Meddling

It would’ve worked, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids!

There are 614 posts filed in Meddling (this is page 35 of 62).

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.

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.

Romney Is Losing His Social Media Mojo – OhMyGov News


Mitt Romney’s Facebook growth has slowed considerably, coincidentally right after Facebook began cracking down on fake “likes.”

While Romney’s done plenty in public to scare away voters, I can’t help but wonder if Facebook’s new policies may have stopped the campaign from padding its numbers.

Romney’s trouble with the social network has nothing to do with President Obama’s commanding overall lead in total number of Facebook “Likes.”

Rather, it has everything to do with the fact that in August, plenty of people were liking Mitt Romney on Facebook, yet in September that growth has suddenly — and significantly — slowed.

via Romney Is Losing His Social Media Mojo – OhMyGov News.

Does Romney have a better Facebook strategy than Obama?

Inside Facebook points to Romney’s Facebook ad campaign as the reason Romney’s page has gained so many likes. Left unexplored by Inside Facebook are the widespread reports that many of Romney’s Facebook page fans were put there without their permission. It’s one thing if Romney wants to build a social following by earning fans, it’s another when he cheats by hacking others’ Facebook accounts.

Republican candidate Mitt Romney is leading President Barack Obama in Facebook engagement and new Likes, in part because of a strong social ad campaign that takes advantage of the latest opportunities on Facebook.

via Does Romney have a better Facebook strategy than Obama?.

Trunk full of cans

Remember the recycling theft ordinance that Raleigh passed at my prodding? Well, I’ve been looking the other way when I see obviously homeless people walking away with cans but there was one instance Friday that I could not let go.

A baby blue Cadillac was driving through the neighborhood with a handicap placard on the rear-view, a number of people inside, and the trunk open wide and stuffed from floor to lid with bags full of aluminum cans. I just couldn’t let this one go and called the cops. I don’t know if an officer didn’t find the car, wrote them a ticket, or simply let them go with a warning. I just know that what I saw was ridiculous.

Facebook cracks down on fake Likes | Reuters


Reuters takes a good look at Facebook’s efforts to deal with the issue of fake “Likes.”

Facebook Inc is weeding out fake “Likes” on its social network that are being caused by spammers, malware and black marketeers as it strives to maintain credibility as an advertising platform.

Facebook said the number of Likes, or endorsements by users, on corporate pages is likely to drop by less than 1 percent, on average, after the crackdown.

“Newly improved automated efforts will remove those Likes gained by malware, compromised accounts, deceived users, or purchased bulk Likes,” Facebook said in a post on its official blog on Friday.

“While we have always had dedicated protections against each of these threats on Facebook, these improved systems have been specifically configured to identify and take action against suspicious Likes,” the post continued.

via Facebook cracks down on fake Likes | Reuters.

St. Louis columnist still mystified by Romney Facebook hack


I sent an email to St. Louis Post-Dispatch columnist Pat Gauen after his recent column detailing how his Facebook page was hacked by Mitt Romney. I told him that if his theory is true that simply hovering over Romney’s ad is all that’s needed to register a like, then it becomes quite difficult for Romney’s campaign to deny its involvement in these shenanigans.

Gauen responded:

Thanks for your note. While I have absolutely no doubt that it registered as I hovered, I could not make it happen again. I only presume that anyone savvy enough to program it to register “like” on a hover would be wily enough to shut out somebody who (as I did) realizes what happened and follows with an “unlike.” After a while, the ad just wasn’t there anymore.

Pat

Meanwhile, users continue to complain about this practice in the Facebook user forums.