Hacking traffic lights with a laptop is easy

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From: "Network World Daily News AM Alert" <nww_newsletters@newsletters.networkworld.com>
Date: Aug 24, 2014 7:13 AM
Subject: Hacking traffic lights with a laptop is easy
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12 oddball odes to open-source How to survive the data explosion Network World Daily News AM August 24, 2014 Share this email Hacking traffic lights with a laptop is easy You've seen traffic lights hacked in movies like Live Free or Die Hard or The Italian Job. If you are gamer, then you might have "hacked" traffic lights in the video game Watch Dogs to cause epic wrecks and allow you to escape the cops. But now security researchers have hacked traffic lights in real life and say it's easy to do; a person only needs a laptop and wireless card operating on the same 5.8 gigahertz frequency as the wirelessly networked traffic lights, then he or she could access the entire unencrypted network. Watch Dogs Hacking traffic control systems was a topic presented at Def Con 22 by IOActive Lab's Cesar Cerrudo. He said that after attending his talk, "Anyone will be able to hack these devices and mess with traffic control systems since there is no patch available." He added, "I was able to access the sensor. I was able to see the configuration of them – if I wanted to I could have compromised them. I didn't do it."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here READ MORE   Issue highlights 1. 12 oddball odes to open-source 2. INSIDER How to survive the data explosion 3. Is WiFi killing us ... slowly? 4. The Linux desktop-a-week review: Ubuntu Unity 5. Should companies practice data retention or data destruction? 6. The top 14 hidden features in Windows, iOS, and Android 7. Ahead of VMWorld, VMware promotes Casado to lead NSX 8. How can the Internet have too many routes and not enough addresses? 9. Five ways to keep your student's digital life safe RESOURCE COMPLIMENTS OF: CSO Perspective Defending Against the Pervasive Attacker: CSO Conference Attend the Boston-area CSO Perspectives Conference on Tuesday, September 16 at the Sheraton Framingham Hotel. Learn about the latest strategies to defend against today's pervasive attacker, and find out what other organizations are doing to create successful and proactive defenses. Register now. 12 oddball odes to open-source Songs in the key of FOSS The world of free and open-source software has spawned a surprising amount of original music. Whether it's because the members of that community are unusually creative or because they just can't keep themselves from telling you how great Linux and open-source are, we don't know, but we have collected, for your listening pleasure, a dozen songs about free and/or open-source software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here READ MORE INSIDER How to survive the data explosion IDC estimates that enterprise data doubles every 18 months. That's an astounding statistic, but somewhat difficult to wrap your head around. A simple analogy may help.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story) READ MORE Is WiFi killing us ... slowly? What would it take to get you to not use WiFi? I don't mean simply not connecting to it, I mean not having WiFi switched on. At all. And what about cell phones? I know that the issue of cell phone safety has come and gone and most authorities have dismissed the risks as negligible. But what if the risks to you are trivial but not to your children? Would you stop using these devices? I ask because an academic paper has recently been published that concludes that electromagnetic radiation generated by humans is far more dangerous to children and babies than we think. makelessnoise Now, human generated EMR in the general environment was negligible at the beginning of the Twentieth Century but by 1933 the problem of electromagnetic interference was becoming significant. In that year at a meeting of the International Electrotechnical Commission in Paris "recommended the International Special Committee on Radio Interference (CISPR) be set up to deal with the emerging problem of EMI." (Wikipedia)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here READ MORE WEBCAST: IBM ING Transforms DevOps to Reduce Cost and Speed Delivery ING, one of the largest banks in Europe needed to reduce the high cost of isolated, inefficient application development. They chose IBM PureApplication System to move their IT infrastructure to a cloud-based shared service model. In this Webcast, ING executive, Mark Willemse, shares the lessons ING learned from this strategic initiative. Learn more The Linux desktop-a-week review: Ubuntu Unity Ubuntu was my Linux distro of choice for a couple of years. I loved it. Sure, the old "everything is Orange and Brown" color scheme made my eyeballs want to go all hari-kari. But, other than that, life in Ubuntu was pretty good.Then Unity happened.When Canonical decided that Ubuntu would no longer sport the extremely comfortable GNOME 2 desktop and, instead, switch to the newly conceived Unity environment... I jumped ship faster than a screen door on battleship. (Okay, I know that doesn't really work there. But I just watched "Back to the Future 2" and can't seem to think of a single other metaphor. Heh. That Biff. He kills me.) Suffice to say that I jumped ship "really, really fast."