Without a Traceroute

Why, by cleaning up your Windows registry, of course! [OBVIOUS WARNING: NOBODY DOWNLOAD THEIR WORTHLESS SOFTWARE]

Ok, so this is kind of a stupid little phishing scam that one of my friends pointed out to me, but I found it pretty amusing. Basically, you can put anything you want in the URL after the “?k=”, and it will generate a page pretending to have a magical solution to your problem (one which just happens to involve downloading and running their obviously malware-ridden software). Some of the more amusing suggestions I’ve seen or come up with include:
http://errornerds.com/errors/?k=My-Marriage
http://errornerds.com/errors/?k=Human-Nature
http://errornerds.com/errors/?k=Cancer
http://errornerds.com/errors/?k=The-Tragedy-of-the-Commons
http://errornerds.com/errors/?k=Time-travel-paradoxes
http://errornerds.com/errors/?k=The-Nameless-Horror
http://errornerds.com/errors/?k=The-yawning-void-within-my-soul
http://errornerds.com/errors/?k=Radioactive-Robot-Holocaust-of-2029

Phishing scams like this one are interesting because they remind me just how little effort goes into most malicious computer attacks. Social engineering can be a form of hacking in some cases, but this page doesn’t even come close to the level of actual hacking.
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Yeah, that’s pretty sweet.

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The last week has been pretty cool. There turned out to be enough space, so I did get a chance to attend most of the presentations at the You Shot the Sheriff conference. It was at an Australia/New Zealand-themed bar, which was slightly random. But they had a really delicious catered lunch of crepes, and a pretty extensive open bar. So props for the venue choice. I’ll try to write about some of my favorite presentations later. There were a lot of interesting people in attendance, from both Americas. The crowd did tend toward white-hat/IT security professional types—”we’re the sellout hackers,” one guy told me—rather than more underground people. I discovered one way you can tell when a hacker’s going mainstream: they tuck their t-shirts in. Although, I did meet a guy who started one of the first e-zines about the hacker scene in Brazil back in the early 1990s. There was even an American representative from Microsoft’s Security Response Team at the conference. He seemed pleasantly indulgent about the fact that everyone else in attendance spent all their time breaking his software.

Tuesday, there was an afterparty at a Cuban bar, with similar open bar. Wednesday, I went out for drinks with the conference organizers, I recorded a brief interview I’ll try to type up later.  Thursday, I got drinks (again) with a really cool Brazilian hacker/security researcher guy. So basically, my liver probably hates me (I took Friday night off), but I’ve been having an awesome time.

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Sao Paulo is an absolutely enormous city. Luckily, there’s a subway and surface trams you can take to avoid traffic and get around. Unfortunately, the map of the Sao Paulo metro system is a bit…optimistic. Looking closely at the legend above, you’ll see that all of line 4 and half of line 2 are “under construction”. Half of line 5, and chunks of lines E and F, as well as the airport connection are only “in planning”. This can be kind of frustrating when trying to plan a trip:
“Oh, I can just take the…oh wait, that doesn’t exist yet. Oh, then I’ll just have to transfer at…oh, that station isn’t open either. Well, looks like I’m taking the bus.”

Don’t get me wrong, it’s great that they’re expanding their metro network. I’m sure in 2010-2012, all those lines will be really useful. But right now, their presence on the map is just a tease.

So Sao Paulo is basically like LA in Blade Runner, with fewer androids. Most of the fancy hotels and bars/clubs here have helipads on the roof. The Brazilians tell me that many well-to-do Paulistanos get around the city by helicopter taxi, in order to avoid the atrocious traffic and dangerous streets.

Obviously, this trend is indicative of the city’s tremendous failure to provide adequate transportation and safety for its citizens. On the other hand, it’s also super awesome. I’m told that a heli-taxi ride costs between $40 and $50 USD, and I fully intend to take one before I leave. I’ve never even been in a helicopter before!