Sleepless in Midland

Reporter Sharyl Attkisson’s computer breached -- it could happen to anyone

James Rosen of Fox News was in the spotlight recently for being the target of Eric Holder's Department of Justice email grabs. He probably wasn't the only reporter targeted at Fox News.

But this one at CBS really is intriguing. Sharyl Attkisson is a reporter there who was actively pursuing the mysteries of Fast and Furious and the Benghazi terrorist attack. The Obama administration has made it clear they want both of those topics to disappear. Now we learn that her office and home computers were mysteriously hacked. See this from CBSnews.com Sharyl Attkisson on computer hacking: "I'm outraged".

"The unauthorized party accessed the CBS computer at my home on multiple occasions, and specifically in December, they used sophisticated methods to cover their tracks, meaning they tried to remove the indications of their previous unauthorized activity," she said. "We're not prepared to talk more about the who's and who did this today, but the intruder is considered highly skilled and used very sophisticated methods."

Emphasis mine. More:

Speaking of the invasion of the computers, Attkisson said, "When any unauthorized party comes into the home of an American -- whether it's a private citizen or a journalist -- and searches through their computers, inserting or removing material for whatever their reason is, it's a very serious and disturbing matter.

"I'm outraged that anyone would do such a thing and CBS News takes all of this very seriously."

That's good news that CBS News is taking it seriously. It was only last month that Attkisson was in jeopardy of losing her job over her aggressive coverage of the Obama admin. See Top Obama official’s brother is president of CBS News, may drop reporter over Benghazi coverage. Maybe the prospect of a government spy job on her made it too untimely to give her the pink slip.

In any event, the problem with these sophisticated spyware programs, the FBI's CIPAV for example, is that they are undetectable by the off-the-shelf anti virus programs. And the really frightening aspect about this whole thing is the possibility that we all may have that type spyware lurking in our hard drives just waiting for the command to forward it to the NSA, the FBI, Eric Holder, Obama, China, or even the kid down the street.

Attkisson and CBS should do us all a favor and publish a way for us ordinary slobs to sniff out spyware like that on our own computers.

Texas DMV sells our private info

We've all probably received a telemarketing call from the seller of an extended auto warranty who knew exactly what make, year, and model of car we own. The one I received the other day ended after the telemarketer refused to disclose the name of the city from which she was calling. They knew exactly where I was but didn't want me to know where they were. Maybe that makes me a stalker for asking. Or maybe they were using my information illegally and didn't want to face too many questions.

They must have bought my information from the Texas DMV. CBS 11 DFW explains how easy the information is to get and even provides a link for a downloadable xlsx spreadsheet listing the names and addresses of the companies that bought the database in 2012. A list of the companies with Midland, Texas, addresses will follow in the addendum to this post.

The federal statute, Driver's Privacy Protection Act of 1994, 18 USC CHAPTER 123, is a prohibition with many exceptions. And a loose definition of the "driver safety" exception is probably the one the warranty seller was relying on.

Notice all the car dealers on the list below. One can imagine the sales representative typing in your plate number as you pull into the lot then viewing the DMV information about you as she watches you scrutinize the window sticker of that nice new BMW. But if the dealership subscribes to all the information available about us from private companies they probably know us as well as our own mothers. Or the NSA.

Addendum: The full list of the companies on CBS 11's list is quite long. For a sampling, here are the ones showing a Midland, Texas, address.

Action Wrecker Service
B & B Wrecker & Recovery
Basic Energy Services LP
Basin Auto Sales
Bi-Rite Auto Sales Inc
BMW of the Perian [sic] Basin
City of Midland / Code Administration
Farmers Insurance Group
GDR Investment Corp dba Golden Eagle Motors
Hubbard Certified
Linro Investments
Midland College Police Department
My Community Federal Credit Union
Nissan of Midland
Rogers Ford Sales Inc
Texas Car Company
Toyota of Midland
United Auto Sales

The bugs (bacteria) on your cell phone

Close up photos of bacteria are usually both fascinating and disturbing. And this is no exception. Dailymail.co.uk has a photo spread showing what was growing in Petri dishes a few days after students were asked to press their mobile phones into them. Click to see the photos.

Disclaimer: Sleepless in Midland assumes no responsibility for nausea, hypochondria, paranoia, contract cancellation, unfriending, or any other situation resulting from looking at the photos.

Tips for stalkers, robbers, assassins and terrorists -- explore Geotagging

Sorry about that teaser title. This isn't a tip for bad guys, this is for the good guys: DON'T use geotagging on your smartphone. Cheryl Rodewig explains it in Geotagging poses security risks at Army.mil, and it's a warning that the GPS feature in the typical camera phone records the user's location, and some social media services publish that information. Excerpt:

Someone with the right software and the wrong motivation could download the photo and extract the coordinates from the metadata.

Warren cited a real-world example from 2007. When a new fleet of helicopters arrived with an aviation unit at a base in Iraq, some Soldiers took pictures on the flightline, he said. From the photos that were uploaded to the Internet, the enemy was able to determine the exact location of the helicopters inside the compound and conduct a mortar attack, destroying four of the AH-64 Apaches.

Geotagging leads to body bagging. It's the 21st century version of "Loose lips sink ships."

Needless to say, there are plenty of reasons to be wary on the domestic side as well. There's no good reason to broadcast to strangers the fact that no one is home.

Via nakedsecurity.