i4News

CISPA and the END of privacy on the internet

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 17:57:32 +0000

Electronic Frontier Foundation
Defending your rights in the digital world

Don’t Let Congress Use "Cybersecurity" Fears to Trample on Civil Liberties

Congress is considering legislation that would create backdoor wiretaps into our daily communications. These “cybersecurity” bills would give companies a free pass to monitor and collect communications, including huge amounts of personal data like your text messages and emails. Companies could ship that data wholesale to the government or anyone else provided they claim it was for "cybersecurity purposes." Tell Congress that they can’t use vaguely defined "cybersecurity threats" as a shortcut to shredding the Constitution.

Under Rep. Mike Rogers’ Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act of 2011 (CISPA),and Sen. John McCain’s SECURE IT Act, there are almost no restrictions on what information can be spied upon and how it can be used. That means a company like Google, Facebook, Twitter, or AT&T could intercept your emails and text messages, send copies to one another and to the government, and modify those communications or prevent them from reaching their destination if it fits into their plan to stop “cybersecurity” threats.

Worst of all, the stated definition of "cybersecurity purpose" is so broad that it leaves the door open to censor any speech that a company believes would "degrade the network." Parts of the proposed legislation specifically state that cybersecurity purpose includes protecting against the theft or misappropriation of private or government information. Such sweeping language would give companies and the government a powerful weapon to use against whistleblower websites like WikiLeaks.

Congress wants to use the threat of "cybersecurity" to undermine our Constitutional rights. Tell your lawmakers that we won’t stand for dangerous, unsupervised information sharing under the guise of cybersecurity.

Please Sign the petition below if you care about your privacy at all!
https://wfc2.wiredforchange.com/o/9042/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=8444

Google's Project Glass FAIL

Sat, 07 Apr 2012 20:48:48 +0000

The prototype digital glasses, unveiled on the company's Google+ social network on Wednesday, are still being tweaked and tested, and are not available in stores yet.

"We're sharing this information now because we want to start a conversation and learn from your valuable input," Google wrote in a post on a Google+ page devoted to Project Glass.

The spectacles are being developed by Google, the secretive group working on advanced research projects such as self-driving cars.

The Google+ page featured a 2-1/2 minute video, shot from the perspective of someone wearing the glasses. The wearer goes about his day walking through New York City while speaking commands to the glasses to do things such as take a photo and post it to Google+, get block-by-block directions and weather conditions and get a pop-up alert when a friend is nearby.

The Google posting is intended to show "what this technology could look like," the company said. Mock-up images of the glasses on the Google+ page depict a stamp-sized digital display that seems attached to a pair of glasses and sits at the top corner of one of the lenses.

The post asks people to submit their suggestions for what they would like to see in the glasses.

Google, the world's No. 1 search engine, is famous for letting its employees work on ambitious projects that don't always have a direct relation to its business.

Those projects have not always sat well with investors, who worry about Google's spending on projects with uncertain returns.

Google Chief Executive Larry Page has cut down on many of the projects and products underway at the company since taking the reins a year ago. But he has defended Google's commitment to working on "speculative" projects that could one day turn into "billion-dollar businesses," though he has stressed the company isn't "betting the farm" on such efforts.

The glasses could provide a way for Google to more closely entwine its advertising-supported online services, including Web searches, maps and email, into people's daily lives.

The glasses also could help Google match some of the buzz that rival Apple Inc has generated with its latest iPhone and the built-in Siri digital assistant, which takes spoken commands to do such tasks as schedule calendar appointments and get weather forecasts.

A Google insider said it is unclear when the glasses might be commercially available, but noted that the philosophy of Google group is to develop technologies that can be used in a relatively short period of time, rather than dreaming up creations that won't be possible for 10 or more years.

The glasses, under development for two years, will be tested in public by members of the Google team, according to the Google insider.

Shares of Google, which reports its first quarter financial results next week, fell about 1.2 per cent to close at $635.15 on Wednesday amid a broad market sell-off.

Security hole in Facebook app could lead to identity theft

Fri, 06 Apr 2012 11:17:23 +0000

Folks who use Facebook’s iOS app might want to make sure to stay away from using public computers and charging stations for a while. Apparently a serious security glitch has been discovered in the software that could give hackers access to your account.

Security researcher Gareth Wright published a blog post yesterday that has raised some serious questions about how iOS developers are handling saved values — logins, etc. It seems that some apps are saving this data in plain, unencrypted text files…

Using the free tool iExplorer (previously iPhone explorer) and a non-jailbroken iPhone, Wright was able to pull all kinds of account information from apps like Facebook andDraw Something, which was stored in unencrypted plist files.

[indent]

“Popping into the Facebook application directory I quickly discovered a whole bunch of cached images and the com.Facebook.plist. What was contained within was shocking. Not an access token but full oAuth key and secret in plain text…

…Quick export and call to my good friend and local blogger Scoopz and I sent over my plist for him to try out. After backing up his own plist and logging out of Facebook he copied mine over to his device and opened the Facebook app.

My jaw droppped as over the next few minutes I watched posts appear on my wall, private messages sent, webpages liked and applications added.

Scoopz then opened Draw Something on his iPad which logged him straight into my account where he sent some pictures back to my friends.”

[/indent]

Before you panic, keep in mind that there is no evidence of anyone using this information maliciously. But the implications are certainly scary. Wright suggests that hackers could exploit this security hole with a hidden computer application that copies the plist files of any device you plug in, or a modified version of a utility like iExplorer with the added code.

Wright says that Facebook is aware of the vulnerability and working on a fix. But he points out that unless other developers start following suit, it’s only a matter of time before someone starts using this information for ill purpose. Yikes.

