Verder nogmaals een oproep voor een wereldwijde actiedag onder het motto "Freedom Not Fear" en een artikel over afluisterpraktijken en spionage in Zweden. Dat laatste artikel naar aanleiding van een wet die in juni gestemd werd en die alle telecom operatoren en internet providers verplicht hun communicatiegegevens door te geven aan de inlichtingendiensten. Vaarwel privacy dus, niet alleen voor de Zweden maar ook breder, want internet is nu eenmaal per definitie grensoverschrijdend. Zo maken onder meer Finland en Noorwegen gebruik van het Zweedse netwerk en passeert 80 procent van het Russische telecom en internet verkeer via Zweden.

I also mentioned wanting to get Daniel Wilson's book How To Survive a Robot Uprising (Tips on Defending Yourself During the Upcoming Rebellion .

Then, the other night, I saw another show on robotics (how in the hell do I keep stumbling across these cool, informative shows? Oh, and to those who say TV is useless - I beg to differ).

On this particular show on robotics, they did mention the future of humanity alongside robots, and they claimed that the humans that wanted to keep up/survive would have to be implemented with artificial parts, something the futurists like to call "transhumanism" - the mixture of biology and machinery.

Some of this is already done, with pacemakers and artificial limbs, and other parts of the body, but what the program was suggesting is much more drastic implementations, such as to the brain, involving silicon chips (such as the infamous RFID chips) and so forth.

Ok, I thought. So it boils down to adding robotic aspects to ourselves in order to best the technology - being like them, but also still having humanity. This is the answer! I thought.

But then today I saw an extremely disturbing episode of the sci-fi show Outer Limits.

Mind you, it is science FICTION.

And it was made in 1997.

But the fact is, it was the best damn episode of Outer Limits I had ever seen. Why?

The episode is called "Stream of Consciousness", and, in a nutshell, humanity is living within a futuristic society where everyone has implements on the side of their heads which interact with their brain in order to acquire all human data instantly, instead of having to read it/learn it.

The main character, however, is a human that had "brain damage" (he doesn't appear less intelligent) - so he wasn't able to have the implant, since he was very young.

But the disturbing part came when the "data stream" that all humans subscribed to started to give random humans a "virus" that caused information to be sought after/downloaded too fast for the brain to process - eventually killing the person.

So finally, the guy without the head implant has to go and find a written book that the data stream/computer had neglected to destroy (although it had neglected to destroy this copy) - in order to have his friend, a girl with an implant, read the book and spread the shutdown code to the whole system.

The problem was that, once all entwined together with this data stream, the stream itself was like a mass consciousness to all the people, and none of them would willfully destroy it (themselves!) Wow.

Basically, the question is this - if humans merge with technology as the transhumanists desire, would we doom ourselves to being vulnerable to something like a computer virus killing us?

A disturbing thought.

I'm just going to buy that fucking book, already.

THE IT NERD's UPDATE

Mais uma de muitas razões para não aceitar o chipzinho no carro.

Devemos lutar contra os chips e a perda de liberdades e privacidade.

RFID leakage is hushed up - claim - The INQUIRER

The information – garnered from airports – would be sufficient to enable a passport to be cloned, he reckons. But in Taysom's opinion, the solution is easy. Just install an ultra-thin switch using Peratech's QTC technology [see earlier INQ story].

Recent cover shot for an industrial trade magazine story on RFID technology. These guys are standing in a bay doorway that part suppliers drive little carts through (ding-dings, they call them for the sound they make) and the RFID gear reads barcodes from the part bins and keeps an up to the minute inventory. Once I got an idea of what they were looking for, I thought of an "X-Files" approach would do it. A few blue gels, three Alien Bees and Pocket Wizards did the trick. This tech is really cool and another reason why I love my job-I get to learn about neat stuff like this!

What they are doing is really interesting, and although my stuff is pretty small fry, I was happy to allow them to use it (and happier that they actually asked in this day and age!!)

From what I gather, they have computer(s) containing video, powerpoint and text content in their workshop, coupled up to a RFID reader (RFID is Radio Frequency ID - and is often used for security doors etc - you have a card which is waved in front of the scanner to unlock the door etc).

