"For the record, your father didn't leave ME, he left YOU" // draft

An open letter to my mother, Karen CON. 

From: ELyssaD™ 
Date: January 25, 2013, 11:17:28 EST
To: ELyssaD 

Subject: Fwd: "For the record, your father didn't leave ME, he left YOU" // draft

You're going to be famous. I saved all your letters, including the one you sent Grandma in 1995 wishing her dead too. 

Now that I have signed with a book publisher, we decided about six months ago to publish all your disgusting, hateful letters to, well, pretty much everyone. 

Well, the whole world is, and has been watching since you disconnected my phone and sold my car for a whole month (in August) while you and your charming new husband were busy remodeling the house Grandpa bought you and throwing every last memory of me, Lauren and Marty since you "don't want a single item or memory" of any of us. 

So, after reading your VICIOUS texts and emails that I have saved since 1995 I decided to go ahead with the book since so many people want me to publish it. 

I *WAS* waiting until you were either too old or dead to spare you the pain and embarrassment that you would be feeling if you had a conscience. 

All I asked yesterday was that you take Lauren instead of your loser husband to Atlanta. Just because YOU have disowned both your children and every other blood relative, it is cruel and childish to get forbid (us) from speaking with one another. That is what you failed to realize after all these years. Your attempts to create tension by intercepting commutation between my sister, my father, your mother, my uncles and any one who dares to speak to someone you have -- 

Begin forwarded message:

From: ELyssaD™ 
Date: January 21, 2013, 5:24:49 EST
To: ELyssaD 
Subject: Fwd: "For the record, your father didn't leave ME, he left YOU"

Wow. Just, wow. 

No one to send it to. Not yet. She never even read it. 

Wow.

^ed

Begin forwarded message:

From: "ELyssa D. Durant"
Date: September 30, 2012, 2:17:19 AM EDT
Subject: "For the record, your father didn't leave ME, he left YOU"

Thanks for the email after I finally decided to go for a walk and enjoy some peace and quiet in my new home.

Here is what I have to say:

It started with one condition, "Don't tell your father or sister."

Now we have a problem because you won't shut the fuck up.

Why do still care what my father says if he was as miserable as you say?

You would not allow me to use the telephone or play music for 22 days. Now that I had time to process the information and speak with reliable, informed and honest individuals, here is what they had to say:

"She is clearly hiding something. It sounds very fishy. Doesn't she know that's public record?" -Auntie

"Don't even go near her." -Daddy

"Again??" Witness 1996-2010

Documented case file:

"Ms. Durant's mother has history of accessing her health care records and calls my office weekly to discuss HIPAA protected information.  I told Ms. Weisbart to stop calling my office, and advised her to seek psychiatric help." 1999-2002 (they consulted to discuss YOUR unnatural need to gain access to MY records.

"Your daughter is right. She is over 18, and without her consent I can discuss the results with you." -Endocrinology 1995   

"Elyssa's emotional and physical health clearly decline in the presence of her mother. Relevant medical history reveals a pattern of neglect and abuse that continues into adulthood."

"As Elyssa's doctor for over eleven years, I am fully aware of her condition and have reviewed the results of a comprehensive neuropsychological evaluation.  It is my professional medical opinion that Elyssa should be in full control of her own benefits since her parent's involvement prevent her from obtaining proper medical treatment and complicates her ability to  coordinate benefits." 2010

Well, now you've done it again. So here we go!

9/30/12 1:24am

Totally derailed my progress by sending email accusing me of "vicious assaults" so let's set the record straight.


EXACTLY.

You made me choose less than 48 hours ago between my cat, my passport, birth certificate, PC, and medication or food which were inside the apartment and literally dangled the keys in front of my face like I was some sort of animal begging for treats.

That is SICK. I told you, that I needed to get inside to get my phone, food and medicine. You said, "No. You can not go inside. You may have in the car until 10pm or maybe find your own transportation on Monday."

I had to choose. My health and sanity or my cat. I chose a stray cat over you and your precious "things" because that is how little I value your approval or judgment.

I told you in no uncertain terms you were endangering my physical health by denying access to food, medicine, and exposed me to toxins that caused a severe reaction.

Your response? "Oh well. I guess you'll just have to decide which is more important."

What the fuck is wrong with you?

I was playing nicely, and you just had to start bitching at 9:18 pm on a Saturday night after the hell you put me through less than 12 hours earlier?

"This is what you get. Nothing. You're on your own." Karen Kahn 9/29/12

Go away.

I'm not afraid of you or your militant husband.

I have you on video forcing me to sign a lease under false pretenses.

You will NOT like to see me any more disgusted and determined than I am right now to expose you for the fraud that you are.

Since you don't respond to any of the urgent messages or emails I have sent  since 9/13/12 I won't bother to send it to you. I'll send to all your friends instead. The same way you sent naked pictures YOU took of my body to everyone when I got destroyed the body YOU gave me when I was in college.

I still have a copy somewhere. I have ALL my medical records on PASSWORD protected CD in case you try to use this to accuse me of lying or your favorite excuse,  "being mean."

DO NOT TEST ME.

I have never hit a single person in my life and have never hit you back when you have psychotic fits of rage that have included sharp objects.

YOU are the problem.

And don't try another one of your "suicide" watches and call your friends to come check on me.

I would never consider suicide despite what you told me at Grandpa Al's funeral, "I would understand if you committed suicide since you are such a financial burden to me and society."

Well, fuck you!

I may not have the life YOU dreamed of, but I have what I need.

A purpose.  

Just to make it crystal clear, if for no other reason, I would never hurt or kill myself even if I wanted to because I would never give you the satisfaction.

You are stuck. This is what you get when you do the same thing over and over again expecting different results. Insanity. And you can keep it. You are 65 years old and you care more about a pair of JEANS than your own flesh and blood.

Bat shit fucking crazy.  

You have two children, four brothers, a mother and father who found  you SO vile and toxic, no one wants anything to do with you.

-ALL my doctors concur. YOU are the problem. If you don't like how I turned out, perhaps it is a reflection of your poor parenting skills. You failed.

Touché.

After the Yom Kippur incident, someone asked,  "Is there any way you can do an intervention for your mother? She obviously needs help."

I responded, "No. She has alienated every member of her family and nobody cares anymore. She is not worth it."

I later justified that statement by saying that since you get suicidal or "sick" every time you see or don't see me, I am clearly a threat to your sanity.

You claim that I made you and your "poor husband" sick and blame me for your suicidal ideations as well as ruining your marriages and your life.

Have it your way. I will gladly give you exactly what you want. And for those who "know" the whole story realize the best gift I could give you or to myself  is goodbye.

So that is where we stand. I have less than standard hotel accommodations, "here are two towels. You can only have one."

No problem. I would rather have nothing than have you're tattooed make up and liposuctioned ass outside anywhere near me or my property.

You get what you give. Nothing.

Now go away and don't come back unless you have three independent psychiatric evaluations for me to review and a straight jacket on.

You are VIOLENT and vicious and I don't trust you or anyone who is crazy or stupid enough to buy the "poor Karen" act and put up with your bullshit.

Listen to me! It's not worth it. Save your time, money and any shred of self respect you pretend to have. I am done.

Like everybody else.

Remember the "DO NOT CONTACT ORDER" from 1995?

It is on my records that you are NOT to  be contacted or have ANY say in my life or death or medical decisions.

It was filed when I lost my home and you turned off my phone because I didn't call you back during a REAL emergency.

It was filed with the federal government  to prevent exactly this. My benefits were cancelled the day after you forced me to sign a makeshift lease under duress against legal and medical advice.

November 1, 2010. The same month you filed a claim for all the "stuff" you blamed me for ruining in a few short weeks, and the same items you said your renters damaged last season.

Go fuck yourself.

That's a duplication of benefits and it is illegal.

You got the most expensive estimates for insurance adjusters and went with cheapest, quickest subcontractors you could find.

I'm not stupid. At least I read contracts (and taxes) before I sign them.

Learn from your mistakes.

Quit while you're ahead.

