BrickHouse Security Blog

Top 10 Security Gadgets for College Students

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With college looming over the heads of parents and students alike, concerns are starting to transcend worries about making friends and doing well in classes. The reality is starting to embed itself into the minds of overprotective parents and overprotected kids- they will soon be vulnerable, oblivious, and trusting targets without the oversight of their parents or the protection of the nest. In order to make that transition a little easier, if only to be able to breathe a little easier, we’ve come up with a list of the top 10 security gadgets for college students starting classes in the Fall. [...]

NYC Department of Buildings to Track Inspectors Via GPS

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New York City’s Department of Buildings will begin tracking their inspectors using GPS technology embedded in the workers company issued cell phones. The tracking systems will take effect on Monday, by monitoring ten inspectors at first and by the end of the month they plan to be monitoring all 379 inspectors.

The GPS systems are being installed because of an incident concerning an inspector named Edward J. Marquette. Marquette filed a false inspection report on a crane. That crane toppled 11 days later killing seven people.

Buildings Commissioner Robert D. LiMandri said “This new GPS tracking system is a simple, innovative way to ensure inspectors reach their assigned locations and are held accountable for their important work.”

Many of the inspectors are not happy with the news changes. Joseph M. Corso, the president of Local 211 of the Allied Building Inspectors Union has reacted by saying, “Just like the Justice Department monitors parolees and those under house arrest, they’ll have a tracking device,” he said of the inspectors. “We’re going to do all we can to ensure the rights of the membership are covered.” [...]

Skype Spyware Records Conversations to Send to Eavesdroppers

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A programmer named Ruben Unteregger has released the source code behind a malware program that he created specifically to record Skype voice conversations on the sly.

Unteregger, who used to work for a company called ERA IT solutions, created MiniPanzer and MegaPanzer. Both of these programs were originally created and sold to Swiss authorities to be used as surveillance tools. The programs were designed to hook into the Window XP’s audio drivers to record victims VoIP calls as MP3s. Afterward, these MP3 records are automatically sent to a remote server for an eavesdropper to collect.

Unteregger stated that he had retained copyright for the programs and has decided to release the source code and two compiled binaries so that signatures to detect the malware could be created. Just days after Unteregger released his code, Symantec and TrendMicro stated that their anti-virus programs had already detected Trojans in the wild similar to that of Unteregger’s. [...]

Pike County Turns to Sprint’s GPS System to Track School Buses

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Mothers who send their children to school on the school bus system are often concerned with the safety of their child. Well parents in the Pike County School system can breathe even easier than most. Park County School have partnered up with Sprint Nextel and Telenav Track to install GPS cell phones on all of the county school buses.

Tom Hicks of the PCS transportation department stated “Over the past few years, buses have been hijacked in other places. this system helps protect our buses.”

According to Hicks, Sprint provided the equipment and it was all installed right before school started. Through this system county officials have the ability to see the exact mileage of the buses as well as their exact location and speeds. [...]