31 Years of the Digest ... founded August 21, 1981
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The Telecom Digest for November 27, 2012
Volume 31 : Issue 278 : "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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Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2012 09:42:24 -0500
From: Pete Cresswell <PeteCress@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Why passwords have never been weaker-and crackers have never been stronger
Message-ID: <mtv6b8h6lf7s8d3lrshtut28ohrl3i44ja@4ax.com>
Per Monty Solomon:
>The ancient art of password cracking has advanced further in the past
>five years than it did in the previous several decades combined.
Can anybody comment on the specifics/methodology of this
improvement?
- -
Pete Cresswell
***** Moderator's Note *****
It has become easier to "crack" passwords by guessing them: samples of
passwords entered by users show that user are prone to using the names
of relatives, pets, or objects in their immediate vicinity when they
have to enter a new password. Common substitutions, such as using
"leet speek", a patois once popular with the online hacking community,
are also included in the lists used for "dictionary" attacks.
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2012 09:05:27 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: So You're a Good Driver? Let's Go to the Monitor
Message-ID: <p062408feccd92752b54f@[10.0.1.10]>
So You're a Good Driver? Let's Go to the Monitor
By RANDALL STROSS
November 24, 2012
LAST week, under my car's dashboard, I installed a small wireless
gadget that would monitor my driving. I wanted to see how it felt to
have my driving behavior captured, sent to an insurance company and
analyzed. More drivers, seeking discounts on auto insurance, are
voluntarily doing just that.
Insurers are offering these discounts as they aim to abandon the
crude proxies they have long used to guess the likelihood that a
particular policyholder will have an accident. These have included
age, sex, marital status, miles driven (as reported by the driver) -
and even credit scores, which can penalize those guilty of driving
while poor.
Driving data is collected with a device that policyholders must be
persuaded to install; it connects to the car's computer system via a
diagnostic port found in all cars since 1996. Such "user-based
insurance," the name for individualized pricing based on data
collected from a vehicle, is spreading. Drivewise from Allstate is in
10 states; Drive Safe and Save, from State Farm, is in 16, with 11
more to be added next month; and Snapshot, from Progressive, is in 43.
Progressive was the first in the field, in 1998, when it started
offering Houston customers a device that had to be professionally
installed. Six years later, it introduced a device in three states
that could be plugged in by the customer, but had to be unplugged at
regular intervals and connected to a PC to upload the data. Wireless
transmission came next.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/business/seeking-cheaper-insurance-drivers-accept-monitoring-devices.html
***** Moderator's Note *****
Would it affect my rates if an insurance company figured out that I
was stopping at the V.F.w. for a drink on my way home from work? come
to think of it, Route 128 (the arterial road around boston, sometimes
called "I-95" by Barneys) has a 55 MPH speed limit posted, but I'd get
run over if I didn't do at least 65. Is that a significant risk?
If I was elected to the Legilature, would I want it known that I
wasn't at the statehouse most of the time? Would I want it known that
I didn't have a transponder? I wonder what having a mistress would do
to my rates: could someone influence my votes by offering to disclose
where I was on a particular date at a particular time?
Bill Horne
Moderator
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2012 09:09:37 -0500
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Courts Divided Over Searches of Cellphones
Message-ID: <p062408ffccd92815e31e@[10.0.1.10]>
Courts Divided Over Searches of Cellphones
By SOMINI SENGUPTA
November 25, 2012
Judges and lawmakers across the country are wrangling over whether
and when law enforcement authorities can peer into suspects'
cellphones, and the cornucopia of evidence they provide.
A Rhode Island judge threw out cellphone evidence that led to a man
being charged with the murder of a 6-year-old boy, saying the police
needed a search warrant. A court in Washington compared text messages
to voice mail messages that can be overheard by anyone in a room and
are therefore not protected by state privacy laws.
In Louisiana, a federal appeals court is weighing whether location
records stored in smartphones deserve privacy protection, or whether
they are "business records" that belong to the phone companies.
...
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/26/technology/legality-of-warrantless-cellphone-searches-goes-to-courts-and-legislatures.html
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