How to Keep Your Neighbors from Hijacking your Wi-Fi

By Lincoln Spector  Follow
csoonline

Your Internet connection could be slow for many reasons, but you can rule out local Wi-Fi thieves by employing strong passwords.
A number of issues can produce intermittently slow Internet access, and most of them don't involve foul play. You could have bad cables, a bad modem or router, or simply outdated firmware on either of these devices. The problem may be with your ISP, and therefore completely out of your hands.
But as much as we'd like to think otherwise, your problem could be with a dishonest neighbor. And in these days of data caps, such neighbors could be running up your bill as they're slowing down your connection.

I'm assuming you've password-protected your Wi-Fi network. If you haven't, check your router's documentation and do so immediately.
But nothing is ever completely secure, and Wi-Fi networks can be cracked. You need to take extra precautions.
Every technique I've seen for cracking Wi-Fi networks involves either a dictionary or a brute-force attack. There's a very simple tool for protecting yourself against these attacks: a strong password. Use a long, random string of numbers, upper- and lower-case letters, and punctuation, and avoid anything found in the dictionary. Read more here on how to A use strong passwords.

Since you and other people will likely be typing this password manually from time to time, avoid lower-case L, upper-case I and O, and the digits 1 and 0. This will avoid confusion when people read the password and recreate it on a keyboard.
Test the password's strength with "How Secure is My Password", which estimates how long it would take a standard PC to crack your password. If it would take more than a million years to crack, consider the password safe.
The usual complaint against strong passwords--they're too hard to remember and type--doesn't apply here. You only have to type this password when setting up a new Wi-Fi-capable device, or when helping a guest who brought their own device to your home. You can just keep the password on a scrap of paper--or in your password manager.

Of course, if you're worried that a neighbor has already cracked your Wi-Fi, changing the password will get them off of it immediately.
In addition to your password, make sure your Wi-Fi security is properly set up. Go into your router's setting screen and check the options. Ideally, you should be using WPA2 encryption. If your modem doesn't support WPA2, use WPA-Personal--or better yet, buy a new router.

Boko Haram Gunmen Strike in Jigawa State Killing 8 Persons, Order Residents To Close Down Schools and Football Viewing Center

Gunmen suspected to be Boko Haram members killed eight persons while four persons were injured in the early hours of Wednesday at Gwaram Sabuwa, Gwaram local government area of Jigawa state.
The gunmen invaded the town between 2-4 am Wednesday morning, bombed the police station before shooting indiscriminately at villagers.
Residents said the unknown gunmen numbering over 20 entered the town in cars to perpetrate their dastardly act and left the town unhindered after causing severe harm to residents.
The gunmen threatened to come back if the people did not to stop enrolling their children in schools, stop accepting polio vaccination and close down all football viewing centre in the town.

Those killed were taken to a morgue in the state capital while the injured are currently receiving treatment at Gwaram general hospital. This is third time Gwaram town came under attack by unknown gunmen, but the latest attack is the most deadly because 9 innocent persons were reported killed in the attack.
The Assistant Inspector of Police (AIG) in charge of zone 1, Mr. Tambari Yabo confirmed the attack and the killings.

Source:
SaharaReporters

Counter-Terrorism not Targeted at Any Religion, Ethnic Group - Nigerian DHQ

The Defence Headquarters in Abuja said that no religion or ethnic group was targeted at the ongoing counter terrorism campaign in the country.
Olukolade said that the Armed Forces comprise Nigerians from all religious persuasions and could not be used against any particular religion as purported.
Olukolade described the statement issued by the Secretary General of Jama’atul Nasril Islam (JNI), Dr Khalid Aliyu as "spurious and inflammatory".
Recall that Aliyu had in the statement alleged extra-judicial killing of Muslims and people of Fulani ethnic group by the Nigerian military.