You bought your "not so secret" property and received a claim check 11/1/2010 for renovations.

Marble
Cabinetry
Sliding glass doors
Door Knobs
Cabinetry
Trimwork
MBR
Tiles
Doors

I don't have an MBR. Obviously your "to do list"  is for YOU.

The claim paid the exact same items  you filed as damaged when I WATCHED you remove them from YOUR condo and put them into mine so you could double dip and upgrade another one of your bourgeois pig lifestyle. It was no sacrifice. It was fraud.

"Non negotiable?"

"Non refundable?"

"Labor Day sale"

"Gift"

"Basics"

BULLSHIT!

Enough is enough.

You cannot stalk, "hover" or inspect my litter box or my patio for smoke three times a day OR week just waiting for the first opportunity to force or lock me out (again) or play some psycho game like you did yesterday forcing me to chose between MY property, my cat, or my medicine.

"Good faith?" No such thing.

Not with your history.

You are already harassing me, violating the lease and property mgmt rules and were talking about forfeiture before I even moved in.

Fancy legal term for somebody who doesn't even realize that property transfers are public record. Already available to ANYONE on the Internet.

The "Deed" is already done.

So. Are. We.

Only so many claims you can make in any policy year.

SO, I documented move in conditions for MY protection since you are already violating my rights by refusing to hand over keys and are not responding to calls from your tenant who was approved by on 9/20/12 and filed with the Circuit Court since you told Management I was moving in on the 22nd of September.

I am in, and I have no intention of leaving so you can forget about that.

Don't push me.

"You're on your own." -Karen Kahn 2:18pm

I sent MULTIPLE emergency texts regarding MAINTENANCE questions.

Is that what I can expect from an experienced Landlord who has more than one property in the exclusive, members only PGA Cuntry Club?

"I'm going to give to give her a taste of her own medicine." -Karen Kahn minutes before you nearly killed both of us trying to smack me and drive at the same time.

Don't you realize it is UNACCEPTABLE to allow YOUR husband to threaten physical violence against your own children?

It was unacceptable when I was five, it is UNACCEPTABLE now.

"I'm going to smack you in the fucking head if you come out here." That was overhead and recorded by someone local. That makes four witnesses.

Now, if you hadn't just sent me that email at 9:19pm after refusing to answer URGENT questions regarding the property and CONTRACT issues, I would not have just spent over an hour on YOUR bullshit.

This is what you get when you constantly threaten, insult and LIE to everyone. You force me to assert MY rights under the law.

I don't care HOW "vicious" or "mean" you think I am. All I did was just a old trick from Nazi scientists!

All I did was repeat, out loud, every sentence to point out how ridiculous you sound.

It worked. You lost it!

How's that as a taste of your own medicine?

That is what YOU sound like.

Besides, don't you have more important things to do respond to the  State before they send deputies to inspect? You should reconcile your failure to pay any taxes for the income from your renters before you try to rent another property such as the one I am living in.

I signed a twelve month lease, and I will be REALLY pissed if I have to move because you can't comply with simple state and federal requirements because you used MY social security number (again) for material gain. UNACCEPTABLE.

Pretty sure you only have ten days to respond and the letter was dated 9/19/2012. You better get that fixed.

You should really learn not to enter into contracts since you don't even read them.

Now go send this to ALL your friends and tell them what horrible children you have. NOBODY cares except your "best husband ever" who you allowed to threaten and cause physical damage to me and MY property.

Maybe someone should tell him you already picked out his replacement.

How many of Adrienne's exes are you going to "land?"

You are no Adrienne, and you are no mother.

Enjoy your renovations. Again.

Your parental rights were terminated for a reason.

You were unfit then, and you are unfit now.

This is strictly a business contract, nothing more.

Your tenant,

Elyssa Durant

אל

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Google: Government Requests for User Data Continue to Rise

Google: Government Requests for User Data Continue to Rise

Google's biannual Transparency Report now also includes details on the legal steps which the U.S. government uses to request the...

Published: Yesterday

http://www.eweek.com/cloud/google-government-requests-for-user-data-continue-to-rise/

This article was sent from the eWEEK App.

Google's biannual Transparency Report now also includes details on the legal steps which the U.S. government uses to request the information.

Google since 2009 has seen a more than 70 percent increase in requests from governments worldwide for information about its users and their possible criminal activities, according to Google's latest biannual "Transparency Report" on such requests.

For the six-month period ending Dec. 31, 2012, Google received 21,389 government requests for information about 33,634 users, including 8,438 requests involving 14,791 users by the United States government, according to a Jan. 23 post by Richard Salgado, legal director of Google's Law Enforcement and Information Security unit, on the Google Public Policy blog.

"Today we're releasing new data for the Transparency Report, showing that the steady increase in government requests for our users' data continued in the second half of 2012, as usage of our services continued to grow," wrote Salgado.

Google has been compiling and releasing the reports since 2010 to keep the process transparent for users of its services so they can have insights into what is done with the data stored by Google. "We've shared figures like this since 2010 because it's important for people to understand how government actions affect them," wrote Salgado.

In the United States, the number of government requests is up since the last Transparency Report that detailed January through June of 2012. In that report, there were 7,969 total requests involving 16,281 users.

Google complied with 88 percent of the government inquiries in the second half of the year and 90 percent of the inquiries in the first half of the year, the report states.

The latest biannual report includes more information than past versions, wrote Salgado. The reports will now include a breakdown detailing what legal procedures U.S. government agencies took to seek the information, whether it is through subpoenas, search warrants or court orders.

For the period from July through December 2012, 68 percent of the requests Google received from U.S. government entities were through subpoenas, wrote Salgado. "These are requests for user-identifying information, issued under the Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA), and are the easiest to get because they typically don't involve judges."

Another 22 percent were through ECPA search warrants, which are typically ordered by judges,based on probable cause that a crime has been committed, he wrote.

The remaining 10 percent mostly involved other court orders.

This was the sixth biannual transparency report issued by Google. No specific requests or information are presented in the reports.

Jeffrey Child, a privacy expert and associate professor of communications studies at Kent State University, said the reports are illuminating and should give pause to Internet users who believe that what they do online is private and will not come back to haunt them.

"I think that a lot of people don't know about the extent of the inquiries here, about just how many requests that they get," said Child. "Litigators seek the information as they try to make a case that people communicate in every possible way as they seek information, through the Internet and Google searches. If they can have this information, they can make better decisions and they can make sure that they are prosecuting people in the right way."

That's a good thing, he said, but at the same time, "more people need to take note of it because it will cause more people to be cautious about what they do or say or search online. They may be think that that is private information and based on these reports, it is not and that information can be handed over" to law enforcement agencies when warranted.

"This is a great example of seeing the difference between people's expectations of privacy and the legal or the behavioral [side] where people might think that some of this information could never be turned over. If they knew that it could be turned over, perhaps they wouldn't do it."

^ed

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AT&T to Buy Wireless Spectrum From Verizon for $1.9 Billion

AT&T to Buy Wireless Spectrum From Verizon for $1.9 Billion

The deal comes just days after spectrum-hungry AT&T announces a deal to buy Alltel's assets for $780 million.

Published: Yesterday

http://www.eweek.com/networking/att-to-buy-wireless-spectrum-from-verizon-for-1.9-billion/

This article was sent from the eWEEK App.

The deal comes just days after spectrum-hungry AT&T announces a deal to buy Alltel's assets for $780 million.

AT&T, which has aggressively been buying up spectrum over the past year following its failed attempt to acquire smaller rival T-Mobile, is spending $1.9 billion for spectrum from top competitor Verizon Wireless.

The two wireless carriers announced the deal Jan. 25, saying that the $1.9 billion will buy AT&T spectrum in the 700 MHz B band as well as Advanced Wireless Services (AWS) spectrum licenses in a number of markets, including Phoenix, Los Angeles, Fresno, Calif., and Portland, Ore. The licenses acquired by AT&T cover 42 million people in 18 states throughout the country, according to AT&T officials.

