Posts by EnricoSuarve

Canon makes 'all-in-one' printers that refuse to scan when out of ink, lawsuit claims

Re: Standard Industry Malpractice?

Currently sat looking at an Epson-3520 with the exact same problem as in the article - it thinks it has run out of cyan so will not do anything including scan.

Actually it is displaying 'cartridge not recognised' despite having already half emptied it over the last few months.

If I could replace it with something reliable that had cheap ink, the functionality I want and just worked I would; thing is who makes one? Printer before was an HP and threw a hissy fit if it even looked at an alternative ink cartridge...

D'oh! Amber Rudd meant 'understand hashing', not 'hashtags'

I deliberately spoiled my ballot paper a few years ago in the first police crime commisioner election in our area. I even went to the trouble of writing why, and the way the lack of any real information what this new role was for perverted the democratic process.

I found out next day that even though it was spoilt, my vote and thousands like it were counted in the turnout figures and being used to justify the whole farce. PS even with what I believe were record levels of spoiling we still had a record low 'turnout'

So no. Vote spoiling does not work - your vote will be willfully misinterpreted to the benefit of whatever the powers that be want.

Someone else on this thread had mentioned a 'None of the above' option - that is definitely what is required. RIP Richard Pryor I'd vote for you!

Microsoft introduces warning on child abuse image searches

Re: It's the least they can do

Because the reason paedos access it is that they didn't already know this right? Thankfully the government stepped in quickly using the same technical know-how and understanding which they used to stop online cookies tracking our every movement - yey for pop-ups, the criminals must be shitting themselves.

Apple admits scareware problem, at last

Yes "at last"

The keywords in both your replies were "oh yes here's a problem" which is what was missing beforehand so yes "at last".

Israel and US fingered for Stuxnet attack on Iran

At first I thought you were enlightened

"yet we have some folks in this forum that wholeheartedly and deludedly think that protecting the sovereignty of a State with some nasty stated intentions and objectively defined relations with terrorists will prevent a nuclear exchange. A State whose vitriolic rhetoric ought to get anyone's attention when they claim (as an oil rich country) that they need nuclear power for peaceful reasons. They think that defensive action is unnecessary and unwarranted."

I got to this point and still thought you were talking about the US - I see my mistake now, the US never actually state their evil objectives.

Awesome powers of crazy

Full marks, seriously dude I'm in awe of your l33tness ;0)

Geezer eBays 'bastardised, chaved up Skippy mobile'

foot danglin' tossers

I'm afraid he's spot on with this observation too. I use to live near a popular chav hangout and yeah, they love to park up and sit all laid back in their motors with one foot hanging out the door.

No it makes no sense to me either but apparently it makes them look hard.

Its very often the same ones that tuck their tracksuit bottoms into their socks init.

Microsoft plants Bing on Google-free Chinese Androids

Makes sense

How else do you get people to use Bing other than sign corporate agreements to have it shoved down peoples throats?

Knuckle rap for riot shield sledging coppers

We'll have no community policing here...

Since we are now reprimanding policemen for improper use of riot shields I expect we will see full public reprimands of the G20 officers who used the edges of their shields to batter down unarmed protesters from behind?

No? How odd.

Its depressing that a group of coppers actually showing a human side are reprimanded with far more speed than officers who beat up or even kill civilians. Good on this lot - nice to know there are still some human beings inside those uniforms.

Hacker pilfers browser GPS location via router attack

be afraid

That's because that's where all your communications are being fed via by the guys with the copters

Congressmen steam over Wikileaks TSA breach

US not terrorists, just a different sort of evil

@ K.Adams

Do we get to mention Fallujah as well, or was that like all in the past and a totally justified series of war crimes, because it was the good guys doing bad things instead of the bad guys doing bad things?

As for "Makes no attempt to distinguish between civilian and military targets and to reduce collateral damage:" do you mean in general or specific circumstances? Is this the point where we forget seeing all the youTube footage of the forces of good shooting random civilian vehicles, and the multiple massacres of civilians involving Blackwater? (Nusoor Square being one of my favourites)

Ooo - ooo can we add a few new yes/no's? can we? can we?

