Meddling

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

There are 617 posts filed in Meddling (this is page 48 of 62).

Spy swap

Anna Chapman

There has been a lot of speculation on the Russian – U.S. spy swap that took place last week. Some have speculated that the exchange of 10 seemingly-inconsequential Russian spies in America for 4 alleged U.S. spies in Russia produced no real winner.

I didn’t see how that was possible seeing how one, Alexander Zaporozhsky, allegedly helped the FBI capture two of our nation’s worst traitors: former FBI agent Robert Hanssen and former CIA agent Aldrich Ames. Those two spies did more harm to American intelligence than any in history, with Ames being directly responsible for the deaths of 10 secret agents working for the U.S. in Russia. It goes without saying that Zaporozhsky did the U.S. a huge favor by tipping us off to these two. Trading ten supposedly-bumbling Russian spies for Zaporoshsky is a bargain (though maybe we should’ve kept Anna Chapman).

Still, questions remain about the whole affair. Anyone who takes anything in the spy trade at face value is fooling themselves. Back-room deals are the name of the game. I find it hard to believe that the KGB could be so inept. Even Russian officials are incredulous. And how convenient that the alleged spies’ paymaster lands in and out of one of the most porous jails in Europe, only to promptly disappear? Mayberry’s Barney Fife could’ve done a better job! Was Metsos the real target of the FBI investigation? And did a back-room deal ensure his apparently-trivial escape? There are a lot of questions to be answered here.

Like most spy cases, it’s what we haven’t been told that really matters. It will be interesting to see what further details emerge from this not so cut-and-dried case. The spy swap itself may only be the beginning.

Hoyle’s hijacking H1840 is worse than reported

Sen. David Hoyle (D-Gaston)

I have a correction regarding H1840. Sen. Hoyle did not gut H1840 of it’s extension of the e-NC sunset provision. However, Hoyle did tack on his moratorium language to the existing e-NC language. This is even worse than if Hoyle had gutted H1840, because the bill appears innocuous when it really isn’t.

My confusion resulted from Hoyle’s last-minute addition of the bill to the Senate agenda. It seems there is no such thing as sunshine in the state Senate.

Free iPad scam

A neighbor of mine unwittingly sent the following email to a neighborhood email list:

I just became an iPad apps tester, and thought you might like to try it out. Here’s an invitation to become a tester too. They say you can keep the iPad when testing is finished. Grab it!

——————————————————————

unsuspecting.user@gmail.com has invited you to candidate as an Apple iPAD software tester.

To accept this invite and sign-up as a tester, click on
http://www.apps-Research.com/

If you haven’t already heard about test Apple iPAD Apps, we are a program that helps Apple iPAD applications developers make better Apps, by finding testers.

– We are looking for 5000 Apple iPAD apps testers
– No fees, costs nothing to you
– Test iPad apps for 2 months
– Send weekly reports, suggestions
– You may keep the iPad at program completion
Continue reading →

Misleading photo of I-95 bridge

I saw a story in Sunday’s News and Observer about the state potentially adding tolls to I-95. The story was illustrated by a photograph taken by Chris Seward of trucks driving under an I-95 bridge. It included this caption:

At exit 75 on I-95 southbound in Harnett County, tractor-trailers have a tight squeeze at this bridge, one of the interstate’s dangerously low overpasses. If a truck hits one, it can close the highway for hours.

First off, let me say I’m sure Seward is an honest, ethical, upstanding photojournalist and I am not questioning his motives here at all. I don’t think he was trying to mislead anyone with this shot. That said, this photograph gives the viewer the impression that the truck in the center of the frame just barely made it under this bridge. This is obviously not the case as any truck approaching a bridge that low would have to slow down to a crawl. By studying the shadows you can see that the bridge is in fact behind the truck in question and therefore is quite a bit taller than it appears in this picture.

This is the due to the way a telephoto lens distorts the depth of field, making it appear shallower. Again, I don’t think it was intentional but the photograph makes the bridge look a lot lower than it actually is.

(By the way, I support putting tolls on I-95. That highway needs all the help it can get.)

Eastshopcn: Your source for electornic products

This spam infiltrated a neighborhood email list and I couldn’t help but post it. Bless the spammer’s Chinglish-speaking heart.