The deal will enable AT&T to add to its existing spectrum holdings in the 700 MHz B band and to more quickly deploy its 4G Long Term Evolution (LTE) services to more of the country. The carrier has a goal of reaching 300 million people in the United States with its LTE network by the end of 2014; it currently covers more than 285 million, the company said in December 2012, when it made its LTE service available in Hartford, Conn.

The Verizon deal also comes just three days after AT&T announced it was buying the Alltel brand from Atlantic Tele-Network for $780 million, a move that included spectrum in the 700MHz, 850MHz and 1900MHz bands, as well as Alltel's licenses, network assets, retail stores and about 585,000 subscribers.

Spectrum—and getting more of it—has become the key issue in the wireless industry, as the carriers compete to grow their 4G LTE networks as quickly as possible to meet the demand from an increasingly insatiable public and business sector. It also is an important driver for the country as well, with the Obama Administration making broadband expansion an issue for improving the United States’ competitiveness. In a Jan. 25 blog post regarding the Federal Communications Commission’s upcoming Incentive Auction, Joan March, AT&T’s vice president of federal regulatory, said that “freeing up more spectrum is critical to U.S. economic growth and technological leadership.”

AT&T has been aggressive in acquiring spectrum and got a boost from the FCC in December when regulators approved AT&T's request to buy licenses on the Wireless Communications Service (WCS) and Advanced Wireless Services (AWS-1) spectrum bands from Comcast, Horizon, NextWave and San Diego Gas & Electric. In a Dec. 18 blog post, Marsh said that the “long era of dispute and uncertainty surrounding the WCS spectrum band is finally over,” and that with the FCC’s approval, “AT&T will be able to complete acquisitions that will give it a path to robust commercial LTE deployment in the WCS ban.”

However, not everyone views AT&T’s spectrum buying spree as a good thing. Harold Feld, senior vice president of the open Internet advocacy group Public Knowledge, said AT&T efforts will hurt competition in the wireless industry. In a blog post Jan. 25, between the Allnet deal and AT&T’s acquisition of the Verizon spectrum, “this was exactly the anti-competitive scenario many of us predicted when Verizon made the offer to sell off its 700 MHz licenses in order to bulk up on its AWS footprint. Nevertheless, the FCC refused to impose a condition prohibiting the sale of the licenses to AT&T on the grounds that it could wait to see who purchased the licenses before acting. Well, now we know, and the FCC has the ‘hypothetical’ transaction it did not want to consider last summer squarely before it today.”

Feld characterized the deal as being AT&T daring the FCC to stand up to it, and as a test to the FCC’s commitment to a more competitive wireless market.

Both the FCC and Department of Justice will need to approve the deal, and both AT&T and Verizon expect it to close quickly after the necessary approvals are received, according to Robin Nichol, executive director of corporate communications at Verizon.

The spectrum licenses acquired from Verizon touch on regions through the country, including the West (California, Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Utah and Washington), the South (Florida, Louisiana, Tennessee and Virginia), the Southwest (New Mexico and Texas), Midwest (Illinois, Montana, Ohio, South Dakota and Oklahoma), and Northeast (New York), according to AT&T officials.

Along with that spectrum, the deal also includes Grain Management acquiring a single AWS license from AT&T, and AT&T leasing 700 MHz spectrum from Grain in three markets. In addition, Verizon will lease from Grain the AWS license that Grain is acquiring from AT&T. That license covers Dallas, according to Verizon.

^ed

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RIM BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 Now Available for Download

RIM BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 Now Available for Download

With BlackBerry 10 a week away, RIM is offering its Enterprise Mobility Management solution, BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, for download.

Published: Wednesday

http://www.eweek.com/mobile/rim-blackberry-enterprise-service-10-now-available-for-download/

This article was sent from the eWEEK App.

With BlackBerry 10 a week away, RIM is offering its Enterprise Mobility Management solution, BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, for download.

Research In Motion continues to ready its customers and the world for its long-awaited BlackBerry 10 platform. A week ahead of BlackBerry 10's planned Jan. 30 unveiling, RIM made its new Enterprise Mobility Management (EMM) product, BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, available for download.

In a Jan. 23 statement, RIM said the new service "reinvents BlackBerry EMM" by bringing together device management, security protocols and mobile applications management for BlackBerry smartphones and tablets, including the BlackBerry 10 devices it will show off Jan. 30. The platform also features a single console for managing BlackBerry, iOS and Android-running devices.

In addition to mixed-device environments, it also supports personal- and corporate-owned device deployments as well as BlackBerry Balance, RIM's new technology for separating and securing work content from personal content.

BlackBerry 10 smartphones with BlackBerry Balance will also feature seamless and secure access to content behind corporate firewalls, according to RIM. The new models will offer access to BlackBerry World for Work, RIM's new corporate app storefront that administrations can use to push and install mandatory apps to employees. Management controls for securing and managing work profiles include hierarchical group management, support for customizable administrative roles, employee self-service and the centralized control of assignable profiles.

Select RIM customers have had advanced access to the service.

"The redesigned [user interface] is excellent, providing a smooth experience that enables you to seamlessly switch between applications and content across both the personal and work profiles," said Craig Allcock, head of Networks, Group Technology at the UK-based Co-operative Group, which was one such group with early access, in a statement.

The software is now available for download, and RIM is offering a free 60-day trial that includes device licenses.

In recent weeks, RIM's preparatory efforts have included receiving Visa's approval for a Secure Element Manager (SEM) platform that will enable carriers to support mobile payment services based on near-field communication (NFC) technology, whether on a BlackBerry 10 handset or any other NFC-equipped device. The company has also announced upcoming changes to its service fees and hosted days-long Port-A-Thon parties to pack its apps store in time for the new devices.

An initial Port-A-Thon resulted in 15,000 apps in 37.5 hours, and the second, which included $2 million in incentive prizes, brought in 19,000 more applications.

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless have all said they will back the new phones, and RIM has promised that on Jan. 30 it will show at least one device with a dedicated QWERTY keyboard and one without and will share availability information the same day.

While business-savvy BlackBerry smartphones once led the industry, RIM has had a tough time competing against the consumer-geared Apple iPhone and Android-running devices. With BlackBerry 10 and its new smartphones, RIM has promised a device that does it all, offering the security and business-minded capabilities BlackBerry is know for, the fun consumer experience that users have made clear they want, and an easy method for separating and managing the two.

Highlighting just how close RIM is to showtime, Alec Saunders, RIM's vice president of developer relations, tweeted midday on Jan. 22 that he was attending a "final issues meeting before launch."

Follow Michelle Maisto on Twitter.

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Unlocking Smartphones to Become Illegal Jan. 26

Unlocking Smartphones to Become Illegal Jan. 26

The unauthorized unlocking of smartphones will go from tricky to illegal Jan. 26 as a Library of Congress ruling goes into effect.

Published: Today at 11:00

http://www.eweek.com/mobile/unlocking-smartphones-to-become-illegal-jan.-26/

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The unauthorized unlocking of smartphones will go from tricky to illegal Jan. 26 as a Library of Congress ruling goes into effect.

Smartphone owners wanting to unlock their devices will need to do it quickly. As of Jan. 26, the practice will become illegal.

On Oct. 26, 2012, the Library of Congress ruled on a prohibition to circumvent copyright protection systems—systems that enable a phone to run on only the network of the carrier that sold it—as outlined in the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

The 1998 DMC Act states, "No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title," but goes on to say that during "each succeeding three-year period, the Librarian of Congress will consult with the appropriate groups and "report or comment on his or her views."

The consequent, 69-page Library of Congress document states:

The Register concluded after a review of the statutory factors that an exemption to the prohibition on circumvention of mobile phone computer programs to permit users to unlock “legacy” phones is both warranted and unlikely to harm the market for such programs. At the same time, in light of carriers’ current unlocking policies and the ready availability of new unlocked phones in the marketplace, the record did not support an exemption for newly purchased phones. Looking to precedents in copyright law, the Register recommended that the class designated by the Librarian include a 90-day transitional period to allow unlocking by those who may acquire phones shortly after the new exemption goes into effect.

