Word of the day

Today's word is bluesnarfing, generously contributed by Alan Butters of Sybis. "Recently while reading a book on information privacy", Alan reports, "I came across an excellent new word." The word is bluesnarfing, which means the process by which a mischevious individual can infiltrate a person's bluetooth device such as a mobile phone and sniff (snarf?) out their personal information. A number of high profile celebrities have fallen to this ploy recently and have unknowingly revealed the telephone numbers of their celebrity friends - to much chagrin all around. In the book, sophisticated antagonists are said to be able to bluesnarf one's phone from a mile away using specialised equipment.

You can check out the Wikipedia, which relates this concept to podslurping. This is the act of using a portabe data storage device, such as an iPod, to illicitly download large quantities of confidential data by directly plugging it into a computer where the data is held, according to the Wikipedia. It certainly is a good thing that, as librarians, we are opposed to privacy. Otherwise there could be a few concerns with these activities.

By a curious coincidence I spent part of the day with Kevin Zuccato, Director of the Australian High Tech Crime Centre, at a meeting of the new NetAlert Advisory Council. Kevin definitely has a few concerns. And more about the NetAlert Advisory Council in another post - we have already strayed enough from the word of the day.