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The Telecom Digest for April 9, 2014
Volume 33 : Issue 52 : "text" Format
Messages in this Issue:
Professors: Aereo Is Healthy Response to Dysfunctional System (Monty Solomon)
Re: Fred Goldstein is the new moderator (Dave Garland)
Re: Fred Goldstein is the new moderator (tlvp)
Heartbleed: Serious OpenSSL zero day vulnerability revealed (Monty Solomon)
Critical crypto bug in OpenSSL opens two-thirds of the Web to eavesdropping (Monty Solomon)
Editorial calls for ban on all phoning when driving in NJ (HAncock4)
5-year-old Ocean Beach boy exposes Microsoft Xbox vulnerability (Monty Solomon)

====== 32 years of TELECOM Digest -- Founded August 21, 1981 ======

Telecom and VOIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) Digest for the Internet. All contents here are copyrighted by Bill Horne and the individual writers/correspondents. Articles may be used in other journals or newsgroups, provided the writer's name and the Digest are included in the fair use quote. By using any name or email address included herein for any reason other than responding to an article herein, you agree to pay a hundred dollars to that person, or email address owner.
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We must fight spam for the same reason we fight crime: not because we are naive enough to believe that we will ever stamp it out, but because we do not want the kind of world that results when no one stands against crime.  - Geoffrey Welsh

See the bottom of this issue for subscription and archive details and the name of our lawyer, and other stuff of interest. 




Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2014 23:50:13 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Professors: Aereo Is Healthy Response to Dysfunctional System
Message-ID: <p06240809cf69222f5051@[10.0.1.11]>

Professors: Aereo Is Healthy Response to Dysfunctional System

Argue broadcasters have obligation to prioritize wide dissemination 
above copyright fees

4/03/2014
By: John Eggerton
Broadcasting & Cable

Aereo definitely has friends in a trio of law professors who weighed 
in on its side with the Supreme Court this week.

In their amicus brief, the professors called Aereo a "healthy 
free-market response to a dysfunctional and anticompetitive 
television distribution system that raises prices, reduces output, 
and denies consumers meaningful choice."

They say broadcasters have a responsibility to support the wide 
dissemination by Aereo of their free TV signals, a responsibility 
given their spectrum grants that trumps the pursuit of copyright 
payments.

...

http://broadcastingcable.com/news/washington/professors-aereo-healthy-response-dysfunctional-system/130244




Date: Mon, 07 Apr 2014 23:27:39 -0500
From: Dave Garland <dave.garland@wizinfo.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Fred Goldstein is the new moderator 
Message-ID: <lhvts2$3d5$1@dont-email.me>

On 4/7/2014 4:51 PM, Telecom Digest Moderator wrote:
> If you were one of those who volunteered, please accept my heartfelt
> thanks, both for your willingness to help, and for stepping up on 
> short notice to take on this difficult work.
> 
> After careful consideration, I've made the choice: Fred Goldstein has
> accepted my request to take over as the moderator while I'm on
> hiatus. 

Thanks, Bill, for all the great work you've done.

And thanks, Fred, for being willing and able to serve while Bill is gone.

And thanks to everyone else who volunteered.

Dave




Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2014 20:40:10 -0400
From: tlvp <mPiOsUcB.EtLlLvEp@att.net>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Re: Fred Goldstein is the new moderator 
Message-ID: <1dew91ks16hxm$.w999sibrnokh$.dlg@40tude.net>

On Mon, 7 Apr 2014 17:51:02 -0400, Telecom Digest Moderator wrote:

> ... Fred Goldstein has accepted my request to take over as the moderator ...
> ... for an indefinite time ...

Will the email address telecomdigestsubmissions at telecom-digest.org
still work for [Telecom Digest] submissions in your absence?

- - 
Thanks! - tlvp

***** Moderator's Note *****

Yes, it will. 

That address is for submissions made by email, and is mostly used by
those who receive the "Digest" version of our publication via email or
who read it on our web site. (Readers who subscribe to the Digest's
email edition might see a different address in the "Reply-To"
headers they receive: if it works, don't change it.)

Those whom submit to comp.dcom.telecom (via Usenet news readers or
Gugle/Yehoo Groups), which is the Digest's "Usenet" location, need not
concern themselves with this, since the nntp servers handle it
automagically.

In case anyone was wondering, all posts go to both places: you can
read the Digest on Usenet, or by subscribing to the email
version. It's the same content either way, although email subscribers
do find themselves looking better and exhibiting more confidence.

