Posts by Rob Burke

Firefox now defaults to DNS-over-HTTPS for US netizens and some are dischuffed about this

I mostly don't like this

I love the idea of DNS over HTTPS - I have it enabled myself in PiHole, using applied-privacy.net as my DNS over HTTPS provider, it works great. My devies uses PiHole as their primary DNS server, so no need to fiddle with DNS on an application level. DNS at application level seems weird,

I don't like that Mozilla are changing something so central by default; even if it's done with good intentions, it normalises such things and then before you know it, less ethical players such as Google will follow suit.

I don't like that Mozilla are changing the behaviour of their software deliberately based on your territory, that feels a bit weird.

Cryptowall 4.0: Update makes world's worst ransomware worse still

Very worrying...

At my last company, someone executed a cyptolocker binary from a unknown sender offering an invoice.pdf.exe in their personal Hotmail. I wish commonsence could be taught.

The result was about 30k encrypted files over multiple network drives. Spent a few good days cleaning that up... extracting the list of encrypted files from the laptop registry, regex pokery, excel, vlookups to shadow copy paths, conversion to robocopy scripts, running them in daily batches....

The fact that this malware supposedly doesn't keep a plan text copy of affected files is giving me a cold sweat. I must remember to look into those powershell scripts tomorrow that try and prevent mass file changes...

US mulls unprecedented Chinese sanctions in wake of hacks – report

Moral high ground?

I find it amusing that the U.S. is still releasing statements re China hacking when they pretty much have lost all credibility when it comes to playing fair.

Was it not the NSA that were caught backdooring Cisco ASAs sent out of the U.S., monitoring Merkel's phone, routinely data slurping from Internet services and telcos?

If China had been so publicly exposed doing the above, I wonder what would happen then. (Edit: I mean to global services, I'm aware China routinely is a bit naughty when it comes to their local comms)

BLUE BIRD DOWN: Turkey wipes out Twitter 'scourge'

Shame

It's heart breaking to watch that clown of Government quickly eradicate the rights of the Turkish. Would love it if the pro secular party win the elections but don't see it happening with all he corruption and bribing of the poor in the East.

NSA spies recorded an entire COUNTRY'S phone calls for a MONTH: Report

I hope It's Germany!

The furious response would surely be a catalyst for change.

Of course it could be pretty entertaining at the same time. Please let it be Germany!

BlackBerry BB10 devices refuse to leap off shelves

Re: They just need to do something very simple to turn things around

The new models don't support BIS, do support BES, do support activesync (so fine for most corps - but s/mime and some lockdown features only available with BES).

Would buy the lovely Q10 but won't because...

* There are a few mainstream apps I'd like but they haven't made apps for BBOS10 and there are 'currently no plans to do so'.

* S/MIME email encryption can only be enabled on a 'work account' - on BBOS10 this means a 'BES 10' account. So, no email encryption possible with an activesync account. It's a completely artificial limitation and it infuriates me. To think you need to spend on server software just to activate a local feature that's even available on iPhone. Uuugh.

Trustwave to escape 'death penalty' for SSL skeleton key

What a shame...

... that there are no vigilante groups out there that will bring them down and inflict some tough justice. Some anonymous heros if you will.

Piracy threats lawyer mocks 4chan DDoS attack

Looks like their site is still down at the moment

Hooray!

Turkey bans Google Books, Google Docs, Google Translate...

Sigh

It's like reading the comments on Sky News or the Daily Mail...

Windows 3.0 turns 20

Weird

That was the weirdest thing I've seen in a long time.

Microsoft fills Outlook crack with Apachesource

Was also wondering

Yes, the PST Data Structure View Tool can also open OST files.

When Outlook is in cached exchanged mode, then messages are downloaded to the OST file (basically the same as a PST but it's purpose is to store the current mailbox, not an archive of messages). So Outlook already does what Gmail Offline does.

Apple kills 'Get a Mac' ad campaign

Viruses

I've noticed on http://www.apple.com/why-mac/ that Apple's stance on viruses has changed from "Doesn't get viruses" to "Doesn't get PC viruses".

They go on to say "A mac isn't susceptible to the thousands of viruses plaguing Windows-based computers. That's thanks to built-in defences in Mac OS X that keep you safe, without any work on your part".

Right, so the incompatibility with windows applications is a security feature - an in-built defence feature if you will. Isn't that the type of bare faced lie you'd expect to hear from a phones4u salesperson?

Dev goes 'Wild' with H.264 Firefox

Mozilla's stance: Pointless?

Well done Mozilla for the ethical stance. But if the big players (eg. YouTube) which use H.264 start to phase out Flash, surely more users will start to download Chrome since it will become known as the "can do it all" browser.

Most people didn't switch from IE6 to Firefox because it was open source, but because it could do more. Maybe Mozilla should retain that stance. I mean, open source VLC doesn't just play open source codecs.

If you support both codecs, give the choice to disable them and don't risk members having to flock to other browsers, then surely this if for the greater good?

Adobe declares 'LOVE' for Apple

Adobe... open?

Okay, so Adobe's criticism of Apple might be spot on, but then I find it a bit hypocritical to advertise slogans like "We Love Open".

If they loved open so much, would there have been a need for GIMP and Free PDF Creator? And where can I download my open version of Adobe Flash?

Scots killer posted Bebo updates from behind bars

OMG!

He still uses Bebo? Everyone knows it's all about Facebook now...

Users' passwords exposed by Splunk

Clear text passwords....

