Mediaboss Marketing

You'll need more than just a key to drive this Hemi.

Image: Dodge

In an era of keyless entry, connected cars and computerized everything, you'd think that car theft would be a thing of the past. Alas, as cars have gone more high-tech, so have car thieves.

Thanks to clever black market hardware, it's possible for thieves to spoof the electronic codes that wireless key fobs use to unlock and start cars. It's not easy to do, but it's common enough to be a concern, especially with high-end vehicles.

To discourage this, Dodge has taken a page out of the IT security handbook and will now offer two-factor authentication in Charger and Challenger models equipped with its most powerful 392-cubic inch V8 and its supercharged 6.2-liter V8. Even better, this feature isn't restricted to only newly sold vehicles: It'll be available as a free software update to all eligible 2015-2021 products.

Here's how it works.

SEE: Social engineering: A cheat sheet for business professionals (free PDF) (TechRepublic)

Once installed, the software will limit vehicle engines to an idle speed of around 675 rpm upon initial startup, generating just 2.8 horsepower and 22lb-ft of torquea tiny fraction of what they are capable of producing. They'll be able to be driven, but at close to walking pace and nothing faster.

However, once a driver enters their four-digit security code, the full power of the car will be unlocked. That means that without the code, would-be car thieves won't even be able to make a quick getaway even if they have a spoofed key or the original.

"Though statistically rare, car thieves have targeted the high-horsepower Dodge muscle cars, and we want the Dodge 'Brotherhood' to know we're taking quick action and covering their backs," explains Dodge CEO Tim Kuniskis in a press release.

This isn't the first time that Dodge has used clever software to introduce features to an automobile. A few years ago, it rolled out an update to the Dodge Charger Pursuit police car that used the built-in ultrasonic parking sensors to alert officers if someone tried to sneak up behind their car to catch them unaware.

Image: Dodge

More vehicles will soon be incorporating digital key technology, which should help prevent auto theft from key spoofing as well. The next-generation BMW iDrive includes something called "Digital Key Plus" that uses ultra-wideband tech in late-model iPhones to securely authenticate both phone and car to unlock doors and drive, and its key fobs will do the same, making spoofing considerably more difficult.

Then there are digital connectivity and app-based solutions like GM's OnStar, the Volvo On Call app, or other similar apps available from most car companies these days that allow doors to be unlocked remotely from an app. Of course, these work differently as they are connecting to the car via the cloud, but it's still an interesting non-traditional way to unlock a car.

It remains to be seen whether these wireless systems will replace key fobs entirely someday.

Strengthen your organization's IT security defenses by keeping abreast of the latest cybersecurity news, solutions, and best practices. Delivered Tuesdays and Thursdays

Visit link:
Dodge is using two-factor authentication to secure its most powerful muscle cars - TechRepublic

Read&Write is a big confidence booster for anyone who needs a little support with their readingand writing, at school or in the workplace.

Millions of students in higher education rely on Read&Write's friendly literacy featuresto help with reading, writing assignments and online research. From hearing emailsor documents read out loud to text prediction; picture dictionaries; summary highlighters;and a grammar, spelling and confusable words checker; Read&Write makes lots of everydayliteracy tasks simpler, quicker and more accurate.

Read&Write helps employees with additional language or literacy needs, such as thosewith ESL or dyslexia, who need unobtrusive extra support with reading and writing.

EquatIO software allows learners to create mathematical equations, formulas (and more!) directlyon their computer or device.

Learners simply type, handwrite or dictate any expression, and EquatIO will convertit to accurate digital math which can be added into a Microsoft Word doc or G Suiteapps with a click.

How to get these state-of-the-art software programs for free:

Read more:
University Of Alaska Anchorage: Now Free And Available To All Learners: Read&Write And EquatIO Premium Software! - Patch.com

Detective Sergeant Jose Morales Jr. plans to complete the body camera policy by next month and plans to have a trial of Axon body cameras within weeks.

YOUNGSTOWN City council members discussed plans for body cameras for the Youngstown Police Department at Thursdays safety committee meeting.

