Hasta La Gadget!

So you’ve got a nice secure thumbdrive, but did you ever think to lock its port? Engineers at the Royal Military College of Canada say the plug and play functionality built into most computers automatically trusts whatever’s plugged into the USB slot. That doesn’t just go for flash drives left out on the street, but all manner of other peripherals as well, as the trio of triumphant researchers demonstrated when they (presumably) infiltrated colleagues’ offices with a totally sweet spy keyboard. That particular device flashed an LED or made the mark’s sound card warble to covertly transmit stolen data, but such exotic methods are reportedly not required — so you’ve yet another reason to cringe when your coworker trots out his Humping Dog.

Researchers say any USB peripheral could steal your data, even a coffee-cup warmer originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 05 Jul 2010 05:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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British police are using poorly-locked or even unlocked “bait-bikes” to catch thieves. The bikes are loaded with hidden GPS tracking devices so the cops can simply wait for the stolen ride to end up at its final destination, letting them bust Mr. Big instead of just constantly pruning the teen-gangs and junkies that do the actual stealing.

According to test schemes, it works. After Cambridge police used bait-bikes, theft at a local railway station fell by 45%, reports the Guardian. The same article tells us that even in London, theft fell by 30%.

Bike theft is driven by the market. Recently I spoke to a bike polo player from Amsterdam, and he told me that people will buy two bikes for around €10 each if they lose their own bike, just so they have a spare. He knew that this was fueling the problem, but the alternative is to buy a brand new bike and have that stolen instead.

To me, the bait-bikes sound like a great idea. Not only do they allow the cops to catch the organized gangs behind the crimes, they sow paranoia amongst the foot-soldiers, making all bikes a less attractive target.

Inevitably, though, there is opposition. Some cite “entrapment” (not illegal in the UK, it seems), and others complain of false positives, as in the case of a drunken student who rode an unlocked bike home and then got a visit from the police (he was let off). These are technical issues, which will vary from country to country. I’m more interested in what you think. I know we have a lot of cyclists reading Gadget Lab, so let us know your opinions in the comments. Is it morally wrong to use bait-bikes? Or is anything acceptable if it stops people from stealing our rides?

Sure, we’ll never reach a lock-free utopia where we can just leave our bikes out in the street overnight, propped naked against a wall (unless we move to Canada), but it would be nice not to have to wrap the bike in twice its weight in chains and hardened-steel shackles just to stop off for a six-pack.

Bait bikes: the way to beat theft gangs or entrapment? [Guardian]

Photo: gen gibson/Flickr

In a blog post, Google has described how it remotely removed two safe but “practically useless” applications from Android phones. The two free applications billed themselves as being for “security research” but because they “misrepresented their purpose in order to encourage user downloads”, the Android team nuked them from afar using its remote kill-switch, removing them from connected users’ phones.

The post on the Android Developers blog is written by Android Security Lead Rich Cannings. Cannings cites violations of the Android Market Terms of Service as the reasons behind the deletions. Far from being controversial, these terms were clearly stated as far back as October 2008, and only apply to apps from the Android Market itself. Back then I predicted the fuss that would come about if ever the switch was used in public:

If Google gets serious about throwing the kill switch for apps which violate the agreement, there is likely to be a fuss, from the technology blog world at least.

This isn’t the first time Google has wiped apps from users’ phones, although its the first we remember that has an accompanying blog post. While it is reassuring to know that Google is patrolling its App Store, its a little disturbing to know that your favorite, non-malicious app could disappear without your permission. In this case Apple – ironically – wins, for users at least. Remember Netshare, the iPhone data tethering app that briefly made it into the App Store? It was soon pulled by Apple, presumably at AT&T’s request, but those people who downloaded it continue to use it to this day.

Exercising Our Remote Application Removal Feature [Google / Android Developers Blog]

See Also:

• Android Market Terms of Service Confirm Googlephone Kill Switch …

Photo: laihiu/Flickr

Man, one day you have the whole world’s ear to talk about slack network security, and the next you’re in the joint. Andrew Auernheimer, Goatse Security’s hacker-in-chief and a key player in the unearthing of a major security flaw exposing iPads surfing AT&T’s airwaves, is today facing felony charges for possession of a variety of potent drugs. That wouldn’t be such intriguing news by itself, but the discovery was made by local law enforcers who were in the process of executing an FBI search warrant. Hey, wasn’t the FBI going to look into this security breach? Yes indeedy. While nobody is yet willing to identify the reasons behind this warrant, it’s not illogical to surmise that Andrew’s crew and their online exploits were the cause for the raid. So there you have it folks, it’s the first bit of advice any publicist will give you: if you’re gonna step out into the glaring light of public life, you’d better clean out your closet first.

Update: Before y’all get in an uproar about “white hacker this” and “Police State that,” let’s keep in mind that this Andrew Auernheimer character (a.k.a. “Weev”) is one unsavory dude (not to mention a raving anti-Semite): check out this New York Times piece on Internet Trolls if you don’t believe us. After all, it’s not really a stretch that law enforcement might be after someone who’s in possession of ecstasy, cocaine, LSD, and various other pharmaceuticals.

AT&T hacker’s home raided, drugs found, dude detained (update) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 16 Jun 2010 06:34:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Of course, a retractable wire restraint won’t actually help the iPhone play any nicer with AT&T’s beleaguered network, but it will stop the screen of your iPhone (or any other phone, despite the name) from ending up like a crystalline spiderweb after hitting the floor.

The extremely dorky process goes like this: You stick an adhesive pad onto the back of the phone, which adds a plastic loop. This loop then connects to the painful-sounding “split ring connector” and that in turn hooks onto a 30-inch steel cable.

The cable retracts into the belt-clip, just like a metal tape measure swishing back into its case, and the clip is held on by a locking carabiner. If there is a nerdier accessory in all the world I want to see it.

The leash will not only keep you phone from fatal impacts; it will also stop you from dropping it in water (something that Wired Science editor Betsy Mason might find useful to stop her dumping yet another iPhone in the toilet) and helps to prevent theft. Or not: a cable running into your pocket means one thing to a thief, and that’s that you have something valuable in there.

It gets a whole lot less ridiculous if you use this to secure your phone whilst inside a bag, but for those who insist on wearing their dorkiness on their belts, an optional extra can make you look even sillier. The Designer Label puts “a crystal clear polyurethane dome” over the design or photo of your choice, mimicking those old-fashioned key-fobs.

The iPhone Leash will cost $25 in money. In cost to your street-cred, its price cannot be overestimated.

iPhone Leash [My Phone Leash. Thanks, Daniel!]