In more clear terms: If you don't want a locked phone, don't buy one—you have options—but it's not legitimate for phones to stay locked forever. Also, that 90-day transitional period expires Jan. 26.

The Library of Congress document also quotes the National Telecommunications and Information Administration (NTIA), which stated that it "does not support the notion that it is an appropriate alternative for a current device owner to be required to purchase another device to switch carriers."

The practice of locking devices has been tied to the popular carrier business model of offering subsidized devices with two-year service contracts—a practice that, to the benefit of carriers and consumers, may be falling out of vogue.

Subsiding the Apple iPhone, in particular, has been a financial burden on the carriers—Sprint had to take on tremendous new debt in order to begin offering the device. But T-Mobile, announcing that it, too, will soon begin selling the iPhone, has said that it instead plans to offer it with the option of a low monthly financing plan.

Such a plan would save T-Mobile from the upfront investment of subsidizing millions of the devices, and would offer subscribers the freedom of avoiding a two-year contract but also the high cost of buying the device outright. Apple sells the iPhone unlocked (contract free) for a starting price of $649.

AT&T executives, during a Jan. 24 earnings call, said they will be watching with interest T-Mobile's success with the strategy.

Nokia has long offered its phones unlocked, and Google, in entering the hardware game, has also circumvented the locked-phone issue, offering its Nexus 4 unlocked for $300.

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RIM Releases BlackBerry Enterprise Server 10 with Support for iOS and Android Devices

by Tris Hussey, iphonehacks.com
January 23rd 2013

One of the main selling points for BlackBerry in the enterprise has been BES (BlackBerry Enterprise Server). BES allowed administrators manage the entire company’s pool of BlackBerry devices through one central panel. Ahead of the official launch of the BlackBerry 10 in a week, RIM has taken the wraps off the next version of BES, BES 10 which includes continued support for Android and iOS devices.

While RIM is still fighting for its corporate life, and all bets are on the BlackBerry 10 as part of that plan, one of the core components of the BlackBerry ecosystems has been updated for the new devices and with new features.

RIM announced BES 10 with a standard press release, but also a couple blog posts and a video demo:

See Video:

According to the two blog posts (Business and the official BlackBerry blog), the key features of BES 10 are:

•  A cost-efficient, secure, reliable, and scalable solution, BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10 offers a robust feature set to help you get your employees up and running on their, or your, devices. Here are some of the new features, and there’s much more.
• Manage all BlackBerry, iOS, and Android devices, including the new BlackBerry 10 smartphones
• Application management for internal corporate apps or public apps from BlackBerry World (formerly BlackBerry App World) through BlackBerry World for Work
• Easy over-the-air activation for end users
• Enhanced IT policies

The key feature I think, and essential to the BYOD trend, is that BES can manage Android and iOS devices along side BlackBerrys. The PDF data sheet from RIM on BES 10 lists everything from controlling the browser to camera to cloud connections to (of course) social media. Reading the PDF you might think that admins are out to get iOS (the Android list of things that can be managed is a quarter as long as the iOS one), but I take this to mean that iOS could be better suited to a business environment if for no other reason because devices can be locked down (through BES or other admin tools).

How companies react to BES or if they will upgrade in droves will remain to be seen. Likewise, I wonder if RIM will reach out to non-BES/BlackBerry companies who have mostly iOS devices as an option to manage those devices through BES 10.

Original Page: http://pocket.co/sGTyu

Shared from Pocket

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Examining the wireless spectrum crunch

The wireless spectrum crunch, illustrated

by Sebastian Anthony, extremetech.com
January 23rd 2013 2:18 PM

Unless you’ve been locked away in an isolated Montana cabin for the last few years, you’ll have noticed that radio frequency allocations are serious business. A few kilohertz here or a few megahertz there  can cost billions of dollars to acquire, make or break a mobile carrier, or render the Global Positioning System — and the US military’s ability to use targeted munitions — null and void. What you probably don’t know, though, is why it’s so hard to get your hands on a block of radio spectrum.

The two images below should give you a better idea. The first chart shows you the frequency allocations in the US; below that is the UK. Note that both have very different color keys, but otherwise they’re the same format, starting with the lowest frequencies in the top left. I strongly suggest you open the original PDFs [US / UK], so that you can make out all of the detail.

Beyond the huge blocks of spectrum dedicated to broadcast radio, TV, and satellite, the first thing you’ll notice is just how many different allocations there are. If you zoom in, you’ll notice that these aren’t even specific allocations for companies or institutions — merely categories, such as mobile, fixed, and broadcast. Within each block, the US (FCC) and UK (Ofcom) might manage dozens or hundreds of individual licensees.

Next you should look at the thin, colored bars beneath the larger blocks that indicate whether the spectrum is allocated for civilian, governmental (military), or mixed use. On both charts, red indicates government-only use — and as you can see, both the US and UK governments have an awful lot of reserved spectrum.

It’s also interesting to see just how many categories there are. Not only are large blocks reserved for amateur radio (ham), but also for amateur satellites. There are blocks allocated for space research (astronomy), space operations (communicating with ISS, Curiosity, etc.), and inter-satellite comms. For some reason (probably historical), huge swathes of the lowest frequencies are reserved for maritime mobile comms. In both the US and UK, allocations start to get really crazy around the 1GHz mark — a sweet spot where signals can penetrate obstacles, but where there’s also enough bandwidth for large amounts of data.

We’ve spoken a lot about the spectrum crunch on ExtremeTech, but after looking at these charts it’s clear that there is a lot of spare spectrum out there, and a ton of bandwidth — the blocks and allocations just need to be moved around a bit. The problem, of course, is that most of these allocations have existed for decades, and updating or replacing the relevant software and hardware just isn’t feasible. As mobile communications continue to grow, though, I suspect the FCC, Ofcom, and other regulatory bodies around the world will finally get around to cleaning our radio frequencies up.

Now read: The secret world of submarine cables

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BB 10 Twitter and Google Talk app integration leaks ahead of launch

by Joseph Volpe, engadget.com
January 14th 2013 10:31 AM

Care for a sneak peek at BB 10's third party app integration? Well, if the screens above are to be believed (and we have reason to assume they're quite legit), standalone applications like Twitter and Google Talk could be ready to download on BlackBerry World at launch. From what we can glimpse, it appears the apps will be folded into BB Hub, the OS' new unified inbox, lending further credence to RIM's claims of a seamless "flow," as it doesn't seem likely social applications will be sandboxed. Design-wise, both apps offer a direct parallel to their current offerings on other rival platforms, albeit made to fit the straight and soft BB 10 aesthetic. We'll know much more in the weeks ahead as RIM prepares to reveal the full monty. For now, buckle in for a load of expected leaks.

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Apple to Support Staff: Don't Help Malware Victims | TechNewsDaily.com

Apple to Support Staff: Don't Help Malware Victims

by SecurityNewsDaily, technewsdaily.com
May 24th 2011 11:32 AM

The latest leaked internal memo from Apple reveals how the company is trying to distance itself from the recent rash of Mac-specific malware.

According to a document obtained by ZDNet security reporter Ed Bott, Apple is now instructing its AppleCare support staff to entirely avoid helping customers who call in complaining that their computers have been infected with the MacDefender Trojan .

A fake antivirus program, MacDefender tries to convince users that their systems are infected with malware, and that the only way to fix the problem is to purchase the bogus MacDefender software. Discovered in early May, the fake program has been quickly spreading, drawing an uptick in customer complaints, an AppleCare support rep told SecurityNewsDaily.

Don't remove malware

The May 20 confidential memo, which Bott says was sent to him by from an Apple support rep who wishes to remain anonymous, tells support reps to send customers "an article about what malware is and is not," and clearly lists items support staff must "never do" when fielding customer calls about MacDefender.

It reads: "You cannot show the customer how to force quit Safari on a Mac Defender call. You cannot show the customer how to remove from the Login Items. You cannot show the customer how to stop the process of Mac Defender in their Activity Monitor. You cannot refer the customer to ANY forums or discussions boards for resolution (this includes the Apple.com forums)."