100 reasons to jailbreak! (by JailbreakMatrix)

Wed, 04 Apr 2012 12:48:14 +0000

Maybe they could get this chick to do the Keynotes at JailbreakCon

FireCore releases iOS 5.1 jailbreak for Apple TV 2

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 20:45:40 +0000

FireCore released a new version of its Seas0nPass utility that is compatible with the new software.

This means that folks with an Apple TV 2 can upgrade (if you haven’t already) to the latest ATV firmware, which features the new user interface, and still keep their ability tojailbreak…

Now at the moment, it’s only a tethered jailbreak — meaning that you’ll need to connect the ATV to a Mac or PC anytime you want to restart it. But given the fact that the Apple TV is rarely powered off, this shouldn’t be too big of a deal.

Unlike iOS 5.1 for other devices, the software update actually includes a host of new features for the ATV such as the new icon-based user interface, support for iCloud movie playback, and new screensaver photos.

No, the new version of Seas0nPass isn’t compatible with the third-gen Apple TV. But those with an ATV 2 can head on over to our Downloads page and grab the app. If you need help, stayed tuned to iDB for our full step-by-step tutorial.

P.S. It’s worth noting that not all jailbreak apps are compatible with the new software yet. Overflow, Plex, Remote HD, Rowmote, and XBMC are currently listed as not working. We’ll let you know when these are updated.

iOS 5.1 NEW Camera FEATURE On iOS 5.0.1 'Camera Grabber for iOS 5'

Thu, 29 Mar 2012 02:12:27 +0000

As the new iPad came, apple released a new firmware update iOS 5.1. Along with the firmware they change and fixed and did all that, but they added a feature to the lockscreen that we were all missing in the first place. The tweak lets you not only open up the camera app quicker, but replaces the traditional double pressing the home button to get the camera icon. The feature is only avalible on iOS 5.1, if you have a Jailbroken iPad 2 or iPhone 4S, that has only one jailbreak, I know that you don't want to lose that jailbreak just to get a little feature. Well today I'm going to show you how to get the slide up camera feature on iOS 5.0.1.

1. Open up Cydia
2. Search for "Camera Grabber for iOS 5"
3. Install the tweak
4. Respring your device
5. You now should have the camera feature.

That's all hope you guys enjoyed, make sure to share with your friends.

via AnonymousInsiders

Exploit discovered that could allow A5 devices to downgrade from iOS 5.1 Exploit discovered that could allow A5 devices to downgrade from iOS 5.1

Sun, 25 Mar 2012 17:54:51 +0000

Folks with newer devices on iOS 5.1 will be happy to hear that iH8sn0w has uncovered a new exploit that could potentially allow users to downgrade their A5 gadgets to the morejailbreak-friendly iOS 5.0.1 in the near future.

As noted by Gadgetsteria, the Sn0wBreeze creator announced yesterday via his Twitter account that he has uncovered a “loophole” in Apple’s APticket system that allowed him to downgrade his iPad 2 from 5.1 to 5.0.1…

This is actually a pretty big deal, considering there isn’t currently a jailbreak available for A5 devices (untethered or otherwise) on iOS 5.1. Nor is there a method of downgrading the firmware on these devices at this time.

Chances are you’ll need saved SHSH blobs from iOS 5.0.1 for whatever hardware you’re looking to downgrade, but we won’t know anything for sure until we see an official release. And unfortunately, we don’t have any kind of ETA.

We didn’t believe that 4.6-inch iPhone report but it sure makes a pretty mockup

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 18:30:35 +0000

We’ve seen iPhone mock ups from ADR Studio’s Antonio De Rosa in the past, most recently the iPhone SJ. Going with the naming scheme introduced with “the new iPad”, Rosa has just publishedmock ups of his latest creation, the new iPhone. This makes it a little easier to imagine a 4.6-inch iPhone with a Retina display hinted at earlier today. You’ll notice the mock up also includes an LED indicator around the entire edge of the device, a home button integrated into the iOS UI, and an aluminum unibody design.

JailbreakCon reminder

Thu, 22 Mar 2012 17:54:53 +0000

JailbreakCon 2012 is just around the bend! Coming up September 29th 2012 in San Fransisco.

For more details check out the official website

http://www.jailbreakcon.com/

Will any of you be going?

MegaUpload's Kim Dotcom Reclaims His Cars, Money, etc

Tue, 20 Mar 2012 21:31:25 +0000

With the MegaUpload case put on hold until August, when the extradition hearings take place, the assumption was that things would quiet down for a few months. That doesn't seem to be the case, as an error in the type of court order for Kim Dotcom's assets to be seized could have his belongings returned to him.

A court declared the initial order null and void after the prosecution admitted to asking for the wrong type of court order.

The authorities asked for an order that would not have enabled Dotcom to appear before a court prior to the seizure, a foreign restraining order rather than an interim restraining order.

The court declared this a procedural error and will rule whether this means that Dotcom's assets will be returned. After the error was realized, the police commissioner applied for a new court order in which he retroactively listed all of the assets that were already seized.

This order has now been granted, temporarily, but the court will decide this week whether the error is enough to return all of the goods seized, the money, the cars and so on.

In order for the court to rule that though, Dotcom's lawyers would have to show that the initial request was made in bad faith which they'll probably have a hard time doing.

MegaUpload was raided and shutdown early this year. At the same time, most MegaUpload employees including founder Kim Dotcom were arrested for charges relating to criminal copyright infringement, racketeering and so on. Dotcom, which resides in New Zealand, is awaiting extradition to the US.

In the meantime, all of the company's assets as well as his personal ones were seized by authorities. The haul was particularly impressive, a couple of dozen cars were seized from Dotcom alone.