November 4, 2013 archive

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On This Day In History November 4

Cross posted from The Stars Hollow Gazette

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future.

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

November 4 is the 308th day of the year (309th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 57 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter and his workmen discover a step leading to the tomb of King Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt.

The British Egyptologist Howard Carter (employed by Lord Carnarvon) discovered Tutankhamun’s tomb (since designated KV62) in the Valley of the Kings on November 4, 1922, near the entrance to the tomb of Ramesses VI, thereby setting off a renewed interest in all things Egyptian in the modern world. Carter contacted his patron, and on November 26 that year, both men became the first people to enter Tutankhamun’s tomb in over 3000 years. After many weeks of careful excavation, on February 16, 1923, Carter opened the inner chamber and first saw the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun. All of this was conveyed to the public by H. V. Morton, the only journalist allowed on the scene.

The first step to the stairs was found on November 4, 1922. The following day saw the exposure of a complete staircase. The end of November saw access to the Antechamber and the discovery of the Annex, and then the Burial Chamber and Treasury.

On November 29, the tomb was officially opened, and the first announcement and press conference followed the next day. The first item was removed from the tomb on December 27.

February 16, 1923 saw the official opening of the Burial Chamber, and April 5 saw the death of Lord Carnarvon.

On February 12, 1924, the granite lid of the sarcophagus was raised In April, Carter argued with the Antiquities Service, and left the excavation for the United States.

In January 1925, Carter resumed activities in the tomb, and on October 13, he removed the cover of the first sarcophagus; on October 23, he removed the cover of the second sarcophagus; on October 28, the team removed the cover of the final sarcophagus and exposed the mummy; and on November 11, the examination of the remains of Tutankhamun started.

Work started in the Treasury on October 24, 1926, and between October 30 and December 15, 1927, the Annex was emptied and examined.

On November 10, 1930, eight years after the discovery, the last objects were finally removed from the tomb of the long lost Pharaoh.

Late Night Karaoke

badBIOS

Meet “badBIOS,” the mysterious Mac and PC malware that jumps airgaps

by Dan Goodin, Ars Technica

Oct 31 2013, 10:07am EDT

Ruiu said he arrived at the theory about badBIOS’s high-frequency networking capability after observing encrypted data packets being sent to and from an infected laptop that had no obvious network connection with-but was in close proximity to-another badBIOS-infected computer. The packets were transmitted even when the laptop had its Wi-Fi and Bluetooth cards removed. Ruiu also disconnected the machine’s power cord so it ran only on battery to rule out the possibility that it was receiving signals over the electrical connection. Even then, forensic tools showed the packets continued to flow over the airgapped machine. Then, when Ruiu removed the internal speaker and microphone connected to the airgapped machine, the packets suddenly stopped.

With the speakers and mic intact, Ruiu said, the isolated computer seemed to be using the high-frequency connection to maintain the integrity of the badBIOS infection as he worked to dismantle software components the malware relied on.

“The airgapped machine is acting like it’s connected to the Internet,” he said. “Most of the problems we were having is we were slightly disabling bits of the components of the system. It would not let us disable some things. Things kept getting fixed automatically as soon as we tried to break them. It was weird.”

It’s too early to say with confidence that what Ruiu has been observing is a USB-transmitted rootkit that can burrow into a computer’s lowest levels and use it as a jumping off point to infect a variety of operating systems with malware that can’t be detected. It’s even harder to know for sure that infected systems are using high-frequency sounds to communicate with isolated machines. But after almost two weeks of online discussion, no one has been able to rule out these troubling scenarios, either.

“It looks like the state of the art in intrusion stuff is a lot more advanced than we assumed it was,” Ruiu concluded in an interview. “The take-away from this is a lot of our forensic procedures are weak when faced with challenges like this. A lot of companies have to take a lot more care when they use forensic data if they’re faced with sophisticated attackers.”

Well, this story has been making the rounds recently and it’s my sad duty as a Computer Professional to tell you it’s theoretically possible.

Anything except a write once, disk at a time CD ROM, DVD, or Blue Ray can become infected.

Standard Industry Practice for virus removal is to take an ‘air gapped’ machine fresh from the box (and by machine I mean motherboard, video card, memory, power supply, case, monitor, mouse, and keyboard- that’s it) and a brand new hard drive, then install a fresh Operating System from scratch, add the strongest anti-virus software you happen to have, and finally scan and fix (hopefully) the media you think is infected.

In reality you work with whatever crappy spare parts you have on hand (after all, you may end up with an infected machine and have to re-do everything).

Back in the early days of flash BIOSes I and some of my colleagues argued that it was the perfect place to put a virus and therefore a very bad idea.  Today you can hardly buy a motherboard without one.

Likewise driver and Operating System updates require an Internet connection and then you’re connected to a source of possible infection.

I haven’t independently verified sonic transmission, but I’ve used an analog modem and it’s the same thing in principle.

So if it doesn’t already exist just like Tom Clancy’s Debt of Honor it soon will.

Scary huh?

See No Evil

Adapted from Rant of the Week at The Stars Hollow Gazette

The Word – See No Evil

Allegations surface that the NSA spied on the Vatican, and Representative Mike Rogers defends the agency via circular logic.

Rep. Mike Rogers Angrily Defends Bathroom Spycam

by Ken White, Techdirt

Representative Mike Rogers (R-Michigan) was defiant today in the face of accusations that he had installed a small digital camera in the women’s bathroom in his office at the Capitol.

“This is just politics,” said the ten-term Congressman. “I would argue the fact that we haven’t had any women come forward with any specificity arguing that their privacy has been violated, clearly indicates, in ten years, clearly indicates that something must be doing right. Somebody must be doing something exactly right.”

When reporters asked how women would know to complain – the spycam, funded by the government, was expertly hidden – Rogers asserted that was the point. “You can’t have your privacy violated if you don’t know your privacy is violated ,” said Rogers.

Rogers went on to explain that the nation’s Capitol – which has housed figures like former Congressman Bob Filner and former Senator Bob Packwood – presents known dangers to women, and that the spycam is calculated to make certain they are protected from those dangers. “If the women knew exactly what that spycam was about, they would be applauding and popping champagne corks. It’s a good thing. it keeps the women safe. It keeps the Capitol safe,” Rogers asserted.

Rogers then abruptly concluded the interview, threatening to sue reporters if they wrote about it.

So, by Rep. Rogers premise, if a person is knocked unconscious and raped, it’s not a rape because you didn’t know about it at the time. Right. What a pig.

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