Posts by Pascal Monett

Swiss security provocateur who leaked Intel secrets indicted by US authorities

"My overall motivation is to free information"

You're obviously too intelligent for your own good. Information that is not yours is not for you to "free".

Crims with ties to Tesla and SpaceX 'fess up to computerized conspiracies

US$1M dollars

A nice amount, to be sure, but I would definitely want that in cash. $20 bills, preferably. You can use that to pay for gas and food and the IRS will be none the wiser.

Of course, that is based on the premise that I would accept the deal in the first place. This employee obviously did the right thing, or Kriuchkov's recruitment methods were not up to snuff.

Encrypted phones biz Sky Global shuts up shop after CEO indictment, police raids on users in Europe

"paint encrypted mobile phone services as something used exclusively by criminals"

Funny, I'm rather convinced that there must be a fair amount of CIA operatives who use encrypted comms as well.

DARPA picks Intel to automate conversion of FPGAs into ASICs for military applications

“security countermeasures capable of thwarting reverse engineering"

Well, the guy who manages to actually prevent reverse engineering is going to be one special mind for sure.

I'm not a specialist on the subject in any way, but I fairly sure that there is not much you can do to prevent an X-ray scan of your chip.

And I'm convinced that, as far as hardware is concerned, reverse engineering starts with an X-ray scan.

Trail of Bits security peeps emit tool to weaponize Python's insecure pickle files to hopefully now get everyone's attention

"they'll think about adding additional warnings"

Oh, that's just great.

There's already a warning nobody's paying any attention to. The solution is obviously to add another warning.

Would the maintainers of Python be bitten by the worm of administrative thinking ? You need to lock that functionality down. You need to ensure that pickled files are encrypted or something. You need to bake security into it somehow. I don't know, I don't have the answer, but just slapping another warning on and calling it a day is not the solution.

Boldly going where Elon Musk will probably go before: NASA successfully tests SLS Moon rocket core stage

Progress

Well done, NASA boffins. Have one on me.

Something fishy is going on in Taiwan as folk change name to include 'salmon' for free sushi

I've got a hunch

I think reastaurant chains in Taiwan are going to think twice before trying to pull this kind of stunt again.

I never knew there was a country in this world that allowed you to change you name like some games do. I live in France. If I wanted to change my name, I'd have to go before a judge and get it approved. Not impossible, far from, but a far cry from submitting a web form and getting it done.

Big problem: Nominet members won't know how many votes they're casting in decision to oust CEO, chair

"That's not to say this manipulation will happen"

Of course not, you counldn't publish that without being liable for a libel suit.

However, given the Board's track record up to now, I'm pretty sure they are preparing everything they can to tweak the results and find "a few more votes" in their favor.

OVH says burned data centre’s UPS, batteries, fuses in the hands of insurers and police

That is a proper response, with a reasoned argument.

Thank you for that information.

Re: in the hands of police

What for, pray tell ?

You seem to view OVH as a wretched hive of scum and villany. Why ?

Northern Ireland hands deal worth up to £87m to Fujitsu: Now keep our 15-year-old Oracle HR system up and running

"a transfer of intellectual property rights"

What is this nonsense ?

Oracle has the rights to its product, but it's the government/company/department that has the rights to its processes. As a contractor, when I go to a customer to write code or correct issues, I have no IP rights over the code I write or the fixes I apply.

I fail to see how Fujitsu can be considered having any IP rights whatsoever on a product that it does not own.

With Nominet’s board-culling vote just days away, we speak to one man who will publicly support the management

Re: you're a decent bloke

I'd say you're rather an optimist and a very kind person, which makes you, IMO, a much more decent person than him.

I fail to see, given the amount of articles on Nominet in the past few years, how anyone actually concerned by this situation could possibly ignore the actions and mismanagement of the current Board.

The fact that Michelle chooses to ignore it means to me that there is a vested interest in keeping the status quo, for reasons unknown.

