Hasta La Gadget!

Remember James Bond who used a Sony Ericsson handset to control his BMW 750iL in Tomorrow Never Dies? Well, that was clearly something only the MI6 is capable of coming up with in the movies, but what about real life? I guess life is not all that glamorous, where a couple of security experts who happen to work for DARPA have managed to find a way to control a vehicle – and this “hack” is done thanks to the assistance of a laptop as well as an old school NES controller. Yes sir, who would have thought that an controller of an 8-bit video game console would come in handy so many years down the road? As long as the laptop remains plugged into the vehicle’s diagnostic port, one was able to start and stop the engine, in addition to steer the vehicle with the NES controller itself.

We ourselves have seen our fair share of NES controller hacks and modifications, but this one by Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek would certainly rank somewhere at the top of our list. I guess the average car is vulnerable enough to be hacked, considering how more and more of them are starting to be more computerized. Be warned, however, that this duo did brick their fair share of cars before getting it right.

Like It , +1 , Tweet It , Pin It | NES Controller And Laptop Control A Car original content from Ubergizmo.

It’s not like Toyota hasn’t already faced its fair share of Prius braking issues, but it appears that even more headaches are headed its way at Defcon this week. Famed white hats Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek are preparing to unleash a 100-page paper at the annual hacker conference in Las Vegas, and notably, hacks that overtake both Toyota and Ford automotive systems will be positioned front and center. The information was gathered as part of a multi-month project that was funded by the US government, so it’s important to note that the specifics of the exploits will not be revealed to the masses; they’ll be given to the automakers so that they can patch things up before any ill-willed individuals discover it on their own.

Using laptops patched into vehicular systems, the two were able to force a Prius to “brake suddenly at 80 miles an hour, jerk its steering wheel, and accelerate the engine,” while they were also able to “disable the brakes of a Ford Escape traveling at very slow speeds.” Of course, given just how computerized vehicles have become, it’s hardly shocking to hear that they’re now easier than ever to hack into. And look, if you’re really freaked out, you could just invest in Google Glass and walk everywhere.

Filed under: Transportation, Software

Comments

Source: Reuters

While most of you are fixing to shut things down for the weekend, Apple’s developer portal is waking up after a weeklong hiatus. If you’ll recall, Apple affirmed that its dev center was hacked last week while simultaneously announcing a system overhaul. Now, however, things seem to be back in action, with little to no consumer-facing changes to the site itself. If we had to guess, we’d say the bulk of the tweaks have happened behind the scenes. With that, we invite you to return to your regularly scheduled coding.

Filed under: Software, Apple

Comments

Via: 9to5Mac

Source: Apple

Last week, an attempted hack on Apple’s developer portal resulted in some downtime as the company pulled the system to investigate the issue. This led to the portal being taken down for an extended period of time, of which Apple has issued a status update advising its members of where it is in the process and what its plans entail.

Following the portal’s downtime, Apple revealed that no user data had been taken, and a bit after that security researchers Ibrahim Balic took credit for the breach, saying that he did so to expose vulnerabilities with the system. He then reported his findings to Apple, and assured users that he has not used any of the data he had access to via his activities.

Said the Apple statement: “We apologize for the significant inconvenience caused by our developer website downtime. We’ve been working around the clock to overhaul our developer systems, update our server software, and rebuild our entire database. While we complete the work to bring our systems back online, we want to share the latest with you.”

The statement goes on to detail the company’s plans, which starts with rolling out the updated Certificates, Identifiers & Profiles, Apple Developer Forums, Bug Reporter, pre-release developer libraries, and the videos. Following that, Apple will then put the software downloads back in place, allowing developers to nab iOS 7 and other files.

Once all of those are back in place, the rest of the updated system will be made live again. In order to make it easier for developers and curious parties to follow along, Apple has put up a status page with green lights showing how far along in its process it is. As already mentioned, memberships that expire when the portal is down will automatically be extended.

SOURCE: Venture Beat

Apple issues developer portal status update is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The Syrian Electronic Army has claimed ownership of a hack against Tango, saying they swiped 1.5 terabytes worth of user data. Tango has since confirmed that a breach of its system did take place, saying that the hackers accessed “some data.” They did not, however, confirm whether it was the SEA, nor did they provide details on the extent of the security breach.

TangoMe Inc., the company behind Tango, confirmed the breach on its Twitter account, saying that it “experienced a cyber intrusion that resulted in unauthorized access to some data.” The company went on to state that it is in the process of improving its security system. This came after the Syrian Electronic Army posted screenshots as proof of their hacking endeavors.

According to the hacker collective, the information they stole amounted to 1.5 terabytes, and included things like the phone numbers of users, contact information, and emails. It then went on to say that the information it gathered will be given to the Syrian government – “much of ” it, anyway. According to the BBC, some experts have stated that outdated software on Tango’s part may have been the reason it was targeted.

Following the Tango breach, the Syrian Electronic Army then turned its attention to The Daily Dot, which hosted a story on the hack alongside a cartoon of the Syrian president. The hacking group fired off a tweet, demanding the image be removed. When The Daily Dot failed to do this, the SEA then breached its admin panel and deleted the article from its system.

The is the latest of a long list of breaches the SEA has pulled off, many of which involves low-level hacking to gain access to Twitter accounts, where mostly nonsense tweets are posted. The Guardian, The Onion, Financial Times, E! Online, CBS, and more have all been targeted by the group, which you can find out more about in our timeline below.

SOURCE: BBC News

Syrian Electronic Army hacked Tango, swiped user data is written by Brittany Hillen & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2013, SlashGear. All right reserved.