GSM calls cracked using $1,000 equipment

GSM network are getting easier to hack these days according to David Hulton and Steve Muller, who presented the technique at the Black Hat security conference in Washington DC this week, GSM calls can now be recorded over long distances and cracked open in half an hour using only $1,000 (£500) worth of FPGA (field-programmable gate array)-aided computer equipment and a frequency scanner. Two enterprising researchers claim to have figured out a way to eavesdrop on calls made using GSM mobile phones, cracking open its much-vaunted encryption.

Although GSM’s 64-bit A5 stream cipher has been theoretically vulnerable for some time, this is the first time anyone has demonstrated a way of doing it without investing in expensive, specialised equipment and taking years.

According to Hulton, spend $100,000 (£50,000) on hardware and the crack can be done in only 30 seconds using massively parallel processing technology. His company, Pico Computing, is now developing the fast version to sell to agencies such as law enforcement, but plans to give away the slower version for free.

GSM is used all over the world by mobile phone companies, and is used in the US by several networks where the A5/1 cipher was adopted from Europe. It is considered to be secure enough that even criminals use it, simply cycling phones to avoid the theoretical risk of being tracked.

The ‘attack’ depends on exploiting a vulnerability in the way GSM sets up calls. Assuming an attacker was able to find out a phone’s mobile subscription identification number and built-in hardware ID – garnered by sending a text message to that phone say – they would have enough information to isolate calls from that phone.

Because networks set up some frames of the call security exchange using the same plain text scheme, throw enough hardware at the problem and the encryption can be forced open by using mathematical tables. “If we know the plain text, we can derive exactly what is coming out of A5,” Hulton was quoted as saying at the presentation by sources.

The clever bit appears to be the way the pair have managed to reduce the theoretically huge size of these tables for 64-bit encryption to a manageable size, harnessing processing power to do the rest.

Sceptics will wait for proof that GSM really can be hacked using the equipment and costs cited. Such hacks are certainly not new. The A5/1 cipher has been pulled apart over the years by a number of crypto super-notables, including David Wagner, Ian Goldberg, Alex Biryukov and Adi Shamir. Indeed cracking GSM has almost become a sport for some, most notably an Israeli crack of 2003.

The mobile phone of hotel heiress and celebrity Paris Hilton suffered a security breach back in 2005 and hackers posted her mobile phone address book on the web and I remembered some intimate pics of Paris and her friends circulated at that same  time too. I guess I would stick to my favorite phone card Onesuite for the meantime and use less of my mobile phone.

Force India 2008 car track debut

Force India’s 2008 Formula One car made its track debut at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya on Monday, less than three weeks before the start of the season in Australia.However, technical head Mike Gascoyne said the late appearance of the VJM01, named after Indian billionaire Vijay Mallya and Dutch entrepreneurs Jan and Michiel Mol who last year bought the Spyker team and renamed it, would not be a disadvantage.

“Over the winter we have really been working with the new drivers and we’ve certainly shown a new level of competitiveness, which is something that will benefit us going forward,” he said in a statement.

“There has been a lot of work going on in the background and we should look to go to Australia and be very reliable, especially in the first few races and pick up whatever we can,” he added.

Force India have recruited 35-year-old former Renault driver Giancarlo Fisichella, winner of three Grands Prix in a career spanning nearly 200 races, as teammate to inexperienced German Adrian Sutil.

Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi, who competed for Toro Rosso last year, has joined as test driver with an eye on a future race seat.

Spyker scored just one point with Sutil last year, finishing last but one in the constructors’ championship thanks to McLaren being stripped of all their points for a spying controversy.

“Last year was very frustrating but now we are in a position to move forward from a much more competitive baseline,” said Gascoyne.

“Certainly you will see that with the next new development we should look to racing properly with the midfield as soon as possible.”

The new car is based on the version of the Spyker F8-VII that was introduced at last year’s Italian Grand Prix in September, with aerodynamic and mechanical updates to be tested at the Circuit de Catalunya this week.

“Aerodynamically there has been a complete rework of the car,” said Gascoyne. “With our two wind tunnels in Brackley and Italy now operating full time, we have been able to make a lot of progress in the aero department.”

