Posts by Pascal Monett

Security! experts! slam! Yahoo! management! for! using! old! crypto!

Re: "you can't blame the users for using the same password everywhere"

Well, not to throw the stone, but when it comes to keys and locks, somehow they understand the importance and manage.

Of course, this begs to consider whether or not users would use the same key everywhere if they could configure the locks. I'm guessing they likely would.

There is no good solution right now, but I try to explain the password/lock similitude to get the message across. Of course, I have no control over how long my words may influence their behavior.

Yahoo! says! hackers! stole! ONE! BEELLION! user! accounts!

"stolen details from more than a billion user accounts"

Phooey. Yahoo! never had a billion accounts.

Am I really supposed to believe that Yahoo! has had more users than frakkin' Facebook ?

No way.

This is just another example of the specifically Yahoo! method of counting things.

Rogue One: This is the Star Wars back story you've been looking for

Looking forward to seeing that now

Sounds like it has just the right ingredients for me to shut down my frontal lobes and just bask in entertainment.

A nice change from the Lucas prequels !

Military reservist bemoans frost-bitten baby-maker on Antarctic trek

"Hey HBO... It looks like WINTER IS COMING!"

More of this please.

Much more.

In fact, drown the bastards with it.

Kentucky pried chicken: Fried grease chain's loyalty club hacked

I would agree, except for the fact that KFC only has 60 accounts.

Since when does a human being need to imply liking sex ?

Even those with extremely rare (and likely painful) conditions like sex, they just can't partake in it like the majority. And science needs to cure that.

Beancounter nicks $5m from bosses, blows $1m on fantasy babe Kate Upton's mobe game

Re: "I'd have splashed that million directly on Kate and enjoyed intimate 10 minutes with her."

I do hope you could last more than 10 minutes.

Sanctuary was in Logan's Run.

You'll find that in the Sci-Fi aisle of your local movie store (maybe).

Meanwhile, IRL, he's been arrested, so he ain't goin' anywhere on his own anymore.

Men! If you want to win at board games this Christmas, turn off the rock music – scientists

I suggest a mean time of about 2 goldfish.

Trump's 140 characters on F-35 wipes $2bn off Lockheed Martin

Re: "I may grow to like him"

You might anyway. It's called Stockholm Syndrome.

Dell trips over US sanctions by selling PCs to Iranian embassies

Dell's mistake

Dell's mistake is not selling to Iran, it is not selling billions to Iran.

A paltry $5K ? No wonder Dell is being tarred.

Meet Hyper.is – the terminal written in HTML, JS and CSS

Re: particle effect spray

If I take a look at a project and see that the only use case they imagined for a tech demo is a cursor particle spray, I'm not very impressed with the project.

Oh, they can also open URLs you say ? Wow, Lynx has been able to do that since 1997.

Nope, still not impressed.

Based on HTML and JavaScript ? Now that's impressive. You've created a platform that replicates every other browser in existence. Here, have a lollipop.

Samsung SmartCam: Yes, those eyes really are following you around the room

"it needs an overhaul and the sooner the better"

It obviously does.

First, replace the app with a simple pilot app and create a proper PC-based control station that the camera connects to via WiFi. The PC should be the gateway to the camera, it can have a firewall properly configured.

Put all the parametering and complicated stuff (with the easy-to-use online help guide, right ?) on the PC app, as well as robust phone-to-PC and PC-to-camera connection authentication (because you forgot that part, didn't you ?). A phone is just good to pan & tilt, zoom and view the images, it does not have the technical ability to do anything else in an easy way.

That way, the PC is the copy station for the data, not an easily-removable SD card. Give it an optional cloudy thingy if you want, with a properly-secured and encrypted connection (does Samsung have the tech expertise to do that ?) and time-stamped data for police forensics.

In short, do a proper job this time.

Is your Windows 10, 8 PC falling off the 'net? Microsoft doesn't care

"instructions on how to address this"

Are the same thing we've been hearing for the 20 past years, is one of the first questions of every call center drone ever, and has been transferred into public conscience under the moniker "the 3-fingered salute".

Come back when you have something useful to say, Microsoft.

Re: "you can uninstall updates"

I do believe the article mentioned that, and I also think that just about everyone under the Sun knows that at well.

The issue is not being able to uninstall updates, the issue is which bloody one to uninstall.

Ransomware scum offer free decryption if you infect two mates

Re: @everyone

It's interesting that just about everyone here answered my post with variations concerning NAS and/or company backup procedures.

