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This'll freak you out. Big brother really is there, and he is watching you...
EFF Reveals Codes in Xerox Printers
Email this Story Oct 17, 9:20 PM (ET) By ANICK JESDANUN NEW YORK (AP) - Just because a document from a color laser printer doesn't carry your name doesn't mean no one can trace it back to you, privacy advocates warn. The Electronic Frontier Foundation says it has cracked the tracking codes embedded in Xerox Corp. (XRX)'s DocuColor color laser printers. Such codes are just one way that manufacturers employ technology to help governments fight currency counterfeiting. "Underground democracy movements ... will always need the anonymity of simple paper documents, but this technology makes it easier for governments to find dissenters," said Lee Tien, EFF senior staff attorney. "Even worse, it shows how the government and private industry make backroom deals to weaken our privacy by compromising everyday equipment like printers." Researchers found patterns of yellow dots arranged in 15 by 8 grids and printed repeatedly over every color page, said Seth Schoen, a staff technologist at the San Francisco-based civil-liberties group. The dots are visible only with a magnifying glass or under blue light, which causes the yellow dots to appear black. By analyzing test pages printed out by supporters worldwide and by staffers at various FedEx Kinko's locations, researchers found that some of the dots correspond to the printers' serial numbers. Other dots refer to the date and time of the printing. Xerox spokesman Bill McKee would not provide details about the technology. He said the company "does not routinely share any information about its customers," though it does respond to requests from law enforcement. At the Secret Service, which helps develop such technologies with other government agencies and industry, spokesman Eric Zahren said the tools are designed "simply to make it more difficult to utilize that equipment for the illegal activity of reproducing genuine U.S. currency." "They do not in any way track the use of a personal computer or a person's computer's hardware or software," he added, refusing to elaborate on the technologies. But Schoen said much can be gleaned from the printouts alone. Consider two documents, one carrying the author's name and one meant to be anonymous. By comparing the codes, it can be determined whether the two documents came from the same printer, even if Xerox reveals nothing about a customer's serial number, Schoen said. The EFF is now studying other printers from well-known manufacturers with similar tracking codes, but whose keys remain secret. The Xerox DocuColor printers are high-end machines more likely to be found in offices and copy centers than in homes. The U.S. government is involved with other countries in a separate anti-counterfeiting program meant to prevent currency from being scanned and printed. Adobe Systems Inc. (ADBE) has acknowledged quietly adding the government software to its Photoshop software at the request of regulators and international bankers. And here it is...
Can Spies Decipher Keyboard Clicks? - Yahoo! News: "The idea of snooping via keyboards has been around since the beginning of the Cold War, when Soviet spies bugged IBM Selectric typewriters in the American embassy in Moscow. Keystroke-logging devices have also been around for some time. But the Berkeley researchers are breaking new ground in using these techniques with computer keyboards, said Bruce Schneier, chief technology officer at Counterpane Internet Security and the author of Applied Cryptography.
'In security, the devil is in the details, and these guys did the details,' he said. " Soviet technology?
Excite News: "BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) - If spyware and key-logging software weren't a big enough threat to privacy, researchers have figured out a way to eavesdrop on your computer simply by listening to the clicks and clacks of the keyboard.
Those seemingly random noises, when processed by a computer, were translated with up to 96 percent accuracy, according to researchers at the University of California, Berkeley. 'It's a form of acoustical spying that should raise red flags among computer security and privacy experts,' said Doug Tygar, a Berkeley computer science professor and the study's principal investigator. Researchers used several 10-minute audio recordings of people typing away at their keyboards. They fed the recordings into a computer that used an algorithm to detect subtle differences in the sound as each letter is struck." I seem to remember the Soviets timing an IBM selectric and being able to tell what was being typed back in the '80's... Bacon number@Everything2.com Six degrees of Kevin Bacon Spoiler
Please note, this isn't my work, and explorer crashed right after I copied it, but before I could get the URL. I don't remember the search string that I used. 6 degrees of KB has kicked my ass for years...
Countries Hit by Bird Flu Have Little Medicine to Treat Humans
Countries Hit by Bird Flu Have Little Medicine to Treat Humans: "Roche, the Switzerland-based manufacturer of oseltamivir, has quadrupled production in the last two years, according to company officials. But the production has not kept pace with surging demand from developed countries seeking to build stockpiles. The typical lead time of 12 months for filling orders has grown even longer, Roche officials said.
The current backlog of orders grew after scientists determined last year that bird flu had grown resistant to another common influenza drug, amantadine. Researchers blame this on the widespread use of amantadine by Chinese farmers to treat their poultry in violation of international livestock guidelines." Interestingly enough, burning is an appropriate way to dispose of a soiled American flag, as well
Excite News: "BLACKSBURG, Va. (AP) - A Muslim Virginia Tech student says he was the person who left a burned Quran at a local mosque last month, saying it had been damaged in a fire and he hoped it could be given a respectful disposal.
Police initially had said the case was being investigated as an anti-Muslim hate crime. The student contacted police last week, saying he was going to be traveling abroad and didn't know what to do with the Quran, which had been burned in a 2004 house fire, police Lt. Bruce Bradberry said Tuesday. The student said he placed the book and other fire-damaged materials in a bag and left the bag at the Islamic Center with a note, which apparently blew away. Muslims may properly dispose of a damaged Quran by respectfully burning it or shredding it, said Islamic Center director Sedki Riad. The student's name was not released. Riad said local Muslims are relieved that anti-Islamic sentiments weren't involved. 'There is nothing better than knowing that Blacksburg is what we expect it to be - a caring, friendly and supporting neighborhood,' Riad told the Roanoke Times. The initial police report indicated there was more than one burned Quran, but Bradberry said it was one Quran with other burned items, including torn pages and book covers from other Arabic writings. " PROPOSED GUIDELINES In an effort to help outsiders understand the rules of the Texan's mind, the following list should be handed to each person as they enter the State.
American by Birth. Texan by the Grace of God! Excite News
Excite News: "No Fish Tale: Thais Catch 646-Pound Fish
Email this Story Jun 30, 9:52 AM (ET) By DANIEL LOVERING (AP) In this photo released by World Wildlife Fund-National Geographic, two Thai fishermen show a... Full Image BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) - This big one did not get away. Thai fishermen netted a 646-pound catfish believed to have been the world's largest freshwater fish ever caught in Thailand, a researcher said Thursday. The nearly 9-foot-long Mekong giant catfish was landed May 1 by villagers in Chiang Khong, a remote district in northern Thailand, and weighed by Thai fisheries department officials, said Zeb Hogan, who leads an international project to locate and study the world's largest freshwater fish species. He confirmed it was the heaviest fish on record since Thailand started keeping such statistics in 1981." Excite News
Excite News: "SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) - An American held hostage in Iran for 444 days says 'there's no question about it' - the country's new president was one of his captors a quarter-century ago. But others are not so sure.
Watching coverage of Iran's presidential election on television dredged up 25-year-old memories that prompted four of the former hostages to exchange e-mails. And those four realized they shared the same conclusion - the firm belief that President-elect Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had been one of their Iranian captors. Associates of Ahmadinejad deny any such link. 'This is the guy. There's no question about it,' said former hostage Chuck Scott, a retired Army colonel who lives in Jonesboro, Ga. 'You could make him a blond and shave his whiskers, put him in a zoot suit and I'd still spot him.'"
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