Posts by Pascal Monett

Euro security agency says MORE crypto needed in gov policy

Re: "needs to be encrypted in order to ensure that it is private"

Even then, you're never sure it cannot be intercepted and decrypted by someone with the means to do it.

That used to be an issue only for big corp, those who had commercial "enemies" with pockets deep enough to support the costs of decryption of the day. These days, those with the means don't necessarily need to have the motive. When governments are listening to everybody by default, it's no longer a question of motive.

On top of that, PCs are more powerful than ever, meaning encryption needs longer keys to remain an efficient barrier.

Global PC market's not dead, it's just resting – Gartner

Thank you for the correction.

I've learned another thing today.

Waiting with baited breath

I eagerly await the day that we will hear of the triumphant return of the PC based on soaring sales - only to find out that all those sales are in China and India and the "First World" market is as stagnant as a frog pond.

I wonder how they will spin that as good news ?

Confusion, fear and growing pains: ICANN bigwig spells out gTLD headaches

I comprehend perfectly well. This jerk really thinks that actually respecting his own charter and being called on his backroom shenanigans makes him "more accountable than anything else on Earth".

I believe that that is a perfect illustration of this.

"being more accountable than anything else on Earth"

Wow. Just - wow.

You'd think that ICANN has responsibilities on par with the White House, deciding the fate of the world.

Reality check : you're handing out TLDs, you prick, and most of them have less utility than my garbage collector. Take it down a notch.

Disney, McLaren and National Rail walk into bar: Barkeep, make me a Wearable

From here, looks like the Titanic all over again

I just love to think of hotels having to manage customer bracelets on top of all the rest. I wonder just what the customers are going to think of the scheme. Will they feel like they are treated as cattle ? All those high-level execs and VIPs are expected to jump at the opportunity of being tracked in real time ?

Funny, I get the feeling that there will be a very frank and net rejection of the scheme.

Unless they guarantee free (and effective) WiFi if you wear it. Then I see a widespread adoption followed by much rejoicing.

Attackers planting banking Trojans in industrial systems

@ Ivan 4

Glad to know your security is so tight.

Now tell me, do you really think your company is a typical case ?

I wish it were.

Computers know you better than your friends

What a wonderful vision of the world

In The Future (tm), recruiters will only interview candidates that correspond to their corporate culture. The Police will use predictive analysis to follow people more likely to commit infractions. Insurance companies will tailor premiums to your social rating. Entire neighborhoods will only accept newcomers if their Facebook Profile Indicator is in a range corresponding to their own tastes.

And everyone will be automatically subscribed to Facebook at birth by law.

But what of those people who exhibit anti-social behavior (i.e. not being appreciative of this wonderful, safe, cosy environment provided by the Bureau of Governmental Statistics), you ask ?

Why do you ask that ? You don't want to be a burden for your friends and family, now do you ? Of course not. You will now be transferred to a Social Reeducation Facility of your choice for processing. Be seeing you !

What do UK and Iran have in common? Both want to outlaw encrypted apps

Yup, and we voted them in.

Democracy needs a reboot.

IBM: Hey, Intel and pals. Look on our massive patent pile and despair

I very much doubt that IBM - or any other company, really - is in the business of improving life on this rock.

Some things they do may have an effect on that orientation, but the primary goal is always the same : to increase shareholder satisfaction, i.e. to make more money.

Had a data breach? Well, SPEAK UP, big biz – Obama

Hang on - it's only "plans" at this point.

If the legislation does pass, either these "plans" will have been entirely forgotten, or there will be so many loopholes around the wording that they may as well not have been included at all.

We're talking about Big Money. Nothing gets in the way of Big Money, especially not the Law.

Peers warn against rushing 'enhanced' DATA SLURP powers through Parliament

Re: "legislation to keep tabs on jihadis was much more important than any civil rights issues"

No it is not. The entire reasoning for our society is based on the notion of civil rights - taking them away voids everything we believe in and everything we fought two World Wars for. Our way of life is ours to decide and should not be influenced by social or religious considerations from people who don't live with us.

Of course, that also means that we have no right to go abroad and impose our views on how other people should live. Maybe if we didn't do that so quickly, we'd not have this problem in the first place - but it's too late to change that. We do need to stop doing that, though.

In any case, I strongly encourage you to publicly respond to your MP and remind him that he was voted in his position as a representative of the People, not as tool for the Government.

