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T-Mobile Report on the Hilton Sidekick Hacking

SECURITY ALERT

Last week hackers broke into the T-mobile server and stole personal information from esteemed actress Paris Hiltons’ account-- including celebrity phone lists, chat transcripts and personal notes. "T-Mobile's computer forensics and security team is actively investigating to determine how Ms. Hilton's information was obtained. This includes the possibility that someone had access to one of Ms. Hilton's devices and/or knew her account password," Zidar said, cleverly casting all blame on the actress.

As it turns, her password was “paris”. Here’s a small sample of what leaked out:

Paris: so wats going on
Nichole: just watching us on tv
Paris: do I look hot
Nichole totally. love that pink sweater
Paris: I hate it
Nichole yeah, me too
Paris: it only cost me 5 thousand,
no more dolce for me
Snoop yo dog, wat up
Paris digging my sidekick
Snoop: I’m doing my own laundry
Paris: that’s so hot
Hillary: hi everyone how are you all doing

Police have apprehended a suspect and detained him for questioning. Law officials are keeping his identity confidential, being that the suspect is only 5 years old. When asked to change her password to something more difficult to decipher, Paris replied, “I’ll change it to ‘hilton’”, adding, “but this time I’ll use all capital letters.” “Good thinking,” answered her lifetime bestfriend.

With a question of security now on everyone’s mind, at least if you read the first part of this sentence, I decided to find out how easily our personal accounts could be accessed and spent the better part of last Saturday evening using my “computer hacking skills” to break into Jon Smalls directory. The following information is for demonstrative purposes only, please don’t distribute or use in any illegal manner:

Phone Contacts
The Boss (240) 555-8601
The Guy I Boss over (240) 555-8611
Mom (xxx) xxx-xxxx
Best Friend (xxx) xxx-xxxx
Travel Agent (xxx) xxx-xxxx
Madame Mings House of Delights ?

As I’ve just clearly illustrated, it is infact very easy to gain unlawful access to private information. When asked about this gaping security loophole, T-mobile officials in the Beltsville office pointed out a multi-step approach, entitled “The Big 5”.

Linksys WRT54G Router Setup Adventures

I set up a Linksys wireless router over the weekend. Everything I had read led me to believe the installation would be a breeze and take about 5 minutes. That was not exactly the case.

I had just set up DSL-Lite on a 1999 Dell P3. The PC has 128 M of RAM and a 6 GB hard drive. The DSL modem is a Westell (the little white one.) I ran the installation wizard. I was surprised at how slow it was between steps. It seemed to almost crawl and hang-up between phases (such as verifying the internet connection, etc.) Finally, it got to the point where I had to disconnect the modem and connect the router. It was at that point that it failed.

I stepped through the menus on the wizard. First it asked for the host and domain name. Then it asked for the type of service (802.11b, g, or mixed), the SSID, and some other stuff. Then it asked if I wanted to enable security. Finally it summarized the settings and asked if I wanted to confirm (yes/no) or exit.

The first thing that was wrong was the service type. Even though I selected "Mixed" the confirmation screen was showing that I selected "B-only." I stepped back a couple screens and verified I had the right selection on the pull-down menu (I did.) I went forward to the conf. screen and it still said "B-only." I chose "Yes" to confirm my settings.

The software appeared to go into a hang-state and then told me several minutes later that the router could not be found. It asked if I wanted to power off the modem and try again (I did.) The same thing happened. I tried the wizard several more times with the same results.

I did find a work-around to the services selection. It turns out that if you choose "B-only" the software will set the router to "Mixed" mode. Funny huh?

I gave up on this for a couple of days while busy doing some other work. Finally Sunday morning I was determined not to let a little thing like a router get the better of me. I was getting an RF signal and it was recognizing the ports and internet so I was convinced it was an IP setting conflict.

I searched on the internet for advice and finally found an obscure note on a sub-page of the linksys customer support site. It said to "check the IP address in the router and make sure it is not 198.162.1.1." Now this is frustrating for a couple of reasons. First, the setup wizard sets the IP address to 198.162.1.1. Second, the wizard never mentions that this is not right.

The obscure page said to manually (through the internet settings page) set the IP address of the router to 198.162.2.1. I made the change from 1 to 2 and guess what? The internet sprang to life on my screen.

My frustration is that the setup wizard did not correct this problem. Second that it was so hard to find what is really a pretty simple answer.

Pink Rubber Bands

I guess I was naive to think people would not take this whole rubber wristband thing, which was originally a very noble effort, and turn it into a fashion enterprise Pink Susan Komen Wristbands

When Nike and Lance first developed the concept I was intrigued. I tried to order some of the first ones and they were on back order. When I finally received my shipment in August I wore mine with pride. I gave out several and told everyone where they could get their own and what the purpose of the foundation was.

I was first disgusted when I went into a shopping mall around Christmas time and saw a cart vendor hocking them for about $5 each. Next a Carolina Panthers player started selling poor-quality latex bands. Then I started seeing other stores (Hallmark, 7-eleven, etc.) hocking their own version of the bands for their own charities.

I think it has cheapened the meaning of Lance's crusade. Livestrong was unique and it was a unique way to honor Lance, his incredible achievements, and the incredible work his foundation does. The uniqueness was what made it so special.

I have no problem with other charities raising funds but why did they have to steal the concept of the rubber bands? I guess it is the American way isn't it?

The Iraq elections

There are 150,000 US and coalition troops in a country of 25 million. That is a ratio of .006 soldiers per citizen. Therefore most of the citizens are probably already on our side. The problem is that there is a minority of extremists, that have a lot of ordinance, that are opposed to our presence. Actually, their actions demonstrate that what they are really against is freedom.

That is why they've stepped up their attacks in anticipation of the election. They are terrified about the Iraqi people learning what it is like to vote, to actually have a voice in their country.

It is really amazing to think about it. In less than three years, two countries in the Middle East have gone from dictatorships to having free elections. No, the elections have a lot of details to work out. But the mere fact that there are elections at all is just amazing.

These people are where America was during the end of the 18th century! Back then only men who owned property could vote. Now we have a democracy that is a model for the future of our species!

It is exciting to think about what the future holds for the Middle East. I look forward to witnessing the changes during my lifetime and envious about not being around to see what it will be like a hundred years from now!

CNN.com - Woman falls to death?attempting balcony handstand - Jan 18, 2005

CNN.com - Woman falls to death?attempting balcony handstand - Jan 18, 2005

MobileTracker - 35 qualify for FCC spectrum auction

MobileTracker - 35 qualify for FCC spectrum auction