Detective Sgt.Jose Morales Jr. said the department has met with several body camera vendors since January including BodyWorn, G-Tech Solutions, Motorola and Axon.

Morales singled outthe Axoncamera demonstration asimpressive.

They say that out of the top 1,200 agencies in the country, they pretty much hold 60 percent of that market, Morales said. They are very popular across the nation.

Morales said Axon has a community engagement program that is offered for free. Company officialswill attend community forums or City Council meetings to discuss features of their cameras.

YPD also asked the Akron Police Department about their use of Axon body cameras. Morales said the Akron departmentwas happy with Axon services and the software that came along with it.

Morales said he is working on a body camera policy for the department that will be completed and presentedat next months meeting.

In the next few months, YPD is planning to do atrial of 15 to 20 Axon body cameras that will last between 30 and 60 days. Morales said about 20 police officers have volunteered to use the cameras during the trial period.

Morales said since everything recorded will be subject to public record during the trial period, he is working to expedite the body camera policy.

Morales said he hopes to have body cameras for all officers in the department by July or early August.

During the meeting, Morales said the cost of the cameras and software ranged: BodyWorn was about $1 million, Motorolla was about $320,000 and Axon cost about $524,000.

Morales said the most expensive part about body cameras is not the cameras, but the software and storage required forthem.

Councilwoman Anita Davis, 6th ward, wondered whetherbody cameras would be needed for every officer. She said between the different shifts, vacation days and sick days, there will be days where cameras are not used.

Morales said there has not been much discussion about not having a camera for each officer. He said the way he sees it, it would be like a radio assigned to each officer.

In case you want to come in and youre going to work a job where youre going to be in uniform that evening or that day, you would be able to pick your own camera that would have your own footage on it, Morales said.

Davis said if there is a way to save money, the department should look at other options.

There is a way of doing it without buying [a camera] for every uniformed officer, Davis said.

Davis suggested that Morales should check with the Warren Police Department since they do not have a body camera for every officer and work under federal guidelines.

Councilman Julius Oliver, 1st ward, asked if the department looked at any local companies that could provide body camera services. Morales said the department only looked at established, national cameracompanies.

Oliver said if the services are the most expensive part of the cameras, the department should look at Tactical Protection and Surveillance that reached out to him to provide those services to YPD.

I think you might be able to save some money if you use the company thats right downtown, Oliver said.

Morales said he would seek more information.

Read this article:
Youngstown Police Department may have body cameras by this summer - Mahoning Matters

Due to the popularity of my previous article on Help Desk Geek entitled 99 ways to make your computer blazingly fast, Ive decided to write another list post with 99 items, but this time on Windows freeware programs that you may have not heard of.

If you search for best freeware programs or top freeware apps, youll get lots of lists, but mostly with programs everyone has already heard of: AVG anti-virus, 7-zip, Firefox, OpenOffice, etc., etc.

Thats all nice and fine, but what about all those little gems programs that work great, but dont get all the headlines? In this article, I will try my best to mention as many small name freeware programs as I can that can help make you more productive! Its a long list, so feel free to bookmark it and refer to it later on.

These are written in no particular order! Again, Im sure there are hundreds of programs that I wont mention, so if you feel Ive really missed a great program, mention the name of the app and what it does in the comments!

Additionally, some of the programs I mention have free versions that have a few restrictions or are limited in some way. I tried not to mention any programs that are just free trials.

Note: Lastly, it should be noted that I have gone through the entire list and run every executable file through VirusTotal (as of Feb 2018) to ensure that the programs do not have malware or spyware.

1. Weve all heard of 7-zip, WinRAR, and WinZip, but what about other great zipping programs like ZIP Archiver orPeaZip?

2. Whats the best Notepad replacement out there? Notepad++ right? We all know that! Here are nine more free text editors for Windows.

3. If you use Windows, then you know and love the Windows registry! CCleaner may be the most popular system maintenance tool out there, but what aboutwell, actually thats the only one I recommend.

4. Ever accidentally delete a file that you really needed? You can try a program called Pandora Recovery to recover lost or deleted files or Recuva, a useful file recovery app. But thats not all! Ever heard of TestDisk?

