Yes. But, generally speaking, legality of such a thing is not a constant. As an example, it is illegal to walk up to a house at night and look into the window. However is it illegal to do the same using a powerful telescope, from a mile away? Is it illegal to do from 10 miles away? At what point does the viewing become legal?
You're implying they intended to eavesdrop. If they stayed motionless in an area for the express purpose of collecting data on the ground with the intent to collect information, then you have a point. Remember, these cars were always in motion snapping pictures. They were simply driving by and only heard small fractions of an overall conversation, and only on open access points with no security, without any facilitation of layer 6 or 7 encryption. It was a small minority of the overall traffic collected and only applied in certain circumstances and being at the right place at the right second. If they were collecting WiFi data from say, a blimp with a directional antenna then the eavesdropping range is increased exponentially and I can see your point. We're talking about stuff likely 50 feet away at best. Wifi radios in computers do not go very far, and only use as much power as needed to maintain a steady signal.
But it is obvious that you aren't supposed to be capturing someone else's WiFi data, especially if that data contains private information.
The whole premise of wardriving *is* capturing someone else's WiFi data and the entire design of Kismet relies on this, because it's the most efficient way to do it.
If I turn on my FRS or CB radio and can hear a conversation in plain english between other individuals in the vicinity, it's legal and ethical. In fact, I can even record it. Public wifi networks are no different - we've had warnings and dialogs on most OS'es for years indicating whether they are connecting to a non-encrypted and non-secure network.
If I turn on my wifi radio and can hear an unencrypted conversation with data flowing in plain text between two computers on the same network, it's now unethical? This is 2.4ghz ISM, it's fully legal and open to the public. This isn't some off-limits network communication like cellular frequencies, this isn't cracking encryption or proprietary protocols intended to prevent eavesdropping, this stuff is in the clear.
If the whole premise of being fired for "liking" something because the employer is saying it implied favorability or bias is ridiculous. "Liking" is the only way to follow Facebook page content, especialy since Facebook has appeared to have axed RSS syndication for Timeline. The First Amendment also protects the freedom of assocation, not just free speech, so I don't know whos to blame here. IIRC the lawyers are responsible for asking the questions, and it may be they picked the wrong argument (speech specifically) for the judge to interpret.
The FCC can fine people and corporations for using obscene language over the air, which technically violates the First Amendment. I think it may boil down to, "All your airwaves are belong to us."
That's presuming none of the scanning utilities that require root have any vulnerabilities in them. For example, there have been plenty of Wireshark dissectors that just by merely sniffing on a network can lead to compromise of the live distribution.
You're forgetting that it has the ability to mount local hard disks and write anything to them, gather hardware information, etc. This is significant because most individuals don't disconnect their hard drives when running it.
Or they are actively encouraging people to tamper with them. These things are not easy to tamper with and have everything from gyrometers and other gizmos that will set off alarms even before someone tries to mess with them.
Speaking strictly from an environmental standpoint, If they're bricked, they go straight in the trash can and into the landfills. A waste of precious materials and circuitry that could be recycled or reclaimed if the phone is recovered. Let's not pretend this technology doesn't exist. Between CarrierIQ, E911 and gps pings, it's not hard to recover it if the device is on.
Given electron microscopes are already used for data recovery of mission critical hard drives, it makes me wonder if this discovery has any effect on DOD drive wiping standards.
I'd recommend that people check out is Zeitgeist: Moving Forward. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w Unlike the earlier films, this focuses less on conspiracies and all on solid facts and reiterates many of the ideas in this book.
If only Harvard had prosecuted Zuckerberg when he hacked Kirkland House's online mailing lists to spam users with links to his Facemash service, Facebook might have never existed and this may have never happened at all.
I called Paypal and informed them I wanted to cancel my account. A guy asked why, and I said "Because of your company's treatment of Wikileaks". He puts me on hold to check my account, comes back 3 minutes later, and tells me my account has been cancelled, and that if I ever wish to become a customer again, I would have to submit a request in writing.
3 hours later, I could still log in to my account.
I called Paypal again and asked them what the deal was, and they said nobody had done anything to my account. I got the name of the representative I talked to, but that was the end of that. I fear I'm probably on a government watch list now just for mentioning wikileaks to them.
Has anyone else been able to log in to their account after Paypal claimed it was canceled?
Google is censoring this story from Google Reader's RSS syndication, as well as the original article from Wired's RSS feeds. It's also absent from Google News.