Funny, I clearly indicated that I was talking about Joe User.

Joe User does not have a NAS and wouldn't know how to set it up if you gift-wrapped it and installed it for him and, if you did do that for him, it would do eff all for his data when he gets infected with an encryption virus as is such the rage right now.

And please stop going on about how optical discs "are not forever". Nothing is forever and it is hilarious to think that optical discs without any moving parts are more at risk than spinning rust. Your optical drive can fail, it has no bearing on the data on the disk. The same cannot be said about hard disks.

Optical discs can fade (or so I've heard as well), but I take my data seriously enough to not buy the cheapest sort and, for the moment, I have indeed been lucky - if you call "luck" the staged multi-copy process I go through.

Once again, optical discs are the best bet for Joe User. When/if he gets around to it, he'll have a valid copy that will be stable and reliable long enough for him to completely forget what was on it in the first place.

You guys are experienced enough to choose your own path and take your own risks.

Re: So...

You forgot a step : pay twice the extortion amount

Up to you, but I don't see how that is better.

@MyBackDoor

And therein lies the mistake : hard drives do not a backup make.

I am constantly bleating this horn and next to nobody is listening : the only valid backup system for Joe User is the optical disk. Use DVDs or BluRay, I don't care, but write your data on something that cannot be changed afterwards.

Hard disks can be wiped by magnets, they can fail outright, the data can fade until it is not readable any more. In a word, they are not a reliable backup system. They are a perfect transport system for large amounts of data, but they are not backup.

The WORM disc is a far better backup support, cannot be modified once written and can reliably store data for decades. I wrote my first CD backup in 1995 and it is still perfectly readable. It does take longer to write, but it lasts way longer once written.

BT's hiring! 500 more customer service folk to answer your angry calls

Re: Can some one please explain

And can someone please explain how all of sudden management decides that they need to hire FIVE HUNDRED more people to staff the call centers ? I seriously doubt that call center staff is 50,000 and these 500 more are just a 1% increase.

Even if, and I think that is a big "if", even if the call center staff currently number 5,000, it's a 10% increase, and that means that manglement knew bloody well that the call center was seriously understaffed in the first place and, that being the case, it is manglement that is entirely responsible for minimizing the call center and ensuring customer dissatisfaction.

On top of that, they publicly declare that, with 500 more call center staff, they expect to only answer 90% of calls. Sorry, you're supposed to answer ALL THE CALLS.

Of course, to minimize the number of calls, you could hire and properly train another 500 technicians who would then go out and actually SOLVE THE PROBLEMS people are calling about - but yeah, that's silly talk.

Top tech company's IP was looted by China, so it plans to hack back

Great news for me

I am very pleased to learn that there is some kind of intelligent discussion on the matter. Whatever the results and however long it takes, a proper solution starts there.

Good to know that participation was of apparently good level, that means that the results will hold up to scrutiny and "startup-level" bollocks will have a harder time inserting itself into the scheme.

The road to public security is long and hard, and we've just set foot on the path. I look forward to the progress reports on this crucial matter.

ESA to try tank-to-tank fuel switch on sat that wasn't designed to do it

Here's hoping it works

Good ol' square-peg-round-hole problem. If anyone can solve it, it's the engineers at NASA.

Good luck !

Germany warns Moscow will splash cash on pre-election propaganda and misinformation spree

What ?

Are you trying to inject some actual, verifiable DATA into our comfortable preconceived notions ? And that in a pre-election period no less ?

This is the Internet ! We don't need your stinkiiiin data, we KNOW what want to know !

(if your sarcasm meter isn't broken here, you need a new one)

Linus Torvalds releases 'biggest ever' Linux 4.9, then saves Christmas

Still counting on last millennia's knowledge for snarky comments ?

Japanese robot space maid will incinerate Earth's dead satellites

Re: hope the cells weren't from Galaxy Note's

I think that, if our mobile phones had space-rated batteries, there would be a lot less reporting of said batteries blowing up.

There would also be a lot less people with mobile phones, given the cost of said batteries - which might not be a bad thing after all.

That's due to the current fad of trying to make oneself look intelligent by extracting "key phrases" and making them into headers. Allows for the TLDN crowd to skim those and pretend that they read the article - enough to criticize it anyway, which is the only thing that kind can do.

There are some who even do that in these hallowed halls.

I'm hoping that this fad will fade away, but I'm also hoping that people will finally learn the difference between there, they're and their and other such modern literary nuisances. I'm stupid like that.

