at a Distance

By Kim Zetter 05.30.08 | 11:00 AM

Christopher Tarnovsky shows Wired.com the tricks behind smart-card hacking.
Steve Raines/Wired.com

SAN DIEGO — Christopher Tarnovsky feels vindicated. The software engineer and former satellite-TV pirate has been on the hot seat for five years, accused of helping his former employer, a Rupert Murdoch company, sabotage a rival to gain the top spot in the global pay-TV wars.

But two weeks ago a jury in the civil lawsuit against that employer, NDS Group, largely cleared the company — and by extension Tarnovsky — of piracy, finding NDS guilty of only a single incident of stealing satellite signals, for which Dish was awarded $1,500 in damages.

“I knew this was going to come,” Tarnovsky says. “They didn’t have any proof or evidence.”

The trial was years in the making, yet raised more questions than it answered. It came down to testimony between admitted pirates on both sides who accused each other of lying. Now that it’s over Tarnovsky, who was fired by NDS last year, is eager to tell his side of the story.

Dressed in loose jeans, flip-flops and a T-shirt, Tarnovsky, 37, spoke with Wired.com by phone and in an air-conditioned lab in Southern California where he’s been running a consultancy since losing his job. Surrounded by boxes of smart cards and thousands of dollars worth of microscopes and computers used for researching chips, he talked excitedly at lightning speed about his strange journey, which began in a top-secret Pentagon communications center, and ended with him working both sides of a heated electronic war over pay TV.

His story sheds new light on the murky, morally ambiguous world of international satellite pirates and those who do battle with them.

The stakes are high: Earnings in the satellite-TV industry reach the billions. In the first quarter of this year alone, U.S. market leader DirecTV announced revenue of $4.6 billion from more than 17 million U.S. subscribers. Dish Network earned $2.8 billion from nearly 14 million subscribers. Although satellite piracy has greatly diminished from its peak seven to 10 years ago when the events detailed in the civil lawsuit took place, the two companies lost millions in potential revenue, and spent millions more to replace insecure smart cards used in their systems and track down dealers selling pirated smart cards.

BYTE - Trojan Horse 2.0. Christoph Ebener, Uli Winters/ Honorary Mention at “Prix Ars Electronica 1998, INFOWAR”

“BYTE breeds a population of mice in a Skinner Box for attacking computer networks, which would be able to paralyze these in the briefest amount of time by destroying the cables. The animals can be observed by day during their training. There is a mouse in each of the cages, and a computercable connected to a computer goes through each of the cages. Each time the mouse bites through a cable and cuts one of the wires, it is rewarded with food automatically. Simoultaneously, the performance of each mouse is recorded and displayed on a screen for comparison. In this way, it is possible to quickly determine the performance capability of each mouse, in order to make a selection of the most suitable individuals.

By Katheleen Conti

For those whose calling card of choice is graffiti, the stakes of getting caught in Chelsea just got much higher. A tougher anti-graffiti ordinance was unanimously adopted by the City Council Monday night, after months of discussion and tweaks.

Chelsea teens protest the City Council’s rejection of a youth delegate on the council. Page 4

“The city has worked too hard to improve itself to allow this blight to take over the community,” said Councilor Marilyn Vega-Torres, who crafted the ordinance with other city and community officials, including Police Chief Brian Kyes.

Because the bulk of Chelsea “taggers,” according to police statistics, are boys between the ages of 12 and 15, the ordinance was also crafted to include restitution opportunities in lieu of prosecution. Local youth organizations, like Roca, have offered to step in and counsel young taggers.

The ordinance is scheduled to become effective June 20, just two days after the last day of school in Chelsea, when youngsters suddenly find themselves bored and with a lot of time on their hands, said City Solicitor Cheryl Anne Watson.

“This past year [graffiti] just rose,” Watson said. “It just kind of hit every city and town hard.”

It will be illegal for anyone younger than 18, while on any school property, park, playground, or property owned and operated by the city of Chelsea, to possess a “graffiti implement,” defined as an aerosol paint container, a broad-tipped marker, or “any other device capable of scarring or leaving a visible mark on any natural or manmade surface,” without the written consent of the School Department or the city.

Violators will be subject to fines ranging from $100 to $300 per offense, according to the ordinance. If the violator is a minor, the city will hold the parents or guardian liable for the payment of the fines. If the parents or guardians fail to pay, the city can put a lien on their property.