... they obviously deserve everything they get.

Google Street View logs WiFi networks, Mac addresses

Not the same

Guessing your location based on where they think your ISP is located (typically an incorrect guess for most consumers who have dynamic IP's) and logging a record of your equipments MAC addresses are two completely different things.

I guess with this type of information not only are they building records of where around the country has high concentrations of wifi (so they can show this in google maps), but also information like what router manufactorers are used where etc.

A multitasking iPad? Let's bin the netbook

Looks nice and a pleasure to use

But so is my iPhone... if I'm paying that much for a device, think I'd rather wait for the HP Slate and pay a similar price for a similar device, but with flash support (I like the thought of being able to watch streaming episodes of 24 and southpark rather than buying this stuff from itunes), and also a two way cam so using skype will be fun. There's two features you know wont be available in iThings OS 5.

Home Sec says 17m ID cards in circulation by 2017

Facebook

They've already started targeting the young...

This ad http://img715.imageshack.us/img715/1977/idcards.png

points to http://idsmart.direct.gov.uk/index.html

Apple yanks Wi-Fi detectors from iTunes

I've already downloaded said apps...

... they're useful and was surprised to see them in the first place. They can see and connect to weaker wifi ap's that the built in software doesn't see.

Austrian army cans Benny Hill recruitment ad

yep...

Haha, that's what I was about to say.

Virgin Media battles privacy campaigners on P2P monitoring

Encrypted bittorrent...

Check 'encryption required' and shazam, Virgin just wasted a lot of money. That's why this anonymous DPI device doesn't bother me too much (but yes, where does it stop...)

Honestly though, when all the theatrics of DPI, the Digital Econemy Bill etc. are over, do you really see illeagle file sharing being hugely affected? Encrypted VPN's, IRC, and of course new emerging technologies will of course make sure freetards are always a step ahead. Which suits me perfectly.

Calm down dear, It's only a commercial...

Privacy furore forces partial climb-down from Facebook

Profile Picture

I don't like that I can no longer hide my profile picture from non-friends. No more pics of me out of my face as my profile picture I guess...

Mozilla man sends Firefoxers to Microsoft Bing

I like...

ta much

agreed

I tried IxQuick for a week a while back. I like the thought of pushing for these levels of privacy and ethics online. The reason I decided to go back to Google was simple: looks cleaner, better results.

That said, how fantastic would it be if Mozilla did make IxQuick a default search page? If more people use it, it can only get better, grab competition from Google and maybe demonstrate some values to the big players. Making Bing a default search? Is that not like choosing one devil over another... maybe good for encouraging competition though...

Maybe Google was an appropriate search engine for Mozilla in 2002, but surely it's time to accept that Google has evolved into an evil do-er, and open source shouldn't side with evil.

Troll doll... love it's purple hair.

Turkish filters block Reg commentards

Agree with Omer

So you have the audacity to say: "...at least you don't live in Turkey."

...and yet we don't know for sure if the blockage was Government sanctioned. So when exactly did Rupert Murdoch buy this site? This type of 'lacks research, lacks objectivity' reporting is something I'd expect to see on Fox News, not The Register.

And since when has 'living in the UK' been something worth being superiour over, If I'm not mistaken we did block some Wikipedia pages at one point. And archive.org

Not a good article...

Demon splurges details of 3,600 customers in billing email

Shocked but not surprised....

... since a few months ag they sent me someone elses Invoice details by mistake.

I'd like to get a hold of this CSV file to see if I'm on it or not.

Wacky Jacqui defends Michael Savage ban

Yeah but no....

I agree with WJ - which is probably the first and last time - but it's ashame the UK can't maintain the same moral standards when the Saudi royal family visit....

Pirate Bay judge and pro-copyright lobbyist accused of bias

This trial will not change anything...

Whilst the outcome of the trial doesn't really matter - as long as Google and the rest aren't forced to go all China on our asses - I do hope there is a retrial and TBP wins.

Since piracy 'is linked to terrorism' and our home secretary is a raging lunatic, I wonder how I can keep downloading for.....

Joke.... because piracy is no laughing matter.

Etailer flogs signed Jade Goody biog for £1,000

I've noticed...

... that they've changed the donation to 100% instead of £500.

Facebook-based privacy campaign to spam Wacky Jacqui

ROTFLMFAO!

CC your email to Wacky Jacqui day - love it. Would be nice if it was a continuous thing.

No military mobile bill-waiver from O2 and Virgin

Quite right too (o2)

Why should they get special treatment. It's not o2's fault if someone signs a contract then goes to war.

I can't cancel my contract with 3 (usb modem) and I can't get a signal - I don't hear el reg making a big song and dance about it (feel free).

Take a hammer to your hard drive, shrieks Which?

The only safe way...

1) Use DBAN

2) Destroy with hammer

3) Bury remains in a remote location

Password guessing attack exposed in Twitter pwn

even in far less...

hahaha... I see that Dave has just said pretty much what I was going to say... If you got in to someone elses Gmail and did a search for 'password' you'd probably get twitter credentials etc. given to you on a plate...if not, next step 'i've forgot my password' :)

Leeds Council loses kids details

Is another loss of info needed to help convince the rest that ID cards are not a good idea?

... every little helps!

Brit ISPs censor Wikipedia over 'child porn' album cover

Ethical ISP

There are plenty of ISP review sites, but it would be nice is if review sites also considered how ethical ISP's are.... Policies on phorm, censorship, how green they are...