Subject: New shopping new life!
Date: Wed, 2 Jun 2010 19:44:04 -0700 (PDT)
From: [Innocent victim’s name removed]

Dear friend,
how were you going? I would like to introduce you a really good space, there are mainly run various kinds of famous electornic products, it’s true eastshopcn. Now the company is under promotion, all of the products are sold nearly as the same as their cost. Eastshopcn renders the best service to customers, and provides you with original products which are very cheap, but good-quality. It is really a good opportunity for taking action, let’s go, just do it, we are sure that you must be surprised.
The web address: (www.)eastshopcn.com

Wow! Two in one day!

Looks like the money mule job market is picking up. That’s two job offers in one day! Who could believe it? And I’ve always wanted to work for a guy named Inaptitude! Where do I sign up?!?!?

From: inaptitude Dobson inaptitudebxwdobson@hotmail.com
To: sgarrid1@gmail.com
Subject: Job Opportunity. id 396VQ
Date: Tue, 18 May 2010 08:13:27 -0500

Hello,

Please, read this letter.
Gold Investments Incorporated company is looking for an individual for the courier clerk position. It is a remote/part-time/full-time position and it is home-based.

GII inc was founded by several Polish businessmen and is functioning since 2004 with its head branch based in Warsaw,the capital of Poland .

GII inc provides the dispatching service of a middleman among sellers and customers from all over the World. You will need to have a personal computer and internet access including printer/scanner to work with us.
Continue reading →

New position. (id – 52ZC)

Looks like I’ve got another great job opportunity sent my way. I’m going to be rich!!1!!!1!1!!111!!

From: trek Stanley trekstanleyqnu@hotmail.com
To: riverad@consultant.com
Subject: New position. (id – 52ZC)
Date: Tue, 18 May 2010 05:06:38 -0500

Good dayHow are you? I am a Dealcom LTD staff manager and I’m responsible for headhunting among the candidates for the open positions with our company. We have read with interest your resume detailing your qualifications and relevant work experience and want to offer you a well-paid part-time vacancy. We believe you can be considered as a successful candidate for the position. If you are interested in our company as well as in more information concerning this opportunity please e-mail the recruitment at Recruitment@dealcomltd.com. Thank you for your consideration and have a nice day.Take care.

Of course, I’d have to risk going to jail as it’s simply a money mule scam, but what the hey.

Lybian jet crashes

An Afriqiyah Airlines jet from Johannesburg crashed during landing at the Tripoli airport today, killing 92 people and leaving an 11-year-old boy as the sole survivor. While it’s early in the investigation, with an 8-month-old plane, an otherwise-sterling safety record, and clear conditions at the time of the crash, I’m betting the pilots simply forgot to check their fuel.

The compelled certificate creation attack

My friend Jeff has alerted me to a large hole in the SSL encryption problem: that of the compelled certificate creation attack.

Here’s how it works: your web browser comes pre-programmed to trust a number of certificate authorities. A certificate authority is an organization which vouches for an SSL-certificate being presented by a website. An SSL-certificate is designed to positively identify that a website you’re connecting to is who it says it is.

A national government intent on spying could compel one of these certificate authorities (call it ABC Certificates) to create an imposter SSL certificate (for, say, bankofamerica.com) and bless it with ABC Certificates’s stamp of approval. Because your browser trusts ABC Certificates, it will happily trust this fake certificate from bankofamerica.com. The evil national government could then surreptitiously intercept all traffic bound for the real bankofamerica.com and point it to its fake website so as to collect information. Or, it could surreptitiously insert a proxy into the SSL data stream and capture packets, with you or your browser being none the wiser.

You can read the findings of the two Indiana University researchers, Christopher Soghoian and Sid Stamm, here [PDF] on Cryptome.Org. You can also read the discussion of the vulnerability here (scroll to lower 2/3rds of the transcript).

Army spy plane tracked Times Square bomber?

Wired is speculating that a secret Army spy plane tracked alleged Times Square bomber Faisal Shahzad. According to the story, Shahzad called and reserved his plane ticket on his way to the airport.

What I don’t understand is why a plane was needed to track him. His cellphone was being tracked by the cellphone company, potentially within 50 feet of his location. Why put a plane up to suck down all electronic signals if you can already pinpoint his location easily?

And I was wondering how Shahzad got on a plane with the No Fly List supposedly protecting us from harm. Fortunately, CNN covered this part – saying that the list doesn’t get updated in real time but every 24 hours. Airlines are now being urged to refresh their databases within 2 hours.