This goes way beyond prosecutors overstepping their authority. It's the over-broad laws and clueless legislators that give great interpretive power to prosecutors to charge someone with a crime. If you think this is crazy, take a look at Michigan's laws regarding computers. Our laws are so vague that you can literally get arrested for using a free public hotspot without buying something from the hotspot owner ( www.lawtechjournal.com/articles/2009/01_091026_nowicki.pdf). It's a matter of, "I don't like you or what you did, therefore I'm going to search every vague law for a possible way to charge you with a crime"
Having done some AT consulting, Windows 7 has some great features for the blind. The new built-in speech recognition is incredibly accurate and for people who can't see the screen or navigate using a mouse/keyboard find it to be a godsend. Why they couldn't do this for Windows Phone 7 doesn't make any sense.
I have a feeling that the machines on the classified network didn't have USB ports. From what I've read, Pfc Manning went into the secure area and carried with him CD-RW's that when he checked in and out, had Lady Gaga and other artists written on them. The machines had a writable CD-ROM drives in them, and the people overseeing security apparently allowed soldiers to listen to music CD's on the drives, as access to the public internet wasn't possible from the classified network. He even said he lip-synced to artists making it appear to those around him he was merely listening to music to not raise suspicion, all the while he was pulling database files and writing them to the CD's. That's how he got them out of a secure area. To add insult to injury, the machines had removable hard drives that were wiped and re-imaged each time upon checking in and out, so the evidence of what was on these hard drives were lost when he left.
If this were the case, the data captured would likely be of little to no use by anybody. Kismet constantly hops channels and whatever data is being sent in the clear on a specific channel for a fraction of a second will be dumped to a pcap file. At most you may expose the mac addresses of machines connected to the AP's network and little fragments of communication, but only for small fractions of a second.
Slashdot Mirror
...And Discovery wants to crash it!
Yes. But, generally speaking, legality of such a thing is not a constant. As an example, it is illegal to walk up to a house at night and look into the window. However is it illegal to do the same using a powerful telescope, from a mile away? Is it illegal to do from 10 miles away? At what point does the viewing become legal?
You're implying they intended to eavesdrop. If they stayed motionless in an area for the express purpose of collecting data on the ground with the intent to collect information, then you have a point. Remember, these cars were always in motion snapping pictures. They were simply driving by and only heard small fractions of an overall conversation, and only on open access points with no security, without any facilitation of layer 6 or 7 encryption. It was a small minority of the overall traffic collected and only applied in certain circumstances and being at the right place at the right second. If they were collecting WiFi data from say, a blimp with a directional antenna then the eavesdropping range is increased exponentially and I can see your point. We're talking about stuff likely 50 feet away at best. Wifi radios in computers do not go very far, and only use as much power as needed to maintain a steady signal.
But it is obvious that you aren't supposed to be capturing someone else's WiFi data, especially if that data contains private information.
The whole premise of wardriving *is* capturing someone else's WiFi data and the entire design of Kismet relies on this, because it's the most efficient way to do it.
If I turn on my FRS or CB radio and can hear a conversation in plain english between other individuals in the vicinity, it's legal and ethical. In fact, I can even record it. Public wifi networks are no different - we've had warnings and dialogs on most OS'es for years indicating whether they are connecting to a non-encrypted and non-secure network.
If I turn on my wifi radio and can hear an unencrypted conversation with data flowing in plain text between two computers on the same network, it's now unethical?
This is 2.4ghz ISM, it's fully legal and open to the public. This isn't some off-limits network communication like cellular frequencies, this isn't cracking encryption or proprietary protocols intended to prevent eavesdropping, this stuff is in the clear.
If the whole premise of being fired for "liking" something because the employer is saying it implied favorability or bias is ridiculous. "Liking" is the only way to follow Facebook page content, especialy since Facebook has appeared to have axed RSS syndication for Timeline. The First Amendment also protects the freedom of assocation, not just free speech, so I don't know whos to blame here. IIRC the lawyers are responsible for asking the questions, and it may be they picked the wrong argument (speech specifically) for the judge to interpret.
Yeah. Pot, meet Kettle.
Google just hired the former head of DARPA.
"Don't trust anyone but us!"
The FCC can fine people and corporations for using obscene language over the air, which technically violates the First Amendment.
I think it may boil down to, "All your airwaves are belong to us."
Please see my reply to the other responder to my parent post.
> Why is everyone taking about magnets and opening the meters to cheat the system. Didn't you read the article?
