KeriBlog

Cars, Security & a Peek into my Life

Armoured Cars are Coming into Vogue

There’s a very expensive luxury sedan segment you don’t see advertised, the Security segment.

BMW Security, Mercedes S-Guard, Audi A8 Security,

Take their largest sedan, add plating, ballistic and new windows, cameras with night vision, instantly seal the cabin for gas attacks, and keep it looking like the regular model – security through obscurity.

Read in on Autonet.ca

Favourite line:

Masking the armour beneath factory finishings, so the car looks identical to the non-armoured model.

The Attack:

I’d go for the vehicle’s traffic… follow behind, laptop and antennae on the passenger seat, see what you can capture…maybe steal some passwords, or take some data and hold it for ransom, copy photos for blackmail, you get it.

Related: Wenet armoured car shopping 

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Back to ‘Keri on Driving’ – Index

 

 

Illustrating “Security-through-Obscurity”

Both of these cars are armoured.

The above is a Conquest Evade, and the below Audi A8 Security.

Which one would turn your head?  

The first one.  And that’s Security through Obscurity

Same approach when securing your car in the city, and why you hide your WiFi network name (how to here).

Out of sight, out of mind.

 

 

All New Cars have a “Black Box”

All new 2014 vehicles now ship with a an EDR – Event Data Recorder, or, “black box.”

It constantly records information while the car is in motion, but only saves it in the event of a crash, a few seconds in total.

Information the EDR records: vehicle speed and acceleration, throttle and brake positions, ignition cycles, seat belt usage, velocity changes throughout a collision, and airbag deployment.

More sophisticated EDRs are arriving, which also record GPS data, seat position and steering, plus they continuously save the information.

Read it online at Autonet.ca

Favourite line:

My Prediction – EDRs & Car Insurance –  2nd last paragraph

I predict insurance companies will start to use the data, something like, “connect your EDR to our system, and reduce your monthly cost by paying for insurance only when you drive!

Here comes the “Connected Car”. It’s going to be huge guys.

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Back to ‘Keri on Driving’ – Index

 

 

Stop Downloads from Automatically Opening

In your internet browser preferences, look for the option, “open files automatically after downloading” and make sure it is OFF.

This is a Safari example.

There are no “safe files”.

Opening a file is what unleashes the problems.

Those problems (malware, virus, trojan horse, whatever) can be hidden within a photo, text document, music file, and especially a PDF.

The Attack:

Visit a webpage > a file is downloaded without your consent > that box is checked > file opens > computer is compromised

The Defence:

Any service that allows you to download a file, should have this setting OFF.  Skype, chat program, email program…

Therefore, even if the file downloads automatically, you can then delete it from the downloads folder, without opening it.

An Example:

Found this executable in my Downloads folder.

Don’t recognize it, wasn’t me who downloaded it, go over to Google.

1 it’s a application used to remotely access my desktop
2 from any computer using just a web browser.

So, if I had the box above checked, then the application would have been installed, and the attacker would have gained access to my laptop.

It was a persistent threat, 3 attempts were made.

Someone was quite curious to see what I was up to.

Here, I’m going to suck all the fun and challenge out of it.

I’m really into the Kardashians these days; am considering moving away from downtown; been designing jewellery, specifically bracelets; I’ve developed a bad pattern of buying shoes late at night; and added a few twerking moves to my dance routine, just 8 bars though, any more would be gauche.