Monthly Archives: February 2011

Food, Security

False Labels on “Local” Food

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It’s hard to verify claims of food origin these days. Yet another audit confirms the problem — in England about a third of food labels are said to be a unverifiable or false.

Local Government Regulation inspectors tested 558 items in 300 shops, restaurants, markets and factories.

They found misleading labels including “Welsh lamb” which actually came from New Zealand, “Somerset butter” from Scotland and “Devon ham” from Denmark.

And then you might find someone selling Cheddar not made in Cheddar, England and Budweiser not from the Czech Republic….

This seems like better news than finding out your food is laced with poison, or that it was repacked after being declared rotten, or even that it was obtained unethically; but it still creates a curious breach of trust.

I can imagine several ways to address this, aside from RFID labels and real-time tracking databases. The most successful approaches likely will emphasize change in demand with encouragement to consumers to build trust with growers and re-learn traditional supply limitations (e.g. no lamb except in the spring).

Security

FareBot Update for Android 2.3.3

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FareBot is an open-source application written by Eric Butler for Android phones to read the NXP Semiconductor MIFARE DESFire and display balance and trip history information.

Each card has a unique 7 Byte serial number (UID) locked in NV memory. It uses 3DES hardware on the RF-channel with replay protection, and has a 4 Byte message authentication code (MAC) for data authenticity. However, it relies on the application to provide the authentication.

FareBot parses the unencrypted data on the Seattle ORCA and dumps others (e.g. San Francisco’s Clipper). According to the ORCA Card privacy statement…

In order to keep the processing time to several milliseconds when an ORCA Card is tapped, the information on the card is generally not encrypted. However, date of birth or passenger type expiration date, if present, is encrypted.

Would you wait a second if you knew it would mean your transit data was protected?

An update was just released for Android 2.3.3.

…no longer needs internal APIs!

Security

Video: Westboro Church Raises Funds for Anonymous

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Anonymous reports that they saw a 3,000% increase in ad revenue after the Westboro Church started their victimization rants.

Anonymous also points out that religious extremist group websites are targeted by other hacktivists (e.g. th3j35t3r) and not always attributable to them.

A live Anonymous attack on Westboro Church is then given as an illustration. How can you tell the difference? Their spokesman repeatedly points out their “mature” and coordinated methods. A dry wit, calm demeanor and persistent sense of humor (lulz), appears to be their signature.

History, Security

German Police Raid PS3 Hacker House

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Authorities performed an early morning raid on a home in Germany and confiscated computer equipment suspected in hacking the Sony PS3.

Originally Posted by graf_chokolo
February 23, 2011 at 11:52 am
Guys, SONY was today at my home with police and got all my stuff and accounts. So be careful from now on.

The suspect soon after released all his work to the public and into torrents.

Originally Posted by graf_chokolo
February 23, 2011 at 12:26 pm
Guys, i don’t joke, it’s serious.
And to prove it, i kept my word and uploaded all my HV reversing stuff.
Upload it everywhere so SONY couldn’t remove it easily. Grab it guys, it contains lots of knowledge about HV and HV procs.

Here is my HV bible: Sendspace.com upload.com 2shared.com < - Coolstuff.rar [164mb]

He then posted the legal documents he was served with and his plans to continue unilaterally work to get Linux on the PS3.

So, SONY you failed again, you took my equipment but my mind is still free and you canot control it. You failed again. They are just tools, i can get new ones and will continue my HV reversing and bringing back PS3 Linux which you took from us. If you want me to stop then you should just kill me because i cannot live without programming, HV and Linux kernel hacking You know who am i and where i live, so come and get me !!!

Sony has been fighting this war for many years. A brief history of important battles was recently posted on Make.

I couldn’t find one location that documented Sony’s all-out war on makers, hackers, and innovators, so I started my own (and it isn’t pretty). The talented artists, designers, and engineers who work at Sony deserve better, and their customers deserve better. Don’t worry, I’m not just going to spank Sony. I’m going to give Sony some ideas to right this ship and also let them know it’s time to reconsider suing George “geohot” Hotz, the Playstation 3 hacker Sony is dragging to court for unlocking his PS3 to run his own software on it.

I find it interesting that the alternative approach that Make advocates is to emulate none other than a company founded by the son of a powerful lawyer who openly despised hobbyists and hackers — Microsoft

Sony should take a page from Microsoft’s playbook and develop a PlayStation SDK for innovators with Hotz. Microsoft saw all the amazing projects and hacks with the Xbox Kinect, and they embraced it.

Bill Gates’ Open Letter to Hobbyists in January 1976 perhaps has more significance now than ever. He not only was proven completely wrong in his assertions about quality in code, but his company has completely and utterly reversed itself; it has embraced hobbyists as innovators and partners to help increase the appeal and expand the market for their products.

Note the tone of this message on Twitter from a Microsoft product manager.

MSoft Tweets for Hobbyist Help

It is yet to be seen whether these fights significantly influence consumer. Microsoft certainly has not fared well in the market when compared with companies that have found a way to turn themselves into media content license warehouses. For what it’s worth, after watching the above events unfold I decided to donate my PS3 to those less fortunate and order Microsoft’s Xbox as a replacement.