. “It’s something we are always going to stand very firmly on and we want to send the message that any type of hazing behavior will not be accepted.”
A Taliban firing squad killed a young couple in southwestern Afghanistan for trying to elope, shooting them with AK-47s in front of a crowd in a lawless, militant-controlled region, officials said Tuesday.
The woman, 19-year-old Gul Pecha, and the man, 21-year-old Abdul Aziz, were accused by the militants of immoral acts, and a council of conservative clerics decided that the two should be killed, officials said.
The two had hoped to travel to Iran, which borders their home province of Nimroz, but their parents sent villagers to bring them home, said Sadiq Chakhansori, the chief of the provincial council. Once back home, the pair was either turned over to the Taliban by their parents or the militants took them by force, the officials said, providing slightly varying accounts….
In remote and dangerous regions of Afghanistan, Taliban fighters operate what are sometimes referred to as shadow governments, where militant leaders serve as government officials and run their own police units and pseudo court systems.
What can you say? There’s no end to such stories.
Thanks, K B
When two Domino’s Pizza employees filmed a prank in the restaurant’s kitchen, they decided to post it online. In a few days, thanks to the power of social media, they ended up with felony charges, more than a million disgusted viewers, and a major company facing a public relations crisis.
In videos posted on YouTube and elsewhere this week, a Domino’s employee in Conover, N.C., prepared sandwiches for delivery while putting cheese up his nose, nasal mucus on the sandwiches, and violating other health-code standards while a fellow employee provided narration.
The two were charged with delivering prohibited foods.
By Wednesday afternoon, the video had been viewed more than a million times on YouTube. References to it were in five of the 12 results on the first page of Google search for “Dominos,” and discussions about Domino’s had spread throughout Twitter. As Domino’s is realizing, social media has the reach and speed to turn tiny incidents into marketing crises. “We got blindsided by two idiots with a video camera and an awful idea,” said a Domino’s spokesman, Tim McIntyre, who added that the company was preparing a civil lawsuit. “Even people who’ve been with us as loyal customers for 10, 15, 20 years, people are second-guessing their relationship with Domino’s, and that’s not fair.”
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