"there should be a dialogue – not a double-barreled shotgun"

Difficult to have a dialogue when the Board cuts off the forum that would have allowed it.

I suppose this guy would have voted Trump if he lived in the US.

The Roaring Twenties: Future foreign policy will rely on rejuvenated 'cyber' sector, UK government claims

Nukes are an obsolete threat

The only country that ever got away with it is the USA and the only reason they got away with it is because everyone was sick of war and they hand-waved a half-reasonable argument that everyone accepted.

Today, a country that launches a nuke on another country, whatever the reason, is going to see itself placed under a ban from Humanity (best case scenario), or be the start of a global thermonuclear war that will erase life on the surface of the planet (worst case scenario).

If you're dead, it doesn't matter if you won or lost.

In the lab: Robotic AI-powered exoskeletons to help disabled people move freely without implants

"human-controlled override buttons to disengage the automated controllers,”

Hmm. I wonder how well that will work when the user wants to go down the stairs and the machine wants to walk stright ahead.

I applaud anything that will advance our ability to improve the life of disabled, but this strikes me as rather dangerous.

I wish them luck, though.

McAfee, the company, says Chinese attackers targeted Asian and US telcos

"the attack should not be vastly difficult to defend" (against)

Certainly not if you check the link before clicking on it and know who it is you work with.

I also imagine that the sender name is spoofed and that there are a number of ways to detect that the mail is not legit rather than seeing a logo that looks familiar and deciding to blindly trust the mail content.

For Pete's sake, how is it that people are still falling for crap like this after decades of mail spam ?

IBM's CEO and outgoing exec chairman take home $38m in total for 2020 despite revenue shrinking by billions

That is a shareholder problem

As long as shareholders agree to avoid tying a CEO's revenue to the company's revenue, that's what they get.

If shareholders continue to agree to give massive payouts to CEOs who deliver massive reductions, well they'll get less money out of it. I'm sure they can afford it because, if not, they would have done something about it already.

Brit college forced to shift all teaching online for a week while it picks up the pieces from ransomware attack

"a cut above ordinary criminals"

A cut below, actually. They would gettheir asses kicked by any "ordinary" criminal in a face-to-face encounter.

And "ordinary" criminals do not target hospitals, mdeical centers or places of learning. You have be a miscreant with a keyboard to think of that.

Someone defeated the anti-crypto-coin-mining protection for Nvidia's 'gamers only' RTX 3060 ... It was Nvidia

“The driver has been removed.”

As if the mining community hasn't made a copy of that available on some website somewhere.

Nvidia, you really screwed the pooch there. You could have just limited card purchase to one video card per credit card number, but why do something simple that works ?

Nah, much better to try and use software to lock down drivers whilst forgetting that you also publish developers drivers that don't have the limitation.

Really smart move.

</sarc>

Nokia inks Radio Access Network collaboration deals with Microsoft, AWS, Google

"the forever almost-here allure of 5G"

Compared to the forever peak petrol or fusion tomorrow, 5G looks very likely to be here quite soon.

'Business folk often don't understand what developers do...' Twilio boss on the chasm that holds companies back

"rather subscribing to cloud services and using them as components"

I am disappoint.

The book is nothing but a PR puff piece promoting a cloud-based company which, surprise, finds that using the cloud is the best thing sliced bread.

I'm sure OVH would agree, but I'm guessing some of its customers might have an issue with that idea.

Oh, and how does Twilio guarantee that it won't become another SolarWinds123 ?

PSA: If you're still giving users admin rights, maybe try not doing that. Would've helped dampen 100+ Microsoft vulns last year – report

Re: IT is still a blocker more than an enabler

Of course it is, manglement wants control and privileges are not for the hoi-polloi.

As a freelance consultant, I see many companies from the inside. As far as IT is concerned, my customers are all over the map. One has a strict non-admin policy, which does not bother me because my workstation there has the stuff I need to work. Another has a strict no admin policy for employees, but a rather lax policy for consultants that work with the IT department, meaning that my workstation there functions under admin access - and my workstation is the one dedicated to external consultants, meaning that every other guy or gal that works there uses that workstation. With admin access.

