You’re Getting More Secure

IMAG1400In case you don’t read the geek press, everything you touch digitally will soon have new encryption schemes built in. That lessens the chance anyone but you will ever see your stuff.

It’s the new world where JLa’s pics stay private.

But everyone knows it’s really about keeping the government out.

Apple and Google’s next operating systems are toughened against spying. It’s my understanding Apple is removing a ‘feature’ iPhones now have which enabled much of this.

More and more websites are https not http. They’ve added layers of encryption. Your transactions are hidden from prying eyes.

Businesses have been hurt by government’s massive spying efforts. Cloud companies, meaning Google, Amazon and a bunch of others, need to reassure nervous clients in our global economy. This is a sector where US companies have had great success.

Businesses and people want to flesh out ideas without later answering for early notes. We should be allowed to think in private.

In the end, by spying too invasively, the NSA and others made their own jobs more difficult. Is this how checks and balances work in the 21st Century? Maybe. Probably.

Tech Support 24/7… Possibly 8

There are two speeds in Stef’s life. The first is operative when she wants something. The second kicks in when I want something. Guess which is faster?

Stef called while I was driving home. It was a tech support call.

There are two speeds in Stef’s life. The first is operative when she wants something. The second kicks in when I want something. Guess which is faster?

I called her back when I got in.

She needed to know her WiFi password. I set up the wireless for her, but totally forgot the password. It seemed (and turned out to be) apropos when it was originally conjured. Problem is there are thousands of apropos passwords!

I tunneled into her computer with LogMeIn.com. It’s very reliable and resides permanently on her laptop.

Nowadays and on new installs I mainly use TeamViewer.com which seems a little more robust. More importantly it’s easy when my patient needs to be talked through its installation.

From Connecticut, but on her laptop in California, I quickly located, unzipped and executed a program to crack WiFi passwords. The virus protector zapped it on contact!

Oops.

Any program which plays with the system files necessary to recover encrypted data is looked at suspiciously. Understandable.

I tried turning off the virus protection. It wouldn’t fully shut down. Anti virus software looks suspiciously at that too! Frustration was setting in.

Finally I opened a browser and probed her router. It’s got a little website built-in to allow for configuration. Hidden away in obscurity was the password. It was fully in-the-clear. There was no encryption.

She’s happy. I am the man.

Digg And The HD-DVD Crack

Among the geekier sites I visit on a daily basis is Digg. Most of its users are younger, smarter and more computer savvy than I am. Hanging out there is like being in the world’s nerdiest club.

All of Digg’s content is submitted by its users. Mainly you see links to other sites and attached comments from Digg users.

The site name comes from its modus operandi. An entry’s popularity (and hence its position on the site) is decided by how many registered users “Digg” it.

Right now Digg’s home page is a shambles. Digg’s users are in the midst of a protest. The site has been rendered worthless.

What’s going on maybe a harbinger of the anarchy ahead within Internet ‘communities’.

It started this way. Someone cracked the digital rights management key that protects HD-DVDs. Though HD-DVDs were designed to change encryption schema under just such an occasion, this discovery is so deep within the process, it pretty much leaves these disks (the disk makers actually) defenseless.

Though worthless to me, having this little string of numbers will allow a skilled programmer to do anything he wants with these disks.

Digg’s users, propeller heads that they are, posted the story and the magic number on the site. That in turn brought on a takedown letter from the attorney’s representing the HD-DVD alliance (here’s a similar one that went to Google).

What was Digg to do? Leaving the number up opened the site to legal action under the federal DMCA. On the other hand, once the secret was on the Internet, it was public knowledge. There’s no way to protect the key anymore.

Digg acquiesced and its users went nuts!

Now, every story on Digg’s home page contains the number! Some of the entries have the number hidden in plain site while others make no pretenses about what is being posted. Some of the posts are cleverly sophomoric. All are worthless to regular Digg users.

Digg’s real content has been buried. That’s what an online protest can do.

I have no idea how this will turn out – right now it’s ugly.

Are there different rules for the Internet? Does information really yearn to be free? Can Digg’s owners regain their website?

Right now at least, there are no answers.

Blogger’s addendum: This is big enough that it’s now made the front page at Drudge. On top of that, the Digg site seems to be down. This story has not ended.

Update @ 2:47 AM – Normally I’d create a second entry to continue this story, but I want to keep these together. Kevin Rose, the guy behind Digg, has posted this on the Digg blog:

You’ll Be So Proud Of Me

Helaine and I both wanted to use our laptops here in Las Vegas. Unfortunately, this hotel charges an outrageous daily fee for Internet – and it’s per computer. So, I brought a wireless router from home.

Now Helaine and I share a single connection, as we do at home, and have wireless access anywhere in the room (or nearby rooms, I suppose).

In order to cut down on the riff raff I am running WEP encryption. It isn’t the most secure method of encryption, but we’ll have so little traffic, I doubt it will be cracked.

The router, a D-Link DI-524, is the size of a paperback book and weighs a few ounces. I brought two ethernet cables just in case.

This is totally over-the-top geekiness. I’m so proud!