Posts by Pascal Monett

The car in front has Kaspersky deep inside

"separate the safety-critical subsystems from infotainment components in cars"

Can that not be more securely done by putting them on different physical networks ?

Is that so hard ?

Seagate NAS owners: hide it behind a firewall. Fast.

There's a lot wrong with that. It has been demonstrated over and over again that the public is just not aware of the importance of security measures. Making software updates for your kit is of no use if your customers never apply them.

Kit made to connect to a network must include security by default, because you cannot count on a customer to do it right. As far as security is concerned, the public must be considered as not being able to program their VCR (and yes, I know they probably don't have one anymore, but I think the comparison stands).

Phabba-dabba-do: Samsung hypes up Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge

You can have my S3 when you pry it from my cold, dead fingers.

I have absolutely no need for a slimmer phone, nor do I want the latest fad. I don't spend my time on it, I spend my time developing on PC.

When 4G is actually available in places I go and worth it, I'll mull over the question of replacing this one. Until then, no battery replacement is a deal breaker as far as I'm concerned.

In Barcelona, no one can hear you scream ... HTC, Valve unleash Giger-inspired VR headgear

"Sony isn't really Sony as much as it used to be"

Good. About time their rootkitting, awful, privacy-invading, PC-crashing hardware division burned to the ground. And putting Java into a bloody thing made for watching movies was the absolute worst idea anyone has ever had in the history of entertainment.

I will never buy another piece of Sony hardware again, period.

So I'm not at all unhappy that Sony keeps to films. That, at least, will not be rooted - for the time being.

BOFFINS: Oxygen-free, methane-based ALIENS may EXIST on icy SATURN moon Titan

"a colourless, poisonous, liquid organic compound"

So, acid for blood then ?

If we set foot on that moon, we're screwed.

Elon Musk plans to plonk urban Hyperloop subsonic tube on California

Or a sausage grinder !

WANTED: A plan to DESTROY metadata, not just retain it

Counterpoint :

The daughter that lives abroad now might come back at some point, either permanently or just visiting, and be happy to find that her account is still available and her brownie points still recorded. Of course, finding out that her account expired after a given period is not too much of a heartbreaker either.

The fact that her address is wrong is irrelevant - it shouldn't even be in there anyway. Are they going to mail her something ? Send goods via post ? Don't think so, so it is not pertinent data.

EU governments are CRAP at cloud, moans Brussels' infosec watchdog

Why would a GOVERNMENT need a Cloud policy ?

The Cloud is something that might be useful for companies, internally or as a platform for services, or for individuals as a storage location available to them from anywhere.

Both of these entities have one thing in common : they have no need to compile data concerning an entire population on a daily basis. Not talking about state surveillance, just the boring stuff like tax returns and administrative filing. That is the kind of stuff governments do, and they're already doing it.

That means that the government already has its servers in place, its comm lines working and, hopefully, proper physical security about the premises. This data is being accrued most likely via the Internet already, and, if I refer to my own country, citizens can already access their own data via a secure portal.

What would be the advantage of moving to "the cloud" in this case ? Nil. What would be the disadvantage ? Probably too many to count, but the first one on my list would be putting citizen data into the hands of a 3rd party that is not answerable to the citizens.

I will not accept that move with my personal administrative data.

TalkTalk 'fesses up to MEGA data breach

Re: Again!

Sorry, but that does not feel enough for me.

Personally, I think that any company that has not been diligent in the protection of my personal data should see its CEO go to jail and its board fined on their personal fortune.

If it impacts me personally, I see no reason why it should not impact them personally.

Watch: FIRE-SPITTING time-lapse images of Sol showcase NASA's sun-gazing highs

THAT !

It's the screensaver I want.

'We have NO IDEA who put those ads on our TVs', Sammy simpers

It's not everything we try to keep private, it's everything we have a right to keep private.

There is a big difference between the two.