``The Nigerian military remains non-partisan, non-sectarian and will continue to be the symbol of patriotism and a unifying factor in the face of threats to national sovereignty.
``If this wild allegation was meant to cause disaffection or brew disharmony within the military, then it has woefully failed as the Nigerian military does not operate along religious or ethnic lines.
``It is unfortunate that the unjust imputation is coming from respectable and responsible organisation like JNI,’’ he said.
Olukolade urged the body not to join in the fray of propagandists bent on discrediting genuine efforts at finding solutions to the nation’s security challenges.
He said that the military would continue to be driven by patriotism and commitment to the cause of the nation and its law abiding citizens.
``Individuals with similar prejudices are advised to abandon such biases as the challenges at hand calls for prayers and support of all well-meaning organisations and groups.
``Instead of trying to turn the public against the military all responsible organisations should be more interested in seeking solutions to the nation’s security challenges,’’ Olukolade said.

The spokesman said ``that for the avoidance of doubt the military and other security agencies do not have any policy, agenda or plans to perpetrate massacre or extra-judicial killing of law abiding citizens.”
He said the authorities had no reason to take side or shield anyone from justice.
``Individuals apprehended in the course of counter-terrorism campaign will continue to have access to justice as provided by law.”

Daily Times

Israeli Firm Prototypes 30-Second Battery Charger

A battery that can charge in under 30 seconds has been shown off at a technology conference in Tel Aviv.
Israeli start-up StoreDot displayed the device - made of biological structures - at Microsoft's Think Next Conference.
A Samsung S4 smartphone went from a dead battery to full power in 26 seconds in the demonstration.
The battery is currently only a prototype and the firm predicts it will take three years to become a commercially viable product.
In the demonstration, a battery pack the size of a cigarette packet was attached to a smartphone.

"We think we can integrate a battery into a smartphone within a year and have a commercially ready device in three years," founder Dr Dorn Myersdorf told the BBC.
The bio-organic battery utilises tiny self-assembling nano-crystals that were first identified in research being done into Alzheimer's disease at Tel Aviv University 10 years ago.
The nano-dots are described by StoreDot as "stable, robust spheres" that are 2.1 nanometers in diameter and made up of peptide molecules.
The technology has a range of uses, founder Dr Myersdorf said.
"Batteries are just one of the industries we can disrupt with this new material. It is new physics, new chemistry, a new approach to devices," he said.
The team has also used the nano-crystals in memory chips which could write three times faster than traditional flash memory and as a non-toxic alternative to cadmium in screens.

Dr Myersdorf said that the batteries are likely to be 30 to 40% more expensive to manufacture compared to traditional ones and the final product will be twice as expensive than those on the market today.
But making them should be a relatively easy process.
"It is about letting nature take its course. We just need a facility that can do chemical processing," he said.

Source:
BBC

Terrorists Kill Five Soldiers In Northeast Nigeria-Defence HQTRS

Nigeria’s Defence Headquarters has announced the loss of five soldiers, including an officer, during an ambush by the terrorists today, Tuesday 08/04/2014.
In a Statement, the Director of Defence Headquarters, Maj. General Chris Olukolade, indicates that the incident occurred during an assault on terrorists’ enclaves in Sambisa forests and surrounding locations.

“Operational activities around Wala, Gwoza, Pulka and environs have been intensified.  Encounters resulting from air and land strikes and an ambush of troops on patrols in the area have resulted in the death of scores of terrorists and loss of 5 soldiers including an officer."
Olukolade stated that a timely distress call saved communities besieged by terrorists in search of food around the Lake Chad area.
The heavily armed terrorists, on sensing the approach of troops before they could carry out their mission, scampered for safety, General Olukolade said.

"The troops of the Multi-National Joint Task Force on patrol of the area have so far recovered some arms and ammunition left behind by fleeing terrorists.  Cordon and search of the area is continuing with a view to apprehending any of the terrorists that could be lurking around.”

Source:
SR

Microsoft Ends Security Updates, Bug Fixes for Windows XP Operating System

Microsoft will ditch Security updates, bug fixes for the venerable Windows XP  Operating System today, Tuesday 08/04/2014.