Re: Illusion

An internal review ? No.

Given the documentary "Yes Minister", we now know that an internal review is just to bury the problem, not solve it.

What is needed is a fully open external review of security procedures. That is the only way we will know what the buggers are doing, what they're doing wrong and have a chance to correct it.

But, National Security, so it'll never happen anyway.

Windows 7 MARKED for DEATH by Microsoft as of NOW

This is ridiculous

I highly doubt that companies are going to agree to migrate their work base every 7 years just because MS says so.

Desktops are going out of fashion, and with them is going MS's influence. MS will have to resolve itself to being just an OS provider, and the OS is going to have to resign itself to the back seat. Where companies are concerned, what is important is the applications, not the OS.

We are at the end of the upgrade treadmill, but MS apparently hasn't got the memo. The days when upgrading last year's hardware was justified by performance increase are gone and with them, the need to have a new OS for the new hardware.

MS : you need to make an Operating System, not a Consumer Experience. Get the bells & whistles out of the OS, so that upgrading one does not impact the other. Make your code able to update the kernel as the hardware evolves without endangering the apps that are needed. And, while you're at it, make the UI fully configurable.

We want to USE our computers, not watch your installation screens.

Top senator blasts US Homeland Security for leaving cyber-drawbridge down

"fighting money counterfeiters"

Don't forget that that is the mandate of the Secret Service. You know, the guys who also have the protection of the President in their list of duties.

In other words, par for the course for US agencies.

FBI boss: Sony hack was DEFINITELY North Korea, haters gonna hate

Sorry, but if a man is to be denied his birthright to freedom, I prefer it to be because there is incontrovertible proof, not because some official from a 3-letter agency declares he is highly confident that said man should be put in jail.

And the fact that the FBI states that IP addresses are a strong basis for its opinion does nothing to reassure me that he actually knows what he is talking about. He would need to demonstrate that he had proof that said IP addresses had not been spoofed before I even started to begin to give credit to this White House mouthpiece' drivel.

ALIEN EARTH: Red sun's habitable world spotted 470 light years away

The Universe is vast

And its distances are totally incomprehensible to the regular human being.

Consider that astronomers are regularly talking about our "galactic neighborhood" - meaning the group of galaxies that are closest to us.

This has nothing to do with understatement, and everything to do with you not being used to the distances and concepts. Not a slur on your knowledge or intelligence, far from, but when one's job is to look at data coming from the nearest galaxies who happen to be up to a trillion light-years away, I guess that one does end up considering them in a different light and talking about them in such a way.

So, considering that a group of stellar systems less than 2000 light-years away are in "our neighborhood" seems perfectly reasonable, when you realize that that distance is less than 1.7% the diameter of our galaxy.

Given the total lack of intelligence and knowledge of its posts, it might as well be.

Elite: Dangerous 'billionaire' gamers are being 'antisocial', moan players

Well done !

I know where you got that quote from ):D

Arrr: The only Pirate in European Parliament to weigh in on copyright

"the majority either don't know or don't care"

And that is the true source of all the evils of the world and the root of the failure of democracy.

UKIP website TAKES A KIP, but for why?

What, is Twitter down again ?

A Cambridge boffin told me YOU'RE A BIG, FAT LIAR

"it might be quite hard to fidget deliberately"

So just fidget all the time and you're home free, right ?

GoGo in-flight WiFi creates man-in-the-middle diddle

I Don't Agree

There is no legitimate excuse for a company to create fake certs that act like other companies. That is a breach or morale, pure and simple. If you don't want customers to do something on your network, be honest and block it (with a redirect to a page explaining why).

Anything else is a hypocritical cop-out.

THREE MILLION Moonpig accounts exposed by flaw

Stop giving them ideas !

End well: this won't. European Copyright Society wants one EU law to rule 'em all

I'll agree to harmonization at one condition

That neither Disney nor RIAA/MPAA nor any of their affiliates/copycats be allowed to participate in the discussions.

Even China's Academy of Science thinks wearables are privacy problem

Not so fast

It's Google Glass that's being banned (where that is happening, and not all that common) because - surprise - people don't like being filmed by people they don't know. Wrist thingys for cardio measurement and such are on the uptake and I see no reason for those things to be banned.

Cops think Mt Gox meltdown was an 'INSIDE JOB' – report

"how the exchange was run"

I'm sure that the report on its administration would make a brilliant demonstration of how NOT to run a web business.

