Adobe WebCam privacy invasion flaw in Flash - Fixed?

Adobe has fixed a privacy invasion flaw in Flash that allowed remote spies to turn on a computer user’s webcam via a rigged web site.


The vulnerability, discovered and documented by researcher Feross Aboukhadijeh, is a variation of the clickjacking technique and could be used to turn on a webcam and microphone direct from a web site without the user’s knowledge or consent.

In this video, Aboukhadijeh documents the attack scenario:



Adobe says the issue is now fixed:

Adobe is aware of a report describing a clickjacking issue related to the online Flash Player Settings Manager. We have resolved the issue with a change to the Flash Player Settings Manager SWF file hosted on the Adobe website. No user action or Flash Player product update are required.

If, like me, you are paranoid about these kinds of bugs activating your webcam, do the smart thing and put a sticky over the camera.  Matter solved.

The New New Thing in IT: Consumerisation

One of the newest trends in IT is consumerisation, and if you don't already know about it, you soon will. It's the idea that new technologies, the cool stuff people want, will become available for the consumer market before they become available for the business market. What it means to business is that people -- employees, customers, partners -- will access business networks from wherever they happen to be, with whatever hardware and software they have. Maybe it'll be the computer you gave them when you hired them. Maybe it'll be their home computer, the one their kids use. Maybe it'll be their cell phone or PDA, or a computer in a hotel's business center. Your business will have no way to know what they're using, and -- more importantly -- you'll have no control.

In this kind of environment, computers are going to connect to each other without a whole lot of trust between them. Untrusted computers are going to connect to untrusted networks. Trusted computers are going to connect to untrusted networks. The whole idea of "safe computing" is going to take on a whole new meaning -- every man for himself. A corporate network is going to need a simple, dumb, signature-based antivirus product at the gateway of its network. And a user is going to need a similar program to protect his computer.

Bottom line: antivirus software is neither necessary nor sufficient for security, but it's still a good idea. It's not a panacea that magically makes you safe, nor is it is obsolete in the face of current threats. As countermeasures go, it's cheap, it's easy, and it's effective. I haven't dumped my antivirus program, and I have no intention of doing so anytime soon.

Flocking behaviour lands on social networking sites - USATODAY.com

'Flocking' behaviour lands on social networking sites - USATODAY.com

The interconnected web of our friends, family, neighbours and acquaintances may dominate our lives more than we know.

They've always been there, making up our social support systems but now, largely thanks to the burgeoning popularity of online social networks like Facebook, researchers are discovering what a powerful influence our connections - both online and off - really have over our lives.

"Those of us who study social networks believe they matter and that things do spread along social networks," says Claude Fischer, a sociology professor at the University of California-Berkeley.

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