It means that there will be no more official security updates and bug fixes for the operating system from Microsoft.
However some governments have negotiated extended support contracts for the OS in a bid to keep users protected.
Security firms said anyone else using the 13-year-old software would be at increased risk of infection and compromise by cyber-thieves.

Old code
Statistics suggest 20-25% of all users have stuck with XP despite the fact that there have been three major releases of Windows since its debut in 2001.
Some existing XP users have struck deals to get security fixes from Microsoft while they complete their migration away from the ageing code.
The UK government has signed a £5.5m deal for extended support. Similarly the Dutch government has signed a "multi-million euro" deal to obtain help for the 40,000 PCs running XP used by the nation's civil servants.
Anyone currently running Windows XP already faced a disproportionate risk of falling victim to malware, said Dave Emm, a senior research analyst at security firm Kaspersky.

Many of the world's cash machines are still believed to be running Windows XP.
"Our data indicates that less than one fifth of our customers run Windows XP but more than a quarter of infections are Windows XP-based," he said.
That exposure ratio was only going to get worse after 8 April, he said, once the last security patch for Windows XP had been released.
That final patch will fix a series of bugs, one of which is rated as critical and is already being actively exploited despite only being discovered in late March.
"Effectively, every vulnerability discovered after 8 April will become a zero-day vulnerability - that is, one for which there is and never will be, a patch," said Mr Emm.

Windows XP users topped the list of victims cyber-thieves targeted, said Maik Morgenstern and Andreas Marx from the German AV-Test group, which rates and ranks security software.
"Malware writers go for the low hanging fruits because it's a lot easier to infect systems running on an old Windows XP operating system compared to brand-new Windows 8.1, with all its built-in security features," they said.
"We think we will see a lot of attacks for Windows XP within the next few months, but attackers will also always add exploits for other Windows systems just to catch those systems as well."
Patch plan

Many have stuck with XP and ignored newer versions of Windows
Orla Cox, a senior manager at cyber-defence firm Symantec's security response unit, said criminals groups were likely to hoard the XP vulnerabilities they knew about rather than use them to bolster malware being spammed out to millions of people.
"The types of groups sitting on zero-days will tend to use them against high-end targets and for corporate espionage," she said. "Some organisations will have particular concerns because they find it so hard to move away from XP."
However, she added, any zero-day that did get used against a corporate target was likely to be re-used later on.
"Once it's out there it gets into the malware kits and then gets circulated and there will be no defence," she said.
Mark O'Neill, a spokesman for data management firm Axway, said organisations were getting better at coping with software that had hit its end-of-life.
"Beyond high-profile programs like XP there are a lot of products that have gone out of support because the company behind them has gone out of business or was acquired," he said.
In addition many other products were written in old programming languages that made them expensive to maintain and update.
As a result, many IT departments have put such ageing programs in the virtual equivalent of a "black box" and subsequently update the external code if security patches need to be applied.
"You can create a layer above the older application and that gives you a place to patch," Mr O'Neill said.
"Companies are not defenceless even with the things they cannot patch."

Source:
BBC

The National Human Right Commission's Report on the Apo massacre vindicates our Press Release Titled: Apo, Abuja, (Nigeria) Indiscriminate Killing: Part 2, Scene 2?

The Nigerian National Human Right Commission's Report on the Apo indiscriminate killing of squatters in an uncompleted building in Abuja vindicates our Press Release on the issue then.

To refresh your memory, about 8 people were on Friday 20/09/2013 indiscriminately killed in an uncompleted building at Bamanga Tukur Street, Apo Legislative Quarters, Abuja, by Nigeria’s Security Operatives. The SSS justified this wanton massacre claiming those killed were Boko Haram members. We issued a Press Release then condemning the circumstances surrounding the killings. The Nigerian National Human Rights Commission released a report indicting the Department of State Security Service. Recall that this déjà vu played out 8 years after the infamous unprovoked extra-judicial killing of some Igbo traders by overzealous Policemen in what became popularly known as ‘’Apo 6 massacre’’.

