New Research On Computer Backdoors Reveals Disturbing Long Term Risks For All Netizens

Nov 052012
 

Research by the University of Toronto Citizen Lab shows that computer back doors are a permanent security risk to users through out the world.

Their research based on events in the middle east demonstrates readily available commercial software is being used by governments to infiltrate computers used by critics and dissidents.

Bloomberg news reported the case of Ahmed Mansoor who was sitting in “his study in Dubai and made the mistake of clicking on a Microsoft Word attachment that arrived in an e-mail, labeled “very important” in Arabic, from a sender he thought he recognized.

“With that click, the pro-democracy activist unwittingly downloaded spyware that seized on a flaw in the Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) program to take over his computer and record every keystroke. The hackers infiltrated his digital life so deeply they still accessed his personal e-mail even after he changed his password.

Since then, Mansoor, 42, an electrical engineer and father of four, says he has suffered two beatings by thugs in September during his campaign for citizens’ civil rights in the Persian Gulf federation of the United Arab Emirates. While those assailants remain unknown, researchers say they’ve figured out what was behind the virtual assault.

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U.S. Congress Finds Chinese Telecom Giant A Security Threat

Oct 082012
 

A United States Congressional Committee has deemed the world’s biggest telecommunications manufacture, the Chinese Company ,  a threat to national security as it seeks to expand its business internationally.

The China Digital Times says the committee just concluded a year-long investigation which found that Huawei does indeed pose a security risk. From the Wall Street Journal:

The year-long investigation by the House intelligence committee concluded the firm, Huawei Technologies Inc., and a second firm, ZTE Inc., pose security risks to the U.S. because their equipment could be used for spying on Americans.

In a report to be released Monday, the committee recommends that the U.S. block acquisitions or mergers involving the two companies through the Committee on Foreign Investments in the U.S. It also recommends that the U.S. government avoid using equipment from the firms, and that U.S. companies seek alternative vendors for telecommunications equipment.

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Mobile Phone Hacking Prevention Techniques

Jul 192011
 

The scandal evolving in Britain over News Corp owned media hacking into the mobile phones of crime and and terrorist victims, politicians and members of the royal family highlights the security risks of using any mobile device.

China, Vietnam, Burman and other countries with regimes which feel entitled to censor online, block and listen in to the information their citizens are sourcing use the same technology. But rather than disemminating the information, as the media did (albeit in a disgraceful, cruel and trivial way) they use it to crush dissent or threats to their sinecure on power.

So how should disidents, journalists and ordinary citizens guard against such intrusion. Computing-tips.net offers some background and practicle suggestions on how to avoid a similar fate to those who fell under the Newscorp gaze.

How to prevent your phone from being hacked

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New Phone Project Turns Surveillance Technology On Its Head

Jan 212010
 

Google’s threats to pull out of China over censorship and hacking issues highlights the dangers of State misuse of technology for questionable surveillance .

 And while pulling out of a country is one way for an individual company to deal with this contentious issue there are other people and group working on a more creative ways round the problem. Continue reading »