Posts by Pascal Monett

US prosecutors demand data to unmask every visitor to anti-Trump protest website

So, Trump now wants to jail the people who don't like him ?

In America ? Seems like that shining beacon has rusted through and through.

On the other hand, he'll have largely enough forced labor to build that wall . . .

If Anonymous 'pwnd' the Daily Stormer, they did a spectacularly awful job

I wonder how many of these "neo-Nazis" play Call of Duty, and don't realize which side they're playing on ?

Dismayed by woeful AI chatbots, boffins hired real people – and went back to square one

"It was hoped by businesses the world over" . . .

. . that they could finally kick out all those smelly, expensive meatbags and replace them by one single, shiny electronic server that they could then shut in a room and ignore for the rest of time while paying a minimal fee on power, air conditioning and replacement parts now and then.

Sorry, Megabuck CEOs, seems like you're first going to have to invest another few hundred billion bucks in R&D before seeing that rosy future.

Toyota, Intel, Ericsson team to get cars talking to the cloud

"From a technical point of view"

It makes no sense to have cars connected to a global network for warning of local problems. Given the security history of car makers, it would be perfectly acceptable to have cars send a warning by radio signal, with other cars arriving on-site getting the warning and displaying the corresponding signal.

It's a local problem. People on the Internet in Singapore have no use knowing that I have a flat tire in the plains of France.

And we are not yet at a point where we need nanosecond reaction times when driving.

This is not pod racing.

Sneaky devs could abuse shared libraries to slurp smartphone data

I cry foul !

Google-analytics is not first ?

Based on that fact alone I say this list is rubbish. Google analytics is everywhere. I just can't believe bloomin' Facebook is first.

Antarctica declared world's most volcanic region as 91 new cones found beneath ice

Time to start looking for ways to cleanse the atmosphere of sulphur dioxide

Before those volcanoes start belching and it's too late.

Yellowstone supervolcano is another risk. We need to have a method to clean our air, just like we need a plan to divert asteroids !

Infosec eggheads rig USB desk lamp to leak passwords via Bluetooth

"It's not a particularly practical or terrifying scenario"

No it isn't, because we're back to the physical access = game over scenario.

I thought I was going to read something exciting about how a lamp had been modified to accept a USB key that could monitor signals from a laptop next to it.

THAT would have been frighteningly exciting, even if we're almost at physical access again.

In short, I feel let down by this article. Much less than I had hoped for.

Firmware update blunder bricks hundreds of home 'smart' locks

A mistake was made.

Instead of faffing around with the usual "only a small number of customers was affected", the company responsibly owned up to the blunder, contacted the affected users (meaning the company knows who was affected), offered two means of repair/replacement and foots the bill in either case.

That points to a seriously well-organized company that is probably intent on keeping its customers and showing how professional it can be in handling issues.

From where I stand, although I have no use for their product, I do appreciate how they are dealing with the situation and wish that more examples of that behavior were available.

Kalanick stations! Ex-Uber CEO sued for fraud by soured sugar daddy

Re: Uber is looking like a seriously toxic company...

This is board level problems. That is where the buck stops.

As far as I'm concerned, given the scumbag approach to everything this company has, the board can have as many issues as it wants to bear.

I'm not shedding a tear for them.

At last! Vivaldi lets you kill looping GIFs

"they evade ad blockers"

They don't evade NoScript.

Nothing evades NoScript.

Brit folk STILL not getting advertised broadband speeds – survey

The widespread understanding in the broadband industry . . .

. . is that saying "up to" means you cannot complain if you're not getting the top tier performance. It'll always be down to your local connection issues and they're in the clear.

Checking the speed you actually get isn't going to change things one iota.

Lauri Love and Gary McKinnon's lawyer, UK supporters rally around Marcus Hutchins

"accept a plea deal"

No. Never do that. Accepting a plea deal means two things : first of all, the prosecution (and everyone else) now has firm ground to believe that you're guilty and two, you set a precedent whereby anyone else accused of the same has that much more trouble being recognized innocent.

Let's be clear : a plea deal is the prosecution convincing you that you'll get worse if you go in front of a judge.

Where's the proof of that ? If you're innocent, you go before the judge and get your innocence recognized to the world.

Of course, in the Land of the "Free", that means you need money. So, no money = you're fucked.

It's the Land of the Free To Be Fleeced.

US court system bug opened hole for hackers to scoop up legal docs for free on victims' dime

The flaw exists since the 90's

Is there absolutely no chance that anyone has had their filings perturbed by this ?

Maybe not, but are we sure ?

