WØTKX
11-18-2014, 12:12 AM
The Full Orwell (http://motherboard.vice.com/read/huxleyed-into-the-full-cory-orwell-cory-doctorow)
"Anyone who wants to see this, hit this URL." She held up a sheet of paper with a URL neatly printed on it. She could have used a QR code, but everyone thinks of those as malware vectors. Anything written on a post-it in sharpie was too homely to present any real risk.
A couple of the journos held back, but several loaded it up. She'd already stuck a SIM into her tablet. A second later, she turned it around.
At first, the reporters couldn't figure out what they were seeing. It was a grid, showing low-rez, shakycam video-feeds of surprised looking faces. Their faces. She'd just pwned all their phone cameras and was now receiving a video-stream off of each one.
"The bug that Kitty revealed was part of the Netflix stack, which you'll find in pretty much every browser on earth. It operates inside a framework specified by the World Wide Web Consortium, meaning that it can be zero-click installed on anything with a browser interface, from your thermostat to your car.
"But because it's part of a DRM system that's supposed to protect copyright—to preserve the illusion that Netflix is somehow able to send you a 'stream' that's not an actual ‘download'—it's against the law to tell you that every device you own is sitting out there, waiting to be pwned by the NSA or just a garden-variety creep. That's what Kitty is in jail for: giving a presentation on this issue at a technical conference.
"Just think for a moment about all the things you control with that phone. Any of you have an implanted defibrillator? A bluetooth hearing aid? Think about the mischief I can make now that I control your phone. Lucky for you, I'm nice." She tapped her tablet. "I've just nuked my installation, as well as your Netflix plugins, which'll auto-reinstall the next time you hit their site. Technically, I just committed about twenty felonies. But Netflix? They're in the clear, even if you lose the contents of your bank account and the alarm-code for your house because you got pwned by their plugin.
"And for what? A little light entertainment? Dudes, we are Huxleying our way into the full Orwell."
Go poke around that site. Cool short stories.
"Anyone who wants to see this, hit this URL." She held up a sheet of paper with a URL neatly printed on it. She could have used a QR code, but everyone thinks of those as malware vectors. Anything written on a post-it in sharpie was too homely to present any real risk.
A couple of the journos held back, but several loaded it up. She'd already stuck a SIM into her tablet. A second later, she turned it around.
At first, the reporters couldn't figure out what they were seeing. It was a grid, showing low-rez, shakycam video-feeds of surprised looking faces. Their faces. She'd just pwned all their phone cameras and was now receiving a video-stream off of each one.
"The bug that Kitty revealed was part of the Netflix stack, which you'll find in pretty much every browser on earth. It operates inside a framework specified by the World Wide Web Consortium, meaning that it can be zero-click installed on anything with a browser interface, from your thermostat to your car.
"But because it's part of a DRM system that's supposed to protect copyright—to preserve the illusion that Netflix is somehow able to send you a 'stream' that's not an actual ‘download'—it's against the law to tell you that every device you own is sitting out there, waiting to be pwned by the NSA or just a garden-variety creep. That's what Kitty is in jail for: giving a presentation on this issue at a technical conference.
"Just think for a moment about all the things you control with that phone. Any of you have an implanted defibrillator? A bluetooth hearing aid? Think about the mischief I can make now that I control your phone. Lucky for you, I'm nice." She tapped her tablet. "I've just nuked my installation, as well as your Netflix plugins, which'll auto-reinstall the next time you hit their site. Technically, I just committed about twenty felonies. But Netflix? They're in the clear, even if you lose the contents of your bank account and the alarm-code for your house because you got pwned by their plugin.
"And for what? A little light entertainment? Dudes, we are Huxleying our way into the full Orwell."
Go poke around that site. Cool short stories.