September 2012

There were 103 posts published in September 2012 (this is page 2 of 11).

Another unknowing Romney Facebook fan


A Facebook user posted this account in Facebook’s forums earlier today:

I was scrolling my feed two nights ago when I saw that my husband ‘liked’ Mitt Romney’s page. I whacked him in the head. He said, “I didn’t do that.” So we went immediately to his account and ‘unliked’ the page.

How can they do this? I know why they are doing it, though: media pundits are talking about social media ratings and how “everybody” is talking about Romney! No doubt they want lots & lots & lots of “likes” to his page, and it ain’t happening on its own.

See? He’s all about “APPEARANCES” and nothing about SUBSTANCE! These phony “likes” will not equate into votes, Mittens. Don’t count on it.

Apparently the Romney Facebook hacking continues.

Car thieves targeting transponder keys

Here’s a video from the National Insurance Crime Bureau (NICB) showing (in general terms) how thieves are stealing cars protected with high-tech transponder keys.

Incidentally, the NICB is one of the agencies investigating last week’s discovery of a “chop shop” in Durham. Many of these high-end vehicles get shipped to Middle Eastern countries, which makes me wonder if this is what the man arrested in the Durham case, Samer Othman, had in mind.

Stolen Toyota Highlanders

One couple in Oakwood awoke this morning to find their 2012 Toyota Highlander had been stolen. The owners had both sets of keys so they were mystified as to how this happened. Fortunately for them, their vehicle was recovered this morning, a few miles away. The police said the engine was still hot so they might have just missed the thief.

It seems Toyota Highlanders are popular targets for car thieves. A half-dozen disappeared from one Montreal neighborhood one night in 2009, prompting authorities to wonder if Toyota’s keyless security system had been compromised:

Authorities say they are still trying to determine if an organized crime ring is behind the thefts. They are also trying to determine if the thieves used “proximity keys” to steal electric codes from lock systems — a new technology available on the Toyota Highlander.

The key can capture lock, entry and start codes by monitoring the radio waves given off when the owner approaches the vehicle to leave home.

“They didn’t get the keys,” said Michael Dougherty, a Leaside resident who had his car stolen Wednesday. “Police said apparently thieves can use a laptop computer to disable the chip in the key and the entrance (lock) somehow.”

Another possibility is that the cars are being stolen through social engineering, Thieves could be taking the target vehicle’s VIN to a Toyota dealer and convincing them to make a duplicate key. If so, that should leave a paper trail and possibly a shot of the thief on the dealer’s surveillance cameras:

One explanation for the rash of thefts is that criminals have been able to get their hands on duplicate keys, said Dubin.

In the past, crooks have been able to convince dealerships they are owners who have lost theirs. Another explanation, he said, is that the Highlanders were simply towed away, which has also been a problem.

Having six Highlanders in one neighborhood stolen in one night seems to point to a vulnerability in the keyless system, rather than stealing them with duplicate keys. It’s unlikely a thief would reappear six times at a dealer to get duplicate keys made.

At any rate, if I had a Toyota Highlander I would be sleeping with one eye open!

Using Prey for laptop tracking: smart or foolish?

This N&O article yesterday got my attention. One of my neighbors installed the open-source Prey tracking software, after which his new MacBook Air laptop was stolen. He used the software to successfully recover his laptop:

While still on his honeymoon, Moss got an e-mail from his landlord. It appeared that his house had been burglarized.

That’s when he took matters into his own hands and tracked down his stolen laptop, using his iPad from his hotel on the small island of Aruba.

Prey software, available in both Mac or PC versions, is a web service that’s free for the first three items a user registers.

The software can detect the wireless network closest to the registered device, even if the user is not signed onto that network. Prey also uses webcam technology, if available, to capture images of the device’s location.

I use open-source software every day so I thought I would look into Prey. It seemed like cheap (free!) peace of mind. Then I read one person’s quick security audit of Prey, after which he began steering people away from it:

Prey is able to parse config files over the web and it blindly accepts them with no authentication whatsoever. This means if an attacker used trivial ARP spoofing attacks on a network, a coffee-shop’s wireless for example, s/he could replace your config file with their own. Worse, what is in your config file gets eval’ed by bash with full root privileges. Simply, this means the attacker can run any code s/he wants to. Your hard drive could be deleted, or a reverse SSH session could be set up giving the attacker a command prompt as root.

Granted, his post is over a year old but it does give me pause. I’ve downloaded a copy of Prey myself and will be looking into it myself this weekend. While I’d like to be able to track my laptop if it’s ever stolen, I don’t want my laptop exposed to a giant security hole for 99.99999999% of the rest of the time.

via Raleigh man uses GPS tracker to locate man who stole his laptop – Crime/Safety – NewsObserver.com.

N&O school coverage fails again to provide perspective

I was reading this N&O story about Wake school board members Kevin Hill and Keith Sutton providing background on Tata’s firing. The story by Thomas Goldsmith inexplicably ended with a quote from some random guy and included no context as to why what we think he says actually matters:

“I think the man got a raw deal,” said Arvin F. Dixon, 76, who lives just outside of Rolesville. “I think the school board should have been working together and taking care of our tax money like they ought to be.”

Who is this guy, Arvin Dixon? He’s not mentioned anywhere else in the article. Nowhere does it state whether he was one of many who called or emailed the board. At the age of 76, it’s safe to say that Mr. Dixon has no kids currently in school. Voting records show he is a white male and registered Republican who only sporadically votes in local elections.
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Chatham bunker served Cameron Village bunker

“Big Hole” bunker in Chatham County


Remember when I wrote about the secret AT&T tropospheric bunker in Chatham County, and how N&O reporter Jay Price knew it pointed to downtown Raleigh but didn’t know where? My blogging friend John Morris discovered that the other end of this Chatham bunker’s communications link was in the basement of the 401 Oberlin building in Cameron Village:

Two years after this testimony, one of the new buildings within Cameron Village housed a top secret facility with communications equipment and provisions to survive a nuclear disaster. There were many other similar installations across the country built at the same time.

John says Jay Price wrote about 401 Oberlin in a follow-up to his Chatham bunker story but the article doesn’t appear to be online.

Interesting spot for a top-secret communications facility, and a shame it’s no longer around.

Partisan? Where do we start?

“With this partisan decision, the board has now guaranteed that there will be far fewer great schools in Wake County,” board member Debra Goldman said. “I grieve for our children, our teachers and our staff. There will certainly not be the security and stability that the citizens of Wake County want.”

Yeah, Goldman grieves sooooo much that she’s canceling her political bid for State Auditor to focus on the Wake County school chirren.

What’s that? You say Goldman is only using the Wake Board of Education as a stepping stone to higher political office? Surely you jest! I’m sure John Tedesco is so outraged that he’ll drop his bid to become State Superintendent of Education, too, just so he can stay and set the Wake school board right. I mean, it’s not about him, it’s about the kids, right?

Someone please wake me when all the cheap political grandstanding is over.

via Ousting of Wake schools chief could jeopardize funding :: WRAL.com.

Tata’s culture of fear

Tony Tata


I’ve heard rumors from sources inside the school system that superintendent Tony Tata had created a “culture of fear” among teachers and staff. They say that people were afraid to speak out when something concerned them and those who stuck to their guns when they felt strongly about something were dismissed.

That’s no way to run a school system, or even an army brigade for that matter. I trust that we’ll here more of the reasoning as things progress.