While we hold no iota of brief for the activities of Boko Haram and their ilk’s, we strongly decry a penchant for Government Security Operatives to wantonly gun down supposed suspects without first ascertaining their culpability or extracting sensitive information from them.  The issue of the 60 bodies that were reportedly sighted floating on Ezu River in Amensea, Anambra State is yet to be unraveled. Who knows whose turn it will be tomorrow? We profoundly believe in the sanctity and right to life of innocent Nigerians irrespective of their ethnicity, religious and political affiliations. Life expectancy in Nigeria will continue to shrink if such blanket killings are not checked.

A penchant for extra-judicial killing of suspects and innocent people invariably creates mutual distrust, hate and dichotomy between the security agencies and the citizenry that are supposed to volunteer nuggets of sensitive information. Such a proclivity is definitely counter-productive to the fight against insecurity and terrorism. No wonder people failed to volunteer useful information aftermath of the killing of SSS and Police officers by the Ombatse.

We immensely appreciate and commend the sacrifices, unconventional and precarious nature of the onerous task that Nigeria’s Security Agencies are encumbered with in their fight against insurgents and terrorists. We respectfully implore them to stick to international best practices, be less pugnacious, very discerning and surgical, more proactive and invest more resources in intelligence gathering so as to nip insecurity and terrorism in the bud. Due diligence and utmost care must be factored in before embarking on such operations so as to forestall indiscriminately gunning down innocent people or operatives endangering their own lives in the guise of fighting terrorism. With all due respect, Nigeria’s Security Establishments must not metamorphose into terrorists in the guise of fighting terrorists.

Beyond the NHRC indictment, recommendation for monetary compensation, in the interest of justice and in line with global best practices, those responsible for this killing should also be made to face the wrath of the law.

How France Will Support Nigeria’s Anti-Terror War’

FRANCE intends to help Nigeria overcome terrorism and insurgency by amongst other measures, providing high-calibre intelligence reports leveraging on its special relationship with Nigeria’s French-speaking neighbours like Cameroon.

France sees terrorism largely as a regional problem, one that needs not just the collaboration of neighbours but also development partners.

The French Ambassador to Nigeria, Jacques Champagne de Labriolle, stated this in an interview with The Guardian at the weekend.

It is believed that the shared intelligence reports such that France is now offering, is largely responsible for the recent breakthrough by the Nigerian counter-terrorism team and the military joint task force in foiling bomb attack plans by members of the dreaded Boko Haram sect in parts of the North-East.

France has defence pact with her former colonies which surround Nigeria. Cameroun and Niger have lately been fingered by intelligence reports of harbouring some terrorist cells apart from the provision of what appears to be safe havens for insurgents who have been striking at both soft and hard targets in North-East of Nigeria.

Last month, during a visit to Nigeria, French President Francois Hollande pledged his country’s support in the war against terrorism and insurgency by extremist group Boko Haram as France’s way of defending democracy.

Hollande told delegates at a security summit in Abuja ahead of Nigeria’s unification centenary celebrations: “Your struggle is also our struggle.”

Although Labriolle fought stridently against exposing the nitty-gritty of the French support for strategic reasons, he stressed that the role intelligence reports sharing in the fight against terrorism can never be underestimated.

He said: “This is not a matter which is meant to be public. But it includes intelligence, intelligence sharing, strategic information and data. Things like these are not meant to be public as you can see; help is going on, you know in a very useful way which is also that we have good relations with the neighbouring countries and we can share views and bring assistance on what is going on.”

