Tuesday, April 24, 2012

Don't Sell Your Old Smartphone

Story first appeared in The Detroit Free Press.

Thinking of selling your smartphone or laptop computer? If you have a BlackBerry or an iPhone, go right ahead.

If you were planning to sell an Android phone or a computer running Windows XP, however, you may want to think again, according to a McAfee identify theft expert.

The expert recently purchased 30 electronic devices from Craigslist -- mostly smartphones and laptops -- to see how effective normal people are at removing personal information from their gadgets before selling them.

After he got the devices home he, did some digging around in the phones and computers himself and then sent the machines to a forensics expert to see what personal data he might glean.

Fifteen devices revealed no information about the previous owner's identity, no matter how thoroughly the experts looked. But as for those other 15 devices -- they coughed up plenty of private data.

The expert was able to get bank account information, Social Security numbers, court documents, credit card account log-ins and a host of other personal data off those devices with not much effort.

And the worst part? Most of those devices had already been "wiped" by their previous owner -- meaning all personal files had been deleted and the user had restored the device's factory settings as per the manufacturer's instructions. The data is still there after following manufacturer protocol.

So, what's the difference between the devices that still reveal personal information after being wiped and those that don't?

It came down to the type of device that was sold and what kind of operating system it was running.

BlackBerrys were totally impenetrable. Resetting to factory settings on a Blackberry totally wiped any and all personal data from the machine. Similarly, he was unable to get data off devices running iOS such as the iPad and the iPhone. Devices running Windows 7 that are wiped by their owners also got his vote of confidence.

As for smartphones running the Android system and computers running Windows XP, it is recommended that people don't sell them at all.

You don't want to sell your identity for $50. Either put the device in storage indefinitely, or put holes in the hard drive to make certain that the information cannot be pulled.


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Thursday, April 19, 2012

Government Calls for Help from Local Tech Companies

Story first appeared in The Detroit News.

Warning that the U.S. is threatened by potentially devastating cyberattacks, the nation's national security community is recruiting the San Francisco Bay Area's private sector to counter the assaults.

On Monday, in a sign these concerns are shared at the highest levels of the Presidential administration, the Homeland Security Secretary will make a personal pitch for help to tech companies in San Jose. And Congress is considering several bills to encourage government and business to share intelligence about the computerized threats.

Also sounding alarms is the director of the National Security Agency and commander of U.S. Cyber Command, which guards military networks. At an October conference he appealed for the private and public sectors to work together because this is something that we cannot do by ourselves.

Such partnerships are widely considered essential, given how dangerously vulnerable the country is to computer incursions. Some experts say the U.S. could be crippled by adversaries in future cyberwars. Others say the technology that's already been pilfered amounts to a lost national treasure, and extreme security solutions should be put in place to help avoid such losses.

Experts say cyberthieves cost U.S. corporations billions of dollars annually _ with some of the worst attacks linked to China _ and federal agencies are being looted, too. In July, the Deputy Defense Secretary revealed that foreign intruders have taken terabytes of data from defense companies, ranging from specifications for parts of tanks, airplanes and submarines to our most sensitive systems.

Companies often aren't paid for the help they provide to government sleuths and much of their work, understandably, is classified, some experts said. But it's clear that a wide range of Silicon Valley companies are participating with the national security community on this effort.

Several Bay Area corporations including Adobe Systems, eBay, Intel, Cisco Systems, McAfee and PayPal have joined with Lawrence Livermore Laboratory to counter cybervillains through the lab's Network Security Innovation Center, which opened in July. They exchange threat information as well as best practices to counterattackers, and their insights are relayed to other federal agencies.

Some of the same companies along with Hewlett-Packard, NetApp, Symantec, VMware and Juniper Networks are providing similar help to military and intelligence agencies through a Lockheed Martin center in Maryland.

In addition, the Department of Homeland Security has set up a Cyber Security Research and Development Center at the nonprofit Menlo Park think tank SRI International; dozens of local companies share information through the FBI's InfraGard program; and other Bay Area companies work individually with federal agencies to combat cyberthreats.

At FireEye of Milpitas, whose equipment helps block cyberattacks, systems have been deployed in over 60 federal customers and agencies, including the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. FireEye has worked with the FBI to help bring down botnets, groups of computers controlled by cybercrooks.

Mocana of San Francisco helps federal agencies prevent unauthorized devices from using their networks and encrypts the government's data in case its devices are stolen. And McAfee, which sells security software and monitors cyberintrusions globally, alerts the government about attacks. In August, it told authorities about a scheme that had compromised numerous agencies, prompting an investigation by Homeland Security.

Several congressional bills would further information sharing between the public and private sectors, in part by clarifying procedures for how the information is exchanged. But an analysis by the nonprofit public Electronic Frontier Foundation said the bills could endanger civil liberties by allowing a whole host of monitoring activities by government and non-government officials.

Some businesses may not be keen about the partnerships, either, the Congressional Research Service noted in a March report. It said firms might balk at sharing their proprietary information, fearing that it could be leaked to competitors, and that they might be sued if they failed to adequately address threats they learned about from the government.

Businesses also find it time consuming to partner with the government on these projects. At least 55 public-private alliances that already have been formed against cybercrimes and believes tax breaks may be needed to coax more company cooperation.

