Posts by Knoydart

It's that time of the year again: The trinity of infosec conferences

Re: poker machines,

Free Pen test for the venues! The house kind of wins none the less

Hostile networks??

Sorry but burner devices at Defcon is prob year 2000 advice. Juice jacking is not a thing despite various (US) government advice, and if your device is fully patched, its not likely someone is going to drop a zero day on you unless you are really really important (and go you for reading El Reg). Having been a couple times pre Rona, it was worth it as I was somewhere in the vicinity, esp the villages where you get to meet like mindeds. Linecon for some of the bigger rooms is very much a thing and if you are an introvert, be warned!

Viasat spills on the Russian attack, warns of continued risks

Re: where did they get spares....

Maybe they shifted stock from new customers, to existing customers with their bricked devices?

If your apps or gadgets break down on Sunday, this may be why: Gpsd bug to roll back clocks to 2002

GNSS is not just GPS

Just to note that GPS is one "brand' of GNSS, other constellations do exist for your PNT requirements

Up from the depths, 864 servers inside, covered in slime, it's Natick!

Computing containers under the sea

Well that's a whole new take on (shipping) containers and the cloud.

So you really didn't touch the settings at all, huh? Well, this print-out from my secret backup says otherwise

Re: Load?

here in NZ, one of the engineering firms has a bank of 2kw fan heaters afaik. Wired up so you can have up to 200kw of load for your UPS, genny etc

Flames, because it gets a little warm

There's Norway you're going to believe this: Government investment fund conned out of $10m in cyber-attack

Subs missing a trick

Surely this was a fjordulent transaction?

Hardangervidda I'll get my coat

Sod 3G, that can go, but don't rush to turn off 2G, UK still needs it – report

Simultaneous 2G and 4G carriers

Some of the equipment vendors offer simultaneous 2G and 4G services in one block of spectrum. The reality is that for M2M connections, only a small number of 2G carries are required, as your smart meter or other connected systems only have to phone home once or twice a day. Here in NZ, there is only one operator left running a commercial 2G and I think that will run until around 2025 when their existing M2M contracts expire. My guess is that they will shut down public facing 2G connections however few years before, as the number of non 4G phones dwindles to a tiny amount, and they (somewhat cynically) just have to mop up the handful of users who rely on it by throwing a bit of cash or hard luck at the 2G punters.

As long as there's fibre somewhere along the line, High Court judge reckons it's fine to flog it as 'fibre' broadband

New Zealand says otherwise

Here in NZ, the competition regulator (after a number of public complaints of mis-selling) has opened a case against the local organ of Vodafone. Basically they went down the line of their HFC product being rebranded "fibreX" to compete against FTTP (UFB is the local product name). So maybe the UK courts should have a look at the land of long white cloud instead?

Openreach to heap faster broadband on UK's media-heavy hubs

Does not Sutton Coldfield count as part of the West Midlands, or is my geography failing me?

Golly 4G whizz: Vodafone caught using Three UK's spectrum

Those fines usually go into the central government pot, and your poor spectrum regulator won't see a penny of it.

EasyJet boss says pre-Chrimbo Gatwick drone chaos cost it £15m

How to cause chaos with minimal effort

Will reporting drones near airports become the new swatting?

Oz carrier Vocus rushes cable into service following SMW-3 break

fnaar fnaar

sea-me-we he he

Waiting for 100 Mbps NBN on wireless? Errr, umm, sorry about that

Re: They got 100Mbps wireless in Iceland (country)

nbn are not launching any more satellites. They already have two above the lucky country and I believe that the business service is a new product, not a whole new bird.

Google listens to New Zealand just long enough to ignore it

Re: Never do this

We currently have an update of laws around protecting information and privacy in general. Some of the smarter people in the NZ security space are advocating for laws to match or at least complement the recently introduced GDPR European rules. Otherwise we run the risk of being a banana republic (monarchy?) in terms of trade and data protection in relation to them.

Re: Never do this

Ah local internet for local people. I guess we could cut all 3 cable systems out of here and keep it local. The irony is that most of the major CDNs are on the west Island so Scrooglee, failbook etc are served from across the ditch in any case.

Penguin as well no sheep icon

nbn™'s HFC fix will see connections tested from March to July 2018

Comments I saw elsewhere appeared to infer that the connectors used by Telstra previously didn't have a broad enough frequency response to carry the re-jigged nbn co HFC signals. As now the HFC network needs to convey both DVB-C as well as broadband required under the MTM plan.

Good like Australia, here on the east island, we kind of feel your pain, but our 85%+ ftth network is coming on nicely, so we get to read all about the nbn issues before you do.

Winter Olympics 5G isn't real 5G, says Qualcomm, that won't land until 2019

Re: Never do this

Minor point - NR means new radio, not next radio as mentioned in the article.

Intelsat and Intel reckon satellite spectrum could help with 5G's coming capacity crunch

Re: I keep telling people

You can now run a GPRS carrier (2G low speed data) among a 4G carrier with almost no impact on the 4G services. Therefore legacy smart meters and other GPRS connections can keep their low speed, rarely polled devices (eg once or twice a day for an ID, usage breakdown and checksum) going for many years to come.

Thomas the Tank Engine lobotomised by fat (remote) controller

The "robots" in New Zealand are basically remote controlled shunters with the operator riding on either on the footplate of said shunter, walking alongside the wagons or in visual range of the train. Not that remote when compared to those trains across the ditch. Think of an oversized RC car but on steel wheels and tracks.

Joint Committee on the NBN splits, as National Party member sides with opposition

Re: FTTP, reality?

