Information for World Wide Web users
GSM phone easy listening
Software running on a laptop using the GSM error correction code enables
to listen in real-time on otherwise encrypted GSM phone conversations
travelling through the air.
Listener has to be in the same GSM cell as one of the callers.
The size of a GSM cell may be a few blocks in a city or more in rural areas.
Sending calls for a specific number should also be possible with this method.
Switch
» In spring 2002 a method had been presented to read secured
128 bit GSM SIM cards within minutes, physical access to the SIM card required.
Now there is this method to remotely place calls on others account. Technical progress. «
Voting software needs adaption of democratic system
Until
competence and
responsibility
are properly implemented
pen and paper promise better precision and privacy.
Switch (PDF)
Just patch
If you are using an older Internet Explorer browser
and you are doing online transactions over SSL (https://www.egfinancial.int/) you should
download the latest MSIE fix. Switch
»
Another solution: Download the free Mozilla Firefox browser (~5m). «
Shopper's surprise
The experienced web shopper or online bank account user doesn't feel comfortable
before the other site provides a SSL (https) connection and a valid site certificate.
Then it is safe to punch the creditcard number or account details into Internet
Explorer to sent it over the Internet, right? Well, read twice. Switch
Computer security: No news as always
Something new in this area would be the announcement of a system that cannot
be compromised in so many ways due software flaws as today's common systems.
To confirm your nagging doubts about computer security you can read in the CERT
article about a flaw in a code library that affects many operation systems. Switch
» Makes you think if these are the systems that protect and process
your administration, medical and financial data. «
Fate to fade
You have to keep an eye on computer based security even when you employ
widely used standards: PGP faster factorization
and OpenSSH bug (Update).
» Your 1024 bit RSA keys are close to smoke. «
Advertising & misrepresentation
You know pop-up advertising and unsolicited e-mails.
You may have wondered about hidden advertising in windows
behind your browser window or point sized ads that are intented
to convince business with the corresponding log entries that
their paid ads are actually seen by many people.
Today you may download software with attached advertising connectors.
Upon installation these connectors plug into your browser.
These connectors load advertising in the background and pop them up
while you surf the web, leaving you in amazement what the
government/educational/non-profit site has to do with gambling ads.
Some advertising connectors report your e-mail address and
surf habits without your knowledge.
Survey about such connectors and companies at Cexx.org.
Ad-Aware is a free Windows program to guard against many of these connectors.
You can file a complaint at Econsumer.gov (FTC).
economy != more_programmers_needed ;
Survey shows there is no general shortage of programmers
but often a fuzzy notion what skills to hire. Switch
(related: rates & salaries)
December 2000: Microsoft markets MSN member's web site images
By accepting Microsoft network's terms of service MSN community members
became unintended and unpaid suppliers of a virtual stock photo agency. Switch
October 2000-10-23: Excerpts: New York Times online article about Sex, Internet and Videotapes
"The General Motors Corporation, the world's largest company, now sells
more graphic sex films every year than does Larry Flynt, owner of the
Hustler empire."
...
"None of the corporate leaders of AT&T, Time Warner, General Motors,
EchoStar, Liberty Media, Marriott International, Hilton,
On Command, LodgeNet Entertainment or the News Corporation --
all companies that have a big financial stake in adult films and that are held
by millions of shareholders -- were willing to speak publicly about the sex side
of their businesses."
...
"According to two Web ratings services, about one in four regular Internet users,
or 21 million Americans, visits one of the more than 60,000 sex sites on the Web
at least once a month -- more people than go to sports or government sites."
Switch
Oh, I can hardly bear this thought. After you visit our plain and proper pages, you go to .. go to ...
Don't even think of coming back!
August 2000: PGP 5 and above susceptible to altered DH public keys
When you want to write a PGP mail to Mr. Friend, you need his public key
to make your message only legible to him. If Ms. Curious gets her hands on the
public key of Mr. Friend, she can add her public key.
If Ms. Curious succeeds to pass the altered key to you,
you would use the altered public key to send messages to Mr. Friend
without further notice from newer PGP versions.
Mr. Friend is able to read your message - as Ms. Curious is.
PGP versions 2.6.x
are said not to be affected. Switch
May 2000: How to serve the web at a power failure?
With 12 potatoes, a low power consumption 386 board and a boot ROM.
Maybe a starting point for thinking of new ways for areas with
insufficient power structure. Switch
March 2000: Subject: How much do you have on your e-mail account?
People with a bank account or credit card can use the free online service PayPal
to send money within the United States. PayPal charges sender's PayPal account and
notifies the recipient per e-mail that money is credited to him. The recipient has to sign up
with PayPal to get the money transferred to his bank account. Switch
Good reason to think over whom you have given your e-mail password ...
or if your e-mail program stores passwords in plain text.