"Hires mercenaries and bounty hunters to do its dirty work - Yes/No?"

"Abuses legal systems to allow its contractors to rape its female soldiers with impunity - Yes/No?"

"Systematically tortures suspects - Yes/No?"

"Sells arms to shady militias and terrorist organisations all over the world - Yes/No?"

"Uses force of arms to secure other countries' oil against their wishes - Yes/No?"

On reflection I believe you may be correct about the technical term of terrorist not applying to the USA, as I'm not convinced a state can ever be a terrorist organisation. Mind you the same logic would state that the Taliban would also not have been a terrorist organisation when they were in control of Afghanistan, but I guess you need to have it both ways right?

Can we agree however that yes, the USA is indeed in the habit of running around murdering innocent people (unless you consider them guilty of having tan skin and living in a country with oil or that needs an oil pipeline).

Love ‘cos you need it, you know you do, oh stop being such a baby and come here for a cuddle.

Gov net disconnections could breach EU law

Thanks god for copyright

You're right - praise y9our entity of choice for copyright and patents, as without them we'd never have had Beethoven, Shakespeare, the wheel or the aeroplane

Except that's wrong isn't it?

Everyone should damn well get an IT qualification

So reading between the lines according to the mouthpiece for BIS basically everyone, everywhere in the UK should:

a) upgrade to a WiFi router capable of being secured beyond WEP

b) discard and replace any PC or devices only capable of using WEP

c) educate themselves to the point where they understand exactly how to secure their network properly (to a standard presumably defined by said mouthpiece)

d) purchase equipment capable of monitoring and logging any traffic on their network to help them prove their innocence (as everyone obviously starts off guilty)

e) get a qualification in network security to manage the above equipment

I'd be interested to know if the mouthpiece himself knows how to do any of the above. I'd also be interested in knowing who decided that Hollywood, the same people who seem incapable of securing their own data prior to release, get to set the standards for everyone else?

On the other hand perhaps the studios and the music industry could fund all the above from their record profits this year? Just a thought.

'Black box for buses' datachip survives 900° conflag

It'll still fail

If the bus blown up in the London bombings was any indication, the cameras will be turned off beforehand anyway.

Its a shame the terrists always seem to be able to turn them off in advance otherwise they might be useful.

UK.gov rejects calls to open up on ContactPoint security

Nothing to hide

Just guessing but the "nothing to hide nothing to fear" crowd won't be participating in this conversation right?

Thought not - probably too busy on other threads reassuring us about how government databases are always secure, well managed and that we should welcome our data obsessed overlords.

Beer cos this government are fast driving me to it, it's become the only thing that makes teh stupids go quiet for a little while.

Can the UK have its identity strategy back, Mr President?

Re: Are we really in a position to decide?

"The ID database and ID card is a European project and not a British one. I doubt we are in a position to decide which system to pick. The database will be EU-wide and therefore it'll be a single system."

The best lies always have some element of the truth in them and that's why the one above, which I have no doubt you honestly believe, is swallowed by so many.

Yes the EU has put forward directives on the standards for any such databases and cards, but at no point has it ever said "you must have one". Most of the directives are more akin to technical standards documents than they are to policy ones. i.e. "all travel documents must be readable by this system" not "all travel documents must include DNA and a photo of the traveller bending over".

The British government has chosen to enforce these directives in the most draconian way possible then blamed the EU, they do this a lot (it beats telling your electorate "we have decided we own you"). Another example of this sort of thing would be the EU Directive to spy on citizens internet traffic, while our politicians tell us "it's all the evil EU", guess whose presidency it was introduced under and which government pressed for it to be passed? Our lapdog in chief Mr Tony Blair's that's who.

Don't get me wrong, I have no particular love of the EU and it's bureaucracy either - the simple fact remains that this sort of crap should not be *able* to make it into EU law, but it pisses me off that out leaders use it to push unpopular policy down our throats all the time and no one calls them out for it.

Swindon council promises townsfolk free Wi-Fi XTC

3 Strikes and they're out!!!

If Mandelsson and chums get their way exactly how long is it going to take to have the entire of Swindon kicked off the internet for downloading?

