BrickHouse Security Blog

When you think of a missing dog, the first thing that usually comes to mind is that the pup simply wandered away, and hopefully will return on its own very soon. What most people don’t assume is that there are criminals who focus all of their attention on the business of dog-napping and reselling pets. And these criminals are either getting more daring with their kidnapping, or more criminals are starting to follow the trend, as the American Kennel Club is reporting that dog theft cases have increased by at least 32% since last year. [...]

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Karsten Nohl, a German computer engineer that published algorithms to secure wireless voice calls for mobile operators in 2009, is back to secure the next generations of sensitive data. This time, Nohl will help protect mobile phones’ Internet data, but first he had to prove to mobile providers just how insecure their encryption really is. [...]

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Everything just keeps getting smaller. A New Zealand company called Rakon has developed what they say is the world’s smallest GPS chip. Tinier than your pinkie nail, I’m inclined to agree with them. At that size, it could be integrated into pretty much anything someone might want to track. Imagine all the pen thieves in the world finally being held accountable for their petty larceny. [...]

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Call spoofing is a service that allows anyone to call a phone number and make the caller ID show any number that user desires. For example, using the service, you can call a friend and make it appear as if his own home phone is calling him. The real purpose of this service is likely mere entertainment, but in reality it has been causing a lot of chaos lately. [...]

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Social networking platforms like Facebook and Twitter have quickly become a big parts of our everyday lives and the way we interact with the world. It is also not unusual to hear about these platforms being used to spread computer malware, spam, or get people into legal trouble. However, it seems like a new crime trend is emerging that focuses solely on the use of social networks to steal physical goods from retail locations, as opposed to the digital theft of sensitive information. [...]

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Perhaps in an attempt to keep up with Internet Explorer 9’s new security feature, or simply to keep its users motivated to choose them as their favorite search engine, Google rolled out a new advanced security safeguard last week. [...]

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Airport security body scanners, the ones that take an x-ray-like naked image of your body, have brought up a heated debate between the people that say these scanners are an invasion of privacy and the people that say this invasion is justified by the enhanced security. However, the debate can finally end as both sides will get exactly what they want: an airport security scanner that doesn’t reveal a naked image of a passenger but is just as effective as before. [...]

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With the massive media coverage and interest in the News of the World phone hacking scandal, people are wondering how it was possible that so many voicemail accounts could have been hacked; and not by professional hackers, but ordinary journalists. As it turns out, the hacking was simple, as default voicemail pincodes were used, and anyone with the right tool could have easily broken into the accounts. [...]

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With technology improving daily, it’s not surprising to hear about the latest “world’s smallest camera” or “fastest computer” on a near-weekly basis. However, the invention of this latest “world’s smallest camera” is something to talk about. This new type of camera has the potential to change the way digital devices interact with the world and each other. [...]

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When you buy a new smartphone, you expect it to be bug and malware free, leaving the job of filling the device with useless or malicious software to you. The Department of Homeland Security, however, has admitted on the record that manufacturers might be taking care of that task for you, before the phone reaches your stores. [...]

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With the debate over the legality of warrant-less GPS tracking by police still raging, a new ruling in New Jersey has helped define the legality of civilians, and spouses in particular, tracking one another. [...]

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For a small Mississippi police department made up of about 5 on-duty officers, they can use all the help they can get. Thankfully for the Walls police department, this help comes from a small piece of technology that goes for under $100, and has saved the department countless man hours, making protecting citizens and fighting crime much easier. [...]

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In an effort to show how well it is already doing to fend off daily attacks from an infinite swarm of hackers, Microsoft now wants its users to know that has a brand new way of protecting them. Unlike the previous updates which fixed and patched security vulnerabilities in the software of the system, this new method of security protects against the human aspect of computer security, or in other words, finally helps fight the human exploits that usually gets most users in trouble. [...]

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The recent surge of distributed denial of service (DDoS) cyber attacks on corporate websites makes it appear like there’s a new cyber attack every day and that there is nothing that can be done to prevent them. However, the truth is that these “cyber attacks” are not as unavoidable as most people think, and can easily be prevented with the right know-how. [...]

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