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here READ MORE Should companies practice data retention or data destruction? Many businesses spend a lot of time thinking about how to retain and store data, but there's another idea: Think about how to destroy your data. Why? According to one attorney who advocates the practice of methodical and vigorous data destruction, it's a way to avoid risk. That's because when you no longer store the data you don't really have to retain, complying with legal requests for e-mail or documents is not just easier, it means that whatever the topic of the legal inquiry of electronic discovery, the old documents are simply not there to produce, hence less legal exposure. + ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD Does your business need a "Data Protection Officer?" | IBM opening two state-of-the-art disaster recovery resiliency centers +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here READ MORE The top 14 hidden features in Windows, iOS, and Android You may think you're a high-tech power user who knows all the nooks and crannies of Windows, iOS, and Android, but let's be realistic: There could be at least a few undocumented (or poorly documented) commands, control panels, and apps that have slipped by you—maybe more than a few. MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 10 (FREE!) Microsoft tools to make admins happier We've dived deep into each OS to uncover the best hidden tips and tricks that can make you more productive—or make common tasks easier. Got a favorite undocumented tip to share with readers? Add them in the comments section at the end of the article.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here READ MORE WHITE PAPER: Skyhigh Networks Checklist for Selecting Enterprise-Ready Cloud Applications To minimize risk, organizations must employ a methodology to identify and select enterprise-ready cloud services. This 21 step checklist includes the five categories of attribute to evaluate and an audit framework from the Cloud Security Alliance View Now>> Ahead of VMWorld, VMware promotes Casado to lead NSX Casado is now VMware's top SDN guru READ MORE How can the Internet have too many routes and not enough addresses? The depletion of Internet addresses would seem to spell relief for aged routers that are struggling to deal with the Internet's growth, but the complicated interplay between those trends might cause even more problems.Last Wednesday, some older routers and switches stumbled when the Internet's table of routes surpassed 512,000 entries, the maximum they could hold in a special form of memory called TCAM (Ternary Content Addressable Memory). The event drew widespread attention, though it was actually the third time in this young century that the Internet had broken through such a threshold. The number of routes exceeded 128,000 around 2003 and 256,000 in 2008, each time causing problems for some outmoded gear.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here READ MORE Five ways to keep your student's digital life safe As students return to school, technology goes with them. That technology—and the data generated by it—is valuable not simply as a means for getting school work done, but also as entertainment for those brief hours between one assignment and the next. It's for this reason that it pays to plan for disaster. With a single massive power burst, storage media that suddenly heads south, or interaction with a light-fingered ne'er-do-well, the technology your student depends on can vanish. Take these five tips to heart, however, and the loss of a device or data need not be catastrophic.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: Free security tools you should try Insure the gear Parents, if your student lives in school-affiliated housing, it's possible that your homeowners insurance covers their stuff—but not without some cost to you. Should your child's laptop or iPhone be stolen or swept away in a flood, a replacement won't come free. Such policies generally have a deductible of several hundred dollars and the remaining compensation is often limited to around 10 percent of your total coverage. So, if you carry a policy that insures the contents of your home up to $150,000, the yearly limit on a kid's gear is $15,000 when they live in student housing.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here READ MORE WHITE PAPER: Alert Logic State of Cloud Security Report In a relatively short time, cloud computing, specifically Infrastructure-as a-Service, has shifted from a new but unproven approach to an accepted, even inevitable, model. Driven by flexibility and efficiency, the question facing most organizations is which applications and workloads to move to the cloud and when. Learn More SLIDESHOWS Top techs the CIA thinks are hot Through its investment firm called In-Q-Tel, the CIA funds companies, mostly start-ups, to push forward technologies deemed useful to government intelligence agencies. JOIN THE NETWORK WORLD COMMUNITIES As network pros you understand that the value of connections increase as the number of connections increase, the so called network effect, and no where is this more evident than in professional relationships. Join Network World's LinkedIn and Facebook communities to share ideas, post questions, see what your peers are working on and scout out job applicants (or maybe find your next opportunity). Network World on Facebook Network World on LinkedIn MOST-READ STORIES of 2014 1. Does Microsoft Really Love Open Source? 2. Is Wi-Fi killing us...slowly? 3. A review of Swing Copters: Under no circumstances should you play this game 4. The Linux desktop-a-week review: Ubuntu Unity 5. The top 14 hidden features in Windows, iOS, and Android 6. Internet of Overwhelming Things 7. 2014's Hottest IT Certification 8. Why TCP/IP is on the way out 9. 11 Big Data Certifications That Will Pay Off 10. Ten tech products that died on arrival JOIN THE IDG CONTRIBUTOR NETWORK The IDG Contributor Network is a collection of blogs written by YOU -- leading IT practitioners -- about the technology, business opportunities and challenges you face everyday. We invite you to become a contributor or participate by joining the conversations your peers spark. Apply now to become a member Follow Network World Share this email You are currently subscribed to networkworld_daily_news_alert as aquarianm@gmail.com. Unsubscribe from this newsletter | Manage your subscriptions | Subscribe | Privacy Policy Learn about INSIDER When accessing content promoted in this email, you are providing consent for your information to be shared with the sponsors of the content. Please see our Privacy Policy for more information. 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