Nonetheless, unless federal bureaucrats and businesses redouble their efforts, the country could be in trouble, according to a former U.S. Secret Service agent who chairs the Security Innovation Network, a public-private group that sponsored a conference last month at Stanford that included participants from the National Security Agency to the Defense Department to the Central Intelligence Agency. He said it's especially crucial for that help to come from the Bay Area.


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Google Has Competition for Internet Eyeglasses

Story first appeared in The Wall Street Journal.

Google Inc. generated a heavy dose of nerdy buzz for its “Project Glass” eyeglasses earlier this month, but the Web search giant may find an unlikely Japanese competitor eyeing the same prize.

Japan’s telecommunications monolith Nippon Telegraph and Telephone Corp. developed a prototype pair of glasses running its “SightFinder” technology earlier this year. It taps into the power of cloud computing, or computers running over the Internet, to help blind people walk the streets safely or prevent the elderly from getting into accidents that they don’t see coming.

While a staid, former government-owned monopoly like NTT can’t match the Silicon Valley cache of Google, both pairs of glasses try to integrate the Internet with glasses. Google’s “Project Glass” eyewear allows the bespectacled to receive messages from friends, check online schedules, and map out directions through the glasses.

By contrast, NTT’s SightFinder sends streaming images from a camera to one of NTT’s data centers to recognize and identify street signs or potential obstacles. In real time, NTT’s computers analyze the images and provide warnings – street construction causing a detour or a cone in front of a pothole – via an Internet-connected device like a smartphone to help the visually impaired to  move freely.

While NTT says the technology is not limited to glasses, it may make the most sense there to track what people are looking at. Other possibilities under consideration include putting the SightFinder in wearable objects such as neck straps. NTT’s glasses, like Google’s, will also be able to provide directions, a feature that the company thinks foreign travelers will find useful.

In a Japanese video NTT posted on Facebook, it showed other potential scenarios for the technology including warning the elderly about oncoming cars.

NTT said it hopes to launch SightFinder this year, but price and timing is still undetermined. The company is in talks with potential commercial partners including local governments, but nothing has been finalized yet.


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Soldier Crab Colonies Mimic Computer Models

Story first appeared in Hydrogen Fuel News.

Latest in technology news may convert into alternative energy resource

Scientists from the Kobe University in Japan and the University of the West of England Bristol in the United Kingdom have discovered that swarms of soldier crabs (Mictyris guinotae per Wikipedia) mimic computational models. This discovery, the scientists developed, is essentially a living computer made entirely of crabs. Researchers believe that the phenomenon they have experienced with soldier crabs could pave the way for a new generation of highly efficient computers. Such computers would require no excessive amount of energy as they could, potentially, generate their own electricity.

While observing live colonies of soldier crabs –

Some of which contained hundreds of thousands of specimens – researchers concluded that, as a collective, the crabs practice some type of collision-based computing. The crabs could form swarms to conduct basic tasks which may have been too difficult for an individual to accomplish. Researchers note that the behavior of individual crabs depends heavily on its position within the swarm. Those toward the middle or rear of the swarm would act more passively while those toward the head of the swarm would be much more aggressive.

Researchers have constructed computer models that mimic their observations of the crabs.

During tests, they found that the models the soldier crab swarms shared undeniable and profound similarities. Scientists believe that this is thefirst step toward making high-efficiency, small computers a reality. These computers could change the way the world of technology news works, but researchers note that such products are still several years away from becoming a reality.

Scientists note that their discovery is tied closely to one of the foundational principles of biomimicry:

Natural systems evolve to become more efficient. They believe that this principle is most apparent in swarms of soldier crabs and that this can be used as a model to create a new generation of computers. These computers would, essentially, work together to be more energy efficient and effective in their tasks. The behavior of these computer systems would change depending on their position within the supposed swarm, becoming more passive or aggressive as needed.
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Wednesday, April 18, 2012

Former FBI Agent Joins IT Startup

Story first appeared in The Wall Street Journal.
The FBI’s former top cyber cop is joining an upstart computer security firm that aims to guard firms targeted by foreign intelligence services.

The cyber cop, who garnered attention last month when he said the U.S. is not winning the battle against hackers, has joined CrowdStrike, Inc., to lead a unit that will provide instant response for hacking incidents, and identify those trying to compromise computer systems.

The formation of Irvine, Calif.-based CrowdStrike was announced earlier this year by the CEO, a former McAfee executive.

A start-up is an unusual choice for someone coming from a senior FBI position. His last three predecessors all took security jobs with Fortune 500 firms.

The former cyber cop states that he wants to stay in the fight against hackers, but in the private sector, which he has long argued does not do enough to protect sensitive corporate data and intellectual property from cyber intruders.

Ideally, CrowdStrike will service all types of corporations, both private sector and government sector, and any entities with wide-ranging networks. The company will focus on security solutions within a network to curb computer hacking.

He will be president of CrowdStrike Services, one of three divisions of the new company. In a statement, the CEO said he and the cyber cop share a belief that industry can’t rely on the government alone to address the problem of targeted intrusions.

The other two parts of the company are an Intelligence team, and a Technology office.


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