The Apple.com discussion boards have been rife with pleas for help from MacDefender victims as well as suggestions on how to rid your system from the invasive Trojan.

Apple's motives unclear

Apple's revised security policy comes one week after a May 16 internal memo, also leaked to Bott, instructed AppleCare staff to neither "confirm or deny" the presence of MacDefender on a customer's computer, and to direct callers to the Apple Online Store to purchase third-party antivirus programs.

[Apple to Tech Support Staff: Don't Discuss Mac Malware]

Apple's stance, however, does not appear to be borne out of malice. The company is likely trying to avoid liability should a support staff member accidentally damage a customer's computer during an attempt to remove MacDefender.

The memo justifies Apple's avoidance policy by explaining, "According to the client the point of this is to empower the customers to become more internet and security savvy."

Who will come to the rescue?

As Apple attempts to avoid culpability, it is also potentially missing a lucrative chance to help protect frustrated customers.

Its policy of directing malware victims to purchase third-party antivirus software, however, may greatly benefit antivirus software vendors.

A comment to Bott's article reads, "Alternate title would read 'Best Buy readies for massive Virus Removal traffic as Apple ignores its customers.'"

Apple did not return calls and emails for comment.

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99% of Android Phones Leak Personal Data | TechNewsDaily.com

99% of Android Phones Leak Personal Data

by SecurityNewsDaily, technewsdaily.com
May 17th 2011 3:03 PM

Google's Android mobile operating system is again in the hot seat after German researchers found that a security flaw causes nearly 100 percent of Android phones to leak users' secret account credentials.

Researchers at the University of Ulm explained that the problem lies in ClientLogin, a Google authentication protocol that verifies communication between Android phones and Google apps such as Google Calendar, Google Contacts and Picasa, as well as third-party Android apps such as Twitter and Facebook.

ClientLogin is designed to create an authentication token — basically, a digital spare key that stores your username and password — that clears the way for Android phones to send and receive data without having to login again.

Rather than sending these authentication tokens as encrypted, secure, anonymous files, certain apps send them without encryption, over http channels. As a result, anybody using one of several free networking traffic-monitoring programs can exploit the notorious insecurity of public Wi-Fi networks to intercept the authentication tokens.

"This means that the adversary can view, modify or delete any contacts, calendar events or private pictures," the researchers wrote. With your username and password, a hacker could also gain unauthorized access to your online bank accounts and other sensitive information.

According to the researchers, 99.7 percent of Android smartphones are vulnerable to this type of attack.

Even more frightening, the authentication tokens that enable these identity thefts remain valid for 14 days, allowing Android attackers "to comfortably capture and make use of tokens at different times and location," the researchers said.

The university researchers urge Android users to immediately update to Android version 2.3.4, and turn off the automatic synchronization feature in the settings menu while using your phone on an open Wi-Fi network.

This new exploit casts yet another shadow on Android: between infected apps and a 400 percent increase in malware since last year, Google is having a hard time keeping its increasingly popular smartphone platform safe.

In response to the growing incidents of security threats targeting mobile users, AT&T has announced plans to launch a consumer security service for mobile users next year.

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Data-Swiping 'Super Mario' Games Infiltrate Chrome Web Store | TechNewsDaily.com

Data-Swiping 'Super Mario' Games Infiltrate Chrome Web Store

technewsdaily.com | May 24th 2011 2:39 PM

Mario and Luigi are out to get you.

It sounds ludicrous, but it's a real fear you should have if you plan on downloading two new versions of the classic Nintendo games "Super Mario World" or "Super Mario World 2," both reformatted as apps for Google's Chrome Web Store.

In exchange for letting you squash angry turtles on the way to saving Princess Peach, these apparently unauthorized "Super Mario" apps can access your data on all websites, your browsing history, all your bookmarks and possibly even other apps you've installed and your physical location .

(There is no indication Nintendo is involved with either of these apps; both apps were developed by someone calling himself "chromitude." Requests to Nintendo for comment were not immediately returned.)

If you think that what Evil Mario and Luigi want sounds like a gross invasion of privacy, you're not alone.

Game wants more than just your participation

"WAAAAY too much permissions asked. Why need bookmarks, browse history and all website data? I recommend not to use this app," a March 23 comment on the "Super Mario" app download page reads.

A May 11 post reads expresses similar bewilderment at the game, which already has more than 42,000 users: "Why does this game require access to my data on all webpages?? Not reasonable with those accesses. Will not install this. Looks like some scam to me."

A March 7 user comments for "Super Mario 2" 13,726 users highlights the severity of an app that has such complete access to your Web habits.

"This item can read every page that you visit your bank, your web email, your Facebook page, and so on."

"This gives your computer a virus," reads a comment posted five days ago.

Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer for the Finnish security firm F-Secure, told SecurityNewsDaily that he believes these rogue-looking "Super Mario" apps are not fraudulent, but rather cases of "aggressive marketing" designed to profile "your online use so they can market to you better."

What is Google's doing to keep the Web store safe?

It doesn't take much cerification to get an app in Google's Chrome Web Store. Developers are required to a pay a one-time $5 registration fee "in order to verify developer accounts and better protect users against fraudulent activity," Google writes in a Chrome Web store blog.

After that, the floodgates are open, and developers can publish as many apps as they want.

This, of course, could be a huge problem if a developer happens to have a mean streak. So what else, then, does Google to do ensure the safety of its Chrome apps?

"You agree that if you use the Web Store to distribute Products, you will protect the privacy and legal rights of users," section 4.3 of Google's Chrome Web Store Developer Agreement reads.

The agreement explains that if developers collect sensitive data provided by users, "it must do so securely and only for as long as it is needed."

Google's hands-off approach

Google, however, retains the right to take a decidedly lax security stance when it comes to policing the Chrome apps.

Although it retains the right to review or test products, Google said it "is not obligated to monitor the Products or their content."

"We don't make a habit out of commenting on individual apps," a Google spokesperson told SecurityNewsDaily in an email. "That said, we can ask our teams to investigate this one, and we will take the appropriate action in accordance with out policies."

The Google spokesperson added, "By making user rating and reviews available for all apps in the store, we believe the community will also flag these apps, either for removal, or with poor ratings."

"They are pushing the responsibility away from themselves onto the end users ... who can't handle it ," Hypponen told SecurityNewsDaily.

Google, of course, isn't the only company to put the burden of security on app developers.

"It's too easy to criticize Google," Hypponen added. "Remember, Microsoft is not reviewing Windows apps either."

What could possibly go wrong?

Google's policy toward the Chrome Web Store mirrors its approach to the Android Market, which distributes apps for Google's Android smartphone and tablet platform. (Android and Chrome are separate products.)

For the past six months, one bad app after another has been falling from the Android tree and infecting those who bite into them.

At first, the malicious Android apps were found outside the official Android Market. But then in March, more than 50 free apps in the Market were found to harbor DroidDream , a data-stealing Trojan.

Each Android device fully informs the user, before installation, which permissions each app will give itself. The Chrome Web Store does the same. But the warnings haven't stopped Android malware from spreading, and it's not clear the Chrome warnings will either.

UPDATE: Charlie Scibetta, senior director of corporate communications at Nintendo of America, told SecurityNewsDaily that Nintendo is not in any way affiliated with the rogue Chrome Web apps.

"Nintendo video games are offered only on Nintendo systems such as the Wii and Nintendo 3DS," Scibetta said. "Applications on the Apple or Google marketplaces that purport to be Nintendo video games are not legitimate and users who download these applications may expose themselves to spyware or other malicious software. Nintendo actively monitors the unauthorized use of its intellectual property, and will continue to seek removal of any unauthorized content in these marketplaces. In this case, Nintendo worked with Google to have the applications removed."

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Apple Lifts Veil on Far-Flung Supply Chain, Exposes Flaws | Fox Business

Apple Lifts Veil on Far-Flung Supply Chain, Exposes Flaws

by Adam Samson, foxbusiness.com
January 25th 2013

Your iPhone is probably better-traveled than you are. Apple for the first time gave the world a glimpse inside its global supply chain, exposing at once its vast expanse and the ever-present perils in manufacturing tens of millions of consumer products.

