A Hacker proved that he could activate the camera of a MacBook without warning the user

Once again the Apple MacBook is the source of a privacy problem. A man named Jared Abrahams managed to hack the MacBook camera of a classmate without her being aware. The hacker was able to take naked pictures that he subsequently sent to her. The victim quickly realized that she had been photographed without her knowledge for a considerable time.
To do so, Abrahams has managed to disable the green LED that illuminates normally when the camera is activated. So she couldn't know when it is active. It is normally impossible to take such an action, except for the hacker who has found a solution.  

The FBI found on his computer a special software that can remotely control the camera and the green LED. This practice is indeed already used by the FBI and other similar agencies to spy on some suspicious users. This manipulation is of course not available to everyone.
The vulnerability has been explained by two students from Johns Hopkins University in the United States . According to them, it is necessary to change the OS X kernel to successfully disable the LED of the camera. In fact, the vulnerability is not present on the Mac available since 2008. Nevertheless, it is quite possible that a similar method exists on the latest models to date.
 
Source: The Washington Post

Meet Siri

When the CNN reporter Jessica Ravitz was interviewing the voice actress Susan Bennett about voice-over work, she realized that the voice she was hearing over the phone was very familiar.

While Apple is being very secretive about it and still won't confirm it, Bennett revealed her self as Siri, the mysterious voice of the iPhone.

Source: CNN

Spying on a computer keystrokes with an iPhone

Researches have shown that sensors found in our smartphones can sometimes be misused: as an example some researchers used the built-in iPhone 4 accelerometer to build an app that capture keystrokes.
  

The idea is simple: a smartphone is placed next to the keyboard and the accelerometer is capable of recording the vibrations each time you hit a key.  The app is then able to determine the position of each button according to the vibration.  

The program is not really able to detect every keystroke, it simply divides the keyboard into several areas: the accelerometer can actually detect roughly if the pressed key is on the top left, top right, bottom left or bottom right of the keyboard. Next, an analysis is performed in overlapping areas with a dictionary to try to reconstruct words.

When the keyboard type is known (QWERTY, AZERTY, etc..) and the language used is identified, the recognition rate of the text is quite high, with a success rate between 70 and 80% . Obviously there are some problems with recognition, especially when a one letter word is used, but the results are interesting.
 

The type of the used smartphone has also an influence: an iPhone 3GS, which uses a conventional accelerometer is unusable, while an iPhone 4 which couples the accelerometer to a gyroscope is effective. Overall, any modern smartphone used in an environment free from excessive vibration should succeed to do the same work.

Although this might sound innovative and fun, but the goals of the study were to show that the monitoring method are not always obvious to detect, and to raise awareness about using technology in a responsible and ethical way, while appreciating and embracing your privacy and respecting the others'.

Facebook to start selling our data to U.S TV channels

In order to compete with Twitter, Facebook announced that it would start sending shared data on its platform to some U.S. television channels. The aim is to highlight the interactions and popularity of programs on the social network.  

While a Nielsen highlighted the ability of Twitter to boost  TV viewership, Facebook has decided to exploit this niche too.  

The Wall Street Journal reports that the social network will start sharing its data with a handful of U.S. partners : ABC, NBC, Fox and CBS.
The reports will consist of information related to likes, publications and comments associated with a television program. The channels will be able to analyze the behavior of the community and draw conclusions that will eventually influence decisions.  

And of course it won't be Facebook if it only based its reports on public data users. Private content will be also integrated, to the data sent to American channels. The result should look like a list of statistics available at the discretion of TV channels with more data to be incorporated over time to refine the statistics, giving Facebook a new way to monetize data from its 1.27 billion members.