And lets forget about the companies where I am the only person who knows their network and how to fix things - which is frightening when you know that I am not a network admin.

I recently got a new contract at a large administration which has an interesting policy. Normal users do not have admin access and software requests must be approved by manager and deployed by IT. It works. But some people, me for example, do not fit the general population and get granted an admin account. Now wait before you howl : the admin account is not the work account. I can only work on the work account, but when I need to install something that is not in the IT list of approved software (because they had no idea), I can do so in my work account by giving my admin account login and password. So I have the flexibility to do what I need, with the security of my work account. Not bad, I think.

Desperate Nominet chairman claims member vote to fire him would spark British government intervention

Amen to that.

“We have been warned"

Oh really ? By who ? Citation please, Mr Hawarth, you bullshitting arsebag.

The pitchforks are coming to get you, and get you they will.

Microsoft customers locked out of Teams, Office, Xbox, Dynamics – and Azure Active Directory breakdown blamed

Re: the above quote isn't really saying a lot

Of course not, it's just another variation on the age-old "a small amount of customers have been impacted", for small < 100%.

Good one

Re: most people use a garage rather than maintain their own cars

Most people use a garage because cars are increasingly made so most people can't maintain them.

Bad analogy.

Russia, China say anyone will be able to use their south pole Moon base for 'peaceful' science and exploration

So there will be a Moonbase after all

It will be fascinating to see what problems arise and what solutions will be found - if, of course, they can avoid the Glorious Reporting Of Successful Communist Achievements reporting style.

I'm guessing it's time to sign up. A Moon base is an endevor that not even a billionnaire can achieve alone.

Ex-asylum seeker with infosec degree loses discrimination claim against UK cyber range provider after storming out

As Sir Humphry would no doubt respond, not finding something true does not mean finding that thing false.

Re: winding up

You alreadu have zero-hour contracts which are the practical equivalent of indentured servitude, how much further would you like to "row back" ? Iron collars and shackles ?

You mean the Official Secrets Act ?

It's existence is far from obscure.

Millimetre-sized masses: Physics boffins measure smallest known gravitational field (so far)

Good point.

So, while the strong and weak electromagnetic forces are parading about, gravity is siping its drink in the corner, thinking "just you wait, I'll show you who's stronger".

Burgers, birds, and Blue Screens of Death: Remember the joys of commuting?

"a good time to pull down the shutters on this inexplicably long-running feature"

And replace all those Borkzilla windows by Linux installations that don't keel over when the wind changes direction ? Good idea.

Now all you have to do is find who is going to pay for it.

Windows is the bane of the business world. It stumbles over its own feet regularly, but because most programmers know how to deal with it, it has staying power like nothing before.

We need more Linux developers in order to ensure that future public screens will continue displaying what they're supposed to and not show another dismal failure of a mess of an OS.

OK, Google: Unshackled from Windows, Edge team is free to follow where Chromium leads

"It will probably be very difficult for embedders to track the 4-week schedule"

Hmm, might that have anything to do with Google's intent to strangle add-ons ?

I'm guessing the Chrome team have a year-long plan to change just enough stuff to make life miserable for add-on makers, and now Borkzilla is happily skipping along, grinning widely about how "reactive" it is going to be.

Um, Borkzilla, one of your problems is that you are already way more reactive than you can code. Just need to look at the history of Windows Update to confirm.

Slow down, and do more some quality control for a change.

Agreed. I've been using Firefox for ages now, with NoScript and an ad blocker.

Makes me feel safe when surfing.

Low-risk AND rapid? Brit vaccine centre seeks ERP to meet accelerated schedule, and needs it yesterday

There's a lot of snoughts in the trough.

Exchange flaws could be much worse than thought: Six hacking groups suspected of using the zero days pre-patch

The only alternative

. . is to stop using someone else's server to retrieve production code !

You bring the code in-house, you analyze it and test it, and when it is suitable, you compile it and put it on your production server.