When you open most any Apple product, the box proudly proclaims it is “designed by Apple in California.” It’s no secret that the journey from the company’s gleaming headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., to your hands is a long and oftentimes messy one involving many other firms, people and countries. But exactly which companies are involved, and the practices they use, are now coming into clearer focus.

Click here to read Apple's latest Supplier Responsibility Report

Manufacturing of raw materials, parts and final assembly of the products is completed across at least five continents: Asia, Australia, Europe, North America and South America. The list of countries includes some familiar names in manufacturing, like China, and Brazil, but it also involves many others that are less known, such as the Czech Republic and France. Similarly, the list of Apple’s (AAPL) top 200 suppliers (which the company says represents 97% of procurement expenditures) contains recognizable names and others that aren’t as widely discussed outside the factory sector.

In fact, three of the 30 Dow components make the list: aluminum giant Alcoa (AA), chipmaker Intel (INTC) and diversified-product maker 3M (MMM). Other big names in technology include: Sony (SNE), Texas Instruments (TXN), Samsung, Sharp, Panasonic (PC), Seagate (STX), Sandisk (SNDK), Micron (MU) and Western Digital (WDC).

Click here to view a list of Apple's top 200 suppliers.

Perhaps more interestingly, it includes companies that actually manufacture large swaths of the world’s technology, but garner far less name recognition. Top among them is Hon Hai Precision Industry, better known as Foxconn. The company employees some 200,000 people, according to its website, and has facilities across the globe (notably in China and Brazil). Among the other manufacturing heavyweights are: Cheng Uei Precision Industry, Primax Electronics, Quanta Computer, PCH International, Pegatron and Inventec Appliances (see map). Those companies together employ roughly 150,000 individuals, according to a FOX Business analysis of the firms’ financial filings. In comparison, Apple, one of the world’s biggest companies by market value, directly employs 80,000 people worldwide, according to its website.

Apple Looks to Seize Control of Vast Supply Chain

Apple is known for its obsessive attention to detail, from its sleek industrial design, to intense secrecy and choreography surrounding product launches. It also takes great lengths to precisely guard its identity, right down to carefully-crafted lessons on how employees at retail stores position products and services.

But what is striking is how little control it has over its vast supply chain. Under the guidance of chief executive Tim Cook, Apple is looking to seize dramatically more control.

“We’re fixing problems and tackling issues that our entire industry faces, such as excessive work hours and underage labor,” Apple said in its 39-page Supplier Responsibility Report. “We’re going deeper into the supply chain than any other company we know of.”

Probe Exposes 'Corrupt' Labor Broker

Apple performed 393 audits at “all levels” of its supply chain last year, up 72% from 2011, according to the report. The audit process covered facilities where 1.5 million workers make Apple products. Last year, Apple also became the first electronics company to join the Fair Labor Association, which performed another set of audits of final assembly facilities.

Apple’s probe found a litany of violations – some small and some large – to its Supplier Code of Ethics. One of its more dramatic findings was the widespread use of “dishonest third-party labor agents” who “conspire to corrupt the system.”

In one striking example, Apple found 74 cases of workers under the age of 16 at Guangdong Real Faith Pingzhou Electronics, which supplies a circuit board component to many companies across many industries, according to the company. It ended its relationship with the supplier, and found a major Chinese labor broker named Shenzhen Quanshun Human Resources “knowingly” provided the underage children. Apple alleged Quanshun conspired with families to forge age-verification documents to make workers seem older than they actually were.

Apple alerted provincial governments in China, who fined the Quanshun and suspended its license. The children were returned home and Pingzhou was required to pay the expenses to facilitate the process, according to Apple.

Still, this case speaks to how pervasive these issues can be even despite Apple’s and suppliers’ best attempts to avoid them. In total, 11 facilities were found with underage workers, with 106 active cases and 70 historical cases in Apple’s 2012 audit. Besides the Pingzhou example, Apple said all of them were caused by “insufficient controls to verify age or to detect false documentation,” as opposed to intentional action.

The electronics supply chain has been long criticized for having employees work long hours in jobs that are often mentally and physically tolling. Apple has set specific guidelines in hopes of easing these problems, including requiring that employees can work a maximum of 60 hours a week, receive at least a day of rest per seven days, and only accept overtime voluntarily. The company has also innovated in this regard, tracking real-time work hours on a weekly basis, and publishing a report once a month. Last year, Apple's suppliers were 92% compliant with these rules, and the average work week clocked in at less than 50 hours.

Other issues reported down the chain included 88 facilities where proper personal protective safety equipment wasn’t provided, 177 lacking appropriate emergency exit procedures or compliance, 59 that employed what Apple saw as discriminatory medical and pregnancy testing, and 147 that improperly stored moved or handled chemicals.

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Unlocking cellphones becomes illegal Saturday

by Michael Gow, foxnews.com
January 24th 2013

The clock to unlock a new mobile phone is running out.

In October 2012, the Librarian of Congress, who determines exemptions to a strict anti-hacking law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), decided that unlocking mobile phones would no longer be allowed. But the librarian provided a 90-day window during which people could still buy a phone and unlock it. That window closes on January 26.

Unlocking a phone frees it from restrictions that keep the device from working on more than one carrier's network, allowing it run on other networks that use the same wireless standard. This can be useful to international travellers who need their phones to work on different networks. Other people just like the freedom of being able to switch carriers as they please.

The new rule against unlocking phones won't be a problem for everybody, though. For example, Verizon's iPhone 5 comes out of the box already unlocked, and AT&T will unlock a phone once it is out of contract.

You can also pay full-price for a phone, not the discounted price that comes with a two-year service contract, to receive the device unlocked from the get-go. Apple sells an unlocked iPhone 5 starting at $649, and Google sells its Nexus 4 unlocked for $300. [See also: Can I Get a Smartphone Without a Contract?]

Advocacy group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) questions whether the DMCA has the right to determine who can unlock a phone. In an email to TechNewsDaily, EFF attorney Mitch Stoltz said, "Arguably, locking phone users into one carrier is not at all what the DMCA was meant to do. It's up to the courts to decide."

If you do buy a new phone and want to unlock it before the deadline, you must first ask your carrier if the company will unlock your phone for you. The DMCA only permits you to unlock your phone yourself once you've asked your carrier first.

(Note that unlocking is different from "jailbreaking," which opens the phone up for running additional software and remains legal for smartphones.)

Christopher S. Reed from the U.S. Copyright Office noted in an email to TechNewsDaily that "only a consumer, who is also the owner of the copy of software on the handset under the law, may unlock the handset."

But come Saturday, you'll have to break the law to unlock your phone. If you want to get in under the gun, you can search the Internet for the code to enter to unlock the phone or find a tool that will help you accomplish the task.

The change could crimp the style of carriers like T-Mobile, which have pushed "bring your own device" as an incentive for switching service providers. Such carriers promise savings in exchange for using your existing phone on their network.

T-Mobile has promoted this notion for iPhones, in particular, since the company is the only one of the big four U.S. carriers that doesn't sell the iPhone. The carrier goes so far as to feature ads displaying an open padlock, with an iPhone replacing the body of the lock. T-Mobile declined to comment.

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Asperger’s and Invisibility

by spectrumscribe, postcardsfromtheedgeofthespectrum.wordpress.com

My main and almost only social memories of school, are of relentless ostracism.

The verb ostracize has its origin in Ancient Greece.

• It was an act of banishment from a city
• for 5 or 10 years!
• decided by a vote!

Banishment describes perfectly how I felt for most of my school life.

There are worse things than dying and there are worse things than banishment.

Ostracism

At school I was ostracized by children who knew me.

• It was personal and spiteful
• And it wasn’t just the banishment/exclusion
• There was the relentless taunting, the name calling
• It was a deliberate, conscious choice

At least the ostracized ranks of Ancient Greece did not have to face their tormentors every day.

But invisibility takes ostracism to a whole new level.

Invisibility

When meeting new people, after the initial pleasantries and tap dancing around, I generally become……invisible.