I did, but I watched a talk from an expert who secures these things for a living.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ePWfR6A4_o&t=12m39s
That's presuming none of the scanning utilities that require root have any vulnerabilities in them. For example, there have been plenty of Wireshark dissectors that just by merely sniffing on a network can lead to compromise of the live distribution.
You're forgetting that it has the ability to mount local hard disks and write anything to them, gather hardware information, etc.
This is significant because most individuals don't disconnect their hard drives when running it.
Or they are actively encouraging people to tamper with them. These things are not easy to tamper with and have everything from gyrometers and other gizmos that will set off alarms even before someone tries to mess with them.
There was a talk about this on SmartMeters at GRRCon: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ePWfR6A4_o
Speaking strictly from an environmental standpoint, If they're bricked, they go straight in the trash can and into the landfills. A waste of precious materials and circuitry that could be recycled or reclaimed if the phone is recovered. Let's not pretend this technology doesn't exist. Between CarrierIQ, E911 and gps pings, it's not hard to recover it if the device is on.
Given electron microscopes are already used for data recovery of mission critical hard drives, it makes me wonder if this discovery has any effect on DOD drive wiping standards.
I'd recommend that people check out is Zeitgeist: Moving Forward. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z9WVZddH9w
Unlike the earlier films, this focuses less on conspiracies and all on solid facts and reiterates many of the ideas in this book.
If only Harvard had prosecuted Zuckerberg when he hacked Kirkland House's online mailing lists to spam users with links to his Facemash service, Facebook might have never existed and this may have never happened at all.
Except he was a white guy who played an indian....
Hopefully this is the end of SSH as we know it in Pakistan. Re enable telnet on all those routers and servers, like it's 1996!
I called Paypal and informed them I wanted to cancel my account. A guy asked why, and I said "Because of your company's treatment of Wikileaks".
He puts me on hold to check my account, comes back 3 minutes later, and tells me my account has been cancelled, and that if I ever wish to become a customer again, I would have to submit a request in writing.
3 hours later, I could still log in to my account.
I called Paypal again and asked them what the deal was, and they said nobody had done anything to my account. I got the name of the representative I talked to, but that was the end of that. I fear I'm probably on a government watch list now just for mentioning wikileaks to them.
Has anyone else been able to log in to their account after Paypal claimed it was canceled?
Google is censoring this story from Google Reader's RSS syndication, as well as the original article from Wired's RSS feeds.
It's also absent from Google News.
Look for yourself. It doesn't exist.
Visa, Mastercard, and Paypal all have suspended payments to Wikileaks, and all would love to be the middle-man between your transactions.
Just wait until you no longer have a choice in the matter.
That's not insulting enough.
I'll bet they were IPv6 addresses AND in the fe80:: block!
This goes way beyond prosecutors overstepping their authority. It's the over-broad laws and clueless legislators that give great interpretive power to prosecutors to charge someone with a crime. If you think this is crazy, take a look at Michigan's laws regarding computers. Our laws are so vague that you can literally get arrested for using a free public hotspot without buying something from the hotspot owner ( www.lawtechjournal.com/articles/2009/01_091026_nowicki.pdf). It's a matter of, "I don't like you or what you did, therefore I'm going to search every vague law for a possible way to charge you with a crime"
Having done some AT consulting, Windows 7 has some great features for the blind. The new built-in speech recognition is incredibly accurate and for people who can't see the screen or navigate using a mouse/keyboard find it to be a godsend. Why they couldn't do this for Windows Phone 7 doesn't make any sense.
I have a feeling that the machines on the classified network didn't have USB ports.
From what I've read, Pfc Manning went into the secure area and carried with him CD-RW's that when he checked in and out, had Lady Gaga and other artists written on them. The machines had a writable CD-ROM drives in them, and the people overseeing security apparently allowed soldiers to listen to music CD's on the drives, as access to the public internet wasn't possible from the classified network. He even said he lip-synced to artists making it appear to those around him he was merely listening to music to not raise suspicion, all the while he was pulling database files and writing them to the CD's. That's how he got them out of a secure area. To add insult to injury, the machines had removable hard drives that were wiped and re-imaged each time upon checking in and out, so the evidence of what was on these hard drives were lost when he left.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Typing_of_the_Dead
This was a game that I still cherish today - probably the best typing game out there.
If this were the case, the data captured would likely be of little to no use by anybody. Kismet constantly hops channels and whatever data is being sent in the clear on a specific channel for a fraction of a second will be dumped to a pcap file. At most you may expose the mac addresses of machines connected to the AP's network and little fragments of communication, but only for small fractions of a second.