As cellular data services and applications are being widely deployed, they become attractive targets for attackers, who could exploit unique vulnerabilities in cellular networks, mobile devices, and the interaction between cellular data networks and the Internet.

In this paper, we demonstrate such an attack, which surreptitiously drains mobile devices’ battery power up to 22 times faster and therefore could render these devices useless before the end of business hours.

This attack targets a unique resource bottleneck in mobile devices (the battery power) by exploiting an insecure cellular data service (MMS) and the insecure interaction between cellular data networks and the Internet (PDP context retention and the paging channel).

The attack proceeds in two stages. In the first stage, the attacker compiles a hit list of mobile devices — including their cellular numbers, IP addresses, and model information — by exploiting MMS notification messages. In the second stage, the attacker drains mobile devices’ battery power by sending periodical UDP packets and exploiting PDP context retention and the paging channel.

This attack is unique not only because it exploits vulnerable cellular services to target mobile devices but also because the victim mobile users are unaware when their batteries are being drained. Furthermore, we identify two key vulnerable components in cellular networks and propose mitigation strategies for protecting cellular devices from such attacks from the Internet.

Exploiting MMS Vulnerabilities to Stealthily Exhaust Mobile Phone's Battery

The defining conflict of the late 20th century, the Cold War, was all about technology. The emerging conflict against extremist terror may or may not have much to do with technology.

In the developed countries that the extremists are doing their best to terrorize, officials have launched research programs that will in coming years help determine how much of a role advanced technology can have in this struggle. In this three-part report, we consider that very issue from several different angles.

... programmers are writing computer simulations that attempt to model the minds, behavior, and networks of militiamen and terrorists ...

... nine ­terrorist-attack scenarios ...

Spending large sums on counterterrorism is illogical.

Perhaps we should establish a Department of Homeland Vulnerability to publicize our juiciest targets and call for legislation that would make them less attractive.

Terror: What's Next

The safety of America depends on the outcome of the battle in the streets of Baghdad.

Also:

Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said the number of American military personnel killed in Afghanistan and Iraq, at roughly 3,000, was approaching the number of people killed in the attacks.

Back to the President:

America looks to the day when the people of the Middle East leave the desert of despotism for the fertile gardens of liberty, and resume their rightful place in a world of peace and prosperity.

Holy Shit. Did he just say that?

The Children of Israel were in the Sinai Desert for forty years. At the end of the forty years, Moses and most of that generation passed away. Joshua the son of Nun was now the leader, and he took them into the land of Canaan and took back the land from the descendants of Ham. They renamed the land "Israel."

President's 9/11 Address to the Nation

Travel during the Thanksgiving holiday may be the central event in determining the rapidity of transmission. This effect was particularly pronounced after the Sept. 11 attacks, when a temporary flight ban was instituted in the United States and airline travel volume was lower than in any other season from 1996 to 2005.

Who would have thought?

Thanks
Thanks a lot
...

Speed of the Spread of Flu Is Linked to Airline Travel

Big Blue on Tuesday plans to unveil its IBM System Storage TS1120, designed to store and encrypt data on tape drives.

In other news: fast on the footsteps of a recent acquisition, IBM announces a new Punchcard Integrated Security System, making IBM punchcards among the safest of ways to store small amounts of data in large, climate-controlled warehouses.

IBM debuts encrypting tape drive

With a Little Stealth, Just About Anyone Can Get Phone Records

It is not clear how widespread pretexting is, but its perpetrators appear to be mostly private investigators, seeking information for clients involved in divorces or other civil disputes. Hewlett-Packard used investigators to try to ferret out which company directors had leaked information to reporters.

Walt Sharp, a spokesman for AT&T, said AT&T determined that over the last year, records of some 2,500 customers could have been compromised.

HP memo: We will take the necessary action

On Friday, Mark Hurd, president and CEO of Hewlett-Packard and a member of its board of directors, sent the following memo to the company's employees. The memo stresses that leaking information to the media is a problem that must and will be resolved.