It is therefor sorely needed.

Office MACROS PERIL! Age-old VBScript tactic is BACK in biz attack

I'm sure you'll find out one day

Music fans FUME over PJ Harvey ticket CHAOS as Somerset House site buckles

"why it hadn't foresee"

That does not bode well for the start of the New Year.

You need to wait for the eggnog to get out of your system, guys.

When algorithms ATTACK: Facebook sez soz for tacky 'Year in Review' FAIL

Re: When something is free....

We know that, thank you.

Now go post it on Facebook. That's where it needs to be said.

PlayStation clambers back online days after DDoS attack PARALYSED network

Well may I just say how happy I am to not have a console.

I game on PC. Seems that that is becoming an advantage these days.

Oh, and before you insist that EA Games was down as well, I don't care. First of all I stopped playing the Battlefield series after they butchered BF3 and second, if I cannot play my online games, a PC has this marvelous technology where I can play local games that do not depend on an Internet connection.

If I am not mistaken, that is something that today's "modern" consoles have lost.

No, I won't SNORKEL in your server room at STUPID-O'CLOCK

Seems like typical management learning process.

1) Make a bad decision based on non-technical criteria (convenience), not taking into account any possible risks

2) Get caught when bad decision leads to millions in lost money

3) Finally make the right decision when the risks previously ignored are now deemed too serious to continue ignoring

NSA's Christmas Eve confession: We unlawfully spied on you for 12 years, soz

Stop

feeding the troll.

It only encourages it.

Well obviously

Being French myself, I well know that my people are very interested in American fads and adopt them all with gay abandon (whether they are good or not).

We had Halloween stomp its way into our stores a decade ago, but that seems to be wearing thin now (this year no costumed kids were ringing doorbells any more in my village).

<cynical rate="maximum">

It is only natural that we see this new and exciting Internet Surveillance thing and wish to adopt it in our own way, and our Government, knowing just how enamored we are with all things American, has gone above and beyond itself to please us for XMas.

</cynical>

Great link !

Thanks for that, I'll be going back regularly.

I cannot agree with you.

Incomplete knowledge of regulation from an employee of the NSA is a frightful thought in itself.

As for "random errors of execution" (nice euphemism for personal vendetta, by the way), the problem is not the error in itself, but that the error is possible in the first place.

As redacted as they are, these documents demonstrate that the NSA has next to no internal security which would serve to prevent these "errors" happening.

What should exist is a system that monitors all file access, checking to see that the person accessing the file is authorized to do so, forbidding access and logging the act for disciplinary measures if not.

Re: I'm not believing this...

Count my gast as flabbered as well. I always thought that, in such organizations, every file access was logged, every action taken by anyone was controlled and logged, and everything had to be done by the book or you had the book thrown at you.

The reality is that the NSA appears to be a vast group of buddies all aware of what they shouldn't do but without any active measures preventing malfeasance. The employees have their access to something terminated only when somebody finds out that they've been using something they shouldn't have.

Sorry ? If they shouldn't be using something they why the bloody hell can they access it in the first place ? I seem to remember, in the many Clancy novels (and others) that I've read, that the CIA had security so tight that if the Director himself made a mistake entering his password, security agents would come barging in, guns drawn, to make sure things were all right. Accessing the wrong file would not get you terminated, it would get you a personal session with the interrogation chair - then you'd be terminated.

I can see where I was wrong. I thought I was reading fantasy stories based on realistic people and organizations. I see now that I was reading fantasy stories based on realistic people and fantasy organizations.

No wonder the US military is easy to hack. If the CIA/NSA/Homeland Security use the best people and can't set up proper internal security worth beans, then obviously the military won't be able to.

We can change a bit from 0 to 1 WITHOUT CURRENT, say boffins

Got to say that I unfortunately agree.

20 years from now we'll be seeing zilch based on this tech. Maybe, some time in the next 50 years, we'll hear of some new tech "soon to be put into production" that will base itself on some variant of this discovery, but it's in the lab right now and there's no guarantee that it'll ever be getting out in any form we can easily associate with this tech in its current form.

There are literally hundreds of stumbling blocks before this gets into a finished product, the least of them being strictly technical in nature. There will be power plays, there will be infighting, influence wars and outright patent buying with the risk that the buyer has no intent of actually producing because it harms an existing production line.

So, yeah, this sounds interesting, but there's a whole forest of knives to walk barefoot through before ever seeing a price tag on something using it.

