Technogaze

24 May 2014

Catfishing, Complimentary Router Upgrades, Driverless Cars and Smart Roads

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Raena, Johnny and Michael were driving the Technogaze bus this week, looking at all things Tech. eBay’s recent announcement of their hacked user database three months ago caught our eye with eBay advising all users to change their passwords. Although no known attacks have occurred following the theft of the encrypted password database, it is another reminder not to use the same password across all your accounts.

The Tailored Access Operations unit in the NSA has been providing free upgrades to some lucky router and server owners. Intercepting packages from the manufacturer and then upgrading them with additional firmware – at no extra cost – is just part of the service. Meanwhile, the NSA has been recording all mobile phone calls in the Bahamas as part of a piggy back operation lead by the DEA to capture drug traffickers and dealers.

Catfishing is where someone pretends to be someone other than themselves to lure you to hand over money or for some other nefarious purpose. Johnny, a catfishing victim himself, talked about techniques being used and how to find out whether you are being catfished or not.

Driverless cars excited the whole team and we posed the question as to what an intelligent car would do should it be confronted the choice of saving your life as a passenger or several other lives in another car. Asimov’s 3 laws of Robotics immediately sprung to mind:

A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders given to it by human beings, except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.

Continuing on the automotive theme, we looked at Tesla’s foray into the Australian market and an exciting crowd-funding project that looks to put specially designed glass solar panels on roads, complete with computers and LEDs. Harnessing the sun’s energy during the day, these smart roads can provide intelligent traffic management systems by indicating closed lanes dynamically and providing power back into the grid.