5. Speaking of file recovery, ever accidentally delete all the pictures off your memory card!? It happens more often than you would think. In those cases, check out my list of 5 photo recovery apps.

6. Ever forget your Outlook password? Or your password for a WiFi? If so, you can use some cool programs to reveal passwords and account details for various programs in Windows. You can also use these 10 programs to recover a lost PST password.

7. Speaking of passwords, have you ever needed to remove a password on an Office document like an Excel spreadsheet? There a program for that.

8. OK, so you have heard of Audacity, but its the best free audio editing program out there, so deal with it.

9. Speaking of audio, if you are into music, you can use LMMS to create your own music tracks.

10. Have an ISO image and older version of Windows that cant mount ISO images? Check out WinCDEmu and create an unlimited number of virtual drives.

11. With all this password talk, ever thought about using a free password manager? Ever heard of KeePass or RoboForm?

12. Enough about passwords, lets talk media players! Weve all heard of VLC media player and Windows Media Player, but what about Kodi and Media Monkey? Both are great media players for Windows. Also, GOM Player is good too.

13. If you have to stare at your screen at night for a long time, its probably a good idea to use a program like f.lux to change the display color to something warmer.

14. If you take a lot of home videos, you probably need to edit and stitch them together right? Dont worry about Adobe Premiere, you can use other free programs like Windows Movie Maker, a product from Microsoft. If not that, you can also check out LightWorks and HitFilm Express, two free professional-grade video editing programs.

15. Speaking of videos, there are many times when you need to convert from one format to another. The best video transcoder out there IMHO is HandBrake.

16. Is there a Windows process that is causing spikes in your CPU or other problems. Use Process Explorer and Process Monitor to help diagnose the issue.

17. Work with PDF files a lot? Looking for a good PDF reader? My favorites are Foxit, Nitro PDF Reader, and PDF-XChange Editor.

18. If you want to create PDFs fast, there are a bunch of programs like CutePDF, PrimoPDF, Bullzip, PDF Creator, and lots more!

19. Switching topics, Im sure you back up your computer regularly right? If not, you should check out Easeus Todo Backup, a free program that lets you backup and clone your hard drives. Another program is Paragon Backup.

20. If you just want to backup your data and not image your entire hard drive, you can use Google Backup and Sync to backup files and folders to your Google Drive storage.

21. Whether you know it or not, you probably have a bunch of duplicate files on your computer! It just happens. You can use Duplicate Cleaner to find and remove those duplicate files.

22. If you want to save more hard drive space, you should look into a program that will analyze hard disk space usage, like TreeSize. Other programs include Space Snifferand WinDirStat.

23. Want to see every possible program or driver that loads when Windows starts? Check out Autoruns, which is a free tool from Microsoft.

24. Been looking for a good free photo editor lately? Check out GIMP, PhotoScape, Paint.NET, or Fotor! If you prefer an online photo editor, checkout Pixlr and BeFunky.

25. Looking for detailed information about the hardware on your computer. Look no further than HWiNFO. It can also analyze and monitor your system too.

26. If youre not running Windows 10 or dont like their default Mail app, you can check out Mozilla Thunderbird, which is still updated regularly.

27. Ever had to send a large file to someone, but your email client wouldnt allow more than 10 to 20 MBs? You can share large files (up to 2GB for free) with friends and family using a program called WeTransfer. Other programs include DropSend and pCloud.

28. The popular notes app we all know is Evernote, but there are other great options like SimpleNote, Google Keep, and Notebook.

29. If you have an FTP server or a website, you will probably need a good FTP client program like WinSCP, the most popular these days. Other good options include FileZilla and CyberDuck.

30. If youre paranoid about your data, you might want to encrypt it with a program like VeraCrypt or AxCrypt.

31. Are you a web developer or coder? Looking for a good HTML editor? There are quite a few: CoffeeCup, Visual Studio Express, Atom, Sublime Text, etc.

32. Want to learn more about the WiFi networks around you? Download WiFi Inspector or Acrylic WiFi Analyzer.

33. Ever wanted to create a family tree? Legacy is a free genealogy that you can use to keep track of family and relatives. Another good app is ScionPC.