My bet is not very...

TalkTalk to fight net disconnection plan

Thank god at least one ISP still has some balls

This stance and their general attitude to issues like this is one of the main reasons I chose TalkTalk.

It's utterly ridiculous that the government insists one industry pay the price to police another, and continue to put forward plans to circumvent legal due process for their mates.

What do Scotland, Australia and Africa have in common?

Scotland needs UC?

I thought they invented it, along with TVs, radio, the internet, and pyramids?

Mines the one thats invented in Scotland, apparently

Boffins demo 'through-walls' people tracker

Meanwhile in other news...

During a tense hostage situation, police in Sacramento County today irradiated 15 civilians when they set their RTI transmitters to ‘simmer’. One particularly distressed old-timer objected strongly to the use of the new tech, stating “My heart pacemaker ticker-me-bob’s all skittery now.”

Officers have declined to comment as to why they did not just talk to disgruntled postal worker Chuck Davies who had armed himself with a toasting fork earlier in the day; although it is widely believed they had become bored of “tazing bro’s” and according to eye witnesses were like “kids with a new toy.”

Davies is currently awaiting questioning in County Memorial Hospital recovering from multiple gun shots, taser burns and cooked gonads.

UK Border Agency suspends 'flawed' asylum DNA testing

Greedy boffins

"what I would like to know is which scientists told them to do this!"

Probably the same ones advising the home office that flat finger printing and iris scanning are sensible ways to identify human cattle on their ID tags http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4580447.stm

i.e. the ones who will say anything for a few quid

Sky News election petition defaced by prankster hackers

I've a better idea

Way more entertaining - just keep chanting

"Three men enter, one man leaves

Three men enter, one man leaves

Three men enter, one man leaves"

EU urges wise-up to combat rampant ATM crime

Re: Comments.... 7th 16:00

[...drop the magstripe, but it is needed for fallback as certain countries ...don't use chip'n'pin and our cards won't work over there and theirs won't work over here...]

True but surely it makes more sense to offer people the option of a card that does not have a magnetic strip? I can't remember the last time I went to a country that really needed it, and I'd be happy to check if I needed to get a separate 'compatibility' card before going abroad

There is no evidence that a c&p terminal has been sucessfully hacked.

http://software.silicon.com/security/0,39024655,39165665,00.htm

* http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7557956.stm

http://www.silicon.com/financialservices/0,3800010322,39170202,00.htm

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~mkb23/interceptor/

* http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1021124/chip-pin-hack-exposed

The ones starred are in my opinion the most interesting

...Obtaining money remotely from a contactless card would be potentially possible, but you kind of have to be a m[e]rchant, so you're not going to get away with it...

Nope - It just makes the crime a little bit more complex, but that will just put off fraudsters who don't have the ability to create dummy companies, shell accounts and forward money to offshore banks. Plenty of crimes already involve such frauds, this will just potentially add to the list.

...Please stop banging on about c&p being a banking conspiracy to make the customer pay, would you rather have rampant fraud being paid for by you, the customer, or have the bank do something about it. There is no evidence that any attack on c&p has worked outside of a lab setting without the customer having handed over their pin in one way or another...

Firstly - see above (especially the comment attributed to Det Ch Insp John Folan, of the Dedicated Cheque and Plastic Crime Unit [chip and pin terminals that have been hacked into have been found in 30 shops in the UK]).

Secondly - In my experience the rampant fraud IS being paid for by the customer, in most cases I have heard of the victim of fraud (the customer) is basically told - 'our systems are perfect, chip and pin is perfect, therefore you are to blame, pay up'. The systems they are implementing, chip and pin, verified by visa etc are flawed and poorly implemented; they all have one thing in common, however - they put the onus of security and proof of fraud on the victim (the customer), more than one person was involved in the decision to do this so by definition it’s a conspiracy.

Thirdly - Make me ;)

Still fail I'm afraid

Aren't they missing something?

