Author: Caleb Kraft

1567 Articles

Helix V2.0 Released

October 2, 2008 by 20 Comments

Helix 2.0 has been released.  Helix is a collection of various tools for electronic forensics.  Just like on TV, you can use this to find all kinds of information on a computer.  Some of the useful tools added were Winlockpwn a tool for breaking windows security, Volitility which processes data out of the raw memory, and several other tools that are beyond our comprehension.

You’ve undoubtedly noticed that the title says Helix V2.0, but the image and header of the Helix site say 3.  We have no idea why. Look at the download info to see that it says V2.0.

[Via Midnight Research labs]

System Admin Steals 20,000 Items From Work

October 2, 2008 by 32 Comments

Over the course of 10 years, [Victor Papagno] stole 19,709 pieces of equipment from the Naval Research Laboratory. He began taking stuff home in 1997 and had so much that he had to store some in a neighbors house. The report says that no secret technological information was taken.  Some items listed were CDs, hard drives, floppy disks, adding up to an estimated value of 1.6 million dollars. He could face up to two years in prison for this. We shudder to think of the total cost of all the post its, CDs, and floppy disks we’ve taken home over the years.

[via NetworkWorld]
[photo: Blude]

Autonomous Hovering Drones Invade Germany

October 1, 2008 by 11 Comments

We welcome the swarm of autonomous hovering robot overlords being made by students at Humboldt University. The goal of this project is to build an autonomous hovering platform that is controlled via adapted insect behavior. Navigation comes from monitoring real time inputs, such as air pressure and optical sensors, not by predefined paths and GPS coordinates.  Some examples of this adapted behavior are: navigation via polarized sun light like African ants, and optical flow similar to bees.

You can see the platforms in action on Spiegel Online, but unless you understand German, you won’t get much else out of it.

If any of this seems familiar, it’s because we covered CCCamp 2007, which was near Berlin and had some very similar quadcopters. While the large quadcopter platforms have been around for a while and are steadily coming down in price, there are some new alternatives out there that are quite tempting.  Anyone want to build some autonomy into this little baby?

[thanks fh]

Announcing The Ruckingenur Challenge

October 1, 2008 by 7 Comments

Back in August, we posted a fantastic reverse engineering game called Ruckingenur II created by [Zach Barth]. Apparently he got an overwhelmingly positive responce as well as many requests for a level editor. [Zach] decided to open this up as a contest, giving wonderful prizes and fame to the winner. Go read the rules and send him some entries. We can’t wait to see what you come up with.

[thanks Zach]

44% Of Used Phones Contain Sensitive Data

October 1, 2008 by 11 Comments

In a recent study, researchers were able to garnish all kinds of sensitive data from second hand mobile devices.  Of the units tested, 44% contained information such as salary details, bank account information, business plans, personal medical details, personal insults, and address book data.  Next time you get a used device, take a good look around. You never know what you may find.

[via Zero Day]