Oh, the irony.

HP probe snared a third News.com reporter

An HP spokesman said reporter Stephen Shankland's records were targeted by a subcontractor working for a private investigator hired by the company. Shankland was a contributing reporter on a Jan. 23 article about a long-term board planning session that apparently angered HP Chairman Patricia Dunn, who launched the investigation.

The co-authors of that Jan. 23 News.com article, Dawn Kawamoto and Tom Krazit, were told Thursday by the California attorney general's office that their phone records were also accessed using a controversial method called "pretexting," where someone poses as a telephone subscriber to gain access to that subscriber's records.

The personal phone records of six other reporters, including Pui-Wing Tam and George Anders of The Wall Street Journal and John Markoff of The New York Times, were also targeted by HP's investigators. Friday afternoon, BusinessWeek reported on its Web site that the phone records of three of its reporters, Peter Burrows, Ben Elgin and Roger Crockett, were also targeted.

Also on Friday, Dunn apologized to Kawamoto and Krazit, and said she first learned two days earlier that reporters' records were pretexted. Nonetheless, Dunn still defended the need for HP's investigation.

H.P. Chairwoman Aims Not to Be the Scapegoat

At a board meeting on Sunday, the underlying theme is whether Patricia Dunn should remain as chairwoman. Dunn is the daughter of a vaudeville actor and a Las Vegas showgirl.

"This is not a job I asked for or a job that I particularly wanted," she said.

That sounds a lot like a taunt. She seems to be telling the board, I beg you to fire me!

Ms. Dunn said Friday that she felt that a personal dispute was at the center of the storm. "Tom is a powerful man with friends in powerful places," she said. "This brouhaha is the result of his anger toward me. He is winning the p.r. war."

"He was the most hawkish member of the board for finding the leaker," she added. "He wanted us to bring in lie detectors."

And fire him, too, while you're at it! I can't stand him!

Virginia Heffernan is blogging about lonelygirl15.

A revelation on the official lonelygirl15 forum, believed to be credible. Credible, but coy. The lonelygirl15 street is restive. Not surprising.

A Message From The Creators

To Our Incredible Fans,

Right now, the biggest mystery of Lonelygirl15 is “who is she?” We think this is an oversimplification. Lonelygirl15 is a reflection of everyone. She is no more real or fictitious than the portions of our personalities that we choose to show (or hide) when we interact with the people around us.

This strategy seems much more subversive than Blair Witch.

Screens | Virginia Heffernan's Blog at NYT

Even the most basic digital camera stores the date and time a photo was taken. Now the Sony GPS-CS1 gives photographers a way to record where they took their snapshots as well. Unlike some other devices that help with geotagging, as the process is known, Sony’s device is independent of the camera and has a clip for hanging it on a backpack or belt loop.

When switched on, the device automatically saves the G.P.S. coordinates of the photographer’s wanderings for up to 14 hours. Back at a computer, software supplied with the unit matches up the G.P.S. data with downloaded photos by using their date and time data. A separate piece of software can then plot the location of a photo shoot using Google Maps.

No Need to Take Kilroy at His Word; Now Get Photographic Proof

Last summer, scientists figured out how cats long ago in the course of evolution lost the ability to detect sweetness. Dogs can taste sweet things, as can many other mammals, like rodents. But neither alley cats nor lions have a sweet tooth.

Dogs May Laugh, but Only Cats Get the Joke

Mr. Golden's book is the season’s barnburner because it cites specific donations, test scores and even essay topics that are linked to questionably qualified applicants. Their names are named.

Mr. Golden’s dishy, mean-spirited book delivers a mixed message: that although prominent institutions select students unfairly, applicants should still be fighting their ways into these same unscrupulous colleges.

Big expectations warp young prodigies. Some children who participated in IQ testing were randomly told they were gifted. That reduced both their ability to work persistently and their capacity for enjoyment.

Books About Education, Higher and Lower