Bill Horne
Moderator




Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2014 23:18:51 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Heartbleed: Serious OpenSSL zero day vulnerability revealed
Message-ID: <p06240805cf691a1b6b82@[10.0.1.11]>

Heartbleed: Serious OpenSSL zero day vulnerability revealed

Summary: A new OpenSSL vulnerability has shown up and some companies 
are annoyed that the bug was revealed before patches could be 
delivered for it.

By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols
April 7, 2014

New security holes are always showing up. The latest one, the 
so-called Heartbleed Bug in the OpenSSL cryptographic library, is an 
especially bad one.

While Heartbleed only effects OpenSSL's 1.0.1 and the 1.0.2-beta 
release, 1.01 is already broadly deployed. Since Secure-Socket Layer 
(SSL) and Transport Layer Security (TLS) are at the heart of Internet 
security, this security hole is serious.

The flaw can potentially be used to reveal not just the contents of a 
secured-message, such as a credit-card transaction over HTTPS, but 
the primary and secondary SSL keys themselves. This data could then, 
in theory, be used as a skeleton keys to bypass secure servers 
without leaving a trace that a site had been hacked.

This bug [is] not a problem with OpenSSL's inherent design. It's an
implementation problem. That is to say, it [is] the result of a
programming mistake. There is already a fix available for the problem
for the 1.01 program in OpenSSL 1.0.1g. Work is proceeding rapidly for
a [re]pair of the 1.02-beta line.

...

http://www.zdnet.com/heartbleed-serious-openssl-zero-day-vulnerability-revealed-7000028166/




Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2014 00:06:16 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Critical crypto bug in OpenSSL opens two-thirds of the Web to  eavesdropping
Message-ID: <p0624080fcf6925f83349@[10.0.1.11]>

Critical crypto bug in OpenSSL opens two-thirds of the Web to eavesdropping
Exploits allow attackers to obtain private keys used to decrypt sensitive data.

by Dan Goodin
Apr 7 2014

Researchers have discovered an extremely critical defect in the 
cryptographic software library an estimated two-thirds of Web servers 
use to identify themselves to end users and prevent the eavesdropping 
of passwords, banking credentials, and other sensitive data.

The warning about the bug in OpenSSL coincided with the release of 
version 1.0.1g of the open-source program, which is the default 
cryptographic library used in the Apache and nginx Web server 
applications, as well as a wide variety of operating systems and 
e-mail and instant-messaging clients. The bug, which has resided in 
production versions of OpenSSL for more than two years, could make it 
possible for people to recover the private encryption key at the 
heart of the digital certificates used to authenticate Internet 
servers and to encrypt data traveling between them and end users. 
Attacks leave no traces in server logs, so there's no way of knowing 
if the bug has been actively exploited. Still, the risk is 
extraordinary, given the ability to disclose keys, passwords, and 
other credentials that could be used in future compromises.

...

http://arstechnica.com/security/2014/04/critical-crypto-bug-in-openssl-opens-two-thirds-of-the-web-to-eavesdropping/




Date: Tue, 8 Apr 2014 10:03:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: HAncock4 <withheld@invalid.telecom-digest.org>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: Editorial calls for ban on all phoning when driving in NJ   
Message-ID: <a257d059-47d7-4e29-b18a-7c1f03768ff8@googlegroups.com>

The editorial board of the Newark Star Ledger (NJ) is calling for "stronger legislation that bans all cell phone use while driving -- even hands-free -- and backs it up with penalties as strict as those for DWI."

full article at:

http://www.nj.com/opinion/index.ssf/2014/04/nj_needs_a_total_ban_on_phoning_while_driving_editorial.html#incart_river_default

[Moderator pro tem's note:  That's why they call them "mobile phones" and "commercial mobile radio service", right? - fg]




Date: Mon, 7 Apr 2014 23:59:31 -0400
From: Monty Solomon <monty@roscom.com>
To: telecomdigestmoderator.remove-this@and-this-too.telecom-digest.org.
Subject: 5-year-old Ocean Beach boy exposes Microsoft Xbox vulnerability
Message-ID: <p0624080dcf692446cd8e@[10.0.1.11]>

5-year-old Ocean Beach boy exposes Microsoft Xbox vulnerability

Michael Chen
Apr 7, 2014

OCEAN BEACH - A young Ocean Beach boy is in the spotlight after he 
discovered a back door in to one of the most popular gaming systems 
in the world.

When 5-year-old Kristoffer Von Hassel is playing his Xbox, his feet 
don't touch the ground. But something he did has made the smartest 
guys at Microsoft pay attention.

"I was like yea!" said Kristoffer.

Just after Christmas, Kristoffer's parents noticed he was logging 
into his father's Xbox Live account and playing games he wasn't 
supposed to be.

...

http://www.10news.com/news/5-year-old-ocean-beach-exposes-microsoft-xbox-vulnerability






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