'Come on, everyone – block US govt staff ogling web smut at work'

Thrust, urge, stiffen, orgy

I'm sure those terms were chosen exclusively because they fit the editorial line on the subject matter, eh ? (nudge, nudge, wink, wink).

But more seriously, the day that anyone finds the way to "prohibit the access of a pornographic or other explicit web site" without impacting any other sort of material is the day we have finally found a functioning AI.

Won't happen tomorrow.

Accused Goldman Sachs code pilferer sues FBI for 'wrongful arrest'

Goldman Sachs is a scientific institute now ?

Or do they think that their specific formulas for massaging numbers to demonstrate their wishful thinking qualifies as science ?

Ex-NASA boffin dreams of PREDATOR-ish tech in humble microwaves

"browsing the internet while you wait"

Yeah, like I don't already have a tablet that can do that.

Can we stop trying to find stupid excuses to wire everything up to the Internet ?

Not really

Given that the NSA is hoovering up everything first, then applying analysis to it, the comment stands.

Evolve: A shoot-em-up full of scary monsters and super creeps

A rare kind of game, really ?

"Turtle Rock's title is a rare kind of game, in that it's entirely reliant upon other players for it to be a worthwhile experience."

Oh, so it's just like Call of Duty Online, every Battlefield since number 3, and just about every multiplayer shooter that is being made since five years ago.

Yup, sounds very rare. Especially since the single-player titles are something that have practically gone extinct since Y2K.

Could we please cut the marketing drivel ?

Show me the money, America! It's time to learn how to pronounce 'Xiaomi'

Given that everything is now produced either in China or in some geographically close country, you can take you 1970's dogma and put it back in the folder marked "Obsolete".

If we had to rely on things produced in the Northern Hemisphere, we'd have trouble getting things more technologically advanced than forks & knives.

ATTENTION SETI scientists! It's TOO LATE: ALIENS will ATTACK in 2049

It is a totally obsolete notion in the Age Of Internet.

Except for those numpties who try to discover where any US Fleet is at any given moment. They then get the immense privilege of discovering the notions of Security and Obscurity in one fell swoop of an FBI van.

Re: Why is the assumption that whatever is out there is hostile

Because of two simple facts :

1) any race that has developed itself to be space-worthy has first had to establish itself as the ultimate predator in its own native environment. You can't build a spaceship if you fear being eaten by whatever tiger it is you have there.

2) any race that is space-worthy has to have a bureaucracy which has to justify its existence in difficult economic times - thus an invasion will inevitably be a wonderful economic opportunity, for them.

UN negotiations menaced by topless women. Or not

I wonder what it is like in Belarussia

Clearly they seem to have a lot of fun over there.

Unless, of course, said topless ladies are all over sixty, in which case - yes, what a frightening prospect.

Re: What idiots

Not at all. These are the people making noise about arms control.

The people deciding the issue are in weapons manufacturers boardrooms, dressed in suits and very serious about their job.

When they have made up their minds, they will tell the people who make noise which way to make noise.

TITANIC: Nuclear SUBMARINE cruising 'Sea of KRAKENS' may be FOUND ON icy MOON

Re: space plane

Probably because they are actual scientists and are also taking into account mission mass and total cost issues as well as point-of-failure problems.

Adding a space plane will add mass that will increase the payload to chuck out of Earth orbit thus increasing cost. Additionally, it will increase the amount of mass to move to Titan, thus increasing the amount of fuel needed to push it, thus increasing payload even more, which increases cost. Finally, adding another element with another set of possible failure options that are extremely difficult to mitigate from a billion miles away and can totally render the entire mission useless is a risk that most true scientists, fully aware of how little money they are being allotted to work their magic, will most likely prefer to avoid.

Biter bitten as hacker leaks source code for popular exploit kit

Is this good news ?

I'm sure I'm all that reassured about this leak. Does this mean we can be confident that things are more secure, or should we consider that, now that the blackhats have dumped this tech in the open, they have better ?