He added: “The regional dimension is what I believe is where we can help best. You were saying that the terrorists are coming from Cameroon. They are not coming from Cameroon, they are just coming and going very easily because the borders were not really secured. It is a matter of exchanges, legal and illegal that have gone on for decades that now have a consequence, that is very difficult to prevent people crossing the border which is the problem because security forces of one country cannot go after them in another country, this is not the state of international relations as we speak...”
On the collaborative nature the French involvement in the days ahead, he said: “Our ideal which is drawn from the lessons we learnt in the Sahel is that for a long time, terrorists have been hiding in neighbouring countries, sometimes having deep-rooted shelters and things like that, it is part of the action against terrorism to address this so we came to think that instead of just speaking of borders and trying to see that the specific line between two countries be not crossed, a deep analysis would now be put at the centre of the thinking that it’s a regional wide action that is needed, it’s a borderless region which is at stake with people from both side that may have problems that have to be addressed for terrorism to recede. I have said earlier that terrorism is also a consequence of a certain state of things in terms of economic, social and political development and this has to be addressed within the frame-work of inclusive strategies. That is something that we can help and as we have a good record working with the neighbouring countries, indeed we have been discussing with them and with Nigeria on how best is the way out of this crisis.”

Source:
Guardian Newspaper

Army, Boko Haram Working Together in Parts of Nigeria?

By Pamela Dockins, Voice of America

A Nigerian soldier says he has witnessed incidents that suggest some Nigerian military commanders are working with Boko Haram, an Islamist militant group blamed for thousands of deaths since 2009.

In an exclusive interview with VOA's Hausa service, he described how his military unit, based in the northeastern Borno State region, was ambushed by Boko Haram fighters.

The soldier, who did not want to be identified, said the commander of a nearby military unit, based in the town of Bama, recently sought assistance from his unit in carrying out a raid.

The soldier said when the two military units joined up, they were given different uniforms. The Bama unit commander gave his own troops green uniforms. The soldier said his unit received tan "desert camouflage" uniforms.

When the troops reached the battle area, the soldier said the commander of the better-equipped Bama unit suddenly withdrew his forces, leaving the remaining troops to fend for themselves against Boko Haram fighters.

Speaking in Hausa, he said, "We had only light arms and our men were being picked off one after the other."

The soldier also said he recognized some of the Boko Haram fighters as his former military trainers in Kontagora, a town near the capital, Abuja.

"We realized that some of them were actually mercenaries from the Nigerian army... hired to fight us," he said.

This soldier and others have said that too often, commanders have pocketed money that was supposed to be used to help equip units.

Government has no comment

VOA has made repeated attempts to get reaction from the Nigerian government for this story but no officials have been willing to speak on the record.

However, in a January 2012 speech, Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan said Boko Haram members have infiltrated his government's executive, legislative and judicial sectors, as well as the police and armed forces.

Google Halt Sales of Hi-tech Fire Alarm Due To Safety Concerns

Google-owned Nest has halted sales of its Nest Protect fire alarm after the firm found out that users could accidentally disable the device by waving their arms.
The company said the feature, Nest Wave, which allows users to wave their arms to deactivate the alarm, could be activated unintentionally.
In a blog post, the company said current users should disable Wave.
Google bought Nest Labs for $3.2bn (£1.9bn) in January.

The firm, which is primarily known for its hi-tech thermostat, launched in the United Kingdom this week after strong sales in the US.

Self-discovery
Nest chief executive Tony Fadell emphasized "We identified this problem ourselves and are not aware of any customers who have experienced this, but the fact that it could even potentially happen is extremely important to me and I want to address it immediately.
"We're enormously sorry for the inconvenience caused by this issue."

All current users of Nest Protect who have their device connected to the internet via wi-fi will have the feature disabled automatically.
He said that all current owners of Nest Protect alarms would be offered refunds, and added that he thought a fix could take between two and three months.

Culled from:
BBC

Toddler Discovers Xbox Security Flaw

A five-year-old boy who worked out a security vulnerability on Microsoft's Xbox Live service has been officially thanked by the company.
Kristoffer Von Hassel, from San Diego, figured out how to log in to his dad's account without the right password.
Microsoft has fixed the flaw, and added Kristoffer to its list of recognised security researchers.
In an interview with local news station KGTV, Kristoffer said: "I was like yea!"