Brits look at Google and Facebook every 210 seconds, says survey

Re: Please don't Feed the Search Giants

There's this thing called "bookmark". I hear it takes you directly to whatever page you wish.

You might want to look into that, I've heard it works quite well and does not require any search engine.

US border cops must get warrants to search phones, devices – EFF

Re: the sort of precautions you would take if you were being parachuted into [..] France in 1941

That is why it has to be said that Bin Laden has won.

We have been turned around and now we accept draconian and Stasi-level impositions on our personal freedoms because we are all too lily-livered to stand up for our rights.

If I have to travel, I forego phone and all electronics. I take a book for the trip. Of course, I haven't ever had to take a plane for business reasons, so it's easy for me.

Obviously, the day a Facebook profile is required to pass border control, I'm screwed.

Re: Which could power up each hour or so

and would wait for PIN confirmation before doing anything.

I don't think that there is any app that go around that.

It's August 2017 and your Android gear can be pwned by, oh look, just patch the things

Damn right

I've had a Galaxy S2 since 2012. I've seen, all told, ONE single OS update in that time.

Oh, I've had plenty of app updates - to the point I had to reset a bunch of the non-uninstallable crap and force them to NOT update because space was getting thin, but I have not seen ANY OS patch of any kind.

Thank God I have no apps installed. I use a phone, not an entertainment platform. For my entertainment, I prefer a desk, a widescreen and a proper keyboard/mouse combo.

Can GCHQ order techies to work as govt snoops? Experts fear: 'Yes'

"threats about what would happen if they revealed its existence"

Um, sorry but issuing warrants is one thing, having them automatically accompanied with a gag order is another issue entirely.

Are we in democracy or not ? Since when is the proper functioning of Justice supposed to be secret ? Secrecy is the tool of oppressive regimes and dictatorships, not the tool of political regimes that respect the individual.

If I was faced with a warrant, I would likely comply, but if I were threatened to keep it silent I would most strongly consider shouting the fact from the rooftops by sheer spirit of resistance. And with a lawsuit if necessary. I do not consider saying "I am constrained by a warrant" to be a matter of National Security.

Salesforce sacks two top security engineers for their DEF CON talk

"There may be a severance package contingent on them leaving the company quietly"

Um, the fact that they've been fired is now public knowledge. I hardly see how removing a tweet is going to change the facts.

PR really is a shite business. It skirts around the law so often you have to wonder what kind of people work in it.

Horsemen of the disk-drive apocalypse will ride upon 256TB SSDs

@ The Original Steve

What makes you think I don't back up regularly ? Just because I say I'll make a full backup before reimaging has no bearing on what my other backup procedures are.

For your information, there is nothing I consider important that is not copied onto my NAS for one, and onto optical storage for two. But I hardly see why I should bother stitching things back together when I can just backup the current situation and re-copy it when the new disk arrives.

As for my NAS, I took the precaution of staging my HDD purchases. Four disks, one per month. That way I am convinced that there will be no mass failure all at once. And when one fails, I'll start buying four more, one per month. That way, I'll have backups if the rebuild process is too stressful on another one.

I know HDDs fail. Its happened to me like it has happened to everyone else. That is why I included the term "generally". I have never personally had a disk die on me from one minute to the next. There was always time to recognize the issue and get a replacement. But that's just me.

On the other hand, I witness an SSD in a colleagues' laptop go from working to dead in the space of ten seconds. One blue screen, and no reboot possible. There was no SMART warning. That's why I am a bit wary of the things, even though my personal SSD experience is totally reliable up to now.

SSD is fine - while it works

An SSD can work fine right up to the moment it dies. Then its a messy surprise because your computer is bricked and you have to find another one to order a replacement part.

Disks die as well, but generally you have a bit of warning with corrupt clusters or such, so you can order a new disk, make a full backup, and get the replacement disk formatted and ready before your PC is bricked. Generally. Of course, bad surprises are possible as well.

For businesses, I don't think there is any question that SSDs are the future. With their backup procedures and IT support, if an SSD dies, there will be spares and personnel to get everything set up and running again quickly.

For individuals, I think a hybrid situation is best. I have an SSD for booting Windows, and all of my data is on HDDs. If my SSD disk dies, I order a new one, re-image that and I'm working again. If one of my disks starts showing trouble, I'll back it up on my NAS and have a replacement delivered in time to not be bothered.

I like the idea of TB-size SSDs, but I have to admit that, until SSDs can show a bit more durability, I'm holding off from putting my data on something that can die from one minute to the next. That said, my Windows SSD has been chugging away valiantly since 2011. Might be time for me to order a spare . . .

So you're thinking about becoming an illegal hacker – what's your business plan?