This happens in work settings.

• People may exchange pleasantries with me
• But beyond that they will take no interest in me
• I won’t be invited to participate in out of work activities
• They won’t ask me what my plans are at the weekend

Sometimes this happens immediately.

• Sometimes it takes a little longer
• But eventually I find myself in that familiar place, outside, looking in

This isn’t just familiarity breeding contempt either.

The same thing happens with people who don’t know me, at social events and parties.

• Usually the conversation ends up drifting away from me
• A bit like a tennis match being played on the other side of the net
• Often times they will physically drift away from me too

The difference here is that these are NOT deliberate acts of unkindness, spitefulness or unpleasantness.

Something else is in play here.

• They can sense that I am ‘different’
• This is intuition at work
• The bringer of invisibility

Advocacy

It’s easy to see that my experiences of ostracism and invisibility are a big driver in my Autism Advocacy work.

Advocates help give people a voice, or a louder voice and make sure that no one is treated as invisible.

This was a big part of my inspiration for setting up the World Autism Project

• That and my love of maps
• and other cultures

The Invisible Man

To see the Invisible Man, was an episode of the Twilight zone, which first aired in 1986.

• Mitchell Chaplin is sentenced to 1 year of invisibility
• ‘For the crime of Coldness and not opening up his emotions to his fellow citizens’
• Testimony had been given by Chaplin’s family of his lack of caring and concern for others

A mark is applied to his forehead, signalling to and requiring others to treat him as invisible.

• Chaplin makes light of this
• Initially!

To see the Invisible Man (1/3)

See Video:

To see the Invisible Man (2/3)

See Video:

To see the Invisible Man (3/3)

See Video:

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Chrome Clickjacking Vulnerability Could Expose User Information on Google, Amazon

by Christopher Brook, m.threatpost.com
January 2nd 2013 12:03 PM

An apparent clickjacking, or UI redress vulnerability, in Google’s Chrome web browser could make it possible for attackers to glean users’ e-mail addresses, their first and last names and other information according to recent work done by an Italian researcher.

Luca De Fulgentis, who writes about security for Nibble Security’s blog, detailed the issue earlier this week, along with another separate data extraction method.

De Fulgentis shows how a user's information can be extracted with the help of a malicious page using information on a page from Google’s support forums. If logged in, users’ e-mail addresses, names and profile picture URL can be extracted from the browser via support.google.com, while similar user information can be extracted from web resources belonging to Microsoft’s Live.com and Yahoo!’s Profiles pages.

De Fulgentis explains another data extraction technique: a two-step drag and drop method that relies on users being tricked into letting Chrome publish their data publicly.

“Instead of a cross-origin drag & drop, the victim is tricked to perform a same-origin action, where the dragged content belongs to a vulnerable web page of the targeted application and the "dropper" is a form (text area, input text field, etc.) located on the same domain,” De Fulgentis writes.

Essentially information that should be private is made public by two flaws: If the user is on a website that doesn’t protect information by X-Frame-Options – the response header that ensures information isn’t embedded into other sites - and if that site is affected by clickjacking.

De Fulgentis goes on to explain how this technique can be executed in Chrome on Amazon.com. Using the aforementioned method, an attacker could publish the user’s information as a comment for an Amazon item, as demonstrated by the following video:

Since Amazon’s site doesn’t protect user’s information with an X-Frame-Options header, information like user’s e-mail address and mobile number could be exposed under the right conditions.

This vulnerability is the latest of a series of UI redressing vulnerability reports done by De Fulgentis. Late last year he described a problem with Mozilla’s Firefox that compromised user information on LinkedIn.com.

See Video:

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Identification Attacks on Google

UI Redressing Mayhem: Identification Attacks and UI Redressing on Google Chrome

by Luca De Fulgentis, blog.nibblesec.org
December 31st 2012

The Google Chrome web browser seems to have defeated any extraction methods, denying the use of the view-source handler and disallowing cross-origin drag&drop. Despite these adverse conditions, I identified some attack scenarios where a UI Redressing issue could be still performed in order to extract sensitive data. Once again, the method is extremely simple. Instead of a cross-origin drag&drop, the victim is tricked to perform a same-origin action, where the dragged content belongs to a vulnerable web page of the targeted application and the "dropper" is a form (text area, input text field, etc.) located on the same domain. Using a site's functionality that allows publishing externally-facing content, it is still possible to extract information. Under these circumstances, Chrome will not reasonably deny the same-origin drag&drop, thus inducing the victim to involuntary publish sensitive data. As a matter of fact, the attacker is exploiting a subsequent clickjacking vulnerability on the same domain, which causes the publication of the personal information. I refer to this kind of attack chain as a "bridge" that allows the attacker to move sensitive data from being private to public, while remaining on the same domain. Then, the attacker can simply access the (now) public information to obtain the extracted data. It should be outlined that the technique requires two vulnerabilities: a web resources that is not protected by the X-Frame-Options (or uses a weak frame-busting code) and a site's functionality that is affected by clickjacking.

The following list summarizes a series of functionalities that could be abused to extract the sensitive data:

• Forum's post mechanism;
• "comment this item" functionalities;
• Public profile information updating function (or any "update function" that involves public available data - e.g. administrative functions that cause the updating of the web site's content);
• Messaging functionalities (e.g. from the victim to the attacker);

The proposed method has been successfully applied against Google Chrome version 23.0.1271.97, targeting the Amazon web application. Amazon exposes a series of web resources that include user's data - such as the name, e-mail address, mobile number and "address book" details - that are not protected with both X-Frame-Options header or any frame-busting mechanism. As an example, the following vulnerable URL includes Amazon's user first name, last name and e-mail address:

• https://www.amazon.com/gp/css/account/info/view.html?ie=UTF8&ref_=ya_20

A second issue on the comment function - our "bridge" - can be abused to publish the user's information as a comment for an Amazon item (e.g. a book), previously known by the attacker, and whose comments are "monitored". The following steps summarize the exploitation phases:

1. The exploit frames both the vulnerable URL and the comment form of a attacker-chosen Amazon's book;
2. The victim is triggered to drag his data and drop the information to the framed comment form;
3. A clickjacking attack is then performed against the "Post" mechanism, in order to publish the dropped data;
4. At that point the attacker can access all personal details by simply visualizing the submitted comment of the Amazon's item.

The exploit code can be download here, while the following is a video of the described attack:

See Video:

See Video:

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iPad Grant Proposal

iPad Grant Proposal - for the record

by Jenni Swanson Voorhees, sfsipads.blogspot.com
April 10th 2011
I thought it might be useful to share the proposal I wrote for the iPad grant for next year. Sometimes is helps to have language to work with if you are doing this yourself...

Enriching the Kindergarten Program with Technology – iPads as Educational Tools
Technology Innovation Grant

Description of Project

Use iPads to create collaborative small group activities in Kindergarten that engage three learning modalities: visual, auditory and kinesthetic.

The learning styles and needs of young children require tactile, visual, and auditory experiences. Young children need practice and repetition with the many concepts that are part of pre-reading and early math learning. Kindergarteners gain from working together, guided by a teacher, and yet they also need the leeway to work at their own individual speed and developing skill level. Based on the experiences of educators in this country and around the world, we would like to implement iPads as a learning device that can provide unique and rich learning experiences for this age group.

Use seamless technology that is a manageable size and involves minimal distractions.

The intuitive quality of the iPad, with its manageable size and touch screen operation, makes it a tool that students learn to use quickly and easily. This allows teachers and students to focus on content and activities, rather than on the technology. An iPad starts up in approximately thirty seconds, has an eight hour battery life, and is lightweight enough for a small child to handle it. This makes it an easy tool to work with throughout the school day without frustration or failure.

Purchase a set of 10 student iPads and 6 teacher iPads for this pilot program.

We propose to purchase 16 iPads along with relevant educational applications. This will provide a set of ten iPads to share between the two Kindergarten classrooms for student use. Along with the ten iPads for classroom use, we are including one for Jenni Voorhees, the Lower School Technology Director, as Administrator of the project, and one for Merry Adelfio, the Lower School Math Coordinator, to use to develop math curricular activities throughout the school year, and one for each of the four Kindergarten Teachers.