34. If you constantly use the same programs over and over, it might be a good idea to download a quick program launcher. One of my favorites is Find and Run Robot.

35. OpenOffice is the most popular free Office suite, but there are other good ones like LibreOfficeand WPS Office Free.

36. Ever wanted to automate a certain task in Windows? Maybe you want to have your computer turn off every day at 10pm? Or certain keystrokes you want to record and repeat over and over again? Whatever the case, AutoHotKey is an awesome program for automating many tasks in Windows.

37. I mentioned HWiNFO in #25, but if you want detailed info about your CPU and about the motherboard, then CPU-Z is a better option.

38. If youre planning to overclock your CPU, then you should download Prime95 to make sure your system is stable. If youre overclocking a GPU, check out MSI Afterburner.

39. Looking to secure your browsing traffic with a VPN? The best free VPN currently is TunnelBear, which restricts you to 500 MB of bandwidth.

40. In #14, I mentioned two professional and free movie editing programs, but they are quite complex. If youre looking to create movies without such a learning curve, check out Shotcut, VSDC Free Video editor, and Avidemux.

41. Got kids? Need some parental control software? The best options are QustodioandKidlogger. Free versions are limited obviously. Also, read my post on the different ways to childproof a computer.

42. If you have a lot of music, you might want to consider a music management program like Media Monkey. Another good program is MusicBee.

43. I talked about a VPN for secure browsing in #39, but you can also use a different browser like Tor to hide your identify.

44. If youve recently bought a new computer, you can use a program called PC Decrapifier to get rid of all those useless programs that can come bundled with the PC and slow everything down.

45. After you have a computer for a while, there are always going to be programs that you dont use anymore and that can be uninstalled. Revo Uninstaller will get rid of any program whether it wants to or not.

46. If you want to play some free games that arent Solitaire, download Steam. They have a whole free games section.

47. If you have sensitive data on your computer that you want to permanently and securely delete from your hard drive, I would suggest using a program called dBan.

48. Do a lot of reading? A great app for reading in Windows is the Kindle app. It will also sync down to your phone or tablet too.

49. Love using Instagram? Want to download a photo, video or story from Instagram? Check out 4K Stogram.

50. Looking for good screen capture software? A really good one is Screenshot Captor. Of course, Windows has a lot of built-in ways to capture screenshots too.

51. Weve all heard of Skype and WhatsApp, but what about Viber? Its another tool you can use to communicate with family and friends worldwide.

52. Ever wanted your computer to speak out what you have written? Its called text-to-speech and there are a couple of good programs that do it: Balabolka, NaturalReader, and Panopreter.

53. Do you have a lot of programs that load when Windows starts? Does it take several minutes for your computer to become useable? If so, check out Startup Delayer, a program that delays the startup of programs so that your computer loads faster.

54. Do you need to create a presentation, but dont have PowerPoint? In addition to the Office suites we mentioned in #35, you can also use Canva and Prezi.

55. Follow a lot of blogs online and still miss Google Reader? RSSOwl is a good alternative.

56. Youve all probably heard of TeamViewer for remotely sharing your desktop, but you can also use Join.me.

57. Are you someone who prefers a supercharged Explorer interface? If so, check out Total Commander, which has been around for decades and works with Windows 10.

58. If you think you might have bad memory installed in your computer, you can check for bad memory using memtest86.

59. Want to record your screen and live stream it too? OBS Studiois a free app that does just that. TinyTake is another decent one, though the free version is limited.

60.Are you a professional photographer that needs tools like Lightroom, but dont want to pay for a subscription? Darktable is an open-source photography workflow application.

61. Speaking of Adobe, are there any good Adobe Illustrator alternatives? Yes! One good one for working with vector graphics is Inkscape. Another good one is Vectr.

62. Are you someone who needs to write something, but gets distracted easily? Check out FocusWriter and write without distractions.

63. One of the worst things that can happen to your computer is for it to become infected with Spyware. HijackThis is an awesome program that you can use to find and remove spyware. However, its no longer active. Another good option is AdwCleaner.