Spread the risk

Good for the financial side, disastrous for security.

Secrets are best kept between one person. Adding another one is a risk. Adding a third is a liability. After that, you can be sure that someone will squeak - especially if the law is breathing down your necks. Someone will break, and then you're all screwed.

Although I admire the intellectual knowledge required to find ways into a network you are not supposed to access, I have only contempt for people who do that with the intent of extorting money. It is good to see that at least some of them are getting caught.

If we're in a simulation, someone hit it with a hammer, please: Milky Way spews up to 100 MEELLLION black holes

Quid of dark matter then ?

If there are supposed to be millions of black holes in our galaxy alone, does that have any impact on the matter / dark matter ratio ?

Toshiba fires off trifecta of SSDs with 30TB range-topping whopper

30TB

Of course, if I had won the lottery, I wouldn't worry about the how much, I'd just buy 12.

Of course, since I haven't won the lottery, I might think of getting me a 400GB version. Maybe.

Core-blimey! Intel's Core i9 18-core monster – the numbers

I want one !

18 cores. Miam.

Got a 4 core i7-6700 since 2015. I also slapped in 32GB of DDR4-3200.

Can I justify upgrading ? Not really. Doesn't matter. I want one of these babies. I'll get one in 2019 probably. With 64GB of DDR5 (by then).

I'll be able to push 7 Days to the full 3840 x 2160 of my widescreen. Finally.

Of course, by then another game will come out that will put my rig to its knees. As usual.

Hackers could exploit solar power equipment flaws to cripple green grids, claims researcher

Re: you'll probably end up having to build it yourself

I am building it myself.

Starting with a moat. I am in negotiations for some grizzlies, but there are authorization issues.

Movement detectors are not a problem, of course, but the permits for the gatling guns on the corner towers are - you wouldn't believe the conversations I've had on the phone. Some functionary actually had the gall to tell me it was illegal !

Slacking off? ICO probe throws up concerns over instant messaging

I see Sir Humphrey is still at work

"The Cabinet Office might argue that the data that cannot be extracted is not actually 'required', and so there is no need to access it."

I am quite certain that a judge would not be impressed by that argument.

The Next Big Thing in Wi-Fi? Multiple access points in every home

"controlling software in the cloud"

Because what on Earth could go wrong ?

In any case, thanks for the heads-up. Now I know that, the next time I need to shop for a Wi-Fi extender, I'm going to have to ensure that I can cut all cloudy control stuff before I complete my purchase.

Here's hoping that that won't be a complete nightmare.

Google diversity memo: Web giant repudiates staffer's screed for 'incorrect assumptions about gender'

"the company has declined"

Oh really ? Of course, they can just do that. No problems. Nobody goes to jail for contempt, or anything. It's not like they have to answer the Court, right ? No. That was last millennium. Now we're modern. Companies decide the law, and which laws they want to respect. Doing what you're told is good for us peons.

Damn it's good to be on top !

Commonwealth Bank: Buggy software made us miss money laundering

It took three years

For 3 years there were no ATM reports and nobody normally getting them even blinked ? I mean, after a week at most somebody should have started asking questions.

I'm pretty sure they knew about the average number of reports they usually got. Seeing that drop to zero is a statistical impossibility.

3 years is a bloody long time to keep thinking "oh well, I might get a report next week".

But of course, blame the developers. We're used to that.

UK publishes Laws of Robotics for self-driving cars

Re: "Ensure systems are secure over their lifetime"

It is an issue for all things computer-related, but car makers never actually disappear. A brand may go bankrupt, but its assets are generally gobbled up by someone else. Volvo Cars, for example, belongs to Ford. That means that the chances for a car maker to just disappear are much smaller than for the makers of furry bears for children.

That said, threats do not disappear and any given model of car is likely to have a road presence that goes largely beyond the decade, meaning that the manufacturer will be responsible for keeping the updates available for that model for however long there are still cars of that model running. In other words, it would be very badly received if a car maker announces that support for a given model will be retired because it stopped making it a decade ago.

That is something the manufacturers will have to bear in mind and it would be good for them to elaborate a global framework that they implement in all their cars, so as to not go foul of that kind of issue. Which is an obvious solution and I'm sure they've already thought of it as well.

Got that syncing feeling? Cloud's client-side email problem

Re: "those 500ms lags when you switch folders or sync"

Try removing Windows Search, you just might find those delays are gone.

I bought a Synology NAS a few years ago now, and as I loaded it with files, I observed that folder access speed was slowing down. Past 1000 files in a folder, it became a nightmare (size of files irrelevant).