How they are implementing this technology is with a number of RFID cards, with text and/or a graphic on it, and the student walks up to the reader, waves the card there and a video or powerpoint show will start, giving more information on how to do the particular technique, make the specific joint, use the particular tool safely etc.

The example they use (and quoting from their Learning Tech Mentors site) "You ask a student to get a chisel out of the store and ask them to swipe that over a square painted on the wall (which has a RFID reader attached behind the square) near a computer screen with speakers. Up comes a video explaining how to safely use that tool! No keyboard, no searching for files, no using mouse with so many other sites or things to look at - just straight to the content."

It is a really interesting, and innovative implementation of a current technology into a left-of-field application.  Hope it works out well for them!

"In June 2007, MythBusters was interested in pursuing some great myth-busting ideas for RFID. While in pursuit, they contacted Texas Instruments' RFID Systems, who is a pioneer of RFID and contactless technology, for technical help and understanding of RFID in the contactless payments space," Huff said. "Some of the information that was needed to pursue the program required further support from the contactless payment companies as they construct their own proprietary systems for security to protect their customers. To move the process along, Texas Instruments coordinated a conversation with Smart Card Alliance (SCA) who invited MasterCard and Visa, on contactless payments to help MythBusters get the right information. Of the handful of people on the call, there were mostly product managers and only one contactless payment company's legal counsel member. Technical questions were asked and answered and we were to wait for MythBusters to let us know when they were planning on showing the segment. A few weeks later, Texas Instruments was told by MythBusters that the storyline had changed and they were pursuing a different angle which did not require our help."

Nothing sinister here. So when that statement got out, Adam came out with this statement:

"There's been a lot of talk about this RFID thing, and I have to admit that I got some of my facts wrong, as I wasn't on that story, and as I said on the video, I wasn't actually in on the call," Savage said in the statement. "Texas Instruments' account of their call with Grant and our producer is factually correct. If I went into the detail of exactly why this story didn't get filmed, it's so bizarre and convoluted that no one would believe me, but suffice to say...the decision not to continue on with the RFID story was made by our production company, Beyond Productions, and had nothing to do with Discovery, or their ad sales department."

So, it sounds like the credit card companies didn't force this story off the air. Of course the Fox Mulder types will say that this is spin to cover up the fact that they did and they don't want to look like scumbags people with something to hide. So to clear the air, I think it would be a good idea if Adam did go into detail about why this story didn't get filmed. That way everything is out in the open. 

So, how about it Adam? Will you do that for your fans?

Oh, all of this still doesn't change the fact that RFID credit cards can be hacked easily using $8 of gear bought from eBay. So no matter what, there's still a security issue here.

How SaaS Can Save RFID

Software as a service (Saas), used with the latest RFID tracking technology, can help provide real-time visibility into a company's business operations and overall performance that traditional software implementations haven't been able to deliver.

Beginning of the Hype

Five years ago, the hype began to build about breakthroughs in Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) technology. RFID promised to transform how companies tracked their fast-moving and high-value products from manufacturing and shipping all the way through the final sale. New RFID solutions, used in conjunction with traditional inventory, supply-chain, and business intelligence software applications, began sprouting up in the healthcare, retail, and manufacturing industries, starting out as pilot programs with the intention of quickly becoming industry standards.

The Internet of Things

RFID tags attached to supplies, products, transportation vehicles, & employees allow for constant tracking and monitoring of your business, as it happens. The final link between the real world and the Internet was supposed to provide real-time visibility into how a business truly operates and performs. Companies like Wal-Mart and government agencies like the Department of Defense started implementing RFID tagging. They also mandated that their suppliers do the same at the case and pallet level. It looked like soon every item available in every store would have an RFID tag.

End of the Hype

The hype about RFID is now abating, according to the latest Gartner report. Retail case and pallet tagging have crashed from the peak of hype and are entering what Gartner calls the "Trough of Disillusionment," which is the period when "interest wanes as experiments and implementations fail to deliver. Producers of the technology shake out or fail. Investments continue only if the surviving providers improve their products to the satisfaction of early adopters."

