Meddling

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

There are 614 posts filed in Meddling (this is page 46 of 62).

Facebook now offers secure connections


Facebook’s porous security model is one reason why I never “link” my Facebook account to other websites.

Facebook finally provided a way to keep any random jerk in the café from hijacking your account. But you have to go out of your way to enable this protection, and you might have to wait. Still: Jump on this.

Facebook has at long last offered an option to use the encrypted HTTPS protocol, a feature it will begin rolling out today but won’t finish for a “few weeks.” You should check now if it’s available, and sign up as soon as it is enabled for your account. The performance overhead is minor—zippy Gmail, for example, uses HTTPS for everything—and it’s an important step to keep your Facebook account safe from being hijacked on an open or poorly secured wireless network.

via The Facebook Setting You Should Change as Quickly as Possible.

Stuxnet – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fascinating. This reminds me a of a hacker attack the CIA allegedly pulled on a Soviet gas pipeline way back in 1982.

Stuxnet is a computer worm targeted at industrial equipment that was first discovered in July 2010 by VirusBlokAda, a security firm based in Belarus. While it is not the first time that hackers have targeted industrial systems, it is the first discovered worm that spies on and reprograms industrial systems, and the first to include a programmable logic controller (PLC) rootkit.It was specifically written to attack Supervisory Control And Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems used to control and monitor industrial processes. Stuxnet includes the capability to reprogram the PLCs and hide its changes.

The worm’s probable target is said to have been high value infrastructures in Iran using Siemens control systems. According to news reports the infestation by this worm might have damaged Iran’s nuclear facilities in Natanz and eventually delayed the start up of Iran’s Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant. Although Siemens initially had stated that the worm had not caused any damage, on November 29, Iran confirmed that its nuclear program had indeed been damaged by Stuxnet.

via Stuxnet – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Hu Jintao arriving for state visit

I guess I’m fascinated with China, like it or not. I was reading this WaPo article about Chinese President Hu Jintao’s upcoming state visit to America when I noticed this interesting tidbit:

After U.S. officials, including Clinton and Jeffrey Bader, senior Asia director at the National Security Council, tussled with Chinese security guards at the Copenhagen Climate Conference at the end of 2009, and China reacted strongly to a U.S. decision to sell $6.4 billion of weapons to Taiwan, the Obama administration’s tone changed.

I was unaware that there has been a “tussle” with Chinese security guards at this conference. My Google-Fu fails me here, too, as I can’t seem to find any mention of a physical confrontation at the Climate Conference. Was this somehow hushed up? And if so, how could it have been hushed up at such a public conference?

Could this lack of search results on this event be somehow related to China’s alleged hacking attacks against Google?

via Hu Jintao arriving for state visit focused on economics, security, human rights.

Ohio Valley Gold and Silver Refinery Ad

Ohio Valley makes big promises

Once again, the News and Observer has run a full-page ad from a less-than-honest company. The company in question is the Ohio Valley Gold and Silver Refinery and their pitch is that they’re paying on the spot for gold, silver, and other collectibles. Ohio Valley is in Chapel Hill today through the 15th, according to the ads.

Ohio Valley has been accused of not giving a fair deal for the items they buy. The Texas Examiner newspaper sent three employees and a coin dealer to visit Ohio Valley’s “roadshow” last year and found Ohio Valley offered prices below the items’ actual worth, sometimes only a third of an items value. Ohio Valley is also the defendant in a federal lawsuit from WGBH in Boston for deceptive advertising and business practices. WGBH produces the popular “Antiques Roadshow” television program.
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Proposal

Wow! I can tell it’s going to be a good year! Here it is the 2nd day of 2011 and already someone’s going to split 105 million Euros with me!!!

Received: from 41.220.69.5
(SquirrelMail authenticated user kreid)
by webmail.dixie-net.com with HTTP;
Sun, 2 Jan 2011 07:59:07 -0600 (CST)
Message-ID: 39941.41.220.69.5.1293976747.squirrel@webmail.dixie-net.com
Date: Sun, 2 Jan 2011 07:59:07 -0600 (CST)
Subject: Partnership.
From: “C. Y. Ling” kreid@dixie-net.com
Reply-To: cy.ling53@kimo.com
User-Agent: SquirrelMail/1.4.5 [CVS]

Good day,

I am Mr. C.Y. Ling, alternate CEO of the operations of CITIC Bank International, China. I have a proposal for you in the tune of One Hundred & Five Million EUR, after successful transfer, we shall share in the ratio of forty for you and sixty for me. Please reply for specifics.

Yours,
Mr. C.Y. Ling.

Highlights of 2010: Social media

This year I will once again celebrate my blog highlights, but also will give a nod to the other social media sites.

On the blog front, MT.Net collected 1.73 million hits over this year, translating to 260,000 unique visits. That’s an average of 711 visits per day and about 30% traffic growth from the year before. It’s been a good year, traffic-wise. On the posting side, I estimate I’ve written about 450 new posts this year.

I’m always amused at what brings people to my site, too. I’m still one of the top search results for the Sugarhill Gang’s epic rap song, Rapper’s Delight. I’m also still collecting plenty of web hits for Jefferson’s Bank Quote. I also draw web searchers looking for Bradley Manning, 1Gb Internet, 99% of people can’t watch this video more than 25 seconds, free iPad scam, and TSA cavity search.
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Mysterious call from 876-350-7034

I got a call on my cellphone this afternoon from a number I didn’t recognize, 876-350-7034, so I let it go to voicemail. The caller didn’t leave a message but a little sleuthing on the Internet says that the number is from Jamaica. Further sleuthing says that some folks in Jamaica are using their toll-free-looking area code to scam people.

I don’t know if the call I missed is about a scam or not but it would be wise to be wary of calls from an 876 area code.

Update 27 Dec: Looks like I covered this scam in February.

Julian Assange and Wikileaks

I’m not much impressed with the leaked diplomatic cables provided by Wikileaks and its director, Julian Assange. I’ve not seen in the press anything that strikes me as being particularly deserving of classification. I suppose it’s because the source of the documents is the State Department, which apparently gathers all of its intelligence at embassy cocktail parties.

Boooorrring. Even the Hee Haw gossip girls could do that.
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Randall for Congress breaks the law?

A neighbor got a political robocall on behalf of Randall for Congress yesterday. While that’s not unusual, what IS unusual is that the company calling on behalf of Randall spoofed the CallerID on the call, pointing it to a disconnected number in the 919 area code. This is in apparent violation of NCGS § 75-100, North Carolina’s Telephone Solicitation Law:

(i) No telephone solicitor shall knowingly use any method to block or otherwise circumvent a telephone subscriber’s use of a caller identification service. No provider of telephone caller identification services shall be held liable for violations of this subsection committed by other individuals or entities.

Here’s what my neighbor said about the call:

I got a robocall last night in which a person claiming to be Maria Schrader (sp?) representing African American conservatives encouraged me to vote for Bill Randall for congress. My caller id showed her number as 919-521-8593. I called back to ask to be taken off the list and got an automated message indicating the the number had been disconnected or was no longer in service.

I’m not too impressed with the use of forged callerid, so I left a message on the “Randall for Congress” line and got a call back this morning from Tom Price who informed me that the robocall came from Washington Political Group. I called them at 678-794-9988 and Don Burrell said he would take my number off their calling list.

Longtime MT.Net readers know I don’t take kindly to callers using forged CallerID. I’m sad to see it has come to North Carolina politics. I hope the attorney general steps in and smacks any campaign that tries to do it, as they so clearly deserve it.