On the other hand, this might actually be good news for all people looking for an excuse to avoid installing Silverlight.

Proposed US law could deal knockout blow to FBI in overseas cloud privacy ding-dongs

Re: "It's a system that protects America from their government"

Really ?

Doesn't seem to be working very well right now, does it ?

BLAME ENGINEERS: Workstation sales soar by 8.9 per cent a year

It's not just you

I'm not an engineer, just a developer, but working on 3 screens rocks. One for the specs, one for the IDE and one for visualizing results. 7 Terabytes of disk and 24GB of DDR3 RAM is nice too.

Find me a laptop that can do that . . . and I still won't buy it.

Dutch government websites KO'd by 10-hour DDoS

"Dutch MPs are not exactly known for their high inteligence..."

First of all, let me correct that for you : "Dutch MPs are not exactly known..."

Second, congratulations on having the same kind of MPs as everybody else.

It's not the cloud: The problem lies between the chair and the computer – Gartner

Whaddya mean it's not new technology ? Of course it's new technology ! There's thousands of CxOs having gone to, going to, or preparing to go to fancy seminars in tropical paradises to hear about how new it is and bring the Good Word back to their sheeple - uh, I mean, people.

World's governments emerge enraged from mounds of red tape, screaming at ICANN

after-the-fact complaint system

Yeah, because ICANN is really, really reliable where complaints are concerned. There is absolutely no example of any complaint that has not been rigorously handled and justifiably managed, no sir, cross my heart (you shut up in the back, or I will cross your domain off the Web forever).

IBM says dating apps can give you a nasty infection DOWN THERE!

"an app could gain excessive permissions"

Nonsense. Every app already demands ALL permissions to install, even if it's just a stopwatch app, so there's no "gaining" permissions needed.

'Kickass' Somali pirates get their asses kicked by Japanese ass-kickers

Nah, Duvel, Brigand and Grimbergen.

Facebook: Hey guys, come share all your securo-blunders with us!

"We are committed to protecting people's privacy"

Funny, I always have a gag reflex whenever the notion of Privacy gets anywhere near Facebook.

Now Samsung's spying smart TVs insert ADS in YOUR OWN movies

"We are aware of a situation that has caused some Smart TV users"

... have noticed that we are monitoring them. This will stop forthwith to revert to the stealth readings we were doing before until the market accepts less covert surveillance and we can carpet-bomb them with ads for 30 minutes followed by 10 minutes of whatever crap they thought they wanted to watch.

World's mega-rich tax dodge exposed: Meet the HSBC IT bloke at the heart of damning leak

"Although there are numerous legitimate reasons to have a Swiss bank account"

Bullshit.

There is only one legitimate reason to have a Swiss bank account : you are Swiss.

If you're not, you're evading taxes. Period.

Official: Single people need to LOWER their EXPECTATIONS

Re: in evolutionary terms we've only gone from grunting to Bach or Feynman in the blink of an eye

From what I witness around me in my daily life, I'm more and more convinced that we're still very much grunting.

UK air traffic mega cockup: BOTH server channels failed - report

Re: temperamental?

One failure in 30 years of operation is hardly temperamental.

"a human being should have realized"

That, right there, is why mistakes keep happening.

Don't count on antivirus software alone to keep your data safe

"These are solid, reliable tools"

Yeah, especially when they utterly fail to stop a new version of a virus, or when they mistake a Windows system file for a virus, quarantine it and crash the system, or when they grab 99% of CPU for minutes on end and keep you from doing your job without rhyme or reason.

The only thing that is reliable with AV software is the fact that your PC now belongs to it, not to you.

Unfortunately, as imperfect and annoying as they are, we do indeed need them. Therefor the only thing we can do is find the anti-virus that will be as efficient as possible while bothering us the least.

A real treasure hunt, and the treasure is our security.

An example ?

I Googled "drive-by infection" and the first two results were this and this.

In the second article, it is clearly stated that "Just surfing to an affected website is enough to infect a computer".

