Selective News

article: http://www.engadget.com/2014/10/29/verizon-sugarstring-daily-dot/ Verizon is launching its very own news site, and by "very-own" I mean news that only promotes verizon and does nothing to hurt the image of the company. This sounds a little biased as to what is "important information." However, the more I thought about this, the more I realized that all media is like this. Most news organizations have someone in control of the content created by the company. I think that this means, that the companies should probably be called "News according to so-and-so." How can we be sure that this person is not promoting their agenda. Sometimes "news stories" are exaggerated to be more shocking. Sometimes the wording is phrased in such a way as to make the reader or listener believe a certain way. Ethically, this may be as bad as filtering stories that may hurt your company, but then again, where are the ethics police in the media? This made me think about the media that we consume, and the media that we believe to be true. I am not saying that no news station can be trusted, but am I following current events, or someone's agenda?

Cuckoo's Egg

While reading the Cuckoo's Egg by Cliff Stoll, I was very impressed by his persistence. I think that I would have given up after all the times missing the hacker. I probably would have stopped my pursuit after my managers told me to stop. I admire him for continuing to follow the hacker even though his work did not seem to be amounting to much. One of the things I was most impressed with was his diligent record keeping. Later in the book he was told that there had been other situations with hackers, but that his was different because of how well he documented the hacker's actions. His careful notes and printouts were the key in getting governmental authorities to even have interest. This has caused me to be more diligent in keeping my own logbook. It was also very interesting to read his story because it happened so long ago and the technologies he references are so old. He also was working at a time when internet security was not really important to the government. I kept thinking of how differently the three-letter agencies would act today. I don't think the hacker would have made it into nearly as many databases as he did before being caught. I don't even think that it would have taken Cliff to find the hacker before the government knew he was there. It is also interesting to think that the agencies handle hackers the way they do today partly because of Cliff Stoll. This was a very interesting read and I would recommend it to anyone.

Shameless Stealing

Steve Jobs once quoted Picasso by saying that great artists steal. He then added that apple has always been shameless about stealing. Almost every major tech company in the past 20 years has fought off lawsuits regarding software theft. Most of the stories deal with close friends or coworkers ripping each other off. However, technology is a little different than it was back then. Recently a new vulnerability was discovered called the “Bash Bug,” a bug that can give a skilled hacker control of your computer. The days of stealing software from friends have become a day where hackers steal code through computer vulnerabilities from complete strangers. Although no reported cases have surfaced about people stealing software by the use of bash bug, it is very possible that in the 20 years this bug has existed someone used it. We may see a not-so-distant day where the people who are shameless about stealing and exploiting software are obtaining code through hacking. Article: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/09/29/cisco_splats_bash_bug_in_busy_swatting_season/