The sheer number of systems in use at shops and the fact that people have become used to the "hang on the chip thingy doesn't always work I'll just put it in this reader, nope that didn't work, ah that did, now type your pin in there while I'm watching and in the presence of this security camera" conversation

OK, the last bit isn't usually spoken out loud but the above multiple reader scenario happens so often (even at my local B&Q so not just small shops), that to skim a mag strip at a shop and record the associated pin would be a negligable exercise for a fraudster and probably is

Thats without even going on about the C&P terminals that actually HAVE been hacked!

They designed a system that would be cheap to maintain for them and focussed on ways of putting the blame on the consumer rather than concetrating on obvious actual security improvements such as removing mag strips, seperating out ATM and shop pins, using pattern rather than number based pins etc. Hell when C&P first came out even the little bit of plastic to hide your hand was too much for them to bother with (although it'd been a standard feature in Europe for years)

Now the system has backfired on them and we are supposed to care about the banks?

Not likely

I can't wait for the first Barclaycard contactless cards to get hacked from a distance just so I can piss myself laughing at anyone who accepted one

Anti-virus forgetfulness fubars Fox forecast

Locally managed AV?

I don't work with Norton (thank god) but that looks like a locally managed installation to me, so Fox and their pals trust their employees to manage the AV?

Self medication would explain Bill O'Reilly so I can see how that might indeed be a policy, either way if this is the case - Epic fail!!

@AC 20th 15:13 - It's all trooo, panic!! I failed to fill in form DW1827/b in time and they executed my grandma; my Dad is still in hiding since we filled in his 'I want to live' form with a spelling mistake, and he's not sure if it registered correctly as a result.

Damned bureaucracy.

Virus arms race primes malware numbers surge

Wrong approach?

If Panda's stats are anything like reliable (I tend to agree with the good Dr. Vesselin Bontchev that they may be a little massaged) then we're already at the stage where we need to consider that the current AV approach is ready for the bin

Currently companies are trying to catalog 'baddies', this was fine in the 80s and 90s when the number of baddies was so small, it got progressively worse to the point we are at today when thousands of new baddies appear a day. I already need to upgrade my PC just to keep up to date with the new anti virus (same OS), and I know I'm not the only person who unplugs his network cable and disables the AV during certain operations just so I can remember the day when a few gigahertz was an impressive speed

We need some sort of quantum shift in behavioural scanners and firewalls but something capable of warning in english instead of the usual "[neverheardofit.dll] is accessing IP [havent.got.a.clue] using port [who cares]" type of messages which my mum (and subsequently me) really appreciate

When I read Panda's terror message I don't think "Oooh Oooh I must buy Panda" I think they are admitting their impending doom

Scareware package mimics Windows Blue Screen of Death

What a waste

Here was me hoping that the stop code would be something appropriate (possibly linked to joystick failure…)

Turns out its much more dull

STOP Error 0x0000006B: PROCESS1_INITIALIZATION_FAILED

STOP error 0x6B means that the initialization of the Microsoft Windows operating system failed. STOP code 0x0000006B may also display "PROCESS1_INITIALIZATION_FAILED" on the same STOP message.

How dull and what a wasted opportunity in my opinion

Mmmm mental note - need a hobby

BT brings jobs back from India

Someone remind me why

I'm supposed to give a f### what BT are doing?

Frankly since all the past changes they made were supposed to *increase* customer service, I don't even want to consider what a change that is not supposed to touch it will do, can they really get any worse?

I personally wish BT would remove the B from their name - I work for a global company and it's embarassing that other countries might associate BT with general British cluelessness

At a corporate level BT proactive line monitoring seems to consist of "call us and we'll tell you if the line is down", and at a home broadband level their support consists of "you can't get the 1Mbs speed you pay for as it is an out of date service - to get the speed you pay for you need to upgrade to 8Mbs and sign an 18month contract, at which point we'll be able to give you 3Mbs"

My customer and I both left BT a long time ago and since then my life has been a lot easier

Smiley cos now I get to speak to someone who speaks the same language, understands how routers actually work and just fixes the issue instead of looking for reasons it's not his problem or coming up with some random bullshit

Spooks' favourite IT firm tells Reg readers to grow up

BAE

Y'see its not the people we irresponsibly arm the world over...

