OS X – Safe, yet horribly insecure
Introduction I have had this article planned since the end of 2009 and have had it as a skeleton since then. I wanted to point out the many problems with OS X security and debunk the baseless myth …
Chrome Privacy
Dave Winer ends an otherwise quite reasonable piece about his concern at Facebook's
Dropbox Cofounder & CTO Arash Ferdowsi responds to yesterday's bug
Modern work can be frustrating and chaotic—if you don’t have the right tools. From context engineering to multimodal search, go behind the scenes and hear how Dropbox engineers are building AI that actually understands you, so you can focus on the work that matters most.
OpenSSL memory use in Node.js
Last Thursday I went to the Joyent office for Node Office Hours — I wanted to talk to Isaac about running a private NPM registry .
CNET Injecting Malware into Downloads
Download.com has been caught inserting malware/adware into the 3rd party software it distributes
Rootkit on a Brand new Toshiba laptop
Rootkit on a brand new Toshiba Laptop - Saturday, 30 April 2011 - Alex's blog
Kindle Touch jail broken via ID3 Tag
Update Kindle 5.0.3 has fixed the hole to allow for jailbreak. Upgrading an already jailbroken Kindle Touch is fine as the update does not remove the custom key to allow custom packages. If you on 5.0.3 and have not already installed the key, there is a new jailbreak.
Anonymous message to NATO
Greetings, members of NATO. We are Anonymous. In a recent publication, you have singled out Anonymous as a threat to “government and th...
Hacking Google for Fun and Profit
At the end of last year, Google announced their Vulnerability Reward Program which rewards security researchers for reported security and privacy holes in Google properties. This sounded like an interesting challenge, and I set out to find security holes. I found three, got paid, and am now in the Google Security Hall…
No Copyright Intended
On October 26, a YouTube user named crimewriter95 posted a full-length version of Pulp Fiction, rearranged in chronological order. A couple things struck me about this video. First, I’m surprised that a full-length, 2.5-hour very slight remix of a popular film can survive on YouTube for over six weeks without getting…
Google uncovers major account-hijacking campaign targeting senior US officials
Insights from Googlers into our products, technology, and the Google culture
Projects: hijack (Hijacking the iPhone earphone jack)
Hijacking power and bandwidth from the mobile phone's audio interface. Creating a cubic-inch peripheral sensor ecosystem for the mobile phone.
A brief Sony password analysis
So the Sony saga continues. As if the whole thing about 77 million breached PlayStation Network accounts [http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/games/playstation-privacy-breach-77-million-customer-accounts-exposed-20110427-1dvhf.html] wasn’t bad enough, numerous other security breaches…
Microsoft Shuts off HTTPS in Hotmail for Over a Dozen Countries
UPDATE (3/26/11): HTTPS is again available for those in the countries discussed below. Microsoft denies deliberately blocking access to HTTPS, blaming the problem on a bug: We are aware of an issue that impacted some Hotmail users trying to enable HTTPS. That issue has now been resolved. Account...
DigiNotar Damage Disclosure (with full list of issued certs)
About an hour ago I was contacted by the Dutch Government with more details about the DigiNotar...
Iran blocks Tor; Tor releases same-day fix
The short version: Tor relays and bridges should upgrade to Tor 0.2.2.33 or Tor 0.2.3.4-alpha so...
Isaac Asimov on Security Theatre.
A great find: In his 1956 short story, “Let’s Get Together,” Isaac Asimov describes security measures proposed to counter a terrorist threat: “Consider further that this news will leak out as more and more people become involved in our countermeasures and more and more people begin to guess what we’re doing. Then…
Root access to MySQL.com sold for $3k - now serving malware
A security firm revealed today that mysql.com , the central repository for widely-used Web database software, was hacked and booby-trapped to serve visitors with malicious software. The disclosure caught my eye because just a few days ago I saw evidence that administrative access to mysql.com was being sold in the…
Schneier: The Dishonest Minority: Security and its Role in Modern Society
Three months ago, I announced that I was writing a book on why security exists in human societies. This is basically the book’s thesis statement: All complex systems contain parasites. In any system of cooperative behavior, an uncooperative strategy will be effective—and the system will tolerate the uncooperatives—as…