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I am writing this because of my belief that more people need to be aware of this type of attack.  I have been noticing first in 1997 and more so today that people only focus on internet based threats and do not focus on non-internet based threats.  This technique can apply not only to  WAN based fiber links but also to LAN based ones.

PDF spec sheet for the FCD-10B tap by EXFO

This is a subject I have been looking at for years, and for years when people start reading this type of information they either do not care, agree or mentally shut down and refuse to understand anything presented and ultimately throw a tantrum, often making threats because to them the GPL is a religion and not a mere software license. They do not care about the wording of that license if it goes against the Orwellian double speak the FSF puts forth.  The double speak I am referencing is things like the GPL keeps software free.  They are not talking about the cost of the software but rather the freedom to modify it, to distribute modified works and things of that nature.

I will present an alternate theory, that the GPL is restrictive, that those restrictions do not meet the stated goals, and that ultimately the GPL harms open source by creating islands of code that cannot be used together thus forcing developers to rewrite code just to change the license.  This rewriting of code is time and effort spent on duplication rather than innovation, slowing the FOSS movement somewhat. (continue reading…)

Lately I have been interviewed by a few newspaper type organizations in relation to the Playstation attacks.  This is because back in February I commented on IRC (chat network) that Sony needs to fix their servers because they are running known vulnerable software and advertising the versions of that software and its modules  to the world.  I specifically addressed those comments to Sony knowing that Sony was monitoring at that time.  Investigators from the law firm Sony hired to go after George Hotz and Fail 0verflow were seen in  there as well as Sony employees.

Sony has claimed publicly in a press conference they held about PSN that the attacker exploited a “web server” and used a “known vulnerability but it was not known to Sony management”.  This basically goes along with what I warned about months ago.  (continue reading…)

I recently got a Garmin vehicle GPS and wanted to add some redlight camera placemarks. Redlight intersections are more dangerous because in most installations they shorten the yellow time to increase revenue. There have been many cases where judges found this to be true and that the yellow time violated sound engineering practices because it was too short. This causes drivers to panic and rush through the intersection causing accidents. Several studies have confirmed that accidents increased after the installation of redlight cameras. For this reason knowing where they are and either avoiding them or being extra vigilant is prudent.

I searched and found people charging for this, being cheap I decided I could do it myself and save the money. Being nice I decided I would make this available to everyone, for free.

I have broken the files into individual states, with California being broken into Northern and Southern somewhere around Bakersfield. My GPS could not handle the larger files and Google Maps appears to stop processing at 1000 records. My database has over 5000 unique entries. (continue reading…)

I think I did not make some aspects of skywave clear enough so this article should clarify some things.  It is going to get a little more technical than I had hoped, but I fear that is unavoidable in order to make some things clearer.  I do not think this article is overly complex and should be understandable by most everyone.

There is a layer of the atmosphere that contains charged particles.  This layer is called the ionosphere.  The sun charges the particles in the ionosphere, when it is daylight they become charged, when the sun sets they start to lose their charge and continue to lose their charge until sunrise the next day. (continue reading…)

You have a radio transmitter and want to find someone to talk to.  There are two ways that you can accomplish this.  You can just tune around and listen for someone else to talk or you can just start talking hoping that someone hears and responds to you.  If everyone is just listening for someone else the band may seem dead even though many are monitoring so learning how to call is important.

There are a few different ways you can accomplish this, one would just be pressing the PTT button and asking “is there anyone out there?”, additional Pink Floyd lyrics optional.  This may work for unlicensed bands, but licensed bands generally have a bit more protocol to them.  I will discuss the way that works well for ham bands in the HF region.  This can be used on non-ham bands as well, although a slightly modified version may be more suitable there. (continue reading…)

If you did not start at the beginning you should read part 1 first.

Propagation

There are two different ways that radio signals go from the transmitter to the receiver. Skywave and groundwave. The names are like they sound, the radio wave travels either across the ground or the sky. Groundwave communications are shorter range, and usually direct from one radio to another. Skywave will go up to the ionosphere and bounce back down to the Earth. Skywave generally does not have the issues with polarization that were mentioned above. (continue reading…)

If you did not start at the beginning you should read part 1 first.

Antennas

Antennas are a critical component in a radio device. They will gather the very weak electromagnetic wave that is in the air and convert that into sound for you to hear. They will also emanate the radio signal so that other radios can receive it. Not all antennas are the same, there are several properties that make an antenna suitable for a particular radio. (continue reading…)

If you did not start at the beginning you should read part 1 first.

Popular Bands

In order to make things easier for everyone groups of frequencies that have a common use are grouped into bands. If you are looking for a specific type of radio signal basic knowledge of the bands is essential. Before I talk about the bands I want to talk about the two different types of transmitting. There is broadcasting, or a one-way transmission usually for the purposes of educating or entertaining and there is communicating. Communication requires a two-way flow of information, which implicitly requires both parties to have both a transmitter and a receiver (often built into the same radio device). Some bands are only broadcasting while others are only for communicating. (continue reading…)

If you did not start at the beginning you should read part 1 first.

Spectrum

Radio frequencies span a wide range of frequencies. Radio is below light, X-rays, gamma rays and other emanations. Radio comprises the frequencies 3Hz to 300GHz. A Hz or Hertz is a measure of how many cycles per second an oscillation occurs. 1GHz oscillates 1 billion times per second while 10Hz oscillates 10 times per second. For reference visible light is 300THz or 300 trillion times per second. (continue reading…)