It's where they keep putting the bullets, bombs and missiles...

MPs shown 'email evidence' of wider NotW snooping

Odd Priorities

As far as I am aware it was also uncovered that the NoTW gossip gang were also gaining illegal access to peoples bank accounts, DVLA records, tax records and police records (to name a few)

Since these are a lot more serious and a few of which carry very specific criminal penalties of their own, my question is obviously "why all the fuss about a few voicemails?"

Seriously - it seems an example of very odd priorities when 'hacking' a voicemail, which lets face it usually just involves knowing a 4 digit pin is taken more seriously than gaining illegal access to police files

Or is it just me and recordings of "I'm stuck in traffic back in 30 - bye" *are* more important, why did no one tell me? I'd have rehearsed my last few message better

McKinnon faces final appeal against extradition

I've GOT IT!!

Put him in an orange jumpsuit and shackle him, tell the US he's been held for the last few years without trial as a terrorist

They'll shit themselves at airport security and never allow him in - worst case he ends up with a house in Barbados

Job done - Pub methinks

Moderatrix to gain even more sinister powers

Re: Re: But who will Moderatrix the Moderatrix?

Oh - I stand corrected, it was just a feeling I had that way, way back it had happened - apparently my paranoia is really taking over, bummer

I get that some people really ARE trolls and have no problems with a site saying "nope you don't get to say that here",it's the online equivalent of "management reserves the right to refuse entry". If people genuinely are getting bounced all the time from a site for minor faux pas' (however you pluralise that), then they are just going to quit with the site, and rightly so; there are several sites I very rarely even bother visiting anymore as I know from experience the comments are so heavily moderated that what you end up reading is no longer a representative cross section of opinions, newspapers seem especially bad at this.

That's bad enough, but the idea that loads of sites are going to club together to moderate will just put people off (certainly puts me off). Before ever posting anything you'll be sat wondering "Is this site likely to mark me as a Troll for this based on their own agenda?", "Is this going to cause problems for me on other sites?", "ooh I better not...", and before you know it you are no longer contributing to a discussion for fear of wider repurcussions

Reduce people's ability or desire to be involved and you lose a major reason to visit some site

s, leading to a potential downward trend in visitors. I'd say implementing this system would be a risk rather than a benefit to most sites, if you are going to implement you are probably already moderating anyway - why would you want to effectivly outsource your moderation to other people who potentially have their own agendas?

Right enough of this - I'm off to another site to call someone a c**t

But who will Moderatrix the Moderatrix?

Oooh I just gave me funny chills! (don't tell the wife)

But seriously, finally someone who can pwotect me fwom all the nasty peoples. Don't be mean or we'll brand you "Stinky-head poo-pants". You gotta all be's nice or I'll tell the moderator

I can just imagine what the people who came up with this were like at school...

And anyway who says that the moderators of another site match your values? How seriously do you take a black mark from say the Mary Whitehouse appreciation society blog? I've banged heads with plenty of people over the years who take any form of dissent as trolling

This is one of the only sites I ever post on where virtually all my comments have been approved (except, I think one, but that was probably deserved)

Beer for Ms. Bee - rather you than me checking my drivel or the performance art that is amanfrommars ;0)

'Non-compulsory' ID cards poised for a makeover?

@AC "compulsory database"

..." it is possible to search an entire country's population in a few seconds and find the matching ID. So it doesn't matter if you carry a physical card or not - if your biometric is in the database, then you're already carrying your card."...

Since you ask actually no, it's not like that at all. DNA, Iris and Fingerprint do not work in real life like they do in say CSI at all.

When IPS ran tests to fingerprint people for the new passports a sizable percentage did not work at all, the data gathered was not good enough to prove ID as people’s finger prints do change slightly over time and from day to day. The older you get for example the less clear your fingerprints become. Fingerprints 'work' for crimes (even in criminal law there are documented cases of people just happening to have similar prints), but they only 'work' as well as they do because you have highly trained people manually checking them...

