Dumpster Diver Picks The Wrong Time To Dive

A 37-year-old dumpster diver is recovering with serious injuries after he was trapped in the back of a dump truck. No word if he found anything of interest.

Mailbox Security

A certain university provides a 2 dial pad lock-looking doohicky on their student mailboxes.

Only 2 numbers needed to crack this? Sure key locks are easy to break, but merely shoulder surfing the GIANT CHARACTERS makes a 5-minute brute-force attack overkill.

That, and the manufacturer is clearly a Star Wars fan.

Are You Working With a REAL Security Expert?

The attrition.org website has been posting exposés of security "veterans" who sound like they've been around the block, and seemingly single-handedly invented the information security industry. However, even some of the so-called famous experts are charlatans at best, ripping off their customers and potentially causing them more harm than good.

One example provided is Dr. Ali Jahangiri, who's entire career is so dubious that not only is his resumé in question, entire books that he has "authored" appear to have been entirely plagiarized. Much of the information is so out-of-date that it would only be of interest in a historical sense if this information wasn't already widely available on the Internet for free. Worse, they demonstrate that his Information Policy Templates, which sell for $150 / CD, are all ripped from various places freely available on the Internet, save for 2.

I don't fully agree that everyone on the list is a charlatan, though. For example, professional social engineer Ira Winkler is on the list merely for having a larger-than-life ego. It fails to recognize that extreme self-confidence is a requirement for any social engineer, which makes this hardly a surprise.

What differentiates consultants like Ali from the bad guys? If their credentials don't add up, and their work seems to be ripped off from someone else and repackaged as something new, you may have hired a thief into a position of trust. They haven't only ripped off their sources, they're also stealing your money.

Heartland denies systems involved in new data breach

It seems that Heartland Payment Systems, the company that achieved unwanted celebrity status last year for suffering the largest credit card data breach ever, is back in the news. This time they are spinning out ways to downplay yet another major data breach.

A Heartland spokesperson is suggesting that somebody hacked into a system between Tino's Greek Cafe and Heartland, resulting in numerous fraudulent charges to the customer's credit cards. Jeff Nori, co-owner of Tino's plenty to say about the breach.

Thanks to jimmiejaz for the scoop.

Lock Picking For Dummies - Part II

It seems there were quite a few more examples of various locks being unlocked in unusual ways at DEF CON this year. Some of these are downright stunning.

Should companies begin to conduct risk analysis and penetration testing on their door lock purchases?

One Reason Nobody Trusts Microsoft's Security Controls

Ever wondered why you are always told to buy firewall software, even though your router probably has a firewall built in, and your operating system probably does too?

Ever wondered why you have to pay for antivirus software, even though it would be fairly trivial for the operating system manufacturer to add this by default - or at least alter the obvious weaknesses that make the viruses so rampant on that specific platform in the first place?

Ever wondered why you have to pay for additional privacy controls, even when the operating system claims to have privacy built into the operating system?

Internet Explorer just became less private thanks to Microsoft bowing to the advertising agencies. That's right - they dropped the ball. The ability to mess your screen up with animated advertisements everywhere you look trumps all security and privacy controls, again.

Microsoft is falling behind so badly, next thing you know, they'll be making an iPad clone. I wonder what "new" security issues will come of that.

Lock Picking For Dummies

The humble paperclip seems to be all that's need to break into anything lately.

Several years ago, Mythbusters found several ways to beat biometric locks that until that episode, had supposedly never been broken before.

Have the companies promoting biometric technologies done their Follow-Up? Of course not.

The Biolock 333 is a $200 piece of crap technology that can be opened quicker with a paper clip than it can be by swiping your finger properly. This is more pathetic than cracking a Kryptonite D-Lock with a Bic Pen. At least a standard lock takes a little longer to crack.

2 thumbs down for this so-called secure product.

A DEF CON speaker was detained at the US border and asked about his involvement with the Wikileaks.org whistle-blowing website. They returned his laptop, but three of his cell phones were confiscated, and will probably never be seen again.

After mentioning this during his presentation (which was about onion routing), he was greeted by FBI agents who hoped to probe him. One of the spooks was quoted as saying "sometimes it's nice to have a conversation to flesh things out."