Less Radiation

Acars is the wireless data system that planes use to relay information about their general state of health to ground stations. In a scenario like that with Flight 447, it can give clues to the sequence of events that build-up to the tragic loss of the plane,crew & passengers.

Acars transmits data at 1200 baud over a 131.725MHz radio link. It can be received on a regular PC using the headphone socket on an Airband radio connected up to the Line-In socket on your PC’s soundcard. You then need to download Wacars software (the Wacars site also contains a very thorough description of how the system operates).

If you don’t want to go to these lengths to see some Acars data you can go to this Virtual Air France site instead – it shows markers with flight details overlaid on a Google Map (it even lists the captain’s name!).

I read some time ago that the Americans were pushing to get the Acars system updated to use some digital encrypted transmission standard, i’m not sure how far this got? At least the current system is transparent!

Here’s a science update from the Powerwatch website. Fifteen different studies finding real effects on human beings from cellphones & masts. From decreased fertility to brain disturbances, they’re all in this round-up.

Remember, it’s not just cellphones you need to dump. Your Dect cordless home phone & that pesky WiFi Router need to go too (just use a wired router).

Here’s the link

The Times has an interesting article today about Barack Obama’s Blackberry.

Apparently the president of the free world loves his Blackberry, but those sneaky spooks at the Langley puzzle-palace have been unhappy about his Blackberry’s security since he became president (I bet they paid very close attention to it before he won the election, funny some people aren’t they).

For the past few months he’d been using a Windows-based Sectera Edge Smartphone, which costs $3500 & is practically indestructable – it’s also fully NSA approved… Apparently the user can switch between secure & non-secure mode at the push of a button, but why do that? Surely that leaves room for user error? ‘Nuke Tehran now, oh shit I thought I was in secure mode’…

Anyway, the free world can sleep much easier now as Obama has taken delivery of a Blackberry 8830 international model (a snip at just $550 off contract). It comes with custom software from Genesis Key Inc that encrypts everything. This souped-up model has been dubbed the ‘BarackBerry’, and thoughtfully it’s been decided that his close family will also be given them.

Incredibly, El Presidente may have to wait up to 50 minutes for his push-emails to arrive at the BarackBerry – as the NSA will be scanning them for malware! (Like it really takes more than a few seconds to do this).

I suppose we should be grateful that the new president at least has opposable thumbs & a functioning pre-frontal cortex… (Even I  don’t read kids’ books upside down, so why should George Bush get away with it? Hillbilly.)

New Scientist magazine reported last week that the US military have got a prototype of a new weapon. It’s a high-power laser that ionises the air between the weapon and target, the plasma channel this creates then acts as a waveguide for a stream of microwave radiation, this radiation then destroys the electronic ignition/trigger system in a vehicle or bomb. Clever stuff indeed, we’re just glad we’re not operating the bloody thing!

On a brighter note, this week’s New Scientist reports that the Obama administration are getting rid of some of the more pie-in-the-sky defence ideas. Apparently they’ve given up on some of the more wild ‘Star-Wars’ defence shield ideas. The massive-laser-mounted-on-a-plane idea has been shelved for now.

Britain’s six largest power companies are to create a new body to facilitate the installation of 26 million new electricity meters & 20 million new gas meters. Starting at the end of 2010.

These new meters will presumably have built-in 3G wireless Modems which will allow for closer monitoring of our electricity usage. Thousands of meter reading jobs will be lost.
Benefits could be numerous too. Discounts will be given to people running washing machines, tumble dryers and dishwashers during the night. It should be pretty easy to have a web page showing your energy consumption – which would be interesting! It’s also hoped that it would encourage people to go for Solar Panels, Wind Turbines & Domestic CHP Boilers.

Downsides: They reckon the scheme will cost £10 Billion to implement, and £100 million a year to run. And guess who’ll be paying…

If the scheme can smooth out the electricity generation curve it will be worthwhile, and it’s no doubt the future of grid-based supply. It would however be nice to think that most of us will be selling our surplus electricity back to the grid by the time this project is finished, from solar panels on our rooftops.

Photos from the GSMA Mobile World Congress in Barcelona 16-02-2009.

Those crazy Spanish protester dudes sure don’t look happy!

