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Monday, August 23rd, 2010

E-voting whistleblower Hari Prasad arrested, taken to Mumbai for questioning

In America, when you demonstrate what a racket e-voting is, you get to play Pac-Man. In India? You just might get arrested. Security researcher Hari Prasad made waves earlier this month when he demonstrated how an e-voting machine might be compromised, live on national television. It is now being reported that police have taken Prasad into custody, ostensibly for the theft of the machine, although folks in the know are suggesting that a cover-up is in the works. For Prasad's part, he refuses to give up the source of the machine -- and has been taken by police to Mumbai (a fourteen hour drive) to undergo questioning. According to researcher Alex Halderman there are some 1.4 million e-voting machines in use in India, all of which the government keeps out of the hands of researchers on intellectual property grounds -- and all of which might be vulnerable to fraud. There's a brief discussion with Prasad after the break.

Continue reading E-voting whistleblower Hari Prasad arrested, taken to Mumbai for questioning

E-voting whistleblower Hari Prasad arrested, taken to Mumbai for questioning originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 23 Aug 2010 12:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Slashdot  |  sourceTechDirt  | Email this | Comments

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Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

Apple attempts to patent kill switch that roots out unauthorized users, detects jailbreaks

Just about every mobile operating system manufacturer can remotely delete apps from the smartphones they help provide, but if a recent patent application is any indication, Apple's looking to lock down the whole enchilada on future devices. The basic concept is as simple as the diagram above -- certain activities trigger the phone to think it's in the wrong hands -- but the particular activities and particular remedies Apple suggests extend to audiovisual spying (to detect if a user has a different face or voice than the owner), and complete remote shutdown. While the patent mostly sounds targeted at opt-in security software and would simply send you an alert or perform a remote wipe if your phone were stolen or hacked, jailbreaking and unlocking are also explicitly mentioned as the marks of an unauthorized user, and one line mentions that cellular carriers could shut down or cripple a device when such a user is detected. Sounds great for securing phones at retail, sure, but personally we'd rather devices don't determine our authority by monitoring our heartbeat (seriously, that's an option) and we're plenty happy with the existing Find My iPhone app.

Apple attempts to patent kill switch that roots out unauthorized users, detects jailbreaks originally appeared on Engadget on Sat, 21 Aug 2010 20:58:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink AppleInsider  |  sourceUSPTO  | Email this | Comments

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