My take on 2012

No matter whether the world will end in 2012 or not, business men have already started taking advantage of it. Its a win-win situation. If the world ends, well then there there will be no questions asked. If not, questions will be asked but those who made money won't care to answer them.

To summarize, following are the hot issues being discussed

• Mayan calendar ends in dec 21, 2012. Mayans were very skilled astronomers, so they could be right!
• The unidentified PlanetX (A.K.A Nibiru) may fly by or even collide with earth! In either case we are looking at over 90% of destruction.
• 70 year cycle of solar flare. Every 70 years or so sun will switch it magnetic poles. This process will cause huge solar flares which may cause considerable damage on earth. If this happens, the impact will not be as severe as the collision, but it will definitely affect electronics and can also cause other natural disasters.
• Corp circles appeared which looks like Mayan calendar
• Every X number of years (X being a large number) our solar system passes thru the equator of our galaxy. The equator region is thin but earth will take a few years to cross it. While in the danger zone, many disasters including collision with other terrestrial objects, change in gravity and magnetic field may occur.

As a human being, I agree that its a big deal. Howver I think it is hyped - which is quite natural.

Hey think outside the box folks. We don't even know 1% of the big picture. Our knowledge is entirely based on observations. The observations are based on senses - which are limited. We can hear or see only a small bandwidth of frequencies. In other words we don't even know what we really know. So the end-of-the-world news has only very little significance. Even if anything happens, that can very well be a coincidence for us.

However the idea is very eye catching! From the very first moment I came across this I started reading upon it. The enthusiastic part of me will continue to research while the human part of me once in a while will try to picture how those days will really be, but the intellectual part of me will keep my life as usual.

Bluetooth and Mobile Phone Security

Today I started reading on long range Bluetooth devices and then drifted on to on technologies used to hack/attack mobile phones.

Long Range Bluetooth devices
For long time I had trouble convincing investors about the range of BT devices. Everyone believes BT devices can communicate only within 10 miters. Years back I read about the long range BT devices but now it has become a commercial reality. There are devices that claim to communicate upto 28 miles. Those are industrial BT devices and are expensive. But the one caught my attention was the one from "AirCable". Their $120 device can communicate upto a mile!!

Mobile device security
I came across two major types of attacks("BlueJacking" and "Bluesnafing"), surprisingly both of them are Bluetooth based.

BlueJacking
Bluejacking is not harmful, but can be annoying. The idea is compose a message with an unusual phone number (such as "you are being Bluejacked") and sending it to an arbitrary victim in the proximity over Bluetooth. The advantage here is that the target user cannot trace the sender. If the victim is a common user who doesn't know anything about BlueJacking, it can be annoying or even frightening. The only advantage from attacker's perspective is that he can use this technique to locate the victim by sending a message and watching who picks up the phone.

Bluesnarfing
This is an advanced technique like computer hacking. The attacker gets some level of control over the victim's phone. It is not clear how it is done, but apparently they make use of vulnerabilities of the platform. Many phones with such vulnerabilities are listed. I guess they might be using use some carefully carved BT messages to embed the shell code and take the advantage of the vulnerability to run the shell code.

Takeaway
• The attacker can hack into your cell phone over bluetooth
• The worst thing the attacker can do is 1)Steal your data (address book, notes, SMS etc) 2) Make calls without your knowledge
• These attacks are not popular in US (yet)
• If you turn OFF the Bluetooth completely, you are 100%safe! If you turn off the "device discovery" then you are 75% safe (sort of)
• It worth checking the platform before you buy your next cell phone