Nokia is Bluetooth’s “Patient zero” in the US

February 19th, 2005

nokia

Time to worry about bluetooth viruses! C|Net reports two Nokia 6600s using the Symbian OS were found to have been infected with the Cabir virus. They were on display in a storefront on the west coast, so there’s no telling how many curious bluejackers now have this on their mobile devices.

AH! What happened?! It’s BRIGHT IN HERE!!

February 19th, 2005

Yeah I know… the site’s a li’l wonky. I’m in the middle of a major code revision, and to keep the site up, I’ve had to fallback to a simpler design.

I’m not sure how long this change will last, as some serious css changes need to be made to the original layout to get it things up and running properly. If the old style sheet does come into compliance, well, it’ll probably be very obvious. :)

UPDATE: Fixed! I think…

“Hi. We screwed up and expect you to do the cleanup.”

February 18th, 2005

ChoicePoint has finally responded to my e-mail! Though of course, it was with a form letter.

In short: We’re a victim too, boo hoo. By the way, spend money and check your credit report.

They wrote (or rather, copied and pasted):

Read the rest of this entry »

“I want thuh 9-1-1 on muh TeeVee!”

February 17th, 2005

Some idiot down south decided that it worth everyone’s while to create an e-mail bug that would force users of the Microsoft WebTV internet service to tie up 911 phone service in various areas:

Mr. Jeansonne admitted that, in reality, the email attachment contained a hidden computer script that reset the dial-in telephone number in the user’s WebTV box to 9-1-1. Accordingly, the next time the user attempted to log in to WebTV, the computer dialed 9-1-1 instead of the local modem telephone number supplied to the user by WebTV to access its servers in Santa Clara. At least 10 WebTV users reported that the local police either called or visited their residences in response to the unnecessary 9-1-1 calls. An affidavit supporting a search warrant for Jeansonne’s residence in Louisiana also contains a description of his conduct.

Now, why would anyone do this? It’s just stupid!

ChoicePoint Update

February 16th, 2005

No response from ChoicePoint yet regarding my e-mail to them, but they have released a statement indicating at least 110,000 individuals outside of California are affected by the security compromise, and at least 750 confirmed cases of identity theft can already be linked to this incident.

Nice going, Big Brother.

An interesting tidbit from the statement:

This incident was not a breach of ChoicePoint’s network or a “hacking” incident and did not involve any of ChoicePoint’s customer information. Nevertheless, this is a serious issue which ChoicePoint is addressing aggressively.

Oh, really? Every news organization reporting on this disagrees. And a suspect has already been arrested. So if this wasn’t a “hacking” incident, then was was it? If ChoicePoint has no culpability; if its network is so secure, then why is ChoicePoint making the notification to fraud victims, instead of the truly responsible party? Finally, why is ChoicePoint addressing the issue “aggressively” if it shares no blame?