Kevin Fu, an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, and his team have been working with pacemakers for quite some time. Having reverse engineered a pacemaker, the team found a frightening loop hole. It turns out that a built-in test mechanism for the device includes a bug that can be exploited by hackers.

There is no cryptographic key used to secure the wireless communication between the control device and the pacemaker. This makes it real easy to build your own wireless device that can control the pacemaker. And by “control the pacemaker,” I mean shut it off. Hopefully, this discovery will lead to defense mechanisms put in place that’ll defend those who wear a pacemaker from any remote attack on their heart. Until then, you might want to keep your pacemaker on the DL.

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Looks like Defcon 16 is one of the best yet. The “Defcon 16 Mystery Challenge” is a competition for attendees to have at. Solve a series of puzzles and mysteries and you could win special black Defcon badges that give you free admittance for life. One of the puzzles includes this delightful yellow ball with a combination lock on the top. You say lockpick it, I say smash it.

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Part time house DJ and rogue journalist Nicholas Deleon from CrunchGear was kind enough to point us to a link on Google Video where you can watch the hacker documentary Freedom Downtime in all its glory.

Watch Freedom Downtime on Google Video (via CrunchGear)

Trying to call your female escort to let her know you’ll be late? Use one of these payphones hooked up to the Internet via a PBX system. Probably running Asterisk I’m guessing. Check out photos of the setup after the jump.
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Found on the second floor of the Hotel Pennsylvania. A group of hackers were selling old phone equipment and patronizing me for taking pictures. I’d rather be a photographer than a group of fat fucks selling old junk!

Oh noes! Some key logger has taken over my World Of Warcraft account! All my gold is missing, all my gear was probably destroyed all because I left my password as “password.” Well, it won’t happen again ’cause Blizzard’s got this Blizzard Authenticator they’re selling for just $6.50.  It’ll keep them hackers out…unless said hacker happens to be ‘Zero Cool’.

Each time you log in using the Blizzard Authenticator, you are provided with a randomly generated, one-time use password to use in addition to your regular password. It’ll change each time you log in and is displayed on this nifty key chain accessory. So, I’m back to playing World Of Warcraft, hacker-free. Who would’ve thought farming Kil’jaedan solo without any gear would be so much fun?

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Identity theft has become a major problem in today’s world. There are tons of hackers stealing credit card and social security numbers online, but some people still resort to good old mail snooping. The Keyless Locking Mailbox hopes to put your identity in your hands, where it should be.

The mailbox has an angled slot which allows for the mailman to deliver your mail, but the mail cannot be retrieved until you type in your four-digit PIN code onto the touchpad, activating the unlock mechanism. It’s kind of like a USPS mail drop box for your home. Available now in a choice of white or black for $299. — Andrew Dobrow

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You want a Chumby, you just don’t know it yet. A Chumby is a DIY versatile multigadget that is capable of displaying a variety of options and can be built into literally anything. The Chumby is basically a processor, some memory and a screen, but the lengths at what you can do with these few supplies are nearly endless.

Users can download widgets from the Internet that give the Chumby the capability of doing a variety of jobs. You can set up a widget for a stock market ticker, an alarm clock, a webcam viewer, an MP3 player, a photo viewer, a GPS device, a news ticker, and the list will go on and on.

The Chumby was developed by hackers, so hacking and modding are encouraged. The product’s site even has a “My Chumby” section to share your creations. The Chumby supplies are not yet for sale, but they are expected to be available for about $150 when the company decides to release it. — Andrew Dobrow

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The Inquirer reports that a drunk Nintendo representative was spewing at the mouth about the Wii GPU’s hi-def capability, even though the full potential is yet to be seen. So why DON’T we see the Wii slinging out high definition resolution? Apparently, for two reasons.

The console can’t handle a reasonable frame rate for true HD quality and because the cost would be even higher then it already is for the gaming unit. So this comes down to the Wii being able to handle HD, but just not at par with the competition. Keeping its capability secret is seeming to be part of the business plan. Although this is just a rumor, hackers are sure to go to work on the GPU unit now that the supposed “word” is out. Seems sort of unlikely, but a Wii HD is worth the experimentation. — Andrew Dobrow

Nintendo hides Wii’s HD [The Inquirer, via GWN News]

Today on the official Apple news blog, Steve Jobs writes about Apple’s involvement with DRM on songs sold from iTunes. Jobs says that Apple would jump at the chance for DRM-free music, but won’t for one major reason.

Steve Jobs expresses how if Apple were to remove the DRM liscensing, the four major music companies would pull their music from the iTunes market, removing a considerable amount of the iTunes catalog, and most, if not all, of the best sellers. Jobs goes on to say that since Apple does not own any music themselves, they have to follow the guidance of the industry.

Jobs goes pretty in depth about the alternatives of DRM, giving three major alternative choices. Including one to totally abolish DRM. Jobs explains that the reason that the four big companies would even allow DRM-free music to be sold would be because of its inability to get past hackers and actually maintaining any protection.

“Perhaps those unhappy with the current situation should redirect their energies towards persuading the music companies to sell their music DRM-free.”

Which is Steve’s way of saying, “It’s up to you guys, not me.” — Andrew Dobrow

Thoughts on Music [Apple via Between The Lines]