January 2000: AOL Time Warner - no conjunction missing.
AOL and Time Warner want to merge into one company.
Many well known names from the internet, traditional media and entertainment would be
assets of the new company - AOL, Time, CNN, CompuServe, Warner Bros.,
Netscape, Sports Illustrated, People, HBO, ICQ, AOL Instant Messenger, AOL
MovieFone, TBS, TNT, Cartoon Network, Digital City, Warner Music Group,
Spinner, Winamp, Fortune, AOL.COM, Entertainment Weekly, Looney Tunes.
The new company plans to benefit from its online audience, popular media
content and broadband distribution
to become the worldwide one-stop for online advertising and online commerce.
Shareholders shall receive 1.5 AOL Time Warner shares for 1 Time Warner share,
and 1 AOL Time Warner share for 1 AOL share.
November 1999: Listening between the lines.
The American Civil Liberties Union has opened a web site to provide
the known information on a global communication interception system
which is also believed to monitor Internet connections. Switch
- Addendum December 1999
September 1999: Agreements on Domain Name System.
After longer discussions over competences and costs
ICANN, NSI and
US Department of Commerce attained several agreements.
NSI was allowed to keep the DNS registry for another four years but has to lower
its yearly registry fee for registrars (Internet domain wholesalers) of the .com, .org, .net
domains down to US $6.- starting January 15, 2000. Switch
September 1999: 512 bit RSA key broken.
Under coordination of the Netherlands' research institute for mathematics and
computer science (CWI, Amsterdam) a
512 bit RSA-155 challenge key was
factored into its two 78 digit prime numbers using the Number Field Sieve method.
Around 300 computers shared the calculations which are done mainly overnight
and at weekends over a period of seven months.
512 bit keys are often used to secure the transmission of credit card or personal data
in online business. To provide security in online transactions for the near future
a key length of at least 1024 bit seems advisable. Switch
August 1999: Liliput's server.
The iPic server has the size of a match head and costs less than one US dollar.
It is a chip with a complete computer and a full TCP/IP stack.
Because a web server does not only send pages but is also able to receive
inputs from browsers, the designer sees a broad field of applications.
He suggests building the iPic server into household devices for a cheap way
to control them remotely with the web browser as an easy and standardized
interface. Switch
Soon to come: the watch with time, thermometer, altimeter and GSM connected web server :)
January 1999: Yahoo goes Geo.
Link directory Yahoo!
signed an agreement to acquire GeoCities, a provider
who combines free server space for homepages and online advertising.
Yahoo! says its member service has received more than 35 million registrations
worldwide. GeoCities says it hosts more than 3.5 million homepages
and had more than 19 million visitors in December 1998.
Yahoo! wants to expand its shopping, advertising and personalized
services to GeoCities user base.
Around 10 million shares of Yahoo! common stock shall be exchanged
with around 30 million shares of GeoCities.
Yahoo! is also going to convert around 9 million GeoCities stock options
to 3 million Yahoo! stock options.
November 1998: AOL buys Netscape.
America Online with its 14 million subscribers worldwide
is going to acquire Netscape, famous browser developer, with
a current stock market value of around 4.000 million US Dollars and
20 million site visitors per month. Netscape's site is the default start up page
for users who didn't change that preset address in their Netscape browser.
AOL hopes to gain advantages from the strong attention towards the Netscape brand among online users.
Other prominent online companies formerly acquired by AOL are Mirabilis ICQ message service and
Compuserve online services. Switch
November 1998: Microsoft bought LinkExchange.
LinkExchange has become part of the MSN network.
LinkExchange is a popular banner advertising and exchange service used by more
than 250.000 homepage owners to publicize their internet address.
Users display banner advertisments on their site to get their banners
displayed on other sites. Switch
November 1998: Microsoft assesses competition from Open Source Software.
These Microsoft documents provide an insight into the software
market. The documents evaluate the significance of Open Source Software in general
and the Linux operation system in particular for Microsoft's future business.
The documents in their present form, with inserted comments
from the Open Source side, are by themselves examples
for the Open Source principle of shared incremental improvements,
resulting in a more complete overview of today's Open Source situation.
Switch
October 1998: European Union directive for data protection.
The directive is the new European standard for the handling of personal
identifying data. It had to be transformed into national laws by the
member states of the European Union within three years till end October 1998.
Goals are the protection of privacy and fundamental rights and to ease
data transmissions between the member states on the basis of a standardized
regulation. The directive is significant for many areas of the internet
like collection, usage, storage, correction, retrieval and transmission of
other people's personal data. Switch
October 1998: Lycos bought Wired Digital.
