When Gadgets Betray Us
The Dark Side of Our Infatuation With New Technologies
by Robert Vamosi
Mem. Ed. $8.99
Pub. Ed. $26.99
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When Gadgets Betray Us
The TV remote in your hotel room can be used to steal your account information and spy on what you’ve been watching. Tollbooth transponders receive unencrypted E-ZPass or FasTrak information that can be stolen and cloned. Your car stores data about your driving habits that can be used in court against you.
As Robert Vamosi explains in When Gadgets Betray Us, there’s a downside to modern technology: as it gets more advanced, we understand less about how it can be manipulated and what personal details it might reveal about its users.
Vamosi introduces us to a Czech-born car thief who uses a laptop to steal Italian sports cars, and a researcher who has managed to interrupt the signals from nearby cellphone towers in order to record private conversations. He explains the function of “motor vehicle event data recorders” (MVEDRs)—essentially, black boxes for cars that record your speed and other data—and shows how the disposal of old hard drives presents a major risk of strangers gaining access to personal data. And yes, that copy machine is keeping its own personal copy of every page you scan on it.
How did one security expert create a counterfeit “smart parking card” whose balance always remained $999.99? Why are fingerprint scanners not the foolproof identification method their manufacturers would have us believe? And what are downsides of social-networking applications that report their members’ locations during the day?
As one of Vamosi’s subjects says, “Exposing bad security is what protects us all.” When Gadgets Betray Us exposes the secret lives of our gadgets, and helps us better understand and manage the very real risks they present.
Hardcover : 240 pages
Publisher: Basic Books Inc. ( March 29, 2011 )
Item #: 13-407178
ISBN: 9780465019588
Product Dimensions: 6.125 x 9.25 inches
Product Weight: 16.0 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
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