For some reason I cannot recall, I removed Windows Search from my PC and, lo and behold, my NAS was now responding with sub-millisecond speeds however many files were in the folders.

Thank you Microsoft, again.

Of course, if you decide to do this, you'll need another search program and you won't be able to search for Windows applications from the Start bar. Since I never do that, I don't particularly care. I installed Everything Search, and it works a million times better than Windows Search since it doesn't take ages to index you PC and when you type a search, it finds all the files that correspond to what you're typing on the fly, immediately. You know, like what you should be able to expect from a PC that is a million times faster than what we had in 1996.

Our day with Larry Page: Embedded with one of the world's richest men

This is fiction, right ?

If this were part of a script in a fancy psychiatric hospital, it would be right at home. The further I read, the more I was convinced that that was the case.

We're in August though, not April. My mind is boggled.

WannaCry-killer Marcus Hutchins denies Feds' malware claims

Congratulations, FBI

Well done, really. I understand that you're trying to make up for not arresting the 9/11 terrists the CIA knew about before that fateful day, but this really takes the cake. I'm sure DEF CON is not going to have any issue next year in getting well-known, competent whitehats to expose their work in the US. No, none at all.

And, of course, it is obvious that this guys' haircut is what tipped you off, right ? An understandable mistake. You can practically see the beard !

What I really want to know is this : what heavy trail of Internet forensics did you gather up to justify this arrest ? How many phone records and Internet activity logs did you get from the NSA ? How many man-hours of FBI Internet sleuthing did you go through before getting to the decision that this was the guy to arrest ? And why is it that this obviously extensive investigation just happen to finish when DEF CON started ? How convenient that your suspect just happened to be on-hand !

Or could it be none of that ? You were just going through the list of DEF CON speakers and someone on the team vaguely remembered reading that name in a hacker list and hi ho, hi ho, off to arrest you go ?

The Internet is really complicated, FBI. There are good guys, bad guys, and plenty in-between, and all of them actually use keyboards ! I know, it's frightening. Maybe one day, when you're grown up, you'll understand. For now, you're just looking like a fool.

Small biz breaks out pen, paper after Brit tax collectors' Digital Form Service goes down

How long will it be, I wonder

I am fully expecting those users to receive in the coming days a threatening letter from HMRC accusing them of not filing their tax returns on time and warning of dire consequences if they don't hurry up.

Trump-backed RAISE Act decoded: Points-based immigration, green cards slashed

@earl grey

"stop acting like it's something that "just happened yesterday" and "oh, we're so bad" because we're just the latest group."

Really ? Because you're not the first, it's not so bad ?

Oh, and what proof do you have that Native Indians genocided another population that was there before them ?

Congratulations on demonstrating the complete failure of the american education system.

To truly stay anonymous online, make sure your writing is as dull as the dullest conference call you can imagine

"he shall ever ever know it"

Opposite of the original text's meaning, so not very good at keeping that.

I do know one thing : with text like that, I would very quickly recognize that I am absolutely not interested in reading the rest.

So yeah, makes you anonymous. It also makes you unknown. Not sure that is what people actually want.

Canadian ISPs do not Canuck around: Bloke accused of piracy grilled in his home for hours

The true nature of big corp

This is revealing of just how little big corporations feel they need to respect the law. Once they get a ticket in, they go in far further than they should have.

And there was a lawyer there. Didn't he think to put a stop to things at 8 PM ? No. Did he think to tone it down a bit to respect the law ? No. And why didn't Lackman have the right to consult with his lawyer ? Since when does a company have more power than the police ?

Unbelievable. I hope Lackman can fight back and get them for millions in damages. When you behave like the Gestapo, you deserve to get shot down in flames.

Uber drivers game Uber's system like Uber games the entire planet

"Our study shows that Uber's strategy is perceived very negatively by drivers"

Well duh.

Uber is perceived very negatively by just about anyone with a brain.

The fact that such a sexual-harassment-encouraging environment, overseen by empowered scumbag jackasses is also generating revolt in its very elements that generate its revenue is hardly surprising.

The fact that there is now a study making it official is interesting.

Sputtering bit-blasters! IBM's just claimed densest tape ever record

"Tape has a long way to go yet, baby."

Effin' A !

Here I was thinking that "Nanocubic technology" was about as good as it was going to get. Once again, real, actually intelligent people prove that boundaries are made to be pushed back.

Such a shame that such progress doesn't exist in the battery market, otherwise we'd have 12KW/H button batteries for a dime.

Another day, another British Airways systems screwup causes chaos

I feel sorry

for the poor frontline people who have to bear the brunt of customer wrath for something they have no control over.

