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Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Thursday, 29 October 2015
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Yes, you heard right. You can now hack a car by making necessary modifications – but to the car owned by you, not your neighbors.

Last year, President Obama passed a bill called 'Unlocking Consumer Choice and Wireless Competition Act,' following which users could unlock their devices – generally those locked under a contract – to use a specific service provider.


The same year, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed a petition with the Librarian of Congress, which has the authority to grant Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) exemptions, for allowing customers and independent mechanics to repair their vehicles on their own by making necessary modifications.

Though many automakers were in opposition to this petition, as they believed by doing so the safety measures of vehicles are going to be at a higher risk.

EFF got Success!


Yesterday, Library of Congress approved copyright act exemptions, allowing you to alter the software on your car for the purpose of security research, maintenance, or repair.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) filed the request for software access as part of the Section 1201 of the (DMCA).

United States copyright law DMCA contains two main sections that have been a controversial matter since they went into effect in 2000. These are:
  1. Section 1201- The "Anti-Circumvention" provisions bar circumvention of access controls and technical protection measures.
  2. Section 512- The "Safe Harbor" provisions protect service providers who meet certain conditions from monetary damages for the infringing activities of their users and other third parties on the Internet.
However, previously security researchers also mentioned about the numerous security vulnerabilities that affect the major automobiles.

The Hacker News reported how researchers reverse-engineered and modified the Uconnect firmware of a Jeep to remotely hijack car's network, its steering, brakes, and transmission.

Now, approving this petition may give researchers way to new methods of hacking a car.

Messing with Cars can Cost You


The adverse effects of lifting the "Ban on tinkering with Car's Software" can be:
  • An owner modifying car's software to disable the airbags and sell it afterwards.
  • Car owner playing with the software such that, its ability to read lane lines and detect other vehicles is disabled.
  • An owner tweaking the car software in such a way that the car's emissions increase as compared to normal driving.
These are few examples of how things can get worse by freeing the copyright ownership by the automakers, which is serious matter to think upon because...

...the software on your smartphone or PC cannot kill anyone, but with malicious intentions and a tampered software in your car can.

Moreover, few days ago, Honda officially ordered 142k cars' return over the software issues that would lock up the front wheels in some models.


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Now You Can See through walls using WI-FI device only.

Scientists at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) have developed a device that uses WiFi signals to effectively see through walls and other obstacles, and identify which persons are standing behind it.

Dubbed RF Capture, the new system is enhanced version of their previous methods of capturing movements across a house – technology used by mothers to see their baby's breathing and firefighters to determine if there are survivors in a burning building.

How Does RF Capture Work?


The working of RF Capture is actually quite simple and relatively straightforward.

RF-Capture works by transmitting wireless signals that, upon hitting a person standing behind a wall, are reflected off various body parts and then back to the device for analysis to piece together the whole image of people.
  • RF-Capture transmits radio waves that pass through physical objects
  • Radio signals reflect off whatever is on the other side and bounce back to RF-Capture
  • RF-Capture measures the intensity of the waves, among other variables
  • The device then uses a "coarse-to-fine algorithm" to create an accurate silhouette

What's more impressive?
see-through-walls
The device is capable not only to make out a person's chest, head, arms and feet, but also to distinguish between two different individuals and even various types of postures.

When tested, RF Capture was able to distinguish between 15 people through a wall with nearly 90 percent accuracy, as well as trace letters a person wrote in the air from behind a wall, the team said on its website.

Video Demonstration


You can watch out the video given below that shows how researchers captured consecutive time snapshots, before constructing the human silhouette.The Technology Helps Stay Safe and Secure

Researchers are excited about the future applications that this kind of wireless technology could provide.
"We are working to turn this technology into an in-home device that can [be called] 911 if it [is capable of detecting] that a family member has fallen unconscious," MIT professor Dina Katabi said in a statement. "You could also imagine [the technology] being used to operate your TVs and lights, or to adjust your [temperature] by monitoring where you are in the house."
RF Capture could also have applications in motion capture, allowing filmmakers to dispense with those silly sensor-covered suits currently in use by performers for doing special effects sequences.

Limitations


However, there are some limitations, as of now-built model, including:
  • The current model assumes that the subject of interest starts by walking towards the device, hence allowing RF-Capture to capture consecutive RF snapshots that expose various body parts.
  • While the system is able to track individual body parts facing the device, like a Palm writing in the air, it is unable to perform full skeletal tracking. It is because not all body parts of a person appear in all RF snapshots.

However, researchers believe "these limitations can be addressed by [their] understanding of wireless reflections in the context of computer graphics and vision evolves."

The research paper, entitled 'Capturing the Human Figure Through a Wall' [PDF] will be presented by the MIT researchers at the SIGGRAPH Asia conference in Kobe, Japan in early November this year.


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Friday, 23 October 2015
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How To Remain Anonymous Online

As for the title of this article, yes, pun intended. When I first started exploring online chat rooms and learning more about how the internet worked, I have to admit I was rather naive to it all. I remember watching an online video which led me here to Anonymous. This video, in part tells people to ask for help remaining secure and private online. In the spirit of this message I write this article.
We all hear about the NSA and government surveillance or hackers lurking in the shadows. For some people, the internet can seem like a scary and intimidating place. Do you want help feeling safer online? Do you want to be unafraid about making an online purchase? Would you like in interact and learn with people from all around the world without feeling spied on by some unknown powers at be? If you are like many people you have suspicions or hesitations online, but here are some tips from the professionals on how to help you stay anonymous on your journey.


Step 1. Use a good firewall software for your computer. A good firewall software you can use is a high-end built directly into Kaspersky and Norton Internet Security (2013). Also, using Kaspersky or Norton, you are getting spyware protection and live website protection to protect you from unsafe websites.


Step 2. Purchase a hardware firewall. You can get them for as little as $50+ from a pawn shop (if they have any) and up from there. This will help in protecting not only your computer, but if you hook it into your internet connect before your router/modem, it protects all of your networked devices.


Step 3. Utilize a VPN connection. VPN (Virtual Private Network) actually simulates your computer as if you are logged into the network from another location. a good VPN company to use is from Barracuda. They offer SSL as well as VPN connections.


Step 4. Once you have completed steps 1-3, now you need to get a more secure browser than IE, FireFox, Chrome, etc. I am talking about the Tor Network. Tor is one of the leading web browsers that also comes with another VPN connection and keeps your website viewing privatized. Tor is 100% free and safe to use.


How can you further protect your privacy interacting as anonymous online? Invent an alias, a surname if you will, with a name of your choice. Go and register this name with one of the big email service providers. Use this new email to register any new Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, ‘etcetera’ accounts. Be sure to clear all browser cookies before using this alias, or better yet, use a different web browser for your anonymous identity than you would use for your more typical internet activity. If you have a further need for security beyond these steps you may want look into encryption, stenography or TAILSsystem.
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