Iris is hopeless; I don't know if you ever stood in line at Heathrow and watched the Iris machines? I have, and the only reason they are faster is so few people use them in my experience - I regularly see people having several attempts to get the thing to recognise them, and occasionally having to resort to the manual 'join the queue' option anyway - I don’t know the reason for this but according to magazine articles a few years ago they had a problem with bloodshot eyes, tired eyes and brown eyes (warning: a pinch of salt may be required there)

DNA checks are perhaps the biggest fallacy here - they are widely believed to be unique per person (since your DNA is) and you are widely supposed to be able to take a blood sample and from this and a DNA library get straight to the killer... Not in real life, in real life your entire DNA sequence is not stored (it's huge). Instead they only store representative markers, small snapshots of certain areas of your DNA, of which I believe there are only 1million possible combinations. That's if the DNA sample is perfect, the sun is shining and everything goes perfectly. In reality it’s a chemical process and you get less reliability

So even if you did give your perfect DNA sample, have it perfectly analyzed and stored and have it perfectly matched it would still only narrow you down to 1 in 60 people in the UK population

Anyway that was a bit more than I was intending to type but that's why cards are still required - it’s also why the idea of using biometrics on a database to solve crimes is a dangerous fallacy at best

Hope it helps

Conficker left Manchester unable to issue traffic tickets

@Tom 13

I've worked with quite a few customer with various legacy NT apps etc that needed to run as administrator and often you find that actually they don't need to run as the actual administrator, they just need increased access to one or more areas of the hard disk; manually increasing the users access to these areas or files often resolves the problem without needing to go for a full blown admin account

If this doesn't work the easiest way to get around software which really needs to run as the administrator is to create shortcuts to it using the runas command http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb490813.aspx

Neither solution is perfect but one usually does the job - hope they help if you're having this problem

Either way, having some pieces of software which need admins access so giving ALL users admin access and not locking down autorun on USB sticks is pretty poor (No Iain Thomas you don't need to fully disable the USB ports, you could even fully disable USB Thumb drives and still allow mice and keyboards to work)

I wonder if this level of council IT fail is why Manchester was selected for the ID card treatment? Presumably Jacqui waved the magic piece of plastic in front of the council chiefs' faces and was satisfied by the general response "ooh... shiny"

Masked passwords must go

Chicken or Egg?

Is shoulder surfing a phantom problem because no one ever did it or (more likely) is it a phantom problem as everyone knows passwords are masked so there's no point? If you removed this valuable default rule shoulder surfing would once again rise as there would be a point to it again

I manage IT support for a large corporation, in our office environment we make extensive use of remote desktop takeover. Frequently users need to input passwords into apps and internet dialogs while my agents are connected to their screens at present they can do so without fear of giving away their passwords (which as others have pointed out many people recycle endlessly). I'd rather they stayed masked out thanks - I'd rather not have the liability of my agents knowing users passwords

OK that's not a huge concern to most but it is an example of where the present setup really helps us

I agree that password masking can sometimes be annoying, especially when you're using someone else’s IT and you're not 100% sure the keyboard is set up correctly and sometimes I do copy and paste my password from a notepad session just to be sure I am getting it right, so perhaps an OPTION to one time disable masking on some sites might be nice (with a warning to check over your shoulder); but seriously? remove it altogether? except for sites where "security needs to win" as teacake above quite rightly points out the discrepancy in the authors statement

Utter balls - I can only assume Bruce was having an off day

On another note other security experts have advocated leaving your keys in the ignition when you leave your car, as otherwise it can be very inconvenient if you forget where you put them and very few car thieves currently use the 'ooh look keys in the ignition' method

FTC settles with scareware scammers on reduced terms

Great News

Anyone want ot join me writing the next "Oooh Noos your PC is gonna go bang" application?

Apparently as long as we budget 10% to pay off the courts we'll be fine and that still leaves a massive margin for profit and win

Ryanair requires web check-in, shuts down website

And this is just the stuff you can SEE...

