hack

The Last HOPE conference may have ended a couple weeks ago, but the audio lives on. The guys at 2600 just released MP3 recordings of the conference lectures. Each talk is available in both 16kbps and 64kbps.

A limited number of the radio broadcasts that originated during the conference are also available at radio.hope.net/archive.

Some of the talks are detailed in the CNET coverage of the conference.

See a summary of all my Defensive Computing postings.

On Monday Joop Dorresteijn, contributing editor at The Next Web, unveiled a vulnerability in Google-owned feed tracking service Feedburner that lets anyone with some basic copy and paste skills and a Netvibes account pump up their blog subscriber numbers into the hundreds of thousands.

The "hack" is a two step affair, involving first tweaking an OPML file that lists your subscriptions, then subscribing to said feed in a simple feed-aggregation tool like Netvibes or My Yahoo. The data will then be fed through Feedburner's counters overnight, with the freshly increased numbers showing up the next morning.

Google … Read more

Do you block your phone number from appearing on Caller ID? If so, don't count on it. At The Last HOPE hacker conference, Kevin Mitnick, arguably the most famous hacker of all, demonstrated how call blocking can be hacked, and the hidden phone number exposed.

The hack starts with a VoIP telephone number. Mitnick uses Flowroute as his provider, but he told me afterwards that the same thing can also be accomplished with a few other VoIP providers.

He starts by forwarding calls to an Asterisk server that he maintains.

According to Wikipedia, "Asterisk is an open source/… Read more

Lots of travelers have their checked luggage abused, but it takes a hacker to find out what really goes on behind closed doors. The first such hacker, who goes by the name "Algormor," is on the case.

In a presentation at the just-concluded hacker conference The Last HOPE, Algormor explained his method and motivation, and offered a glimpse behind the curtain.

No doubt, many can relate to his motivation, which started with one too many "Notice of Baggage Inspection" tags from the Transportation Security Administration. The last straw was when a zipper on his luggage was … Read more

NEW YORK--In case you were worried, HOPE is not dead.

Just as hackers experiment with technology, push boundaries, and subvert the concepts of what it means to be safe and secure, the organizers of the HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth) conference have had some fun of their own.

Despite calling the event this weekend "Last HOPE," it won't be the final one; just the most recent one, organizer Emmanuel Goldstein told attendees at the closing ceremonies Sunday night.

There will be another one in two years. It will be called "Next HOPE," he said.

That … Read more

NEW YORK--The typical image of a hacker is a kid hunched over his keyboard in the wee hours of the night staring at commands on his computer screen that unlock the secrets of the national government.

But, according to someone who knows better, the woman sitting next to you in the airport or Starbucks fiddling with her digital camera while you work on your company's confidential sales data could be just as dangerous.

One of the more fascinating talks at the Last HOPE hacker conference this weekend was by Johnny Long, a security researcher who hacks, writes books on … Read more

NEW YORK--Kevin Mitnick knows that the weakest link in any security system is the person holding the information.

As a young fugitive hacker, he went to jail for breaking into computer networks, mostly by using his cunning and persuasion than his tech skills. He was an early master of the science of social engineering--manipulating people into doing what you want, such as giving out passwords and other information that unlocks sensitive information on networks.

Mitnick and a panel of other hackers discussed their social engineering pranks and gave live demonstrations at the Live HOPE (Hackers on Planet Earth) conference late … Read more

The Last HOPE conference, now being held in New York City, is as much for people interested in hacking the real world as it is for computer techies.

One such real world presentation on Friday was called "Undoing Complexity--From Paper Clips to Ball Point Pens." Despite the title, it was about hacking high-security electronic locks from Medeco. (The paper clip in the title is a reference to using one as a way of bypassing one type of security in Medeco locks.) The presentation was very well attended, SRO in a large room.

The presenters, Matt Fiddler and Marc Tobias, … Read more

NEW YORK--Using a laptop, cell phone headset, building access badge, credit cards, or even a passport can make you a walking target for data thieves and other criminals, a security expert warned at the Last HOPE hacker conference here late Friday.

In a frightening but entertaining session entitled "How do I Pwn Thee? Let me Count the Ways" (pwn is hacker speak for "own" or control), a hacker who goes by the alias "RenderMan" explained how most people are at risk and don't even know it.

By now most people probably know they … Read more