CourseCast of the Week

Episode 215 7/25/2011

Title/Description: Voicemail Hacking and Other Headline Stories.

Welcome to Course Technology's Coursecast of the week, Episode 215, for July 25th, 2011. I'm Ken Baldauf keeping you up to date with this week's technology headlines.

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…and now, the news!

Today's headline story: Voicemail Hacking

The Rupert Murdock story remained page one news around the world this week, as Murdock himself testified that he had no knowledge of the illegal practices carried out by some of his news publications, and would punish those responsible. You probably know by now that all the fuss began when it was discovered that one of Murdock's British tabloids hacked into cell phone voice mail accounts to gather information for stories. Since the original story broke, allegations have spread to other Murdock publications, and have shined a spotlight on a variety of questionable journalism practices.

The story has also raised awareness regarding information system vulnerabilities. It turns out that hacking voicemail is easy on some major telecom networks. In fact, all users who are able to access voicemail without typing in a PIN code are at risk. In the U.S., this includes users of AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint. Free and easy online software is available that allows anyone to spoof a phone number from these carriers and listen to voice mail messages.

In a related story, the Murdock story was apparently too much of a temptation for the previously defunct hacker group LulzSec. The group came out of retirement to hack Rupert Murdoch's News International Website and redirect visitors to a bogus news story that claimed Murdoch was dead.

• Rupert Murdoch Humbled Over Phone Hacking [NewsFactor]
• Hacking into Voicemail Is Easy, Experts Say [NewsFactor]
• LulzSec Returns To Take Out Rupert Murdoch's Servers [NewsFactor]

News Briefs

• U.S. authorities have arrested 14 individuals believed to be part of the attack on eBay's PayPal, an attack for which the hacker collective Anonymous took credit in its revenge for the treatment of Julian Assange and Wikileaks.
  U.S. arrests 14 for roles in PayPal cyber attack [Reuters]
• eBay's PayPal has announced that it will begin working with retailers to place PayPal payment pads at store checkout counters. The pads will allow PayPal account holders to swipe a phone or card to pay for merchandise.
  EBay's PayPal going offline, targets big retailers [Reuters]
• Dozens of police departments around the country will soon begin using iPhones to identify criminals and suspects. The Mobile Offender Recognition and Information System, or MORIS, snaps onto an iPhone to acquire retinal scans and face scans that can be quickly compared to a database of criminal photos. The technique is said to be much more accurate than traditional finger-printing technologies. Some privacy advocates are concerned that the technology may be abused.
  Police to begin iPhone iris scans amid privacy concerns [Reuters]
• Some of the controversial airport body scanners will be getting a privacy upgrade. Rather than airport security personnel viewing the outline of a passenger's naked body, the upgraded scanners will show an outline of a generic body, with alert points where suspicious items are identified.
  Airport body scanners to nix naked image [Reuters]
• Researchers at Cornell University have trained a computer to recognize activities in which humans are engaged by analyzing human motion captured with video cameras. The research is intended to make computers aware of what people are doing, so that they may lend assistance. Meanwhile, Microsoft is adding the Kinect camera and technologies to its Robotics Developer Studio, to allow researchers and hobbyists to utilize the popular gaming input device as the eyes and ears of robots.
  Researchers teach robots to recognize what we're doing [Chronicle Online]
  Robots get Kinect's 'eyes and ears' [EETimes]
• Other computer scientists at Cornell are studying ways to reduce data waste. Their analysis found that 20 to 57 percent of data stored on computer systems is never accessed or needed. The data waste, as they call it, pollutes the digital environment by "degrading the performance and capacity of storage systems." The researchers are implementing solutions to the problem that borrow from physical-world waste management techniques.
  Computer scientists say it's time to start looking at treatment of data waste [Physorg]
• Apple has released a slew of new and updated products this week. The new OS X Lion provides a Mac user experience that is closer to an iPad experience. This includes new multi-touch gestures for navigating around the system, full screen apps, multi-screen and multi-app management through a tool called Mission control, and an App launchpad that is similar to the iPad’s. The new OS boasts 250 new features in all. Apple also released new, more powerful and lower-priced Macbook Airs and Mac minis. Apple's shares have hit a record high. It is expected that Apple will soon be the largest market cap company on the planet.
  Mac OS X Lion Released with Multiple New Features [NewsFactor]
  Apple rolls out new Macs, shares set record [Reuters]
• It's being reported that Apple is out to buy Hulu for more than $2 billion.
  Hulu Reportedly in Apple's Crosshairs for More Than $2B [NewsFactor]
• Google announced that it is phasing out Google Labs. The labs provide users with the opportunity to try out technologies that are in development, prior to their official release. The change is part of Google's reorganization efforts to focus on its 5 core technologies.
  Google to "wind down" Google Labs [Reuters]
  Google Labs Is Shutting Down [eWeek]
• Google intends to start warning users of its search engine when it detects that their computers are infected. Apparently, the search engine giant has determined a way to detect if a computer accessing its search page is being controlled by malware.
  Google Will Warn Users About Dangerous Search Results [NewsFactor]
• Amazon has announced a new Kindle Textbook Rental program that will allow students to download textbooks to their Kindles on a rental basis.
  Amazon Lightens Textbook Load With E-Book Rentals [ECommerce Times]
  Amazon Launches Kindle Textbook Rental Program [NewsFactor]
• Some bad news for Facebook and good news for Google+: a recent customer satisfaction survey found that Facebook ranks as THE lowest-scoring site of all major Websites surveyed. This may account for the 6 million users flocking to Google+ each week since its release.
  Facebook's Rock Bottom Satisfaction Score Leaves Opening for Google+ [ECommerce Times]
  Look Out, Facebook! Google+ Hits 18 Million Users [NewsFactor]
• In an ironic twist, a Harvard University Fellow in Ethics has been accused of breaking into an MIT wiring closet to tap into the network and steal millions of academic articles.
  Harvard Ethics Fellow Hacked Millions of Papers [NewsFactor]

That's it for this week's Coursecast. Thanks for making CourseCasts part of your tech education. Email me with your comments and suggestions for the show at coursecasts@gmail.com. Until next time, have a great week and be sure to take advantage of the Power -- of Technology!