Lindsay nude photo shoot like Marylin

Lindsay Lohan is as popular as ever.The 21-year-old starlet and her fans overwhelmed New York magazine’s Web site and readers complained of not being able to load its pages, which contained nude photos of Lohan posing as Marilyn Monroe.The photos resemble those taken of Monroe in her mid-30s. Lohan posed in a blond wig for the same photographer who shot the famous Monroe pictures. In the collection, Lohan sports translucent scarves, a veil, diamonds, dramatic eyeliner, freckles, and little else.

Bert Stern shot the photos at the Hotel Bel-Air, the site of his 1962 photo session with Monroe. The location, props, and photographer may be the same, but Lohan’s, uh, attributes aren’t quite the same. Lohan’s measurements weren’t included in the captions, but she cuts more of a V-shaped figure, rather than Monroe’s legendary full-figured hourglass shape.

That didn’t stop the photo spread, titled, “Lindsay Lohan as Marilyn Monroe in ‘The Last Sitting,’ ” from burning up the tubes and servers at New York on Monday.

The magazine also dished out a little companion piece titled “La Internet Reacts to La Lohan.” And, of course, there are reactions to the reaction piece.

“Certainly, many were awed: This Website spent much of yesterday groaning under the weight of sweaty fingers,” the magazine explained. “People magazine called Bert Stern’s photo shoot Lohan’s ‘greatest role to date.’ Defamer predicted that ‘this tastefully titillating homage to Marilyn Monroe’s “Last Sitting” is poised to sit alongside Drew Barrymore’s role in Poison Ivy in the pantheon of greatest breast-baring comebacks of all-time.’ “

By Wednesday, New York’s site and the pictures loaded, handling all the interest in the original spread, the accompanying features, and any other articles readers wanted to access this week. No word on whether that reflects more on the competence of New York’s IT pros or decreased traffic.

Activity seemed strong on celebrity gossip site TMZ, where more than 300 people commented on the post, “Lindsay Likes It Naked.” In keeping with the site’s tradition, the majority of the comments are unflattering and anonymous. The rest of the pics can be found here, here, here, and here.

Snacks for good night sleep

Last week I featured here in my blog things/food to avoid to get a healthy sleep at night.

This time let tell you what food/snacks to eat to help you sleep at night.

Let me start with one of the best natural sedatives which is tryptophan, an amino acid component of many plant and animal proteins.

Tryptophan is one of the ingredients necessary for the body to make serotonin, the neurotransmitter best known for creating feelings of calm, and for making you sleepy.

However, the trick is to combine foods that have some tryptophan with ample carbohydrate. That’s because in order for insomnia-busting tryptophan to work, it has to make its way to the brain.

Unfortunately, all amino acids compete for transport to the brain. When you add carbs, they cause the release of insulin, which takes the competing amino acids and incorporates them into muscle…but leaves tryptophan alone, so it can make its way to the brain, be converted to serotonin, and cause sleepiness.

Serotonin-producing bedtime snacks should be no more than 200 calories and should be eaten at least 30 minutes prior to bed.

Here are a few great ideas:

Bedtime Snacks for Adults
–6-8 oz container of non-fat, flavored yogurt topped with 2 tablespoons low-fat granola cereal
–Sliced apple with 1-2 teaspoons natural peanut butter
–3 cups low-fat popcorn – sprinkled with optional 2 tablespoons parmesan cheese

Bedtime Snacks for Teens
–One cup healthy cereal with skim milk
–Low-fat granola bar
–Scoop of vanilla or strawberry low-fat ice cream

Bedtime Snacks for Children
–1/2 cup low-fat vanilla pudding
–1/2 banana with 1-2 teaspoons peanut butter
–One cup skim milk with a bunch of grapes (or other fruit)

Asus Eee PC almost got it perfect

I own a few sub-notebooks myself and so far the Eee PC takes the crown depending on what you want it to do. The keyboard takes a little getting used to but I’ve seen worse(Fujitsu U810). The Linux OS that comes loaded with it is great. You can run a stripped version of XP and install MS Office, Photoshop and there will be still spaces for a couple of games or apps in your 4gb SSD. For what you want to do with it, you will be more than happy. Battery life is standard seeing the size of the machine and the price. 3 hours is a lot, compare it to any dual core machine and you will see. As for storage, you can always get an HCSD to pop your music, videos or whatever. Prices are just going down and down with removable media.

