Humble Introversion Bundle sales rising over 150,000 with 6 days left
The Humble Bundle releases have become quite an event in the world of indie gaming, and the recent Humble Introversion Bundle is certainly no exception. With six days until its completion, the Bundle has already sold over 150,000 copies, earning the developers and the supported charities over $630,000.
This edition of the Humble Bundle includes Darwinia, Multiwinia, DEFCON and Uplink, Introversion’s entire catalog, for any donation at all, but as always, there is an incentive … Continue Reading
Week in review: Drool over iPhone 5 pics made from design specs
Here’s our roundup of the week’s top tech business news. First, the most popular stories VentureBeat published in the last seven days:
New iPhone 5 images based on leaked design specs — A new set of iPhone 5 device mockups making the rounds could be giving consumers a glimpse of what’s to come on launch day.
Hacking water meters is easier than it should be — The smarter water meters become, the easier they’re getting … Continue Reading
Hackers can do a lot of damage via broadband power lines
Hackers showed they have a very long reach at the Defcon hacker conference this week. They can turn off your power or hack your home automation systems through internet-connected power lines.
Independent security researchers David “Rel1k” Kennedy and Rob “Kc57″ Simon told the audience that they were releasing free tools that will let hackers break into home automation, business automation, and security systems that operate over the electrical wires of a building. It’s one more … Continue Reading
Photos show the cultural difference between Black Hat and Defcon hacker events
Thousands of security professionals, hackers, federal agents and media descended on Las Vegas this week to attend the Black Hat and Defcon conferences. The two conferences exhibit the extremes of hacker and security culture, with federal agents and major corporations descending on Black Hat in large numbers and mohawk-styled hackers and Electronic Frontier Foundation lawyers attending Defcon. It’s like the difference between law enforcement and pranksterism, where both have the object of protecting freedom.
Defcon … Continue Reading
Hacking water meters is easier than it should be
The smarter water meters become, the easier they’re getting to hack. Like many things in electronics, water meters become easier for hackers to break into and misuse when they are upgraded to include wireless and computer technology.
John McNabb, a security expert who has focused on protecting drinking water, told the audience at the Defcon hacker conference in Las Vegas today that, despite a $40 billion-dollar water economy, it’s still far too easy to hack … Continue Reading
Author Steven Levy tells young hackers about their religion
Steven Levy wrote his first book, Hackers: Heroes of the Computer Revolution, in 1984. At the Defcon hacker conference in Las Vegas today, he talked about the word “hacker” and its origins amid a crowd of young practitioners of the craft, many of whom weren’t born when he published that book.
Levy said that over the years, the word “hacker” became corrupted to mean people with pimples who were getting into trouble with the law … Continue Reading
How one researcher helped Uncle Sam beat China's censors
The U.S. government has used a special email program to “bust through internet censorship filters” in order to deliver news to people in countries such as China where censorship is in effect, according to Fox News. Fox News cites a report from the federal Broadcasting Board of Governors, which said it used the email program, known as Feed Over email, or FOE, to bypass the Chinese government’s censors.
While Fox touts the development of this … Continue Reading
Week in review: Hacker intercepts phone calls, Facebook buys 18 patents
Here’s our roundup of the week’s tech business news. First, the most popular stories published in the last seven days:
Hacker shows how he can intercept phone calls with $1,500 device — A security researcher showed in a live demo at the Defcon security conference how he can intercept cell phone calls with just about $1,500 worth of equipment.
PlayOn brings Hulu and Netflix to the iPhone — without Apple’s help — PlayOn, the service … Continue Reading
A tale of two conferences: Black Hat and Defcon photo gallery
Black Hat and Defcon have become the must-attend conferences for both computer security professionals and fringe hackers alike. I’ve been attending for a number of years and have always been struck by the stark contrast between the people attending, ranging from federal computer security experts on the one hand and mohawk-adorned rebellious teens on the other. (Pictured is Black Hat/Defcon founder Jeff Moss, also known as Dark Tangent). For all of our stories on Black … Continue Reading
Live demos show how the Nintendo DS and the Wii can be hacked to spread malware (videos)
Two hackers showed how they can hack Nintendo‘s handheld and console game devices to spread malware to whatever networks they are connected to.
At the Defcon security conference in Las Vegas, Ki-Chan Ahn (below) and Dong-Joo Ha (right) showed off a number of demos of how they could crack the Nintendo DS and Nintendo Wii and use them to upload malware. They said users don’t expect malware to be loaded on game console devices, so … Continue Reading
Hacker shows how he can intercept cell phone calls with $1,500 device (video)
A security researcher showed in a live demo today how he can intercept cell phone calls on 80 percent of the world’s phones with just about $1,500 worth of equipment.
Chris Paget, who also showed yesterday how he can hack into radio frequency identification tags (RFID) from a distance, created a fake cell phone tower, or Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) base station. GSM is the protocol for 80 percent of the world’s phones … Continue Reading
How North Korea could build a cyber army to defeat the U.S.
It wouldn’t be that hard for North Korea to build a cyber army to take on the U.S. in a war fought only in cyberspace. North Korea has an estimated cyber war budget of $56 million, and the cheap way it could attack the U.S. is by herding a bunch of compromised computers to do its bidding.
That’s the assessment by Charlie Miller (above, photoshopped into a photo with North Korea’s leaders), a veteran computer … Continue Reading
Hacker tries to read a radio identification tag from 29 floors up (video)
Radio frequency identification (RFID) tags are becoming pervasive as the barcodes of the 21st century. They are being used in everything from Wal-Mart merchandise to U.S. passport cards.
But the problem, as demonstrated by hacker Chris Paget at the Defcon security conference today, is that they have no security and can be read from a great distance. Paget has already shown he can read a tag from 217 feet. (See our roundup of all Black … Continue Reading
Hackers show how to build and beat a lie detector
Hackers at the Defcon security conference in Las Vegas showed they could build a lie detector and beat it.
In the presentation, hackers who went by the handles Rain (above) and Urban Monkey (below) said they built a lie detector based on a pre-existing design that cost about $50.
The talk is typical of the somewhat alarming sessions at the Defcon hacker conference in Las Vegas. Black Hat and Defcon are sister conferences. While Black … Continue Reading
Facebook's former top security officer says military and commercial cyber defense should be united
Max Kelly, the former chief security officer at Facebook, said in a speech today at the Defcon conference that the military and commercial defense against cyber attacks should be unified.
Right now, there isn’t a common doctrine in the military on how to fight a cyber war. As far as Kelly can tell, there are dozens of potential military strategies. Under the Obama administration, a newly created Cyber Command is working on a common doctrine … Continue Reading
