31 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
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The Telecom Digest for November 7, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 260 : "text" Format
====== 31 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======
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Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the
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See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details
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Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2012 08:45:11 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Risky business: New Jersey to allow e-mail voting in storm's wake
Message-ID: <p06240879ccbeb54ef810@[10.0.1.11]>
Risky business: New Jersey to allow e-mail voting in storm's wake
Any Internet or e-mail voting scheme is prone to hacking, experts warn.
by Timothy B. Lee
Nov 5 2012
Ars Technica
http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2012/11/risky-business-new-jersey-to-allow-e-mail-voting-in-storms-wake/
-or-
http://goo.gl/YGswB
Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2012 09:18:52 -0500
From: Bill Horne <bill@horneQRM.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Internet Voting in the U.S.
Message-ID: <k7b68d$2pg$1@dont-email.me>
On 11/5/2012 6:01 PM, John Levine wrote:
>> Telecom Digest Moderator wrote:
>>> When the authors say "no email program in widespread use today
>>> provides direct support for encrypted email", I think they're
>>> wrong. ...
>
> Outlook and Outlook Express support S/MIME, but I would estimate that
> 0.001% of users actually have a certificate configured, so in practice
> the other 99.999% don't do encrypted mail.
You're right, of course, but the authors of the ACM paper said that
there's no "Direct support for encrypted email", and that's a different
thing. I don't know if they were simply misinformed, or if they consider
"direct support" to be something other than what is available, but I
think the paper is inaccurate on this point.
Bill, who has to go choose between the Neanderthal and the Cro-Magnon
candidates for office.
--
Bill Horne
(Remove QRM from my address to write to me directly)
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2012 08:45:11 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: A Fort Knox for Web crypto keys: Inside Symantec's SSL certificate vault
Message-ID: <p0624087bccbeb5e41b39@[10.0.1.11]>
A Fort Knox for Web crypto keys: Inside Symantec's SSL certificate vault
Storing the keys at the heart of encrypted Web communications is no
simple task.
by Dan Goodin
Nov 5 2012
Ars Technica
http://arstechnica.com/security/2012/11/inside-symantecs-ssl-certificate-vault/
***** Moderator's Note *****
Back when PKI was supposed to solve all the Internet's problems, I
went to the trouble of becoming a Thawte Notary, which entitled me to
charge a fee for affirming the identities of those applying for
digital identity certificates. I think I certified three people in the
years the program was active: Thawte was eventually absorbed (by
Verisign, IIRC) and the program terminated.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Tue, 6 Nov 2012 08:45:11 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Wi-Fi chips in phones, tablets, vulnerable to DoS attack
Message-ID: <p0624087cccbeb6653980@[10.0.1.11]>
Wi-Fi chips in phones, tablets, vulnerable to DoS attack
Summary: A vulnerability discovered in two Wi-Fi chipsets has placed a number of wireless devices at risk of a denial-of-service attack.
By Michael Lee
October 25, 2012
ZDNet
http://www.zdnet.com/wi-fi-chips-in-phones-tablets-vulnerable-to-dos-attack-7000006352/
***** Moderator's Note *****
All anyone has to do to conduct a DDOS attack on an 802.11N network is
pick up a 2.4GHz corless phone and dial a number. It's a radio signal,
after all, and radios can be jammed.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: 6 Nov 2012 16:00:57 -0500
From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: When Hacking Was in Its Infancy
Message-ID: <k7btq9$od0$1@panix2.panix.com>
>If kids in high school were "breaking into master accounts" in 1970,
>I'd like to see the news reports and/or court records that show
>it. These vague claims don't cut it.
>
>Bill Horne
>Moderator
I refuse to answer on the grounds that it may incriminate me, but suffice
it to say that things like password protection, proper disposal of printouts
and the like were once uncommon.
There was a day when people's passwords would be echoed back on the teletype
when they entered them, and their session would be printed out and left in
the terminal room. Or it would be printed on their JOB card which was left
unattended on the top of their deck in a bin. Or someone would call up a
remote computer which did not have proper modem control, to discover
themselves in the middle of someone else's existing session. Or they would
notice that at a particular site the default password for any account was
the account name spelled backwards and that the default passwords that came
with the OS were still set so OPERATOR/OPERATOR got you a prompt.
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
Date: 6 Nov 2012 16:01:39 -0500
From: kludge@panix.com (Scott Dorsey)
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: When Hacking Was in Its Infancy
Message-ID: <k7btrj$mjv$1@panix2.panix.com>
HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org> wrote:
>
>A year or so later the school district got an HP-2000 machine for
>BASIC timesharing which was supposedly hacker proof since chief
>executive functions were performed only by the computer's console, not
>by any account. However, the kids discovered a glitch in the software
>in which they could cause the computer to crash and shut down, and
>crashed it from time to time. The school district was not amused
>because service was disrupted. The kids were caught and punished, but
>again it was handled internally.
Let me guess, it was running MONTANA BASIC....
--scott
--
"C'est un Nagra. C'est suisse, et tres, tres precis."
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