Interesting to see how Yahoo! gets its name used in this story by Fortune on CNN about “online scams”. I read the story three times and still do not see the connection between the Yahoo! name and the 14-yr old subject or his methods. Western Union, DHL, FedEx are all mentioned, but Yahoo! seems to have been sprinkled in just as a symbol of online success, like the Rolex and Adidas. The Fortune choice of title certainly gives a different impression:
Online scams create “Yahoo! millionaires”: In Lagos, where scamming is an art, the quickest path to wealth for the cyber-generation runs through a computer screen.
Is this like saying the quickest path to wealth for kids is through music and calling them Warner millionares? Or is it suggesting that Yahoo! is an engine for profitable online scams? Or is it suggesting that 14-yr old scammers who make money should be called Yahoo!s?
Some clever scientists have reviewed current events to try and find a universal pattern to terrorism and published a paper with their results:
We report a remarkable universality in the patterns of violence arising in three high-profile ongoing wars, and in global terrorism. Our results suggest that these quite different conflict arenas currently feature a common type of enemy, i.e. the various insurgent forces are beginning to operate in a similar way regardless of their underlying ideologies, motivations and the terrain in which they operate. We provide a microscopic theory to explain our main observations. This theory treats the insurgent force as a generic, self-organizing system which is dynamically evolving through the continual coalescence and fragmentation of its constituent groups.
It looks like they were trying to prove the old adage that ideologies, motives and terrain do not impact methods used by insurgent forces. I think that would be useful as an elimination of factors that are often mistakenly assumed to influence method, rather than proof of universality. In other words, does the universality of a hammer as a tool for hammering surprise anyone? Does it matter if the people who use hammers for hammering spend their money on different causes?
I’m not sure why this would be a “Docupedia” entry, but alas that is where the authors decided to park their instructions and opinions on cracking wireless networks that use WEP or WPA. Here’s a taste of what to expect:
A little theory first. WEP is a really crappy and old encryption techinque to secure a wireless connection.
Old? Man, that makes me feel ancient. I remember demonstrating wireless encryption flaws to a vendor before WEP was even available…back when we walked in the snow uphill both ways to find a key.
This site has all the latest information including a FAQ on the recent Veterans Affairs incident. Most interesting, perhaps, is the “what will stop it from happening again” answer:
The Department of Veterans Affairs is working with the President’s Identity Theft Task Force, the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission to investigate this data breach and to develop safeguards against similar incidents. The Department of Veterans Affairs has directed all VA employees complete the “VA Cyber Security Awareness Training Course” and complete the separate “General Employee Privacy Awareness Course” by June 30, 2006. In addition, the Department of Veterans Affairs will immediately be conducting an inventory and review of all current positions requiring access to sensitive VA data and require all employees requiring access to sensitive VA data to undergo an updated National Agency Check and Inquiries (NACI) and/or a Minimum Background Investigation (MBI) depending on the level of access required by the responsibilities associated with their position. Appropriate law enforcement agencies, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Inspector General of the Department of Veterans Affairs, have launched full-scale investigations into this matter.