Published on February 23, 2005
It looks like Paris Hilton’s information wasn’t gathered through a complicated hacking campaign. There weren’t any T-Mobile server infiltrations, or hardware hijackings… but instead it looks like Paris Hilton’s information was exposed to the world because of her own carelessness. When you setup an online account at T-Mobile, they give you a “secret question” in the event you forget your password. Paris’ secret question was the name of her pet. Apparently, through her show, the name of her dog is very well known.
O’Reilly Networks has a story in which they talk about a screen capture they were sent that showed someone accessing Paris’s account this way earlier this week. T-Mobile has been alerted of Paris’s “account vulnerability” and has made appropriate changes in her account settings. How can someone who has been in the public’s eye so much (and rarely in a positive light) be so careless? Was it wrong for someone to leak all of her information out? Of course. But should someone in her position, who asks for constant exposure in the media, be more careful about securing personal accounts? You bet.
Published on February 23, 2005
Apple put up the new iPods this morning. The 4GB iPod mini gets a price drop down to $199, and a new 6GB iPod mini has taken over the $249 price-point. The battery capacity on these units has also increased to about 18 hours, a change that I have heard was sorely needed.
The 20GB iPod remains in the lineup without a price change, staying at $299. The big news, in my opinion, is the introduction of the 30GB iPod photo for $349, and a $150 price drop for the 60GB iPod photo, which is now $449.
Personally, as I’m currently looking for my next DAP, I was hoping for a completely new revision… a 5G iPod. This update consists mostly of new drive sizes, better batteries, and new prices. Not a wasted update for sure, as the line seems more continuous now, with less gaps in price-point. However, I’m still looking for things like gapless playback and cross-fading, things that understand aren’t possible with the current processor used in the iPod. My personal wants aside, this forms a killer lineup for Apple, and I’m sure that they’ll sell a ton more iPods. I imagine that this time most of the buyers will be current 2G and 3G iPod owners who have been waiting for the upgrade that will get them the most bang for their buck.
Published on February 22, 2005
I know I’m hawking this Freemacmini thing… but it’s for a good cause, my poor Mother (She’s currently fighting with her 5 year old Compaq running WindowsME). I understand that some people are afraid of signing up because of the fear of spam. Well if you want to sign up under me, let me know and I’ll give you two invitations to Gmail, so you can have a whole 1–gig account dedicated to spam, and one for your personal use. If you don’t need a personal Gmail account, I can just give you one invitation.
I’ve been through the Buyer’s Advantage $1 trial, and I got $20 in Circuit City gift cards in the mail, so I highly recommend that trial. Just leave a comment with an e-mail I can send the invites to (I recommend using a format like “address [at] isp [dot] com” to avoid spam spiders) and I’ll fire them off right away! My referral link is http://www.freeminimacs.com/?r=14254422. Thanks for reading.
Published on February 20, 2005
Engadget has a pretty entertaining story about Paris Hilton, someone I’m not particularly fond of. Apparently, it’s possible to remotely hack a Sidekick and pull all pictures, contacts, and memos off of the phone. There are a TON of celebrity phone numbers and e-mails in the contact database, and I’m sure they’re all going to have to change all of this info because of this. I’m sure a great majority of people would be most interested in the nude pictures of Paris Hilton. She appears to be pretty absurdly vain, as almost all of the pictures are her posing for her own camera. When she’s not posing, she’s topless kissing other girls… I just can’t imagine being so into yourself that the only pictures you take with your camera are of yourself.
The Engadget story can be found here, and a site hosting all of the data pulled off of the cellphone is found at www.hiltonhacked.com. (Warning, nudity)
So has the Sidekick been know to be vulnerable to hacking for a long time? This is the first I’ve heard of it, and I’d be very interested to know what steps T-Mobile may be taking to stop this from happening in the future. I’ve always considered the Sidekick a very cool device, but I’d be cautious of using one if hacking like this is commonplace.
[Update] It looks like this was actually done by a guy who had been able to get into T-Mobile’s system. He had been in there for more than a year, following a Secret Service agent’s investigation, as well as getting data from celebrities’ accounts. He didn’t actively “hack” into an individual phone. That makes me feel a lot better, as I was afraid that the Sidekick had some vulnerability. However, it was an attack on T-Mobile’s main system, not the device itself, that caused this information to get out. Of course with Paris Hilton’s previous internet popularity through her sex tapes and such, her leaked information seems to be getting the most attention.
[Update 2] I’m not really trying to follow this closely, so my facts aren’t all straight. I just read an article at Wired that cleared some things up. The guy I talk about above was involved in another incident, and apparently may not be responsible for the most recent “hacking”. The article even entertains the idea that Ms. Hilton set a weak password, the name of her dog, that may have been guessed by anyone who wanted to try logging into her T-Mobile account. Authorities are working hard to figure out what happened, so I’m sure we’ll learn soon enough if this is a security issue for all T-Mobile users, or just a life lesson for Paris Hilton.
Published on February 19, 2005
I got my $20 in Circuit City gift cards in the mail today from the Buyer’s Advantage $1/1-month trial I did for Freemacminis.com. Pretty sweet deal, considering that means I’ve gotten $19 profit from them. I still haven’t had anyone sign up under me, but this isn’t something I’m nagging everyone about, I’m just letting it sit. If someone signs up under me, great! They get to have free money too. However, I’m not depending on this or anything. I just think I’d be very nice to be able to give my Mother a new Mac mini to replace her old Compaq. Being a college student though, the Mac mini would have to be very little cost, or free for me.
So if you’d like some free money for Circuit City, please sign up for freemacmini’s under me with this link: http://www.freeminimacs.com/?r=14254422. The Buyer’s Advantage One Month Trial is what I recommend.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I’m going to look around the Circuit City website and see if anything catches my eye.