64. On the topic of spyware, there are several other freeware programs likeSUPERAntiSpyware, adaware, and SpyBot.

65. In addition to spyware and malware, there are also separate tools you can use to find rootkits like TDSSKiller, Sophos Rootkit scanner and Malwarebytes Anti-Rootkit.

66. Finally, if youre not able to detect anything while in Windows, a good idea is to run an offline virus scan. One good option is Windows Defender Offline.

67. If you ever need a free CD/DVD/Blu-ray disc burning program, check out CDBurnerXP. It also has a portable version you can run off your USB stick. Another good one is AVS Free Disc Creator.

68. If you ever need to burn an ISO image to a CD or DVD, then you should use a free program like ImgBurn.

69. Are you a true nerd and still use IRC? If so, HexChat is an excellent IRC client.

70. Ever run into the problem where you are trying to delete a file in Windows and it says that the file is in use and cannot be deleted? You can use Unlocker to delete any file that is locked by a process.

71. Are you always thinking about stuff? Then you should probably use some free mind-mapping software. Wikipedia also has a big list of mind-mapping software.

72. Need to manage a small project, but need some project management software? Check out GnattProject and Taiga.io.

73. If you want to play around with virtual machines, download the free and excellent VirtualBox from Oracle. Its the safest way to browse and test new software.

74. In #19 and #20, I talked about software to backup your computer, but forgot to mention DriveImage XML, an good program you can use to create an image of your hard drive. Other good disk imaging tools include MacriumReflectand Clonezilla.

75. Need some accounting & finance software, but dont trust the online tools like Mint and Quickbooks? GNUCash is free accounting and finance software.

76. Ever head of Blender? Its a pretty amazing program and its free. It lets you create 3D worlds, 3D animations and 3D games. Check it out.

77. If Blender is too complex for you, another great option for sketching in 3D is SketchUp.

78. While were on the topic, FreeCAD is open-source parametric3D CAD modeler.

79. For space lovers, I always recommend Stellarium, which is basically a planetarium for your computer.

80.Looking for a really good partition manager? Check out GParted, probably the best not-heard-of partition manager out there. Other good options include MiniTool Partition Wizard and EaseUs Partition Master Free.

81. Looking for a file on your computer? Default Windows search sucks? Well, why dont you try outEverything, the best free Windows file search tool.

Excerpt from:
99 of the Best Windows Freeware Programs You May Not Know Of

There is an emerging consensus that the new Intermediary Guidelines and Digital Media Ethics Code rules are against the idea of free speech. Even the normally reticent Editors Guild has issued a statement, airing its concerns about how these new rules will undermine media freedom in the country.

Equally important though is how the IL guidelines follow a 50 year trend of nation states trying to limit access to cryptography and encryption technology for the general public. The United States tried to limit access to cryptography in the late 90s when the cypherpunks stopped this attempt by fighting for free speech in software. When restrictions were put to not allow cryptographic code to be exported abroad, the cypherpunks printed code on t-shirts to bypass and export crypto to the rest of the world.

The end-to-end encryption protocol that we depend on today is an outcome of a 50 year resistance movement, started by the cypherpunks, to protect the sanctity of whispers from prying ears. One way to think about the Narendra Modi governments IL guidelines is that it is trying to ban whispers completely in the realm of conversations by effectively logging every whisper forever in the form of a permanent record.

The issue hence is not just about free speech in the media, but also about free speech in software. At a fundamental level, there is no difference between writing code and publishing it and writing opinions and publishing books. The new intermediary guidelines mandating traceability should be seen as an attempt to dictate how messaging apps use cryptography. It is a form of free speech restriction applicable on a technical domain.

Also read: Explainer: How the New IT Rules Take Away Our Digital Rights

At the heart of this particular issue is the Signal protocol, which through the expression of opinionated code in the cyber domain, has allowed free speech to flourish in the physical domain, and was developed by a non profit company named Open Whisper Systems with the deep belief that whispers must not be snooped upon.

Fingerprinting at Madras HC

The end-to-end encryption debate first flared up in India because of a public interest litigation (PIL) filed in the Madras High Court by an animal rights activist, Anthony Clement Rubin, who faced persistent cyber bullying.