PROS:
Very light
Cheap
Quick startup
Silent

CONS:
Low resolution. Most web pages these days are made for 1024×768 so you will have to do some side scrolling with this machine.

SSD soldered to the board meaning no upgrading. Although SSD is still pretty expensive, you wont be upgrading this bad boy anytime soon. But if you get the 8GB SSD/1GB ram version then upgrading is possible.

No bluetooth! Isn’t a big deal but would be nice to use with cell phone for internet.

Somewhat cheap mouse button and touchpad. The single mouse button is somewhat hard to press, meaning you have to use 2 hands when using the touchpad. Maybe mine is defective but I find it very hard to press the button. Sadly the 10″ version will not push through but I still want to get that 8GB model and just sell my 4GB on ebay.

Bottom line

if you want a highly mobile laptop for browsing, some word processing and games here and there then you will never get wrong with Asus Eee PC.

Cheaper global calling services

What’s the cheapest way to call my family overseas on my cell phone? There are a couple of options here, including a new one that should be intriguing for frequent overseas callers.

You’ve probably realized that calling overseas from a cell phone is a real drain on the wallet. For example, it costs $1.49 per minute to call Colombia on a Verizon Wireless cell phone. On AT&T, it’s $2.19.

But if you’ve had the foresight to sign up for their international calling plans for $3.99 monthly, the cost is 20 cents or 17 cents a minute, respectively.

That’s still expensive. You could get lower prices by getting a calling card, but beware of gotchas like connection fees, weekly fees and billing in five-minute chunks.

Outright fraud is also rampant in the calling-card industry: A study released by the Hispanic Institute in December found that the average card only delivers 60 percent of the promised minutes.

With that in mind, it’s worth looking at a new technology that you could call a “high-tech” update on the calling card, except the principle is really quite simple. It was pioneered by a Swedish company, Rebtel Networks AB, in 2006, but a couple of competitors, like California-based Jajah Inc., have started offering similar services.

You can sign up with one of these companies on its Web site. You enter your own cell phone number and the numbers you want to call overseas. For each one, the Web site gives you a domestic number. (If you don’t have access to the Web, you can call the main local access numbers of these services.) On the other hand a company called Onesuite.com already has a hybrid service which combined regular online phone card account with Voip access so you get to enjoy best of both worlds and accounts are accessible over the web.

Sooner or later, overseas calls will be dirt cheap (if its not already) and most calls will go through Internet lines one way or the other but for the meantime hold on to that landline of yours.

Why most workouts dont work

Did you know the average health club exerciser quits after just six months for one of the following reasons:

1. Not Enough Time
2. Not Seeing Results

Sadly, most people become frustrated and quit exercising before they see any real results. But it’s not surprising given the common mistakes many people make with their training programs. Are you making these workout mistakes?

Common Reasons Your Workouts Don’t Work

All Quantity, No Quality
Take a look around the gym (if you haven’t quit going yet) and see how many people are really getting a quality workout. I’m always amazed by how many people are wandering aimlessly, walking leisurely on a treadmill while reading a book, lifting weights so light that not one hair moves out of place, or simply look bored. A lot of exercisers head to the gym out of habit, and as if on automatic pilot, put in some time and head back to work
or home. If you are one of these people, ask yourself, “What do I want to get out of this?” If you want serious results, you need to do serious exercise. That doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy it and have fun. But it does means you need to focus on what you are doing and increase the quality of every movement. Once you start exercising with a real purpose and pushing both your aerobic capacity and your strength you will find your workouts take half the time and give better results.

Overestimating Your Exercise
Most exercisers are far too generous with estimates of exercise intensity and time, weight lifted and the frequency of their workouts. To avoid overestimating it’s helpful to keep an exercise log and track these items. Additionally, many people mistakingly believe that if they exercise at a moderate pace for 30 minutes they have burned lots and lots of calories and fat. Unfortunately, it’s not that simple. While exercise does burn calories over time and consistent exercise is one of the best ways to lose weight and keep it off, it’s hard to lose body fat through exercise alone. Which brings us to the next mistake. . .