Reprinted from TidBITS#1040/16-Aug-2010 with permission.
Copyright (C) 2010, TidBITS. All rights reserved.
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ExtraBITS for 16 August 2010
----------------------------
  by TidBITS Staff <editors@tidbits.com>
  article link: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/11514>

  Just two quick bits for you this week - a hearty congratulations to
  the inimitable Nitrozac and Snaggy for the 10th anniversary of their
  Joy of Tech comic and a link to an academic paper showing that
  smartphone passwords could be hacked by virtue of screen smudges.


**Joy of Tech Comic Celebrates 10th Anniversary** -- Congratulations
  to Nitrozac and Snaggy for 10 years of their technology-focused Joy
  of Tech comic, which has long been a regular stop for all of us here
  at TidBITS. If you're not reading it, you're missing out on one of
  the top sources of technology humor, often with a wry emphasis on
  the world of Apple.

<http://www.geekculture.com/joyoftech/joyarchives/1430.html>

  Read/post comments

<http://db.tidbits.com/article/11517#comments>


**Smartphones Susceptible to Smudge Hacking (PDF)** -- Don't get too
  paranoid about this, but security researchers at the University of
  Pennsylvania have shown than Android graphical passwords can be
  recovered by photographing the screen of a smartphone and analyzing
  the smudge patterns. There isn't much likelihood of this attack
  being used widely, because its utility requires either gaining
  control of the smartphone or the same password being used elsewhere,
  and the screen can easily be cleaned. But it's still interesting
  just where security vulnerabilities will be found.

<http://www.usenix.org/events/woot10/tech/full_papers/Aviv.pdf>

  Read/post comments

<http://db.tidbits.com/article/11513#comments>


  ----
  read/post comments: <http://db.tidbits.com/article/11514#comments>
  tweet this article: <http://db.tidbits.com/t/11514>


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