The debate in the court soon shifted towards whether WhatsApp could track the originator of a viral message an incredibly hot issue at the time without breaking encryption.

Even then, anonymous government officials proposed fingerprinting every message as a solution. Tamil Nadus advocate general even argued that end-to-end encryption is not essential when WhatsApp shot down the fingerprinting proposal as impossible to implement.

With the guidelines now being notified, there is now an executive push to implement the fingerprinting solution, with the false claim that it will not break end-to-end encryption.

To understand why the fingerprinting solution breaks end-to-end encryption, we need to understand the concept of forward secrecy.

The Signal Protocol uses Double Ratchet algorithm, a cryptographic scheme which ensures that encryption keys change frequently for every chat session. The key rotation process thus ensures that all messages are never encrypted with the same cryptographic key. This allows forward secrecy, where even if your current encryption key is stolen by an attacker, your previous messages are still secure, as they dont use the same encryption key.

Also read: Backstory: From Partly Unfree to Fully Unfree? The New IT Rules Could Hasten the Slide

Forward secrecy is quite useful against nation state adversaries like China, who can intercept all your messages by breaking into the telecom infrastructure and can afford to store them for a very long time till it can crack the encryption keys or obtain it forcefully from your phone, by use of physical force. Weakening encryption affects everyone and especially when your adversaries have more advanced cyber operations.

Photo: Athul Cyriac Ajay/Unsplash

Forward secrecy becomes more achievable, when past messages are automatically deleted after some time, so that no one can access them even when your phone is lost or forcefully taken. Disappearing messages hence have become a standard feature in both the Signal messenger and in WhatsApp, just like how secrets whispered in another persons ear, die out in the wind. This applies even when you send messages in a group, and message copies are deleted from every other device, thus enhancing your privacy and also allow you to speak your mind freely without any inhibitions and within a group of your own choosing.

Unlike Twitter and Facebook, which create a public sphere for sharing viewpoints and for influencing people, messaging platforms are primarily used by individuals and groups for personal communication. It is a given that some of these groups and conversations will be criminal in nature and this segment of users would be no different than a set of like-minded people who would talk about crime after congregating inside a closed room. Law enforcement handled such activities by either infiltrating such groups or by accumulating evidence and prosecuting them for crimes committed, but did not demand all property owners of closed rooms to record everything told within its confines, so that they can identify the speaker of every word.

By ordering the messaging applications to change their encryption methodology to find the first originator of a particular message, the government is forcing them to store hash values of every message and its user. This hashing of every message would effectively mean seeing the content of the messages once requested by law enforcement

For end-to-end encryption to provide privacy by default, platforms are required to store as minimal data as possible. Signal does not store any metadata about users, except their data of joining and last date of accessing the platform and encrypts everything else, which only users can decrypt. WhatsApp however stores metadata, which it hands over to law enforcement when demanded, along with IP addresses and other device identifiers. How useful can this metadata be for law enforcement? Well, it was enough to help prosecute an ISIS recruiter in the US.

Also read: What Regulatory Changes Are on the Anvil for Social Media Platforms, Digital Media?

The specific feature that converts whispers uttered in a closed room into a broadcasting mechanism that can fuel a misinformation and fake news binge which is what the government should really be worried about is the forward message functionality. In the past, WhatsApp has tried to add friction to this, by specifically slowing the spread of messages through the introduction of forwarding limits, while still not going the full hog by allowing people to choose whether a message should be private within the group by default. It did so because there exist many unauthorised spinoffs of its client app, that simply use copy-paste of the message text and deploy the download-store-post sequence that work around these limits.

In the recent arrest of Disha Ravi, the Delhi court observed that freedom of speech and expression includes the right to seek a global audience. There are no geographical barriers to communication. Rather than enacting rules that attempt to ban whispers forever, an attempt that is doomed to fail, there should be more discussion and debate on how messaging forwarding can be tamed.

Srinivas Kodali is an independent researcher working on data, internet and governance.

View original post here:
Intermediary Liability and Why Free Speech in Software Matters - The Wire