The Daily Nerd (April 8th, 2014)

The Daily Nerd (April 8th, 2014) #

Tesla Model S Ethernet Network Explored, Possible Jailbreak in the Future?

While we’re testing the performance capabilities of the Tesla Model S by running it down the 1/4 mile in heads up races such as Tesla vs Corvette Stingray and Tesla vs Viper, others are digging deep into how the Tesla Model S functions internally. Being the technical marvel that the Model S is with it’s 17″ multi-touch display, all digital dashboard, all electric drivetrain, remote control Apps and more, along with the fact that the car was designed from the ground up with no predecessor, it’s no surprise that internally it’s using the latest technologies to run these systems.

CERF: Classified NSA Work Mucked Up Security For Early TCP/IP

Curiously enough Cerf revealed that he did have access to some really bleeding edge cryptographic technology back then that might have been used to implement strong, protocol-level security into the earliest specifications of TCP/IP. Why weren’t they used, then? The culprit is one that’s well known now: the National Security Agency. Cerf told host Leo Laporte that the crypto tools were part of a classified project he was working on at Stanford in the mid 1970s to build a secure, classified Internet for the National Security Agency.

Norwegian Skydiver Almost Gets Hit by Falling Meteor

It sounds like a remarkable story, almost unbelievable: Anders Helstrup went skydiving nearly two years ago in Hedmark, Norway and while he didn’t realize it at the time, when he reviewed the footage taken by two cameras fixed to his helmet during the dive, he saw a rock plummet past him. He took it to experts and they realized he had captured a meteorite falling during its “dark flight” — when it has been slowed by atmospheric braking, and has cooled and is no longer luminous.

When The Internet of Things Attacks! Parsing The IoT Botnet Story

I spent most of last week at a conference in Florida going deep on the security of critical infrastructure — you know: the software that runs power plants and manufacturing lines. (More to come on that!) While there, the security firm Proofpoint released a statement saying that it had evidence that a spam botnet was using “Internet of Things” devices. The company said on January 16 that a spam campaign totaling 750,000 malicious emails originated with a botnet made up of “more than 100,000 everyday consumer gadgets” including home networking routers, multi media centers, televisions and at least one refrigerator.” Proofpoint claims it is the “first time the industry has reported actual proof of such a cyber attack involving common appliances.”