See the pics here :

http://www.next-up.org/Newsoftheworld/GSM_World_Congress_Barcelona.php#1

Powerwatch 15/01/09 Reports that the French government are considering tough new laws for mobile advertising & use. The French government acknowledge real health risks associated with mobile phone use (and by implication WiFi, Bluetooth, Dect, Tetra as well). Très bon!

As you’ll see from our last post – Dect is now completely insecure. Over the last two weeks I’ve been doing some more research, and it seems like around 50% of Dect phones transmit without using the optional encryption.

This means that someone with just a Laptop, Com-On-Air wireless Dect PCMCIA card & Ubuntu Linux can now monitor all those conversations you have. Imagine how much information you could be providing for identity thieves!

If you use telephone banking or use your credit card to pay for goods over the phone, then you really should go back to using a regular wired home phone for these calls at least (or just use your proper mobile, as these are still secure).

If you’re fortunate enough to own a DECT phone that does encrypt (list), then you are still at some risk, the reason: the data-stream passing between your phone & base-station can still be recorded – but at this moment it can’t be turned into a conversation. Once more malicious hackers start to understand the current software, then eventually brute force hacks for the encrypted calls will appear – and when they do your old calls could be dusted-off & decrypted.

Worryingly, it seems that Dect is used for controlling traffic lights & some wireless credit card terminals. So these will likely become targets too.

This hack originated in Germany and their equivalent of the BBC’s Panorama have already done a piece on it. The equivalent of the UK’s OFCOM have already issued advice to Germans that they should stop telephone banking & giving out credit card numbers over cordless Dect phones.

The equipment still takes a fair bit of computer knowledge to get working, and the PCMCIA cards are only available in limited numbers – so it might not become an epidemic-level problem. The Dosch Amand Com-On-Air type II PCMCIA cards which were selling for €40 two weeks ago are now changing hands for €200+ on eBay!

Frontal21 (like BBC’s Panorama in the UK) website piece.

Video of Frontal21 episode

If you want to experiment you can buy a DECT card for your PC from www.ebay.de (that’s the German eBay). Look for vendor arc-computer2 & you could pickup a type III PCMCIA or PCI card for around €25 – you should pay €10 for UK carriage if in doubt.

Both the PCI card and type III PCMCIA card aren’t yet supported in the dect_cli software, but they soon will be. Once supported they’ll rocket in value like the type II cards already have – as these items are no longer manufactured & stock of the product is limited.

Here’s a recent screengrab from eBay.de – notice the joker selling a signed-by-the-hackers type II card for €2500.

Siemens Gigaset Dect Security – Read the press release.

Looking through the Security News on TheRegister.co.uk this evening I was surprised to see a report that DECT has now been hacked.

If you didn’t know already, DECT is the technology used by the current generation of cordless home phones & baby monitors. So now, not only is it probably bad for you, it’s also insecure!

The researchers reverse-engineered a standard Com-On-Air PCMCIA DECT card – which is normally used in a Windows laptop to bridge/ link DECT phones to Asterisk VOIP/SIP networks – and demonstrated their Linux-based sniffer at 25C3 hackers congress.

The PCMCIA Class II card costs just €40 from www.arc-computer.de (in Germany, you can buy one via their eBay shop). You will need a PC running Linux to do anything useful with it, and really it’s just a proof-of-concept tool right now. But watch this space.

Read more about it:

http://events.ccc.de/congress/2008/Fahrplan/events/2937.en.html

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/31/dect_hack/

https://dedected.org/cgi-bin/trac.cgi

I recently bought a Sony PS3 for my son & I to use. I’m grateful to note that if you use wired USB controllers & a wired Ethernet connection it’s an Electrosmog free experience.

I ordered up a 2nd  DUALSHOCK WIRELESS controller (which I use wired) and was puzzled by the document that comes with it. It states that the use of WLAN is governed in Italy & Norway. Wow, I think, this IS progress!

I didn’t investigate the Italy story yet, but the Norway angle is fascinating. The instructions state that the PS3 game controller is not to be used within a 20km area around the centre of Ny-Alesund, Svalbard. What possible harm can a controller with a range of maybe 3 metres do 20km away ?

I briefly imagined that this must be some kind of forward thinking eco-town. But it isn’t, it’s a research station of some kind. You can read more about it via WikiPedia