I do believe that that sentence is in direct contradiction to your belief that "on its own, with no clicking or acknowledgement, a website cannot infect a PC".

And would you care to clarify how, on the one hand, you talk about Javascript in most of your post, yet you say "a website cannot infect a PC that prompts for any activeX to run" ? Where does ActiveX come into the discussion, and how exactly do you believe that ActiveX is, in any way, secure after all the holes that have been found in it ?

Microsoft explains Windows as a SERVICE – but one version remains a distant dream

"systems powering hospital emergency rooms, air traffic control towers, financial trading systems"

Dear God, Microsoft is in Air Traffic Control towers ?

God help us all.

Don't see what the hoopla is about New Features

Businesses don't need new features, they need a stable, reliable environment.

When they do need a new feature, they'll go and buy an app that does what they need.

The last thing they need is for the OS vendor to go and change their working environment under the guise of installing something they didn't ask for.

Dissidents and dealers rejoice! Droid app hides your stash in plain sight

Secret data would be encrypted

And that helps how given that UK plods can force you to give the password else send you to Guantanamo ?

SWINGBELLIES! Take heed! Drinking WINE is good for your LIVER

Sure, at least not until the hangover.

Then . . . OUCH.

Jupiter Ascending – a literally laughable train wreck of a film

Serenity is my all-time favorite movie, and Firefly is the best series ever made bar none.

Just sayin'

Hey biz – cut fraud with digital ID verification. Yes, like Verify – Maude

Because Not Invented Here and therefor no trough to dip one's friends' snout in.

Forget robo-butlers – ROBO-MAIDS! New hotel staffed by slave-droids

"access their rooms using a facial recognition system"

Interesting. I thought facial recog systems were not very accurate. If this actually works, it will prove that FRSs can indeed be useful.

On the other hand, if it doesn't, good luck explaining to a robot that you can't get into your room. I hope they have some actual Human staff for handling errors, or at least rolling up the bodies in carpets.

hive mind informs climate change believers and sceptics

Or maybe he has tried, time and again, to have a discussion with posters of a different opinion only to regularly find his points ignored, his mother insulted and his masculinity put in question.

Whatever "side" you may be on on the question of AGW-now-rechristined-Climate-Change, you have to admit that no forum discussion is possible outside of people who agree with you. The entire subject is void of any more reasoning, it's just shouting louder than the other guy.

A pitiful state for such an important question. Thankfully, it does not keep scientists from doing their job and continuing to gather data and analyze it.

Ransomware 2.0 'crypts website databases – until victims pay up

So they got in with a compromised FTP password

And then they pwned the place so bad it's not even funny any more. This seems to me to be a good step above skiddie level. This is serious criminal activity done by knowledgeable perps, and they're going to mint millions with it.

Big Corp might not get caught, but Mom & Pop operations are going to be sunk by this.

On the other hand : calling Sony ! Sony ? If you think you lost some money last time, when these guys show up on your doorstep, you're going to find out the true meaning of LOSSES.

DARPA: We KNOW WHO YOU ARE... by the WAY you MOVE your MOUSE

How a user handles the mouse could be distinctive and difficult to mimic

Probably, but I have the feeling analysis can only be reliable when the user is already logged on. Using it for the ultra-short time required to validate credentials which constrain the possibilities because set actions are required will likely not produce a valid recognition. Kinda voids the premise, in that case.

Sony hurls Online Entertainment from the mothership

"They have a proven track record in similar and related industries..."

Do they ? Funny I've never, ever heard of them then.

When I read that sentence I was thinking "they have a rap sheet a mile long...". If they've only been heard of by investors, it doesn't feel like a good thing.

Oh, and what industry is "similar and/or related to" the gaming industry ?

PEAK WINDOWS 7 may well be behind us

If they have it blocked now, it's likely that they had it blocked years ago as well.

Therefor, the figures are still valid for trend analysis purposes.