Last time we came back from a trip, the plane was late because of weather conditions and there was no way we could make our connection flight (it left a minute before we touched down).

We were very worried upon our arrival at Heathrow, but ab-so-lutely everything had already been taken care of. There was someone waiting at the Arrivals area after border controls. He was very nice, checked his clipboard, found our names and told us where to go to register for a free hotel night and arrangements for the next day. The desk personnel were totally charming and helpful and we were whisked off to the Sofitel with everything we needed to ensure that we had a good night's sleep and were on time the next day for our new flight. Our luggage was similarly taken care of, but I don't think it slept on a nice bed :).

No hassle, no panic, no fees, everything fine and with a smile.

That's what I call service.

Browser trust test: Would you let Chrome block ads? Or Firefox share and encrypt files?

Trust Google ? Yeah, right.

I refuse to put Google malware on my PC ever since I experienced the unbelievable hassle of trying to get rid of Chrome whilst wanting to keep Google Earth. No dice. You have one Google product, you're getting Chrome whether you want it or not.

As a result, I now refuse to install anything Google on my personal PC.

On top of that, I don't want Chrome to block the whole site I want to go to because it judges that the sites' ads are intrusive. I would want Chrome to block the ads, not the site.

So, back to NoScript and Ublock Origin, as usual.

As for storing my downloads on someone else's server, yeah sure. Sell me a bridge also, why don't you ?

I'll get my encryption my way, thank you. That way you cannot give the key to the NSA in their daily sweep.

Sorry, psycho bosses, it's not OK to keylog your employees

The real question

I can almost understand a complete nutter stating that he is above the law. After all, he's a nutter.

What I cannot understand is the total lack of smackdown that should logically follow from the competent authorities.

When ICANN bluntly sets aside legal arguments with a "doesn't apply to us" attitude, the ICANN CEO should be taken by the neck and waterboarded until he is comes around to understanding that yes, it does effing apply to you, you cunt. Batistelli, same boat.

The real issue is these nutters stating such things, then getting no comeback. That, in effect, makes their words true.

And THAT really gets me.

Go fork yourself: Bitcoin has split in two – and yes, it's all forked up

"giant worldwide fraud created by bankers"

You have a unique world view. Are you a Trump supporter, by any chance ?

It’s 2017 and Hayes AT modem commands can hack luxury cars

@Afernie

I accept your scenario completely, but it still means that "they" checked out the house with cameras, then came to the house, broke into it, and did their nefarious deed. "They" did, not the camera. The camera was an accessory.

In the case of cars, you can get hacked, drive along obliviously, then suddenly have your car swerve into a tree, a wall or an oncoming bus.

The car, not the camera. That is the level of difference I am outlining.

The one domain where IoT shit cannot linger long

Babyminders, stuffed toys, surveillance cameras, nobody's life is in danger when these things get taken over. Cars are a different matter though, and it is reassuring to see reaction from the car makers.

Goes to demonstrate, though, that car makers do not have sufficient security controls in place to avoid this kind of thing before churning out hundreds of vulnerable vehicles. Of course, no amount of checking will find everything.

I guess they'll just have to design their components to not accept any outside commands not included in a whitelist, implement strict parameter size and content controls and, most importantly, separate the control bus from the infotainment bus. I'll wager that these three things would seriously cut down on hijacking possibilities.

Facebook pulls plug on language-inventing chatbots? THE TRUTH

"presenting something with the look and feel of journalism"

That is exactly what news channels have been doing for years already. The fact that nowadays they can get caught copying stuff from Twitter is simply because now we can check their sources since they use our feeds.

Skype for Business is not Skype – realising that is half the battle

Video conferencing is a niche product

I hate it, you hate it, practically everybody hates but a very small number of people/professions might actually have a use for it - and they just might hate it too.

I'm pretty sure that what people hate is the disembodied head effect, along with the fact that when you have a phone conversation, you are free to have it any way you like and most people wander around for some unfathomable reason. When you have a video call, you are suddenly stuck in front of your camera, can't walk around, can't fool around, you are basically under a spotlight and it's of your own making.

Yes, for personal, family calls it may be all right, from time to time. For business calls it never is.

Google tracks what you spend offline to prove its online ads work. And privacy folks are furious

"Google's refusal to disclose its partnerships with data brokers"

Is unacceptable. Knowing who they deal with is not knowing what they give, so there is no privacy impact.

Google should come clean on this point, no discussion.

Dirty carbon nanotubes offer telcos chance at secure quantum comms

"aryl sp3 is an organic molecule [..] bound to the surface of the nanotube"

And that's how the Borg got started . . .