For approximately 83 million US Dollars in Lycos stocks, services like
search engine HotBot, online publication
Wired News and web developers
guide Webmonkey changed ownership.
Wired shall stay as a distinct operation unit to allow Lycos to reach
a different audience. Lycos and HotBot search services are said to have
only 20% of their users in common. Switch
October 1998: Netscape & MS browsers have privacy problems.
Current implementations of JavaScript make it possible to transfer files
with well known names from your computer while you are visiting web pages.
Navigator Switch
Explorer Switch
August 1998: Eudora Pro e-mail software security risk announced.
The Windows version of Eudora Pro 4 may let a user start an unwanted program
attached to an e-mail because the program appears only as a clickable internet
address. Producer Qualcomm provides a patch. Switch
August 1998: Single machine able to find DES keys on average of 5 days.
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has constructed a DES key search
machine
that finds a 56 bits DES decryption key on an average of five days. The machine
has proved its functionallity in the RSA DES Challenge II-2
contest where it finds the
right key even in less than 3 days. EFF wanted to show that DES is not only
theoretically outdated as a security standard due the technological development
of the last years. DES encryption is used by banks and other companies and
organizations to secure and transfer sensitive information.
Building the machine has cost less than 250.000.- US Dollars and the plans for its
chips
and software are now available as a book. Switch
July 1998: Netscape Navigator series 4.0x Java security breach.
A Java applet has been written to demonstrate that it is possible to
read, write or delete files on the user's system. The applet exploits a
weakness in the Java class loader mechanism. Netscape Navigator 4.5
is said not to be affected by this flaw. Switch
July 1998: Have some idle computer time? Help to crack crypto keys.
Currently the DES-II-2 contest is on the way. In search for the correct key the
task is shared among the computers of the participants. Software to take part
is available for many platforms. Switch
July 1998: Credit card sized Pentium Motherboard.
The board contains up to 128 Mb DRAM, flash ROM, controllers for
monitor, floppy and HD, parallel and serial ports.
Switch
".. sorry, that wasn't my business card, its my Pentium PC .."
June 1998: Autopilot - A car driven by a Pentium PC.
An italian research group succeeded in getting a car
to drive autonomously with standard low cost equipment.
Switch
".. we send a company car to pick you up on your arrival .." : )
June 1998: Blowfish cryptography developers publish new cypher Twofish.
Counterpane Systems with president Bruce Schneier makes available an
advanced encryption cypher that exceeds NIST's criteria.
Switch
June 1998: Lycos spider software patented
Lycos
web page search service announced that the software
they use for indexing web pages was acknowledged by the
U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. Switch
June 1998: FED Field emission displays
This display type has various advantages over CRT and LCD displays.
Optical quality of a cathode ray tube but produces no X-rays.
Light displays with a reduced power consumption and
not sensitive to magnetic fields. They are brighter than
liquid crystal displays and have a faster response time.
Their construction makes pixel defects unlikely. Switch
May 1998: Itsy - small computer with high potential
Handheld computer with 200MHz StrongARM 1100, 16MB DRAM,
4MB flash memory, touchscreen, audio CODEC, Linux OS.
Runs on two AAA batteries. Switch
May 1998: Free DOS project
A royalty free DOS beta version is available for download. Switch (updated)
March 1998: 10.000.000.000 bits/sec transmissions
Data transmissions of 10 Gigabits per second over a 10 km segment of a fiberglass cable
net are achieved at tests conducted by the institute for communication engineering at the
Vienna Technical University.
February 1998: QNX Demo: Browser, Dialer
and Operation System on a 3.5 disk.
Browser for the trouser pocket. Very interesting. Switch
February 1998: Tripod free home page service acquired by Lycos.
Lycos web search service bought Tripod with its said nearly one million members
to broaden its commercial web opportunities. Switch
January 1998: MS Win95 fix for 'denial of service' clones.
These programs send modified UDP data packets which can halt a computer
connected to the internet. A fix for Windows 95 is available from Microsoft.
Switch
January 1998: Hotmail free e-mail service acquired by Microsoft.
Hotmail, which is said to have around 6 million members, provides permanent e-mail addresses free of cost.
These are accessible by members with a normal web browser.
The acquisition was announced on December 31, 1997. No Switch (as of 2001 original link redirects to passport.com)
January 1998: Smurfs threaten the internet.
The easy availability of programs and scripts to slow down web servers with
a flood of signals seems to be the cause for the rising number of incidents.
CERT recommends some precautions against the previously reported interruptions by the
smurf method.
Switch
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