Watson said the city also took great care to merge existing state laws into the local ordinance, including the one-year suspension of a violator’s driver’s license if arrested and convicted. If a tagger is younger than 16, the city or Police Department can ask that the state delay that juvenile’s right to a license for one year.

The state’s Registry of Motor Vehicles charges a $100 fine to reinstate a license after a one-year suspension or delay.

Graffiti incidents reported to police rose from 38 in 2005 to 130 last year, according to police statistics. In a previous presentation to the council, Kyes said that investigations of and interviews with Chelsea taggers revealed that many go out in groups in what they call a “mischief night,” in which the object is to tag as much property as possible in one evening.

“The Chelsea City Council found and determined that graffiti on public and private walls and buildings is obnoxious and tends to remain on dilapidated buildings unless the city causes it to be removed,” reads the ordinance.

Obama’s Secret War Profiteering Tax

By Greg Palast for TomPaine.com/OurFuture.org
New York, May 22, 2008.
I can’t make this up:

In a hotel room in Brussels, the chief executives of the world’s top oil companies unrolled a huge map of the Middle East, drew a fat, red line around Iraq and signed their names to it.

The map, the red line, the secret signatures. It explains this war. It explains this week’s rocketing of the price of oil to $134 a barrel.

It happened on July 31, 1928, but the bill came due now.

Barack Obama knows this. Or, just as important, those crafting his policies seem to know this. Same for Hillary Clinton’s team. There could be no more vital difference between the Republican and Democratic candidacies. And you won’t learn a thing about it on the news from the Fox-holes.

Let me explain.

In 1928, oil company chieftains (from Anglo-Persian Oil, now British Petroleum, from Standard Oil, now Exxon, and their Continental counterparts) were faced with a crisis: falling prices due to rising supplies of oil; the same crisis faced by their successors during the Clinton years, when oil traded at $22 a barrel.

The solution then, as now: stop the flow of oil, squeeze the market, raise the price. The method: put a red line around Iraq and declare that virtually all the oil under its sands would remain there, untapped. Their plan: choke supply, raise prices rise, boost profits. That was the program for 1928. For 2003. For 2008.

[...] 

Stefan Lovgren for National Geographic News March 16, 2007

The government of South Korea is drawing up a code of ethics to prevent human abuse of robots—and vice versa.

The so-called Robot Ethics Charter will cover standards for robotics users and manufacturers, as well as guidelines on ethical standards to be programmed into robots, South Korea’s Ministry of Commerce, Industry and Energy announced last week.

“The move anticipates the day when robots, particularly intelligent
service robots, could become a part of daily life as greater
technological advancements are made,” the ministry said in a statement.

A five-member task force that includes futurists and a science-fiction writer began work on the charter last November.

Gianmarco Veruggio of the School of Robotics in Genoa, Italy, is recognized as a leading authority on roboethics.

“Robotics is a new science with a manifold of applications that can assist humans and solve many, many problems,” he said.

“However, as in every field of science and technology, sensitive
areas open up, and it is the specific responsibility of the scientists
who work in this field to face this new array of social and ethical
problems.”

Abusing Robots

South Korea boasts one of the world’s most high-tech societies.

The country’s Ministry of Information and Communication is working on plans to put a robot in every South Korean household by 2020.

The new charter is part of an effort to establish ground rules for human interaction with robots in the future.

“Imagine if some people treat androids as if the machines were
their wives,” Park Hye-Young of the ministry’s robot team told the AFP
news agency.

The main focus of the charter appears to be on dealing with social
problems, such as human control over robots and humans becoming
addicted to robot interaction.

The document will also deal with legal issues, such as the protection
of data acquired by robots and establishing clear identification and
traceability of the machines.

Technological advances have introduced new models of human-machine
interface that may bring different ethical challenges, said Veruggio,
the Italian scientist.

“Think of bio-robotics, of military applications of robotics, of robots in children’s rooms,” he said.

Laws of Robotics

The South Korean charter, which may include guidelines for the
robots themselves, could be seen as a nod to Isaac Asimov’s three laws
of robotics.

Familiar to many science-fiction fans, the laws were first put
forward by the late sci-fi author in his short story “Runaround” in
1942.