Use the summer to train teachers and plan the integration of iPads in the current Kindergarten curriculum.

During the summer, the four Kindergarten teachers will work with Jenni Voorhees, the LS Technology Director, and Merry Adelfio, the LS Math Coordinator, to explore the applications currently made for this age group, learn from schools currently implementing iPads, and design a curriculum plan to integrate iPads for small group work beginning in the fall of 2011.

Curricular Context and Rationale

We propose to follow the lead of many schools in this country and around the world that are effectively using iPads as tools for learning in early elementary programs. Until now, SFS kindergarteners only have access to technology through their teacher’s use of digital cameras and the classroom SmartBoards. The iPad offers an opportunity to enhance our students’ learning with the direct and effective use of an easy to use and highly interactive technology tool. Although iPads are relatively new to schools, there are many examples of successful integration of iPads in elementary grades. Please see the list of resources below and at the end of this proposal.

The iPad as a Learning Tool

Students will be able to work in multiple modalities (tactile, visual, and auditory) that will motivate them to practice new concepts and enhance their ability to share their thinking and learning. The applications written for this age group include immediate feedback that motivates either correcting mistakes or moving forward to new challenges.

Here are just a few examples of ways in which the current curricular goals in Kindergarten can be individualized, met and enhanced with the use of the iPad.:

· Early literacy experiences with sound-symbol connections and recognition

· Shaping letters and numbers in the correct form:

· Voice recording capabilities to facilitate storytelling, creating class-made audio books in the reading corner, and sharing a student’s thinking about a project or drawing.

· Drawing programs with a wide range of tools that can be managed with a fingertip

· Early reading experiences with books or with phonics:

· Math concepts presented with immediate feedback, and appropriate expectations (This video provides an overview of a variety of appropriate applications)

In addition, teachers will be able to develop a digital portfolio of student work to share with parents, creating a clearer and more comprehensive view of the child and his/her progress in school.

The iPad as Age-Appropriate Technology

The iPad’s design enables collaborative group experiences because as a slate, it has a more open format than a laptop. It is also light and, with only one navigation button, it is less complicated for younger children to manage. The tactile experience of touching the screen directly with a finger is age appropriate for younger children and eliminates the confusion of using a mouse or a keyboard.

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BBC News - Blackberry users complain of fresh crash

Blackberry users complain of fresh crash

by Rory Cellan-Jones, bbc.co.uk
October 11th 2011

Blackberry users have complained of a fresh crash hours after the company which makes the smartphones, RIM, said all services were "operating normally".

On Twitter angry users reported renewed issues with their handsets and an inability to send messages and email.

The initial blackout saw Blackberry services across Europe, the Middle East and Africa disrupted - but that has now spread to Latin America.

RIM said the problems were caused by core and back-up switch failures.

One tweeter summed up the mood of many: "Blackberry server down AGAIN?!!! you have got to be kidding me!!!!!"

'Data backlog'

Many called on the phone firm to "sort out" the problems and get the network running again.

RIM acknowledged it was still experiencing problems and apologised for the inconvenience.

"The messaging and browsing delays... in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, India, Brazil, Chile and Argentina were caused by a core switch failure within RIM's infrastructure," a company statement said.

"Although the system is designed to failover to a back-up switch, the failover did not function as previously tested.

"As a result, a large backlog of data was generated and we are now working to clear that backlog and restore normal service as quickly as possible."

The crash comes only a few hours after RIM had issued a statement which said all services were now "operating normally".

That blackout left millions of users without email, web browsing and Blackberry Messaging (BBM) services following the crash around 11:00 BST on 10 October.

The cause is believed to be due to server problems at RIM's Slough data centre.

Blackberry users around the world began reporting problems with their handsets mid-morning on 10 October and at 14:42 BST, Blackberry UK sent out a tweet which said: "Some users in EMEA are experiencing issues."

The "issues" left many Blackberry owners only able to text and make calls.

'Harsh criticism'

Many corporate customers said they had not lost service, suggesting that the problem was with Blackberry's BIS consumer systems, rather than its BES enterprise systems.

"Blackberry runs two infrastructures," explained Simon Butler, a Microsoft Exchange consultant at Sembee.

"The understanding I have is that the BIS service has crashed.

"The business side runs on a different set of servers, although enterprise Blackberrys can still use messenger and the consumer services, so they are also affected," said Mr Butler.

Such a major failure will still come as unwelcome news to Blackberry's owner RIM, which has been losing market share to smartphone rivals - in particular Apple's iPhone.

Many corporate clients have switched to the device after Apple made a concerted effort to improve its support for secure business email systems.

Malik Saadi, principal analyst at Informa Telecoms & Media, said RIM would have to resolve the problem quickly.

"The current situation with the Blackberry outages couldn't come at a worse time for RIM, following some harsh criticism in recent months," he said.

Such crashes may lead RIM and others to "re-evaluate their reliance on centralised servers and instead look to investing in more corporately controlled servers", he added.

But he thinks customers will stick with the firm despite current frustrations.

"It will take more than just a couple of collapses to persuade loyal consumers of Blackberry services to look for alternatives," he said.

Many of those complaining about the crash said on Twitter that they could not live without access to BBM.

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All the Ways BlackBerry Is Pushing Itself Towards Extinction - Technology - The Atlantic Wire

All the Ways BlackBerry Is Pushing Itself Towards Extinction

theatlanticwire.com | Oct 12th 2011

At first we felt bad for BlackBerry, as it ceded its smartphone crown to Apple and faded into smartphone oblivion. But BlackBerry just can't get it together. For the third day in a row BlackBerry service is down, reports Reuters's Georgina Prodhan. "Millions of BlackBerry users around the world were left without text communication services for a third day on Wednesday as Research in Motion struggled to fix what it said was a switching failure in its private network." Just as things started looking up with the sour reaction to the iPhone 4S and all, for a tiny moment it looked like manufacturer Research in Motion had a moment to make things better. But, nope. Good ole BlackBerry disappoints again, potentially pissing off more people than ever. Let's count all the ways BlackBerry is pushing itself towards extinction.

It hasn't released a winning phone in years.

BlackBerry can't control Apple's offerings. But just because the iPhone rules, doesn't mean Research in Motion can't get with the times. In August BlackBerry announced a line of shiny new phones. They didn't impress. Once ahead of the curve, the updated Bold and Torch lines played catch up--nothing to impress. Then, when the company tried to get with the times, launching a music service, that also flopped.

Now its phones have bad service, to boot.

Starting Sunday, BlackBerry Messenger has been experiencing failures that the company can't seem to fix. As service faded in and out BlackBerry claimed that it has solved the problem, only to crash again reports The BBC. "The crash comes only a few hours after RIM had issued a statement which said all services were now 'operating normally.'" Two strikes there: It can't get the message right. And the issue still isn't fixed.

And not only has BlackBerry pissed off the loyal customers who've stuck around even in the age of iPhone, but it potentially could lose its biggest fans with this slip-up, explains The New York Times's Ian Austen. "The failures also undermine a crucial distinction for BlackBerry. RIM operates a unique global data network, helping it to offer corporate and government customers high levels of security for their communications. For consumers, this network, when it functions properly, can bring improvements to Web browsing."

And then there's that whole employee maltreatment thing.

RIM is a horrible place to work, apparently. Not only is the company unstable--it layed off thousands of workers earlier this summer--but the ones it keeps around are miserable. At least according to anonymous employees, whose complaints Boy Genius Report posted earlier this summer. "While I hide it at work, my passion has been sapped. I know I am not alone — the sentiment is widespread," an anonymous worker wrote.

After three days of bad service RIM's stock is down 1.84 percent. Over six months, the stock is down 55 percent. And BlackBerry mostly has itself to blame.

Want to add to this story? Let us know in comments or send an email to the author at rgreenfield at theatlantic dot com. You can share ideas for stories on the Open Wire.

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