Anything else is just asking for trouble.

UK taxman plonks £23bn (sorry HMRC meant £23m) on the table, asks vendors: OK, so what can you do for us in terms of 'mobility services'?

"HMRC's ways of working are changing"

Are they now ?

From where I'm sitting, it looks like you're still throw money on the bonfire.

You don't need billions of pounds to refine procedures and make processes more efficient. What on Earth are you expecting for that amount of money ? Replace all laptops with 5G versions and replace all server equipment with brand new high-end servers ?

Why yes, I'll take that commendation for fixing the thing I broke

or fall into depression

I know what you mean. I once got a gig in a very large administration, only to be told a month later that all changes were frozen.

I spent 18 months trying to find stuff to say at a weekly department meeting when they knew perfectly well I was sitting there doing nothing !

Google and Microsoft's public squabble over who's the worst is giving us life right now, not gonna lie

Times change

"The accelerating crisis in news and journalism reflects the shift away from traditional advertising – ie, television, radio, and print – to digital advertising, enabled by the emergence of the internet and fueled by behavioral data-based targeting ”

The only problem Borkzilla has with that is that it is not Borkzilla that benefits from this change.

So the ad landscape has changed. Well, sucks to be the third wheel now, doesn't it ? Ballmer should have woken up to the new landscape, instead of burying Borkzilla into the same old scenario.

In any case, it's too late now. Google is holding all the cards, Chrome is eating your lunch and, as usual, the only thing your browsers are good for are for downloading something people actually use.

Pathetic.

Huge if true: If you show people articles saying that Firefox is faster than Chrome, they'll believe it

That's just like my wife. She's rather computer illiterate - although funnily enough Pinterest does not cause her any trouble - and it took years for her to understand the difference between the browser and the search engine.

I'm still not entirely convinced that she does, maybe she just got used to the answer I was expecting.

I applaud your intense effort in forgetting the previous administration, but I do have to remind you that the OHSG loved to repeat himself.

Especially when what he was blathering on had nothing to do with the question at hand.

Exactly that.

However, it must be said that you can also install those same addons from the Chrome Web Store, so you could theoretically compare both with the same configuration.

Except that we all know that Google is doing its damndest to curtail extensions and limit their functionalty, so Firefox still wins.

So what ? You can change that.

Don't be a fool, cover your tool: How IBM's mighty XT keyboard was felled by toxic atmosphere of the '80s

Smoking

Back in the days when I had friends that smoked, if I wanted to show them stuff on my PC I would wait until they'd finish their cig, then propose a demo.

I have never allowed cigarette smoke near my equipment. There's enough to clean with normal dust already.

Another Windows 10 patch that breaks printers ups ante to full-on Blue Screen of Death

Correction : MS claimed to have done that three times.

Then came the bug reports and vulns that affected every version from XP to 1 0, so those claims went right down the toilet.

The fact that different versions broke different printers is just the usual solid MS programming.

We can't avoid it any longer. Here's a story about the NFT mania... aka someone bought a JPEG for $69m in Ether

Well, good for him

He just took everything he'd ever worked on and made a giant JPG out of it.

Which he sold for almost $70 million, the bastard.

I wonder how long it'll take him to spend all that money ?

Facebook’s new world domination ploy is a two-megabyte Instagram app tested in India and Brazil

I don't think that that is the point. I think the point is that the app can run on (very) low-end hardware.

The cancer is spreading.

Microsoft's GitHub under fire after disappearing proof-of-concept exploit for critical Microsoft Exchange vuln

"Jang's PoC code pertains to a recently disclosed vulnerability that's being actively exploited"

I do not see that as a valid excuse. The PoC is not functional. Since the vuln is already being exploited, miscreants don't need that code to guide them, they already have their own.

Memo to scientists. Looking for intelligent life? Have you tried checking for worlds with a lot of industrial pollution?

Wait a minute

Oumuamua came from an alien system, there's nothing to say it was made by aliens.