prison Archives - The Silicon Underground

Pogue’s attitude is unfortunately far too common

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 27 Oct 2015 11:00:54 +0000

According to David Pogue, since hacking a car is “nearly impossible,” we shouldn’t talk about it anymore. That, my friends, is precisely what’s wrong with security and security awareness today. Flying to the moon is nearly impossible, after all, and

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Change a headline, go to prison

Dave Farquhar — Fri, 09 Oct 2015 11:00:16 +0000

A former journalist whose track record includes being fired from the Tribune Co. and from Reuters is facing two decades in prison for giving the hacking group Anonymous credentials to log into a Tribune web site and change stuff. Anonymous

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Minor-League hacking in the MLB

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 17 Jun 2015 11:00:50 +0000

So, about a year ago, the Houston Astros announced their internal player database had been breached. This week, more details emerged, pointing right at the St. Louis Cardinals. It wasn’t a terribly sophisticated attack. You knew I’d write about this,

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FTDI needs to be charged under the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 29 Oct 2014 11:00:58 +0000

FTDI is a company that makes computer chips for USB peripherals. Their chips are frequently cloned, which is an issue they have a right to deal with. But they have to be careful. Breaking suspected cloned chips that consumers bought

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I want to feel for this ad executive, but I can’t

Dave Farquhar — Wed, 09 Apr 2014 11:00:18 +0000

There’s a problem in this world, according to Mike Zaneis. It’s ad blockers. On one level, I can relate to the guy. Ad blockers cost me between $500 and $1,000 a year, personally. But on another level, I have no

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Wget is not a hacking tool

Dave Farquhar — Thu, 01 Aug 2013 11:00:42 +0000

The Bradley Manning verdict came out this week, and the less I say about Manning himself the better, but one thing in the press coverage definitely bothered me, and I want to set that straight. The prosecution attempted to tie

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What keeps a good security guy from turning to the dark side

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 28 May 2013 11:00:51 +0000

I’m reading the excellent Blackhatonomics right now. And one thing I read in it reminded me of a question that someone asked me last year. I was probably the third or fourth guy with an advanced security certification he’d met,

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Security doesn’t have to be intimidating to be effective

Dave Farquhar — Sat, 18 Aug 2012 19:12:36 +0000

I got into a conversation the other day about physical security, basing the physical security of a particular facility. “You have to sign in when you enter. Well laddy da!” Actually, there are times where that’s completely appropriate. But they

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Somehow I started it

Dave Farquhar — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 13:06:48 +0000

Friday night, my wife and I attended a baseball game with several of my new coworkers and their families. We rode Metrolink–St. Louis’ light-rail train–to the stadium to avoid traffic. The ride to the stadium was peaceful and relaxing. The

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Control your debt, stay in school, stay employed and out of prison

Dave Farquhar — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 00:03:09 +0000

Some people are worried that student loans are the next debt time bomb that can potentially wreck the economy, and that fear of student-loan debt will make people less inclined to seek the education they need. Two statistics should discourage

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