OK so it's official then we (nearly) all detest Eire o' Flot (hat tip AC) for their attitude towards their customers and staff, and the way they will do anything to shave off a buck or increase yet another additional 'optional' extra

They've even brought down their only means of making money for 10hours presumably so they could save a few quid on having to use redundant systems etc right in their customers face - boy are they serious about saving money or what?!

My point is - what about the savings you can't see, like does the guy who checks the wheel nuts are tight, that the fuel gauge is correct and that the crazy glue on the wings has set properly still do his job?

When their planes nose dive into the ground will we be told this was because the passengers didn't pay the hidden 'optional' mechanical check surcharge?

Millions opted into UK mobile phone directory

4 year old data

2 years is nothing - my name is relativly distinctive, I tired my 'new' address - no joy. I then tried my old address from over 4 years ago and it 'found' me

I pity the people who live there if they are still getting junk mail for me although oddly I've never got much

Also I treat my mobile number extremely cautiously and am very careful about ticking or not ticking the appropriate box - bastard marketing companies

Like the late, great comedian Bill Hicks once said "If there's any sales or marketing people in the audience, kill yourselves. No seriously, kill yourselves, this isn't a joke - do the world a favour and kill yourselves" (I am paraphrasing slightly)

Paris cos [insert lame reason for paris icon here]

Cyber attack could bring US military response

@AC @Patrick

So that would be the article about a criminal gang in Birmingham manually swapping Chip & Pin readers with their own altered ones and that does not mention how they get hold of the data swiped (although I would guess they swap the units back and it's stored on the dodgy unit itself)

It would also be the article which does not mention Pakistan or China?

Hint - Birmingham != Pakistan

Europe calls for rules on RFID chips

Not if this goverment has anything to say

Jacqui Smith cornered outside her main residence, a small B&B in Westminster run by her cousin's brother's dog, stated to journalists this morning, "This changes nothing - as with the DNA database our government will completely ignore Brussels, the plan to tag, bag and control the peons goes on as before, a-ha, a-hah-hah, a-ha-ha-MU-Har!!!", before a minder assisted her into her waiting hearse

Which brings me to another topic - why are we supposed to fear losing sovereignty to Brussels? It sure seems that most of the legislation that actually protects our liberties (or at least tries to) is originating from there at the moment. I'm more worried about what damage Brown and his crew can do with their remaining powers

Rather than devolve away from Brussels, can we devolve Westminster away from the rest of the UK?

Microsoft retires AutoRun (kinda, sorta)

Disbable it everywhere

Why differentiate between optical devices, network devices, local devices and USB?

Malware writers don't

Disable Autorun on all devices regardless of type. Network drive autorun remains a favourite way for malware to spread over a network and USB is obviously hammered on a daily basis. I absolutely guarentee that if you leave in optical devices these will get exploited as well (OK a lot less of a threat but still a threat)

As for the "usability" aspect... If you need autorun to make your computer usable You. Should. Not. Be. Using. One

Technical icon because although this isn't technical at all apparently it is too technical for some!

Hire your very own Fred the Shred

The cheaper option..

Alternativly for 10$ per drive this bloke will come with his blender

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qg1ckCkm8YI&feature=related

I wonder if any of them recycle the scrap?

Turks hijack Kiwi MSN via DNS cracks

@Daniel

Thanks for the reality check - I thought there was something else going on and someone had invented a whole new attack while my back was turned!!

Was it actually Hijacked?

Not wanting to be all picky and get into semantics for the sake of it but was the page actually hacked or was it just that the DNS was poisoned and requests for all or part of the page redirected to a spurious server?

From reading the article it sounds like the latter

I know I'm going to be wrong and flamed to hell and back but I can take it - does anyone have any good info on how DNS poisoning allows for 'proper' hacking of a 3rd party website? I've seen various articles that mention 'hijacking' but usually they are just rerouting requests rather than actually altering the original

Rail union ballots for strike over fingerprints

@RW & DR

RW - exactly what I was alluding to in my post, treat your staff like crap , pay them peanuts and expect your chickens to come home some day...