Visibility

Increased visibility, using data gathered at the edge in real-time, was suppose to enable better, smarter, and faster decision making through real-time business intelligence. However, since most pilot projects never reached full implementation, the graphical charts, dashboards, reports, and other software that were supposed to provide the visibility were never developed to their full potential

What Went Wrong

One reason for the failure of RFID to take off is the failed promise of increased visibility into a company's supply chain, product inventory, manufacturing, sales, marketing campaigns, and employee productivity – all key components in assessing a company's business performance. Another reason is that companies are using system integrators during their pilot projects to select multiple vendors of hardware and software. Only a few companies, like OAT Systems, provide complete RFID integrated solutions, packaged as a software suite. So when a pilot project runs over budget, over time, and fails to deliver on the promised ROI, development on the software projects that provide visibility are either delayed, or cut entirely.

How SaaS Can Help

So, what can SaaS offer to help push RFID technology past the tipping point and make it commonplace instead of cutting edge? First, hosted software for supply chain, inventory, ERP, CRM, order fulfillment, and logistics already exists. It can be evaluated immediately in conjunction with any new RFID implementations before the pilot phase begins, not after.

Second, the rate of change to RFID technology and new applications far outpaces the traditional software development release cycle. SaaS allows for a much faster turnaround when hardware and industry standards are changing so rapidly. There is no extra time lag for vendor and product selection if you can skip the purchase and installation phases. This lets customers understand quickly the impact of the new business process and potential ROI with RFID and moves them past the pilot stage quickly into production.

Currently, most suppliers don't fully take advantage of the potential gain in business intelligence that RFID affords. Instead, they use the "Slap and Ship" method for tagging pallets and don't bother trying to integrate any data into their existing system. SaaS solutions allow these suppliers to immediately tie their new data streams into their hosted software and see how RFID can help provide better visibility into their business processes, which provides a good ROI and lets the technology pay for itself.

 By Tony Wolfram, RFID Consultant

RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) is a small transponder placed in a product or organism. It stores data, which can later be retrieved remotely. Today it is used in the enterprise supply chain. RFID makes it easy to keep better track of inventory. -Wikipedia

I thought it was funny, yet chilling at the same time, how the major credit card companies all came bearing down on Discovery, basically saying "no". 

This is a video of the conference, where Adam Savage tells his tale about the failed RFID episode.

Mobile phones to be used as Oyster and credit cards
"It is also hoped the system, which could be in place by next year, will be used to pay for entry to certain 2012 Olympic events..."

Being marketed as the “O2 Wallet”, the Nokia 6131 NFC (Near Field Communications) mobile handset is linked technically to an OysterCard, the cashless systems used across London’s travel network, along with ‘Wave-and-Pay’, the wireless payment systems introduced by Barclaycard Visa. All are using RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) back-end – and connected to the individual via a uniquely identifiable transmitter chip enabled on the back of a SIM card in their mobile phone.

In trial on 500 handsets since November 2007, benefits have been in being able to travel throughout London just via their mobile phone as well as providing the ability to purchase small items (under £10) in shops supporting the scheme, even book tickets and physically enter venues past security, all from a single device. No other cards required the need to carry a leather wallet and tattered tickets, notes and pocket full of change is being shown to be a thing of the past – a welcome appeal to most men no doubt! At least that’s what the hope of and marketing fluff of the proponents behind the technology will suggest.

The most sinister of things masquerade as an angel of light, and this is no exception.

Mobile phones are the trump card in tracking citizens as they are being carried continually by choice, unlike a passport. The personalisation of each device from covers to ringtones is what has brought appeal to adoption alongside the communication services it facilitates, combined with the desire of owning the latest cool gadget such as the iPhone. Supporting a unique ID number on every single RFID chip, the mobile therefore becomes enabled with a personally identifiable location-beaming system that can be read as far away as 300 feet plus, depending on the level of reader/transmitter in operation. It is a key stage in ushering in a personal identity card, right under the noses of the most astute advocates of privacy.

