Security

People who commute by bicycle don't have to remove their pedals, racks or fenders when they park in public ... so why should their lights be any different? Well, because most battery-operated bike lights come off with the simple flick of a quick-release, or the turning of a single bolt. Massachusetts-based Gotham Bicycle Defense Industries, however, is attempting to address that problem with its Defender bike light. Not only is it theft-resistant, but it's also waterproof, and it looks like the light Dirty Harry would use - if he rode a bike.  Read More

While cop shows have shown us that it’s easy for service providers to track a person’s location via their mobile phone, researchers at the University of Minnesota have revealed it’s also an easy task for hackers. Using a cheap phone and open source software, the researchers were able to track the location of mobile phone users without their knowledge on the GSM network, which is estimated to serve 80 percent of the global mobile market.  Read More

Besides having to remove our shoes, the volume limitations regarding liquids and gels in carry-on baggage has become a major hassle in the world of post 9-11 airport security. Hopefully, however, we may soon be able to once again bring our big bottles of water and tubes of toothpaste aboard airliners in our overnight bags. Britain’s Cobalt Light Systems has developed a scanner called the INSIGHT100, that uses laser light to assess the liquid contents of containers, even if those containers are opaque.  Read More

Change your password day falls February 1 (tomorrow, in other words), and it's a day as good as any other to add some beefy heft to your online security regimen. One thing to strongly consider, if you haven't done so already, is to apply unique passwords across all your log-ins. That might sound daunting, but tools now exist that make it unnecessary to remember a password again. Unfortunately, a lot of the password management software out there isn't as painless as it might be, with cluttered interfaces full of empty text fields asking for a wealth of unnecessary information. And often, they don't come cheap. But there is another, simpler way - one that involves encrypted text files and painless data-syncing.  Read More

As numerous companies continue their push to get us to entrust our data to the cloud, there are many still justifiably concerned about the security of cloud computing-based services. Now an international team of scientists have demonstrated that perfectly secure cloud computing is possible by combining the power of quantum computing with the security of quantum cryptography. They carried out what they claim is the first demonstration of “blind quantum computing,” in which a quantum computation was carried out with the input, computation, and output all remaining unknown to the computer, and therefore, also any eavesdroppers.  Read More

While driving from Quebec to the United States, a Canadian citizen named Martin Reisch suddenly realized the fear of every world traveler: he'd completely forgotten his passport at home. Going back for it would've meant several hours extra driving time, so using a little quick thinking and a huge amount of luck he pulled up to the U.S. border holding an iPad showing a full-sized image of his passport that he had taken five years previous and had saved to a Dropbox folder. After what must have been a nerve-racking five minutes while border officials looked over the document, Reisch was amazingly allowed through into Vermont, even receiving a "Happy Holidays" from the border officer for the trouble.  Read More

In the TV series Max Headroom, one of the sources of security for hardcore news videographer Edison Carter was the fact that his camcorder was constantly transmitting a live audio/video feed back to his co-workers at Network 23. If anyone attacked him out in the field, his colleagues would know about it, and would have the attack recorded on tape for the police. Well, given that we're now probably at about the time in history when the series was set, perhaps it only makes sense that we may soon be able to get a smartphone app that does pretty much the same thing as Edison's camera. Its working name is, appropriately enough, Help!  Read More

Apple has effectively blacklisted respected security researcher Charlie Miller after he discovered and reported a potential vulnerability with iOS apps. Exploiting the flaw (subsequently patched by Apple), Miller created an app that made it possible to steal data from, and take control of, other iOS devices. Further, Miller managed to get the app through Apple's approval process.  Read More

Who needs face detection when your car can know who's sitting in it based on their rear-end? A group of Japanese researchers at the Advanced Institute of Industrial Technology (AIIT) have developed a car seat that can identify drivers while they're sitting down. The way the technology works is pretty simple. The seat is retrofitted with 360 different sensors. Those sensors take into account things like your weight, the highest value of pressure on the seat, and where you come in contact with the seat. The idea is that we all sit in car seats relatively the same way each time, so the seat should be able to tell who is sitting in it, ensuring that the person is the owner of the car rather than a car thief.  Read More