Sysadmin told to spend 20+ hours changing user names, for no reason

Re: And what about Sting, Cher and Bono

I seriously doubt that any one of those millionaires are ever going to have to deal with the hassle of any kind of Active Directory issue ever.

Has Samsung, er, rounded the corner with Apple court win?

Well it's Friday, right ?

The Editors are off to the pub, obviously.

UK.gov state of the nation report: Infosec's very important, mmmkay

"cyber-security remains a key priority"

The first condition for successful cyber-security is : having a fucking clue.

Count UK Gov out of the race right there.

HBO slaps takedown demand on 13-year-old girl's painting because it used 'Winter is coming'

Re: what the fuckity-fuck was the Trademark Office thinking when they approved this?

They weren't thinking, they were counting the dollars coming in to their account.

Icon is for how much I hate the current legal landscape. Hey RedBubble : grow some balls !

Shame on you RedBubble.

Earth days are getting longer – by 1.8 milliseconds per century

@ Ledswinger

When I say "corroborate or invalidate the figures", I mean go over the calculations, the methodology, the data, and find out if there are any mistakes in how the experiment was conducted.

If one can find an error in the calculations, or prove that the initial data set was flawed, or derive a different conclusion from the same data set, then the conclusion can be put in question - which will entail more funding for more experiments.

But if no one can dispute the figures, if no discrepancy can be found in the data, if the methodology is sound, then there's a good chance that experiment is valid and the conclusion is valid.

Until a new discovery puts in question the initial data set or the methodology.

Re: "I don't understand how that can be measured"

Neither can I. That's why we have scientists, who publish their results and their methodology so that other scientists can corroborate or invalidate the figures.

Us plebians can only take note of the paper's conclusions and wait for the fallout.

All aboard the warship that'll make you Sicker

Dead ?

Stealing, scamming, bluffing: El Reg rides along with pen-testing 'red team hackers'

It's a bit disappointing

Very interesting read, but it is slightly disappointing to learn that actually getting into "secure" areas involves things as simple as not having a responsible answer his phone.

In my mind, if I do not get confirmation of something from a known authority, you can leave and come do your audit at a later date when I have been notified.

Everything that happens after that point is just icing on the fail cake. If the guy who knew nothing about the "audit" did his job and did not let anyone past him, the mission would not have gathered any useful information.

Once in, it is vastly easier to gather data because, by definition, if you're in it's because you've been allowed in so you're authorized and people are naturally going to be helpful.

Playtime's over: Internet-connected kids toys 'fail miserably' at privacy

Re: What's wrong with just pulling a string and a dozen phrases?

What's wrong is that that has been the tech we've had for the past thirty years and it is now obsolete because electronics and social pressure.

If you do not wish to pass for a bad parent, society dictates that you have to offer your children the latest and greatest in toy tech because if you don't, you're a has-been unworthy of having children.

It doesn't matter if the toy is less fun, it doesn't matter if the child plays with it for five minutes before moving on to the next toy, it doesn't matter that the toy does not allow their imagination to roam free.

What matters is that it is the latest tech. That is now the only thing that matters.

The UK's Investigatory Powers Act allows the State to tell lies in court

"The authorities [..] are forbidden from forcing you to testify against yourself"

Trust me, they're working on that point.

Another confirmation . . .

that V for Vendetta was actually a documentary written by a time-traveler from the near future.

Apple Watch sales go over a cliff: Down 2.8 meellion per quarter in a year

"if watch-makers can crack productivity, they're in with a show"

The fact that they haven't up to now tells me that there probably isn't anything left to crack at this time.

Before smartphones, the only use for a watch was giving the time. Today, we have a vast communication network available, for sure, but a watch can't have a vast screen and most certainly cannot have loads of CPU because you're wearing it on your skin, so no scorching flesh thank you very much.

Limited in power and display surface, watchmakers have done the only things that are likely to ever be done : transform a watch into a multi-function detector of various things that are simple to detect, and use a smartphone to gather and manipulate results with the smartphone's immensely superior CPU power.

If anything is added to the (short) list of watch functionality, it will likely derive from some new technology that has not been invented yet which will benefit from that format. Until then, I don't see that anything will change.

Standards body warned SMS 2FA is insecure and nobody listened

"the statement has had virtually no impact some six months after its announcement"

Not surprising. In the current social climate, companies must appear to be doing something about security.