Ireland: Hey, you. America. Hands off Microsoft's email cloud servers

Re: Get a grip

Yeah, do that. You haven't been paying attention this year, have you ?

The NSA officially has jurisdiction over the whole world now, from Washington's point of view at least (other countries tend to disagree, but the White House doesn't even pretend to give a flying one over that anymore).

It's only inside the USA that the NSA officially still needs a warrant, but the NSA does whatever it wants anyway since there is no serious oversight of its activity.

Sony releases Nork flick The Interview straight to DVD (digital video download)

Re: "you can't avoid them [..] on DVD(isk) either"

I suggest you invest in a better DVD player that lets you skip whatever you want.

Or, buy the film, then torrent the ad-free version.

If you have bought the film, it's not piracy.

Judge kills Facebook's bid to dismiss private message sniffing case

"it's a chat system within an ad-funded social network site"

No, it's an advertisement tool using sheeple as fodder to make its money.

MY expectations are set clearly. Unfortunately, way too many people are not conscious of this sorry state of affairs, and one can only hope that this lawsuit will bring enlightenment to some of them.

And I still find totally immoral that a company can, as you say, clearly state its nefarious, privacy-invading procedures and yet still be allowed to function. But hey, it's making money, so . . .

Yes ! Have them dragged over the coals, please !

I don't care that Facebook notified people in the T&Cs - private email is not to be trawled through by administrative decision, period.

It is high time major websites - especially the so-called "social" ones, stop thinking that they have the right to do whatever they want as long as its mentioned in some mind-numbing paragraph on an ever-changing document that nobody with a sane mind reads.

Reg man confesses: I took my wife out to choose a laptop for Xmas. NOOOO

Point taken.

I wonder how to reconcile both sentences.

Nobody said it installed on its own. The sentence used was "her agreeing to the Yosemite upgrade nags".

Frustration with Elite:Dangerous boils over into 'Refund Quest'

Conclusions of all this mess

1) A promise made is a promise to be kept

2) A promise made on Kickstarter is not an exception

3) The Eliter-Than-Thou don't care that you care about a promise (and that's not just the developers of the game)

4) OoLite keeps its promises, has NPC AI in the latest update, and apparently makes a mockery of this whole dangerous business and the excuses made to justify it

In any case, I would like to thank the developers of Elite:Dangerous. They have taught me that they are not reliable and don't care about their backers, and it didn't cost me a penny to find out.

More importantly, I have discovered OoLite.

Microsoft patch mashes Office forms and macros

Not bother patching ?

No, safer to update manually, when all the lemmings have gone and reported broken features and fixes have been made.

Of course, it's still a risk, because you never know if Yet Another Bug is going to crop up in reports while you're patching, or if you're a special case and some new bug rears its head.

But it is still better than rushing to patch a running system, running headfirst into problems and having to wait for MS to do a rush job only to find that either it doesn't fix the problem and/or it breaks something else.

I was about to add "because done too quickly" but MS has already failed patches it had ample time to create, so best leave it out.

Sucker for punishment? Join Sony's security team

"face future action over any losses Sony incurs"

I'm sure Twitter must be quaking in its boots. I wonder if they will have any difficulty proving to a judge that any losses incurred by Sony are Sony's fault entirely, and Twitter should counter-attack with a libel charge for being accused of having a hand in Sony's abysmal stupidity.

Bring it on, Sony. You have a bigger lawsuit warchest than you have for security, so go and prove that you are indeed as stupid as you look now.

Frankly I'd like a lawsuit to be filed, just to be able to read how a judge punted it out of the courtroom and fined Sony for contempt of court.

Man I wish that could happen.

Facebook slammed for blocking protest event page at Russia's request

Another chip in the bucket

of all the reasons for which I do not and will never have a Facebook profile.

Well done, Zuck. At least you are consistently disappointing.

NUKE HACK fears prompt S Korea cyber-war exercise

Re: "change direction instantly and at high speed"

For certain values of "instant", obviously.

With current technology, even if a missile reacts in milliseconds, when it is going at Mach 4 (1 361.16 m / s) it still covers 1.36m (0.1475 double-decker bus) every millisecond.

A missile will certainly turn faster than a human pilot can due to its far greater resistance to G-force, but current tech does not allow it to u-turn on a dime.

Flash breaks free from the storage flat earth society

You can always house them in a Faraday cage.