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O.mg Cable

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Re: O.mg Cable

#511

Post by pdimitar »

sva_ wrote: post #203
etskinner wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could do that, but then you'd need to forgo USB Power Delivery, Qualcomm quick charging, etc. One thing I've heard other comments mention here is a USB condom (USB data blocker). It's just a male to female adapter with only the power lines patched through, not data lines.

If you have a powerbank with you (which may be empty), you could also charge the powerbank using the untrusted power source, and at the same time charge the phone via powerbank to "sanitize" the source. This way you could still benefit from quickcharging.

Yep, this is what I usually end up doing while traveling. The battery doesn't care about the data lane even if the charger is somehow malicious, and my devices get pure juice.

Re: O.mg Cable

#512

Post by MichaelZuo »

IncRnd wrote: post #362
jokethrowaway wrote: post #320

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Absolutely. It's the human mind's responsibility not to be "hacked", by which I assume you mean exploited to e.g. mindlessly scroll Facebook all day. If most people are weak enough to become matrix-like slaves to the machine, so be it. I don't believe in free will and I don't think we need to preserve human life in a certain way (e.g. the way our ancestors lived). Sure, a lot of people will fail this test, or maybe t…

If you don't accept that you have free will, than nothing you write or say has any meaning.

What someone says or writes could provide information useful for predicting the future. That by definition has meaning.

Re: O.mg Cable

#513

Post by pwillia7 »

teknico wrote: post #435
pwillia7 wrote: post #265

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think this is a big problem for liberalism in the future. When we have 20 billion people and technology is more powerful and ubiquitous, big consequences could happen from individual bad actors remotely. Even if only the tiniest fraction of people wanted to do bad things, there would still be quite a few of them and they'll have more access as everything is more networked together.

There will never be 10 billion people alive at the same time, let alone 20.

What's the certainty there? Could you expand?

Re: O.mg Cable

#514

Post by dredmorbius »

pdimitar wrote: post #509
dredmorbius wrote: post #263

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://duckduckgo.com/?q=USB+condom&ia=about

Thanks for exercising being snarky! I very obviously meant concrete brands and models that people would recommend. I'm touched that you think I can't search for stuff on the net. :D

Your "very obviously" wasn't read that way here.

Synctstop and Int3.cc seem to be popular. The latter is recommended by Bruce Schneier here: https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2018/12/bad_consumer_...

Re: O.mg Cable

#515

Post by jtsiskin »

agitator wrote: post #228
_RPL5_ wrote: post #186

Who buys this stuff? Other things in the shop: > Screen Crab: This covert inline screen grabber sits between HDMI devices - like a computer and monitor, or console and television - to quietly capture screenshots. Perfect for sysadmins, pentesters and anyone wanting to record what's on a screen. > Shark Jack: This portable network attack tool is a pentesters best friend optimized for social engineering engagements and…

If anything, by making devices like this accessible to the public, the end result is safer devices for everyone. Without products like this you have criminals, a small amount of enthusiasts/researchers, and government sponsored actors exploiting vulnerabilities. If you put it out in the open, much like open source software, everyone can do it, but there's more pressure to fix blatant vulnerabilities.

As a simple example, the “trust this computer?” prompt standard on most phones. If devices like this were only known by states governments, this feature likely would have taken longer to become standard

Re: O.mg Cable

#516

Post by jtsiskin »

hashkb wrote: post #287
burnished wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the only thing you are missing is that most people most of the time don't want to hurt or bother others and that much of society functioning relies on this. Cause nothing stopping you from buying any of that, at what looks like very reasonable rates.

This is false. Most people will take advantage of any situation where they detect a low enough chance of consequences, regardleas of who is hurt. We act good because we don't want to be caught, embarrassed, or convicted and condemned. It's not that most people want to hurt others. It's just that most people care only for themselves. Source: reality.

I don’t think that is true. The ‘median’ person has empathy and care, and would not hurt someone even if they could be totally undetected - but there is a large skew, which makes this true for the ‘mean’ person and thus ‘reality’, if that makes any sense.

As an example: a bowl of candy on Halloween with a “take 2 pieces only please” sign on it. Most people will only take 2. A few people will grab a handful. And one person will come along and take the whole bowl.

Re: O.mg Cable

#517

Post by R0b0t1 »

wyclif wrote: post #367
scthrow wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have a clearance and a somewhat checkered past. A lot of what they look for is consistency in accounts of previous behaviors between you and any references / interviews they undertake, trying to assess if you're currently honest. Another big thing they are trying to decide is if you are blackmailable. (throwaway because I have the sort of clearance you are not supposed to advertise that you have)

Can confirm (source: I have a friend that works for a three-letter agency). Before I sit for a clearance interview, I asked him about it. I used to think I'd probably be disqualified, but I learned that was not the case at all. Much of what they're trying to determine is your exposure to potential blackmail.

How recent? Posts like "FBI can't find hackers" have been frontpaging for years but people who have responded to the ads say they were dismissed at the clearance step or advised to not continue due to it.

Re: O.mg Cable

#518

Post by einpoklum »

xyzal wrote: post #156
einpoklum wrote: post #132

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They are really quite unlike us. And our sets of norms is, shall we say, somewhat different to theirs.

You imply hacking human minds to be more acceptable than hacking computers?

No, I'm suggesting people be a bit more critical in their choices of who are "us". They are both "us" in some senses and "not us" in others.

Re: O.mg Cable

#519

Post by anonu »

This is incredible.

I remember in the early days of the web getting a copy of the Anarchist Cookbook. One idea was to glue the phosphorus material from a match stick to the spinning portion of a floppy disk. Of course that was a n00b level hack.

We've come a long way since then...

Re: O.mg Cable

#520

Post by droidist2 »

jeffrallen wrote: post #478
6177c40f wrote: post #365

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And let's not forget that many of them are probably browsing HN at this very moment. They could be you, they could be me!

Piss off, spies. Why don't you come over to the light side of the force?

I mean, it's a spectrum really isn't it? NSA, Facebook, Google, they're all involved in surveillance in different ways and to different degrees.
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