Most modern phones already are adopting GPS (Global Position Systems) revealing their location on maps charting their journeys (the iPhone even records locations of where photos are taken), and along with triangulation (working out location based on proximity to a phone mast), it is possible to narrow down someone’s relative location now. However, both require the device to be switched on. RFID does not necessarily need power and so is never switched off. It has an aerial surrounding a chip that can be picked up by a reader – whether low-strength such as the OysterCard readers in buses and tube stations or by more powerful readers allowing greater distances between chip and reader, such as those on door frames in shops or the overhead readers on public roads. From Razorblades, to DVDs to car number plates, RFID is the most invasive barcode for the future allowing each and every item, and not just groups, to be singularly tracked from production, to purchase, to refuse – without the need for a line-of-sight scan, like infrared and bar-codes currently.

All items using RFID are connected via the internet and continually transferring personal actions and locations, providing streams of data for someone to track legitimately (!) or otherwise revealing a comprehensive monitoring of habits, communications, purchases and pure real-time visibility to people’s physical location. Which products are where in a shop, street or home as well as who has what and where is all able to be interpreted on screen by anyone with ability or desire to do so. With proof of purchase needing to be able to be tracked, despite the wide-spread belief of RFID being disabled upon leaving a shop, this is simply not the case.

In short, it is the most detailed diary of someone’s life written on web pages that few will realise exist, and being able to be read by anyone with a vested interest in doing so; government, stalker or thief alike.

What is snide about this marketing concept is that many will see immediate benefits and adopt to the technology without thinking through any particular consequences to their personal privacy or where this will ultimately lead to. To most the change will go un-noticed, to others convenience and cost-effectiveness will be the means to justify an erosion of public and private privacy which, as Oystercard has already proven with adoption by 10M Londoners, people are happy to trade given sufficient PR spin.

One third of the population of the world carries a mobile phone, twice as many as those currently connected to the internet. When you consider mobile internet is being rolled out on more handsets, the growth of internet adoption can be doubled very quickly along with the scale for personal tracking on global proportions. It has not escaped noticed of those in office.

Britain already has RFID enabled passports, required for border control. Many countries require you to carry an identification card continuously. Toll roads such as the M6 in the UK have been playing with RFID car monitoring for years, negating the need for traffic cameras as they are monitoring every movement of the car. DVLA has already conducted trial of RFID-enabled e-license plates to be fitted on cars holding vehicle tax, registration and road-worthiness information linked to personal car insurance. From Tesco’s to Curry’s to Superdrug – everyday items in your shopping basket are being tracked and transmitting their positions even as I write.

Coupled with the proposed change in UK law over tracking all transmitted communications, verbal and written, this will create a spy-state being able to see where a person is at any moment in time – whether in personal or public transport, what they are up to, what they own , where it is, who is communicating with whom and about what.

It is the total erosion of privacy; endorsed by government, backed by business and facilitated through technology.

I, for one, am very, very afraid.

Men hvorfor har vi pass? Det er for å dokumenter din identitet og ditt norske statsborgerskap. Det er for å hindre uvedkommende å komme seg over visse landegrenser. Men det er ikke alle plasser man trenger pass. I Europa har vi Schengen-området. Her er det ikke behov for pass ved grensekontroller. 

På www.politi.no finner man alt info du trenger om pass. Så hva er det du må huske på når skal søke om pass? Her er et utdrag fra politiets hjemmesider  : 

Hva må jeg huske på når jeg skal søke om pass?

• Fyll ut søknadsblanketten for pass, som du finner på politistasjonen
• Ta med ett passbilde. Vær oppmerksom på at det stilles spesielle krav til disse bildene 
• Ha med gyldig legitimasjon
• Søker må ha norsk personnummer i Folkeregisteret
• Ha med eventuelle fullmakter hvis du skal søke om pass til barn
• Tidligere pass skal innleveres når det søkes om nytt pass
• Ha med penger til å betale for passet
• Alle som skal søke om pass må møte personlig

The issues with RFID (hacking, privacy, etc) are not well known in the public domain and the Mythbusters show planned to change that by having a show on the topic. That was until the credit card companies lawyered up and forced Discovery Channel to not broadcast the episode.