The boy worked out that entering the wrong password into the log-in screen would bring up a second password verification screen.
Kristoffer discovered that if he simply pressed the space bar to fill up the password field, the system would let him in to his dad's account.

"I got nervous. I thought he was going to find out," Kristoffer told television station, KGTV. "I thought someone was going to steal the Xbox."

Dad Robert - who works in security - sent details of the flaw to Microsoft. In a statement, Microsoft said: "We're always listening to our customers and thank them for bringing issues to our attention.
"We take security seriously at Xbox and fixed the issue as soon as we learned about it."
Kristoffer's name now appears on a page set up to thank people who have discovered problems with Microsoft products.
The company also gave him four free games, $50 (£30), and a year-long subscription to Xbox Live.

Culled from:
BBC

Israel Revs Up Cyber-Security Defences

Worried by imminent fears of a cyber-attack by Palestinian activists, Israel has blocked international data from reaching government sites. By blocking traffic, Israel hopes to limit activists' ability to knock out official sites. In addition, government workers are being instructed to be wary of email messages from beyond the nation's borders.

The precautions are expected to be in place over the weekend.
The measures involve filtering traffic so only data originating within Israel reaches the sites. Systems that accept payment for government services made by people outside the country are also being put on hold.

Israeli web news site Walla said the precautions were being taken to deal with a "huge attack" being prepared by hacktivists acting for pro-Palestinian groups.
Reuters reported that Israeli government security teams were also carrying out work on official websites to make them more resistant to attack.
Israeli officials have declined to comment on the action the country is taking.
The precautions come a couple of months after security company Seculert revealed that activists had managed to breach Israeli government defences using a booby-trapped email.
The attack reportedly left the perpetrators in control of 15 computers that were used to manage some of Israel's armed forces.

BBC

Egypt to Pass New "Anti-terrorism" Law: Ministers

CAIRO: Senior Egyptian ministers said they would pass legislation on Thursday "connected to confronting terrorism", in a statement released hours after three explosions killed two people in Cairo.

The statement from a high-level security committee including the prime minister and ministers of defence and interior, did not go into further details on the contents of the law. It said the bill would be presented to the cabinet for approval.

Egypt's government already has wide-ranging security powers and has detained thousands of supporters of former President Mohamed Mursi, ousted by the army in July. Cairo declared Mursi's Muslim Brotherhood a terrorist organisation in December.

Source:
Daily Star Lebanon

Beyond Nigeria's Newfound ''Soft Approach'' Towards Terrorism and Insurgency.

Col. Sambo Dasuki (Rtd), Nigeria's National Security Adviser

Colonel Sambo Dasuki (Rtd) succeeded late Lt. Gen. Patrick Azazi as Nigeria's National Security Adviser in June 2012. After nearly two years of painstakingly reappraising the Boko Haram miasma, he recently unveiled a 'Soft Approach' towards combating terrorism in Nigeria. The NSA proceeded to say, "my approach has been to understand the problem in order to apply the appropriate solutions. What we have learned is that there is not any particular path that leads to terrorism. Rather there are many, often complicated, paths that lead to terrorism". According to Dasuki, "the strategy would complement, not replace, military efforts to fight the Boko Hiram Sect. He continues, 'the Soft Approach will encompass de-radicalization of terrorists and revamping economy of Northern States'. He reeled out Poverty, social injustice, isolation and sectarianism amongst the factors causing terrorism and Insurgency in Nigeria. 

State Security Service (SSS) Accuse Suspended Central Bank Governor-Sanusi of Financing Terrorism

Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, Suspended CBN Governor

A new twist has been added to the ongoing travails of the suspended Governor of the Central Bank of Nigeria, CBN, Lamido Sanusi, as the Department of State Security Service, SSS, has accused him of financing terrorism. The SSS stated this at the Federal High Court, Lagos, while defending its decision to seize Mr. Sanusi’s international passport.

Mr. Sanusi’s passport was seized on February 20, as he arrived the Lagos international airport, hours after he was suspended as Central Bank Governor by President Goodluck Jonathan.