The laws state that robots may not injure humans or, through
inaction, allow humans to come to harm; robots must obey human orders
unless they conflict with the first law; and robots must protect
themselves if this does not conflict with the other laws.

Robot researchers, however, say that Asimov’s laws—and the
South Korean charter—belong in the realm of science-fiction and are not
yet applicable to their field.

“While I applaud the Korean effort to establish a robot ethics
charter, I fear it might be premature to use Asimov’s laws as a
starter,” said Mark Tilden, the designer of RoboSapien, a toylike
robot.

“From experience, the problem is that giving robots morals is
like teaching an ant to yodel. We’re not there yet, and as many of
Asimov’s stories show, the conundrums robots and humans would face
would result in more tragedy than utility,” said Tilden, who works for
Wow Wee Toys in Hong Kong.

Last Updated: Thursday, May 15, 2008 | 3:54 PM ET Comments26Recommend32

By Peter Nowak CBC News

CRTC chairman Konrad von Finckenstein speaks during hearings in Gatineau, Que. Tuesday, Sept 18, 2007. Finckenstein said the CRTC’s public consultation on its role in regulating new media is to “gain a better understanding of this environment.” (CP/Jonathan Hayward)

The roles of the internet and cellphones in broadcasting are up in the air as the CRTC has launched a public consultation on what its role should be in regulating these “new media.”

The Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission on Thursday issued its 75-page Perspectives on Canadian Broadcasting in New Media, which suggests updates to the Broadcasting Act.

The document summarizes a host of recent commissioned studies and recommendations the CRTC has received from more than 60 various stakeholders since beginning its New Media Project Initiative last year.

While the commission had previously exempted broadcasting over the internet and cellphones from regulation, the rapid pace of technological change has made a new review necessary.

“New digital technologies and platforms are creating opportunities for the broadcast of professionally produced Canadian content that simply didn’t exist a few years ago,” said CRTC chair Konrad von Finckenstein in a statement. “Our intention is not to regulate new media, but rather to gain a better understanding of this environment and, if necessary, to propose measures that would support the continued achievement of the Broadcasting Act’s objectives.”

[...] 

By Peter Nowak CBC News

Last Updated: Thursday, May 15, 2008 | 2:16 PM ET Comments9Recommend47

Bell Canada is at the centre of the net neutrality debate, although other big ISPs —including Rogers Communications — are also shaping internet traffic. (Paul Chiasson/Canadian Press)The CRTC has launched a public inquiry into the controversial internet traffic shaping practices of Canadian service providers, a move that will prompt a raft of submissions and may result in greater regulation of internet access in Canada by the fall.

The regulator on Thursday released a letter addressed to Bell Canada Inc. and the Canadian Association of Internet Providers, which represents 55 smaller ISPs around the nation, requesting comments on a dispute over traffic shaping between the two parties. CAIP in April complained that Bell had extended its traffic shaping — which slows speeds of internet applications such as BitTorrent — to its members, who rent portions of the company’s network to provider their own internet services.

On Wednesday, the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission turned down a request from CAIP for a temporary cease-and-desist order but told CBCNews.ca it would launch a public inquiry into the traffic shaping that many large ISPs, including Bell and Rogers Communications Inc., are engaged in.

In its letter on Thursday, the CRTC followed through. Bell and CAIP have until May 29 to submit their comments while other interested parties have until June 12. Bell will then be able to reply to those submissions by June 19 while CAIP will have until June 26 to respond. The CRTC said it will issue its decision within 90 days, or by late September.

Industry observers say the battle over traffic shaping, or “throttling” as it is also known, is really based on net neutrality — or keeping the internet free from interference by ISPs. The service providers say they have no choice but to throttle certain internet applications, particularly those that use peer-to-peer technology, because a small portion of users are slowing down speeds for the majority.

The CAIP-Bell battle has served as a lightning rod for ISP critics, with the NDP, the National Union of Public and General Employees, the Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic and the government’s Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage all calling for legislation that will enshrine net neutrality. CAIP’s application also drew letters of support to the CRTC from Primus Telecommunications Canada Inc., the Toronto-based co-operative ISP Wireless Nomad and more than 1,100 individuals.

Facebook groups have sprung up, and more than 11,000 people have signed a petition in favour of net neutrality legislation. A protest rally on Parliament Hill has also been called for May 27.