Buzz Out Loud 1459: Meat puppets behind the servers (Podcast)

It turns out that no matter how technologically savvy we get in the world, we could always be betrayed by the "meat puppets behind the servers." Thanks for that one, Donald. And human error does appear to be what happened to Amazon, and also the Yankees. DSLReports, on the other hand, just plain got hacked. And it would also appear there's no one equipped to help us with our little data leakage issues, since the FBI's own cyber-security agents admit they're not up to the task. But there's even worse news than that: the white iPhone is 0.2mm thicker than the black one. THE HUMANITY! --Molly

Watch this: Ep. 1459: Meat puppets behind the servers

48:33

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NEWS

PSN hackers Attempt To Sell 2.2 Million Credit Card Numbers Back To Sony
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/28/hackers-claim-to-have-playstation-users-card-data/?ref=technology
http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/139672/20110429/psn-attempt-to-sell-2-2-million-credit-card-numbers-back-to-sony.htm

Amazon Details Last Week’s Cloud Failure, and Apologizes
http://newenterprise.allthingsd.com/20110429/amazon-details-last-weeks-cloud-failure-and-apologizes/
http://aws.amazon.com/message/65648/

Google sued over Android data location collection
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20058493-245.html

DSLReports says member information stolen
http://news.cnet.com/8301-27080_3-20058471-245.html

Yankees leak 21,000 ticket holders’ personal information
http://techland.time.com/2011/04/28/baseball-disaster-yanks-leak-21000-ticket-holders-personal-info/

Justice Dept: FBI Cybercrime agents aren’t up to the job
http://www.tgdaily.com/security-features/55646-fbi-cybercrime-agents-say-they-arent-up-to-the-job

Nikon image authentication system cracked
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/04/28/nikon_image_faking_hack/

More bad news for Google TV: Logitech box sales tanked
http://news.cnet.com/8301-31001_3-20058570-261.html

Quick Hits

DEVASTATION: White iPhone 0.2mm Thicker Than Black One
http://techland.time.com/2011/04/29/devastation-white-iphone-0-2mm-thicker-than-black-one/

Hulu Plus hits Xbox Live April 29, free for a week
http://news.cnet.com/hulu-plus-hits-xbox-live-april-29-free-for-a-week/8301-17938_105-20058404-1.html

Twitter introduces text ads
http://www.labnol.org/internet/twitter-text-ads/19274/

Verizon adding location tracking warning sticker to phones
http://www.bgr.com/2011/04/29/verizon-adding-location-tracking-warning-sticker-to-phones/

Science News

Final launch of space shuttle Endeavour delayed
http://www.cnn.com/2011/US/04/29/shuttle.endeavor/?hpt=T1

Huge crowds expected for final launch of shuttle Endeavour
http://www.voanews.com/english/news/usa/Huge-Crowds-Expected-for-Final-Launch-of-Shuttle-Endeavour-120962224.html

ExploreSpaceKSC KSC Visitor Complex The launch as been scrubbed for at least 48 hours.
https://twitter.com/#!/ExploreSpaceKSC

Happy Ending

Pepsi Unveils Social Vending Machines
http://www.pcworld.com/article/226679/pepsi_unveils_social_vending_machines.html

EMAILS

As to Sony’s statement that the credit card table was encrypted:
Database encryption is good protection against offline attacks, i.e. someone gains access to the database file or backups of the database. But if someone manages to use SQL queries against the database, the data will be revealed in clear text. The only protection against that is if the application encrypts the data and then stores the blob in the database, but typically you would not refer to that as “”the table was encripted”". But if someone manages to gain access through the application, then even that method will not help.
So until more details are being revealed, I would question the statement about the credit card data being protected by encryption.

Holger
IT Guy in Houston (not a PSN user)

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I have to say that I’ve always disagreed with you on the point of locking down wifi networks and selling routers with an encryption default setting. Now the EFF is disagreeing with you too. In a recent post on their website the EFF says:

EFF will be working with other organizations to launch an Open Wireless Movement in the near future. In the mean time, we’re keen to hear from technologists with wireless expertise who would like to help us work on the protocol engineering tasks that are needed to make network sharing easier from a privacy and bandwidth-sharing perspective. You can write to us at openwireless@eff.org.”"

The full post is located at
https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2011/04/open-wireless-movement

Love the show!

Mark from Virginia

COMPUTER LOVE

Hi guys (and lady),

Thanks so much for reading my Computer Love success story on show 1440 a few weeks ago. I played it for my girlfriend, and she cried with joy.

This time, I’m writing for some advice. After finding love right under my nose, I recently decided that the time was right to purchase “”the ring”", and I’m currently pondering a creative way in which to propose. One that will highlight the inner geek that she fell in love with. Actually, the best way would have been to propose immediately after playing the show with my email, but the thought hadn’t occurred to me until after I had already played it for her.

I also thought about taking her on a mock geocaching trip, in which the cache ends up being the engagement ring, but I’m wondering if you have any better, tech-centric ideas for proposing?

Thanks.

Love the show!

Robert
Wheaton, IL

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So recently, I’ve been asked the same question by different friends, and I’m not completely confident in my answer, so I thought I’d ask you guys!
I’m 21, a junior in college, and part of the facebook generation. My friends and I were freshmen and sophomores in high school when Facebook opened up to us, and so it’s always been an integral part of our interactions with friends. The most important feature is, of course, the photos, where you post pictures of you doing exciting things to prove that you are having more fun than the people who are looking at your pictures (I’m only half joking).
Recently, a lot of my friends seem to be breaking up with their first serious boyfriend. For example, they met when they were freshmen and dated for two years (as opposed to a high school relationship). Several of these breakups were messy, and my friends were/are pretty upset by them. A few of the girls wanted to delete the pictures of their ex and them on Facebook, in addition to un-friending him. I think that is perfectly acceptable, as it’s your profile, and your pictures. Other friends make the pretty compelling case that you should only do this in extreme circumstances, because it affects everyone else in the pictures as well. The argument is that they have been creating an online persona through all the pictures they are tagged in, probably including the ones you might want to delete. I actually saw a girl get upset that an album was deleted that this girl had wanted to stay online.
So what do you think? Is a photo on your profile public property once you tag others in it, or is it just about you and your control over what photos you uploaded?
Meggie
Evanston, Illinois

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Hiya,

I tried everything to find someone to love, to which I find impossible for me being a quarter of a century old. I have definitely tried Match, Zoosk and other dating sites, but yet I’m trying to find someone my age on these sites. I always seem to attract much older ladies and would really like to know and find someone my own age or a year older or younger. I now had it with dating websites and I don’t socialise that much outside my circle of friends. could anyone help me?

Joshua Van Der Sluys
London, United Kingdom

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