Here's a suggestion to the credit card companies: Your customers would be far better off if you spent the money that it cost you to lawyer up on actually improving security so that this isn't an issue. Maybe then I along with others on the Interwebs wouldn't have created postings on this topic making you all look like scumbags a bunch of people who have something to hide.

Just to rub some salt in the wound of credit card companies everywhere, here's a video with Mythbuster Adam Savage explaining the situation as best as he can:

UPDATED: Here's a video that describes how to hack an RFID credit card using $8 worth of stuff off eBay. No wonder the credit card companies are upset!

True to its name and vision, Geek Terminal has again adopted technology in a unique, and innovative way to enhance the lifestyle of its patrons and business.

GEEK PASS - First in Singapore! | Ezprezzo

Sie stecken in immer mehr Ausweisen und Kreditkarten. Die Mythbusters wollten enthüllen, wie hackbar sie sind. Doch Texas Instruments, American Express und Visa machten die populäre TV-Sendung mundtot.

Lest den Artikel auf Inquirer und schaut euch unbedingt die Videos an. Hier ist der Link: RFID-Chips machen Kreditkarten unsicher (und niemand soll es wissen)

UK government plans to log every call, text and email

“The Home office has issued a consultation paper for a new law that would force phone companies, ISPs and network operators to record and store every phone call, web page request and text message.

The information would have to be stored for 12 months by service providers and would be searchable by a wide variety of organisations, including local councils, health authorities, and even Ofsted and the Post Office.”

Every private and business calls being intercepted to and listened to. What the heck is a ‘private’ call anymore? “Can I have a word in private, please?” Well, actually no – you may say something, someone dislikes, so we need to record it just in case…

You thought it was just a paranoid sci-fi TV programme, didn't you?

Already wireless cameras in central London have microphones attached, listening into street-side conversations. RFID snooping devices hang over the roads monitoring every car movement. Travel through the London transport system is being forcibly implemented via Oystercard. Linked back to purchases, with the likes of Barclaycard’s ‘wave-and-pay’. Mobile phones triangulated, personal photos linked to time and location via your iPhone. All brought about by some clever marketing spin to adopt and make you feel the world is better with, then without. This is sci-fact.

This is an erosion of the sanctity of human life, resulting in everyone being a number akin to being tattooed in jail. We are no more than free-range animals with enforced boundaries, for someone else’s pleasure at some point in the future. We are walking blindly into an abattoir!

What next? Microphones in every church, synagogue, mosque and social gathering meeting room, lest I talk in private about something that someone dislikes? “Speak up,” comes the voice over the speaker in the scout club hut, “we can’t here you!” And what about in homes? Do people discuss offensive plans in private? I am sure they do. Well hey, why don’t we all get forced to have cameras and microphones in our homes too – we can market it to the masses as being able to save them money on their home insurance, lest they get broken into and robbed. That will appease most sheep, while the real foxes can have complete surveillance on habits, moves and discussions in case they mention something against the state.

“Hang your clothes up before you walk in to the shower and please remember your number,” came the PR-spun cry of the SS guards…

When I close my curtains, I do so to protect my privacy and dignity. What goes on behind closed doors, should indeed remain behind closed doors. If I walk around naked in the comfort of my living room, this is acceptable. To do so with curtains open is indecent exposure. This removal of curtains by the government is forcing me to expose everything I am and have.

Silo everyone into groups and buckets. He is a white, male Christian. She is a black, female, lesbian. He is a Chinese, disabled and outspoken. He is an Arabian male, from a broken home and therefore prime to be groomed by terrorist activists…

Does Gordon Brown fancy himself as a dictatorial Hitler?

This flies in the face of everything we have come to know and trust about democracy.
For the sake of a few, the mass is now becoming guilty until proven innocent.

This MUST be stopped.

And people are concerned about Phorm and digital advertising? Open your eyes!!
(But better not open your mouth though, hey?)

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