False Sense Of Security

Dorner manhunt: LAPD officers opened fire on mother, daughter

"In their pursuit of a fugitive ex-cop, at least seven officers opened fire on what turned out to be a mother and daughter delivering newspapers on a quiet residential street, law enforcement sources told The Times. It was 'a tragic misinterpretation' by officers working under 'incredible tension,' LAPD Chief Charlie Beck said Friday in an interview with The Times. Margie Carranza, 47, and her mother, Emma Hernandez, 71, were the victims." Continue reading →

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Police, Looking for 6 Foot 270 lb Black Man, Shoot 2 Asian Women Delivering Newspapers

"TV news stations in LA are warning people not to drive pick up trucks in LA and to obey all traffic laws or risk being shot by police who are 'all stressed out and tense,' as a result of a cop killer on the loose. The killer is ex-cop Christopher Jordan Dorner, he is a 6 foot black man weighing 270 pounds. As a result of the manhunt, Southern California cops have shot two Asian women, delivering newspapers, who happened to be driving a vehicle similar to the one Doner is believed to be driving." Continue reading →

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Tons and Tons of Security Cameras Are Wide Open to Hackers

"Apparently security cameras are even less secure than we thought. Eighteen popular brands of cameras have been found to have serious flaws in their own security, leaving at least 58,000 unsecured, open-to-basically-anyone security cams out there. In short, the flaw allows anyone connected to a specific port full access to the DVR functions of the cameras." Continue reading →

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At Davos the Elite Ponder Stale Cybersecurity Issues—and Charlize Theron

"Cybersecurity is on the minds of the Davos-ians because it could cost them money. Apparently they have just learned that 'there is barely a large company out there today which has not had its infrastructure and systems breached.' They have also realized that this is going to require some sort of collective action–and the private sector does not do collective action well. Australia and the United Kingdom are actively forcing companies to work together. Last week the European Union proposed a law that would require tech companies to report server issues and security breaches to the government." Continue reading →

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Secret backdoors found in firewall, VPN gear from Barracuda Networks

"A variety of firewall, VPN, and spam filtering gear sold by Barracuda Networks contains undocumented backdoor accounts that allow people to remotely log in and access sensitive information, researchers with an Austrian security firm have warned. The SSH, or secure shell, backdoor is hardcoded into 'multiple Barracuda Networks products' and can be used to gain shell access to vulnerable appliances, according to an advisory published Thursday by SEC Consult Vulnerability Lab. A timestamp and version relevant for the code that enables the backdoor bears a date from 2003, suggesting it may have existed in the Barracuda appliances for a decade." Continue reading →

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D.C. Prosecutor: A Gun Ban That Misfired

"The gun ban had an unintended effect: It emboldened criminals because they knew that law-abiding District residents were unarmed and powerless to defend themselves. Violent crime increased after the law was enacted, with homicides rising to 369 in 1988, from 188 in 1976 when the ban started. By 1993, annual homicides had reached 454. The Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department also waged a war on firearms by creating a special Gun Recovery Unit in 1995. The campaign meant that officers were obliged to spend time searching otherwise law-abiding citizens." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingD.C. Prosecutor: A Gun Ban That Misfired

D.C. Prosecutor: A Gun Ban That Misfired

"The gun ban had an unintended effect: It emboldened criminals because they knew that law-abiding District residents were unarmed and powerless to defend themselves. Violent crime increased after the law was enacted, with homicides rising to 369 in 1988, from 188 in 1976 when the ban started. By 1993, annual homicides had reached 454. The Washington, D.C., Metropolitan Police Department also waged a war on firearms by creating a special Gun Recovery Unit in 1995. The campaign meant that officers were obliged to spend time searching otherwise law-abiding citizens." Continue reading →

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Finally, the SEC Goes After a Failed Bank’s Auditors

"The Securities and Exchange Commission is finally doing something that desperately needed to be done: Suing the auditors of a failed bank that got caught cooking its books. Today the SEC’s enforcement division accused two accountants at KPMG LLP of engaging in unprofessional conduct during their 2008 audit of TierOne Corp., a Lincoln, Nebraska- based lender that had about $3 billion in assets when it collapsed in 2010. The SEC’s administrative order accuses the pair of 'failing to subject TierOne’s loan loss estimates -- one of the highest risk areas of the audit -- to appropriate scrutiny.'" Continue reading →

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What’s Inside America’s Banks?

"Some four years after the 2008 financial crisis, public trust in banks is as low as ever. Sophisticated investors describe big banks as 'black boxes' that may still be concealing enormous risks—the sort that could again take down the economy. A close investigation of a supposedly conservative bank’s financial records uncovers the reason for these fears—and points the way toward urgent reforms." Continue reading →

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Nokia: Yes, we decrypt your HTTPS data, but don’t worry about it

"Nokia has confirmed reports that its Xpress Browser decrypts data that flows through HTTPS connections – that includes the connections set up for banking sessions, encrypted email and more. However, it insists that there’s no need for users to panic because it would never access customers’ encrypted data." Continue reading →

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