Two new techniques to spy on computer users have been revealed these days by two independent scientific studies conducted at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and at Saarland University in Saarbrucken, Germany. The researchers in California developed an algorithm that can estimate what a computer is writing by watching the hands move. The algorithm is far from perfect and has a success rate of 40% which is enough to understand the meaning of the text that is written.

Words are chosen by probability and suggest alternatives which more often than not make more sense than the first word. This introduces a new technique to spy on users without having to actually access the computer at all, all that is needed is a good view of the hands and the measure of the keyboard.

The second spy tech could come right out of the latest James Bond movie. The researchers at Saarland University managed to write a computer algorithm that is capable of interpreting reflections of the computer screen on objects. The quality of the telescope plays an important role, a normal $500 telescope was able to read 12 point fonts of a reflection that was 5 meters away from the computer and 198 point fonts from a distance of ten meters.

continue reading "Spy Tech: I see what you write"

Apple iPhone users can access the Internet free of charge through AT&T hotspots, that’s what Macrumors is reporting. That’s a great additional feature for iPhone users and apparently for everyone else as well. The way of determining if a device is eligible for free access is by checking the User Agent of the device. We all know what it is very easy to spoof the User Agent of any browser. All that needs to be done now is to change the User Agent of the browser to the User Agent of the iPhone’s browser.

The User Agent of the iPhone browser is Mobile Safari 1.1.3 - iPhone. A user with Firefox or Opera could now easily change his User Agent to the one used by the iPhone to access the Internet without costs at every AT&T hotspot. One possible add-on that can be used for Firefox would be the User Agent Switcher.

User Agents are definitely not a secure way to protect a network or website from unauthorized access. The same can be said for referrer checks which are as insecure. It probably will only be a matter of time when AT&T decided to change the way the free access is granted to the iPhones only. Probably through a small application that is run on the iPhone instead.

continue reading "Apple and AT&T Will Learn that User Agents are no good for access control"

Some videos on Youtube are only available to users of a specific country, countries or region. Everyone else may not watch the video and receives a message stating that “This video is not available in your country.” Youtube is also restricting access to videos that have been flagged to contain (possible) inappropriate content and users have to login to verify that they are 18 or older. Once they are logged in they can watch the video without difficulties.

You will be delighted that there is a speedy url hack (thanks to the Google OS blog) that bypasses both restrictions. This means that country restrictions as well as age restrictions will be bypassed. The following video for example points to one that is only available to US-residents: Youtube Video. If you click on the link and do not have a US IP address then you will receive the message that the video is not available in your country. US-Residents who can watch most videos on Youtube will run into difficulties when they try to watch some BBC content for instance.

All that needs to be done to watch the video is to change the URL of the video slightly. The above example http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I9ciR9qR1dU would be changed to http://www.youtube.com/v/I9ciR9qR1dU to watch the video. This can be done with every video available at Youtube. So basically the watch? part is removed and the = after the v is replaced by a /.

continue reading "Watch Restricted Youtube Videos in any Country"

Adding new functions and features to hardware is normally accomplished by replacing the firmware with a new or hacked one that adds the new functionality to the device. It’s slightly different if you are the owner of a Canon Digital Camera with DIGIC II or DIGIC III firmware because it is possible to load an alternative firmware from an SD card whenever it is needed which in turn means that the original firmware remains untouched.

The benefits of using the so called Canon Hacker’s Development Kit, which is Open Source by the way, are manifold. Among other features pictures can be saved in RAW format, videos can be recorded with a length of up to 1 hour, faster shutter speeds, longer exposure time, additional data display on the LCD and more.

If you would like to try this you need to make sure that your digital camera is supported. Many Canon Powershot and Canon Digital Ixus models are supported right now. You’ll also need a SD card and a SD card reader to add the files of the firmware to the SD card.

continue reading "Add new functions to Canon’s Digital Cameras"

What’s a good way of catching the attention of someone who is advocating the use of biometrics? German interior minister Wolfgang Schäuble is pushing biometrics and data collection in Germany all for the sake of security and the fight against terrorism.

The Chaos Computer Club, a renowned and popular club of hackers and privacy advocates, decided to let the minister taste some of his own medicine by replicating the fingerprint of the minister and publishing that fingerprint in their magazine.

The fingerprint was available as a print in the magazine and on transparency slide ready to be put on the fingers of the readers of it. The sample was apparently taken from a glass that Schäuble was drinking at a panel discussion in Berlin.

continue reading "German interior minister’s fingerprint replicated"