back to article Good hacker uses vid vulns to spy on Quebec Liberal Party meetings

Closed-door meetings by Canada's Quebec Liberal Party were exposed to trivial eavesdropping thanks to flaws in its video conferencing software. The flaws, found and reported by a resident white hat researcher, are being fixed. The researcher speaking on the condition of anonymity told local tabloid Le Journal de Montreal ( …

  1. lglethal Silver badge
    Mushroom

    Off topic

    PLEASE get rid of these god awful Microsoft ads from the middle of the page El Reg!!!! Autoplay Videos in the middle of the article that run whenever your mouse crosses over the bloody ad space are NOT acceptable. Get rid of them!

    is it any bloody wonder people are turning on ad blockers left right and centre. I don't mind the ads to top and to the right, but the ones in the middle of article AND Autoplaying video are absolutely disgraceful coming from The Register! Get rid of them ASAP!

    1. Hans 1
      WTF?

      Re: Off topic

      You are supposed to click on the ad to ensure el reg gets some pennies ... come on, they need to pay the journos one way or the other ...

      Do as I do: when I do not like the brand, I click the ad - make sure the b@st@rds pay!

      1. lglethal Silver badge
        FAIL

        Re: Off topic

        I have no problems with ads on the sides and top of the website. I said that in my previous post. But autoplay video ads are an abomination that piss EVERYONE off and a tech site like the Reg should know better!

        I wont be logging back onto the register today until I'm at home where I have an adblocker installed and that means they will get ZERO revenue from me. I probably wont bother looking at El Reg from work anymore since it's such an annoyance, which then translates to no more revenue coming from me. Sorry El Reg, but you should bloody well know better then to drive your customers away (that's us by the way not the marketing twats) by showing such annoying ads.

        1. ChrisElvidge

          Re: Off topic

          Try m.theregister.co.uk and m.forums.theregister.co.uk

          1. Barry Rueger

            Re: Off topic

            Up vote that! Abandoned the desktop site when it was redesigned to fill the screen with massive pointless pictures.

            I prefer wordy sentency paragraphy information delivery.

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Off topic

      El Reg has ads?

      Weird, I've never seen them.

      Must be something about having installed an ad blocker, like pretty much every self respecting IT person does. Maybe something to add to your ToDo list?

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: like pretty much every self respecting IT person does

        I thought the self respecting IT people were clever enough to use noScript, enabling the ads to show but stopping the stupid dancing around they do. Some of us not only respect ourselves, but also appreciate being able to read The Register and would like it to continue.

        Not that I'm suggesting autoplay video ads are ever a good idea, but the "you have no self respect if you don't do what I do" really got up my goat.

  2. Hans 1
    Holmes

    The ROFL moment in this article ?

    >"We are working with our supplier." ®

    Any sane person would dump that supplier ...

    1. James 51
      Childcatcher

      Re: The ROFL moment in this article ?

      They might be locked into a contract that makes it difficult to get out no matter how incompetent the supplier is. Of course perhaps they were warned to change passwords and such but didn't. I doubt there will be enough detail released (commercial confidentially and all that jazz) to find out why.

  3. Nifty Silver badge

    My issue is that using an iPad Mini that's good for all other purposes, the Reg pages are the ONLY ones where I cannot actually type because the ads hog all the CPU and the cursor focus keeps getting lost from the text box.

  4. ldm
    Thumb Down

    So where are the details on the exploited system?

    Software name? Vendor name? Literally anything at all? Sigh.

  5. Mahhn

    I have no adblocker at work and see no pop up or media adds. Me thinks you may have something injecting adds to you besides the reg.

  6. Rory B Bellows
    FAIL

    "We are working with our supplier."

    We are reading the manual

  7. Arachnoid

    its not the suppliers fault

    As many reading this will know its not the suppliers fault if you fail to secure the system by changing the default password, only if there is an insecure firmware installed and even then Ive yet to see anyone prosecuted.

    Simple security if its not in use turn it off at the mains.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    https://news.slashdot.org/story/16/06/18/1831235/political-partys-videoconference-system-hacked-allowed-spying-on-demand It would seem to have been an installation and local network design issue not a vendor issue. Sounds like they left default access in place AND put the admin interfaces on the public internet. Not really a wisecombination

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like