DR - Actually yes, for a few years while I was in college (the hours fit my studies great). I admit that it wasn't the job I would choose long term (I'm not a particularly tidy person so it was kind of unnatural!), but there were several people who worked there who had been doing it for years and saw nothing wrong with it as a long term job (neither do I - just not for me). The bank & agency I worked for treated us well and the pay was OK so turnover was low, most of us stayed long enough to get well known and our supervisors would definitely have spotted Mohammed Nukem coming

I stand by my conviction that high staff turnover nearly always equals poor pay and conditions - you pay the right wage and treat people well enough and you get to pick the ones who will stay. I know they exist - the cleaner at my present company has been there longer than most of the office staff; although she is one of the odd ones who genuinely likes cleaning, she's compulsive - it drives her husband nuts apparently

The truly abhorrant thing is..

How dehumanised has this company become?

What they are basically saying is - "we care so little about who does the cleaning we couldn't identify them if we tried, so we'll get a computer to do it for us"

How hard is it to know who you are employing? If your staff retention is really so poor that this is impossible then you have a larger problem than not being able to identify people

All in all this is yet another example of trying to use computers as a replacement for doing the job thoroughly in the first place, which rather than making the whole thing more secure just introduces new ways of it going wrong. There is no replacement for happy motivated staff who recognise one another and would actually spot the suspicious guy they've never seen before; relegating it all to a little black box means that people will live under a false sense of security. Meanwhile Osama Bin Bombin' is climbing over the fence, digging under the wall or borrowing someones thumbs to get on board your train...

"Who's he?"

"Dunno but he's got past the fingerprint scanner so he must be OK"

boOM!!!

This is the physical security equivalent of the password that is so horrendously complex you HAVE to write it down - it gives everyone a cosy feeling of invulnerability whilst actually making the entire setup less secure

Researchers dissect world's first Mac botnet

b..b..but it's a twojan

<i>"The Symantec research comes amid reports of a series of unpatched, actively-exploited holes in OS X"</i>

Just guessing here but all you macbois above preaching that "no no no this was a trojan so it doesn't count" convieniently bypassed that bit?

So your original argument that Macs couldn't be hacked "cos they is l33t" turns out to be wrong

Now trojans don't count - call me crazy but I bet they count on a PC or a Linux box right?

So because this malware writer *chose* to write a trojan instead of exploiting a vulnerability you are still OK?

Thats genius level problem ignoring skills you've got going on there - you bois would still manage to shove your heads in the sand in the middle of a frikking ocean

B..b..b..but it's a mac so it doesn't count right?

I can see the adverts now...

"I'm a mac and until now there weren't enough of us for anyone to give a shit about hacking us"

"I'm a mac and I just found out it hurts in general population"

flame on kids...flame on ;0)

No charges for terror arrest Tory

Yey CPS, Yey Judges, Yey justice

'Course it'll be a short lived victory as Jacqui and her stasi will probably just infiltrate them next

If I worked for the home office and I found major problems which my bosses refused to correct or were complicit in I cannot think of a better person to alert than an elected member of parliament, surely that should be the BEST escalation possible...

Jacqui is bound to call it "leaking" and lie a bit to get you arrested but what else is new? I'm just suprised they didn't say the pair of them were wearing bulky jackets, vaulting turnstiles, throwing bricks or at least members of Al-Quaeda (must have been an off-day)

Seriously how many times does a home secretary have to be caught lying, cheating and abusing power before we get to throw her in her own cell?

Obama's DoJ defends Bush-era wiretaps

No one saw this one coming? Serious?

It was bad when you did it and the laws you enacted to help you were all bad. However, now that it is us and they help us they are all good

We will not prosecute you for laws you broke whilst in power cos we intend to break a few and that sort of thing could get messy later on

Obama - change you can believe in. They changed president, I believe that, I can see it, they even changed his colour

As for the rest - that wasn't the bit being changed

This isn't an American thing - it's a western democracy thing. My prediction is in a little under 2 years time (June 2010 plus honeymoon period) people will look at Cameron and state "How did that happen? He seemed like such a nice young man..."

Obama = Blair with a tan

Black helicopter cos I just like it - this isn't a conspiracy, it's western politics working exactly as designed - it's an undocumented feature