PC Advisor: WPA wireless security cracked in 60 seconds

The WEP standard for encrypting wifi networks has long since been easily crackable. Now the next ‘uncrackable’ standard, WPA, can be cracked in 60 seconds. Expect more and better automatic cracking tools to follow, just like the WEP tools like aircrack-ng, wesside, etc. So apparently, WPA2 is now the gold standard, the one to beat. I’m guessing its only a matter of time.

Additionally, its now getting as easy to crack the GSM encryption used in GSM mobile phones, which is the most popular standard around the world: Huge GSM flaw allows hackers to listen in on voice calls

Its really time to start thinking about network security differently. Laptops are becoming ever more common, more and more phones have wifi, etc. Instead of trying to create a safe network, instead we need to think of our computers and devices as an island in rough seas. If you are smart about it, and follow good practices like turning off any network service that you are not using, you can even run a Windows box directly on the internet without problems.

I am a devoted user of NeXTStep, ahem, which I started using in 1994 and still use to this day. Except now, NeXTStep is called Apple Mac OS X. I am also a vocal advocate for Free Software. This may be a contradiction, many have pointed out. While I wish I had the programming skills to code everything I need in GNUStep and Étoilé and then ditch Mac OS X, I do not. So I have chosen the slower, incremental route towards full freedom. Using this very familiar environment keeps me productive while I am writing code for free software like Pure Data and Arduino. The key part here is being vigilant that I do not slip back towards proprietary software.

Even though there are many good, proprietary tools included in Mac OS X, I found even better free tools. So I already install lots of free software as my main tools instead of the proprietary ones from Apple; things like Aquamacs (XCode), Camino (Safari), Adium (iChat), VLC and mplayer (Quicktime Player), SSHKeychain (Leopard SSH Agent), Meteorologist (Dashboard Weather Widget), etc. Plus it turns out that
Apple’s TextEdit is free software.

I started using iTunes in 2001 when I got my first Apple computer, an old iMac that someone threw away, and have used it as my main media player since then. Now I have happily replaced iTunes with Songbird. I don’t have an iPod or an iPhone, and I don’t buy from the iTunes store, and Apple is tightening down the ratchets on iTunes more and more. While Songbird suffers a bit with basic usability, like key commands and things like that, its much quicker. The open architecture means I can do things that Apple prevented me from doing before, like connecting to a shared music collection by IP address, or automatically downloading album art cover without using the iTunes Store. There are already an amazing array of plugins for Songbird, and its getting better quite rapidly. There are even numerous stores in Songbird to buy from, you don’t have to be locked into Apple.

Now I am eagerly following the Étoilé project because they sound like they are truly building upon and improving the ideas of NeXTStep, unlike Apple which seems more interested in adding ever more eye candy effects and tie-ins to the iTunes Store.

Humans are creatures that have proven quite amazingly adept at survival. Starting from a small area of the world, we have spread to pretty much everywhere in the world, and have adapted to drastically different conditions with no substantial physical differences between us, when you look at the grand scheme of things. We have adapted to all of the different environments mostly by behavior rather than by evolving physical traits. In cold climates, we make clothing. In dry climates, we create irrigation, in violent climates we create weapons and defenses, in watery climates we fish. It goes on and on.

So it seems to me pretty clear that we can consider most of human behavior to be a form of adaptation to a given environment. In particular, it follows that crime is an adaptation to a given environment and set of conditions. Take the existence of gangs. They cause a lot of violence and are prevent in violent conditions. When you live in a violent, crime-ridden area, joining a gang will give you certain kinds of protection, and often gangs make sure that you want protection. Both sides of that equation are adaptive behaviors for survival for a given set of conditions.

Selling drugs is another. When you see the choice between working hard at a crappy job for little money versus making quite a bit of money quite easily, it seems pretty attractive to work selling drugs. Or take mugging or robbery. If you have little money, yet live in a place in the world were you are near people who have a many times more money than you, then mugging becomes an attractive option. A common salary for a maid in many parts of the world is about $250/month. You could mug a couple tourists every month and make the same amount of money, except the maid has worked about 300 hours in that month, and the mugger has worked a whole lot less.

So given this line of sense, it seems quite natural that countries that have a large gap between rich and poor would therefore also have high crime rates. The USA is a decent example to start with, there is a pretty wide gap and a pretty high crime rate. Next look at Japan, Iceland, Austria, Sweden, etc. and you see a narrow gap and low crime rates. Then look at Latin America and you see big gaps and high crime rates.

This makes a lot more sense to me as a root of crime than stories of evil people. But this is of course one of many factors, but one that does not get the coverage it deserves.