A very ingenious new kind of high-tech scam has been going down in China, where clever thieves are returning fake iPhone components to Apple and claiming they’re broken official parts, receiving genuine Apple-made pieces in return. And making a nice profit in the process. More »
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How Chinese Scammers Are Swapping Fake iPhone Parts for the Real Deal
If you regularly find yourself perplexed at ATMs, help is at hand. Bank of America has announced that it’s launching a new system that will allow you to hold a live video chat with bank staff to help guide you through your ineptitude. More »
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Bank of America Is Adding Teller Video Chat to Its ATMs
paysonwelch writes “North Korea has declared a state of war against South Korea, stating that neither peace nor war has ended. Quoting the news release via Reuters: ‘1. From this moment, the north-south relations will be put at the state of war and all the issues arousing between the north and the south will be dealt with according to the wartime regulations.’ The DPRK goes on to say that this will be a ‘blitz’ war and that they will regain control of the south, and destroy U.S. bases in the process.” Great line from the declaration: “[The U.S.] should clearly know that in the era of Marshal Kim Jong Un, the greatest-ever commander, all things are different from what they used to be in the past.” A senior U.S. official called this statement “pot-banging and chest-thumping.” The official said, “North Korea is in a mindset of war, but North Korea is not going to war.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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North Korea Declares a State of War
China is routinely accused of launching concerted hacking campaigns against the US, many of them reportedly tied directly to the army’s Unit 61398 in Shanghai. If you believe the Ministry of Defense’s spokesman Geng Yansheng, however, just the opposite is true. Along with claiming that China would never hurt (or rather, hack) a fly, he asserts that the Ministry and China Military Online sites faced an average of 144,000 hacking attempts per month from foreign sources in 2012, 62.9 percent of which allegedly came from the US. The Ministry’s man stops short of leveling cyberwarfare charges, although he notes the US’ recent plans to expand and formally define its cyberwar strategy. There’s some ‘splainin to do, he argues. While there isn’t a formal US response, we suspect that neither side is an innocent dove here — China is just the most recent to cry foul. Filed under: Internet Comments Via: Reuters Source: Ministry of National Defense (translated)
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China claims its defense sites face constant US hacking attacks
gannebraemorr writes “U-T San Diego reports that the city has become ‘the latest in a cadre of California cities turning their backs on red-light cameras — aloof intersection sentries that have prompted $490 tickets to be mailed to 20,000 motorists per year’ there. ‘Mayor Bob Filner announced his decision to take down the city’s 21 cameras at a news conference set at the most prolific intersection for the tickets, North Harbor Drive and West Grape Street, near San Diego International Airport. A crew went to work immediately taking down “photo enforced” signs throughout the city. “Seems to me that such a program can only be justified if there are demonstrable facts that prove that they raise the safety awareness and decrease accidents in our city,” Filner said of the cameras. “The data, in fact, does not really prove it.”‘ I have to say I’m a bit surprised that my city is voluntarily shedding potentially $9.8M in revenue after objectively evaluating a program. I wonder how much a system would cost that could switch my light from green to red if it detected a vehicle approaching from a red-lit direction at dangerous speeds. Can you think of an other alternative uses for these cameras?” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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San Diego Drops Red-Light Cameras
johnsnails writes “Around 60 students at Harvard University have been suspended and others disciplined in a mass cheating scandal at the elite college, the campus newspaper reports. The Harvard Crimson quoted an email from Faculty of Arts and Sciences dean Michael Smith that said more than half of the cases heard by administrators in the scandal, which erupted last year, had resulted in suspension orders. ‘After professor Matthew B. Platt reported suspicious similarities on a handful of take-home exams in his spring course Government 1310: “Introduction to Congress,” the College launched an investigation that eventually expanded to involve almost half of the 279 students enrolled in the course.'” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Dozens Suspended In Harvard University Cheat Scandal
The WSJ is confirming what we all saw in Sony’s slick video teaser for its upcoming February 20th event: Sony will be announcing the PlayStation 4. Citing the ol’ reliable ‘people familiar with the matter’, the WSJ says that the PS4 will be announced on February 20th and be released later this year. More »
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WSJ: Yes, Sony Will Announce the PlayStation 4 on February 20th
According to the Daily Yomiuri, “Japan launched two satellites on Jan. 27 to strengthen its surveillance capabilities, including keeping a closer eye on North Korea which has vowed to stage another nuclear test. One of them was a radar-equipped unit to complete a system of surveillance satellites that will allow Tokyo to monitor any place in the world at least once a day. The other was a demonstration satellite to collect data for research and development.” The Defense News version of the story says “Japan developed a plan to use several satellites as one group to gather intelligence in the late 1990s as a response to a long-range missile launch by Pyongyang in 1998. The space agency has said the radar satellite would be used for information-gathering, including data following Japan’s 2011 quake and tsunami, but did not mention North Korea by name.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Japan Launches Two New Spy Satellites
New submitter kju writes “The security blog of Verizon has the story of an investigation into unauthorized VPN access from China which led to unexpected findings. Investigators found invoices from a Chinese contractor who had actually done the work of the employee, who spent the day watching cat videos and visiting eBay and Facebook. The man had Fedexed his RSA token to the contractor and paid only about 1/5th of his income for the contracting service. Because he provided clean code on time, he was noted in his performance reviews to be the best programmer in the building. According to the article, the man had similar scams running with other companies.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Employee Outsourced Programming Job To China, Spent Days Websurfing
Trailrunner7 writes with news of the continuing poor state of security for industrial control systems. From the article: “Never underestimate what you can do with a healthy list of advanced operator search terms and a beer budget. That’s mostly what comprises the arsenal of two critical infrastructure protection specialists who have spent close to nine months trying to paint a picture of the number of Internet-facing devices linked to critical infrastructure in the United States. It’s not a pretty picture. The duo … have with some help from the Department of Homeland Security (PDF) pared down an initial list of 500,000 devices to 7,200, many of which contain online login interfaces with little more than a default password standing between an attacker and potential havoc. DHS has done outreach to the affected asset owners, yet these tides turn slowly and progress has been slow in remedying many of those weaknesses. …The pair found not only devices used for critical infrastructure such as energy, water and other utilities, but also SCADA devices for HVAC systems, building automation control systems, large mining trucks, traffic control systems, red-light cameras and even crematoriums.” Read more of this story at Slashdot.
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Thousands of SCADA Devices Discovered On the Open Internet