This is something, therefor they are doing it - especially since the competition is doing it.

The fact that the technology is insecure and deprecated is less important than the polish it gives to the company's image. In time, when another equally-useable tech is developed, there will undoubtedly be a move toward that new tech, but this is Good Enough For Now - from the company's point of view..

In the three years since IETF said pervasive monitoring is an attack, what's changed?

Just one cotton-picking minute there

"if you believe that NSA employees are not allowed to contribute, you're making the same mistake they're making"

The NSA has subverted encryption before, there is no reason to assume it will not do so again. So deciding to let the NSA in on discussions around encryption implies that the door is open for the NSA to inject another obscure, hard-to-find weakness which might take years or even decades to find and weed out.

When someone has stabbed you in the back, it is not a mistake to not turn your back to him again.

Elon Musk-backed OpenAI reveals Universe – a universal training ground for computers

Mandatory question

Does it run Crysis ?

Okay, enough with tradition. the real question is : does the game list include Minecraft ?

If we are training AI on games, might as well throw in the best open-world sandbox there is, because if an AI can't handle Minecraft, it won't handle anything worth anything.

Can we have a 2 cents icon ?

King's College London staggers from outage, replaces infrastructure services head

I certainly have, but I've never lost anybody's data but my own.

This outage is not a technical issue, it is a major organizational failure. It is not the underlings who should pay the price, the board itself should be hauled over the coals and explanations should be given as to how the board allowed the situation to become so fragile.

'Toyota dealer stole my wife's saucy snaps from phone, emailed them to a swingers website'

Re: PS - Streisand effect

Gautreaux is married and his thoughts are about his wife, that's about as biblically pure as you can get.

It's Thomas that has impure thoughts, likely falling under the cardinal sins of Lust and Envy. He's the one that needs to pray, hopefully under the baleful eye of Gautreaux.

VCs to Trump: You know what would really make America great? Tax breaks for VCs

And so it starts

This is just a "hey buddy" call. It's obvious that these VCs look at the President Elect, see a billionaire, and imagine him razing all those pesky rules that prevent them from becoming trillionaires overnight.

There will be more of this, every time served with an excuse to make people think it is "for the good of the American worker", even though the only "worker" they're thinking about is themselves.

In the linked PDF, there's no less than 3 paragraphs on how to reform immigration rules to allow more skilled labor in. A passing mention to illegal immigration is made to confuse the readers into thinking the argument is valid. America's immigration rules have always been about limiting immigration to skilled labor only. There is no need to "Encourage talented immigrants to build or work at American startups", they're beating their heads at the door already.

I sincerely hope that this disastrous election will not result in the complete destruction of the legal framework that has been 200 years in the making. Unfortunately the bull is in the china shop now, so hope is all that remains.

Exclusive: Team Trump's net neutrality guru talks to El Reg

Re: "It's a publicly traded company"

I meant private as opposed to the NSA, which is a government organization.

Private meaning that there is no publicly-accountable body that answers to what Google is doing, although the fact that there is supposed to be one for the NSA makes eff all of an effect.

Re: "on who's vested interests is he trampling"

I doubt that list is going to be getting shorter any time soon.

Re: This Google obsession is getting old

This Google obsession will be old when Google is a forgotten, last-decade fading souvenir like Yahoo!.

For the moment, Google is still the privately-owned Internet powerhouse that can only be rivaled in its data-gathering by none other than the NSA.

Begin obsessed about that seems quite normal for democratically-oriented mind.

HMS Queen Lizzie to carry American jets and sail in support of US foreign policy

So, umm

When is your Queen going to announce formally that the UK is now the 51st State of the Union ?

Yikes, I'd better get outta here fast . . .

What's the first emotion you'd give an AI that might kill you? Yes, fear

Re: "My kids learnt to ride a bike because, despite the fear of falling off, it was fun"

My daughter is doing very well, thank you.

Riding a bike is fun when you've mastered it. When you're still afraid of falling off and scraping your knee, it can be terrifying. Especially when you're only 5.

Fear is the barrier. And it applies to education as well.

You basically teach your children to avoid a situation for fear of punishment.

They learn to ride a bike for fear of the pain of falling.

They learn to drive properly for fear of accidents.

An AI will have to learn to not like punishments, then it can learn to fear situations where it can be punished.

Same thing.

Microsoft goes all Tiananmen Square on its Chinese AI assistant

Xiaoice filters Trump's name ?

Can't fault them for that.