BlackBerry Employees Threatened Over London Riots

Hackers have made it clear to RIM BlackBerry that releasing details about the London Riots to the authorities will result in them 'regretting it'.

BlackBerry Messenger, the private group messaging service installed on all BB devices has been widely accused as one of the triggering pieces of tech helping to enflame the London Riots. The service has boomed with popularity as unlike Twitter and Facebook all the messages sent are private. The media or Police can't do a quick Google search to find out what people are saying and where it's all going down. A group calling themselves 'Team Poison' would rather RIM kept it that way.

The hack appeared briefly on the company blog: blogs.blackberry.com reading “Dear Rim; You Will _NOT_ assist the UK Police because if u do innocent members of the public who were at the wrong place at the wrong time and owned a blackberry will get charged for no reason at all”. The hackers claim to hold information about RIM employees and are prepared to publish them online. They continued “if u assist the police, we _WILL_ make this information public and pass it onto rioters…. do you really want a bunch of angry youths on your employees doorsteps? Think about it…. and don’t think that the police will protect your employees, the police can’t protect themselves let alone protect others”.

This comes after BlackBerry released a statement claiming the company is “engaged with the authorities to assist in any way we can”. I'm sure that the Police would love that to mean giving them a feed of all BB Messages, in reality I doubt it will be anything like that.

Other social networks seem to mainly being used for good. The @riotcleaup twitter profile and riotcleanup.co.uk have been helping people find local areas to meet up and help with the clean up operation after last night. The majority of people seem to be disgusted by the actions taking place. Maybe I'm just not following all the hooligans though. 

@techByJack

Firesheep your FireFox to Hack Facebook

I'm all against hacking and using exploits for personal gain. However, I'd like you to know that there is a FireFox extension called Firesheep that enables you to hack into anyone's Facebook account if you are in an unprotected wireless hotspot. What Firesheep allows you to do is to use cached information that is stored within that wireless hotspot to enable you to access their photos, personal information, etc., but they cannot change your password.

This video from HouseHoldHacker provides more information:

You may not want to use a public wireless hotspot that isn't protected now. Before you stop taking your laptop or iPad out to a local coffee shop, you may want to consider using a MIFI or mobile WIFI device that is protected and uses 3G to connect to the web. It's inexpensive, very mobile and can save you from giving your personal information to a complete stranger. 

In the UK you can pick one up from 3 for as little as £70 that includes 3GB of data off contract. In the US, you can pick up a MIFI for $99 on Verizon with a 2 year contract. It may sound expensive but you'll have mobile broadband where ever you are and it's a great deal if you travel a lot.

Stay protected and don't go spreading your information to people you don't know!

Twitter

Trick or Tweet?

So basically if you have seen the trending hash tag #treat on twitter then you must be wondering what its for. Well the brains down at Twitter HQ have relesed some fun little tricks just for this fattening, ghoulish day of the year. So what you want to do is go to www.twitter.com, (this trick won't work in 3rd party clients) and then in your tweet entry box only type #treat thats it nothing els just the treat hashtag and in just a few seconds your home page should look something like this,

(Click thumbnail for full view)

 Now if you enter the hash tag, #trick then the end result would be.

(Click thumbnail for full view)

Now note that this will go away in a few seconds and when it is like this no other users on your page will be able to see this. So guys I hope you have fun with this, and also I hope all of you have a safe and fun halloween! Happy trick or twee-AHEM-treating.

-Nolan

Keep on Geeking!

Learn more about the geek wire @ www.thegeekwire.net

A SMS Hijack to every iPhone in the World

Receiving a text message with a single square character on Thursday could cause you to tread into deep panic and I would suggest shutting down your iPhone, immediately. 

Using a flaw the researchers have found in the iPhone's handling of text messages they can send a series of invisible SMS messages that can give a hacker complete power over any of the iPhone's functions without you knowing. All of this includes dialing, messaging, app functions, picture ability, and even theft of your contact lists numbers. 

So far the only way you can stop this from happening to yourself is to shut down your phone till the end of Thursday night, something most people are not willing to do. Apple has been notified of this situation countless times however the company hasn't stated or released a patch meaning according to Apple they are safe.

The SMS bug is just one of the many researchers are looking out now in terms of the iPhone's security backdoors that Apple has left open. This was found in the iPhone's code that a private developer has found meaning he must know what he is doing. The vulnerability level according to the developer is a 10 meaning anyone that knows what they are doing could take over every iPhone in the world. 

These bugs are not only in the iPhone though however in the Windows Mobile platform phones as well as the Android, however those companies have listened and have patched each of there phones to date.

- Anthony from TheCreativeOne Social Blog

My Youtube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/DIYTechnology