Bring your (light)pipe dreams of FTTP and come move to New Zealand. FTTP to 87% of the population within the next 5 years with the UFB rollout.

A good day to bury bad news

Sounds like a repeat of a infamous comment made in the UK on Sept 11 2001.

It's the start of a long weekend in Australia, so by the time the news cycle comes back round on Tuesday, the report starts gathering dust...

Smartphone SatNavs to get centimetre-perfect GNSS receivers in 2018

What's the frequecny Kenneth?

I think you'll find that L1 is up at 1575MHz and L5 is down at 1176MHz. Therefore the high / low frequency mix you mention is not correct.

Re: Never do this

My entry level Garmin can choose which constellation (GPS or GLONASS) it uses but doesn’t seem to be able to combine them to increase accuracy.

There is work for aeronautical use on having duplicate constellations being able to be received by receivers to provide diversity of reception from different constellations but I get that GPS at the moment is the only one the American's trust for its civil aviation fleet and so on. ICAO will have a big job on their hands qualifying many of the GNSS constellations for worldwide use.

Behold, says robo-mall-cop maker: Our crime-busting dune buggy packed with spy gear

Security bot from Wall-e

When are they going to build a bot that looks like the Wall-e security bot? At least if they can't sell them to corporates, unsuspecting kids will get their parents to buy one for Christmas.

Australian telcos promise to be better NBN helpers

Bah ha ha ha

Looks like those MTM chickens are coming home to roost - well done Messrs Abbott and Turnbull. Good luck Australia with your Cu based broadband* future.

*for those of you who have copper wiring that is able to deliver more than 25Mb per second

WannaCry vanquisher Marcus Hutchins pleads not guilty to flogging banking trojan Kronos

Re: Never do this

He went to Vegas last year and no arrest, and since the Wannacry incident in May, he's been working with NCSC in the UK (the UK CERT at GCHQ) on malware. So it begs the question of why now?

Amazon.com just became a 90,000-seat Azure case study

Re: Gut feeling?

Where does the article talk about Wholefoods web presence? The article talks about staff log on, not customer eyeballs - I'm sure Amazon can set up a nice web shop for Wholefoods without too much of an issue on its AWS infrastructure.

eBay threatens to block Australians from using offshore sellers

Netflix tax

Well Netflix seem to be able to charge and collect GST from New Zealanders without too much trouble, so I'm sure they can do it for those that consume their brand of digital content on the West Island.

If only our British 4G were as good as, um, Albania's... UK.gov's telco tech report

Re: is anyone surprised?

Coverage in the underground (apart from metal bodied carriages which have large amounts of glass despite the sub surface lines being rather sub surface!) is actually difficult due to size of plant (base stations and antennas) verses tunnel space needed. Some of the higher frequencies will not even go beyond line of sight. Mix that in with 19 century tunnel geometry (sharp curves...) and its very difficult to go far. The attempt at migrating the police and other emergency services to LTE (4g) based communications below ground will be fun to watch.

Finns chilling as DDoS knocks out building control system

Re: Only a Brit could believe it's possible to be without heating for a week in the winter

That may be true (and I have relatives who are Scandinavian based so I know what a proper winter is like). Its a pretty damp country on the edges however - Central Otago is one of the drier areas in the country where as somewhere like Wellington or Dunedin may not get cold (by Scandinavian standards) but the damp defiantly makes for poor health outcomes when the houses are uninsulated and unheated.

Re: Only a Brit could believe it's possible to be without heating for a week in the winter

You've not met too many New Zealanders then. They love their uninsulated, unheated houses and this is in a country where you are in the roaring 40's and the odd storm arrives live and direct from Antarctica.

Fire, well the Finns need to warm up!

New Zealand carrier says Cu later, copper: we're giving customers a glassing instead

Well a few facts (and I'm not spark fanboi)... Spark still have something like 43% of the broadband market in NZ and thats the largest RSP (retailer) of fixed line broadband in the country.

Chorus (as one of the 4 fibre companies) are still installing their part of UFB and are on track to finish their part of the network and make streets "fibre ready". This should be by 2019 but the other fibre companies have completed their (very much smaller) builds already. So when an order comes in from a customer, there is still a bit more work to blow the fibre through the ducts and do the build on each property (be that residential or business). What Spark and UFF are doing is trying to do the final "customer build" part en mass for a street as UFF have completed their slice of the underlying UFB network around the Hamilton / Taraunga area.

Chorus have 70% of the UFB build and a lot more complicated install issues like multi dwelling units and power pole sharing problems. UFF and Northpower (two of the 3 other fibre companies) are power companies so have used their own poles to help build UFB nice and quickly for their regions of NZ.

The irony about this push from Spark is they want to migrate customers off copper (one Chorus asset that is being sweated rather nicely for the share holders) and either onto the UFB product (hello more Chorus / other fibre company income) or away from the rented infrastructure and onto their own 4G network and (I'm guessing here) even more revenue per user as no line charges for retailing the fibre product are incurred.

I think its a good thing the en mass street install. If UFF were savy and Spark agreed, they would get all the other RSPs to do the same street, so the likes of Vodafone, 2degrees and Vocus would rock up as well with their customers and migrate the whole street in one go.

Sweden axes 700MHz spectrum sale over 'national security' fears

flipping things around?

Maybe the various government agencies actually now want some 700 MHz for their own network(s), so like various bits of the Australian and South Korean administrations, they want to not sell it lock stock and barrel commercially, but carve some blocks for themselves out of the band that is proposed to be auctioned.

Must have been an awkward meeting or three to make that call (of pulling the auction), so close to start date. Popcorn sales at Ikea must be sky rocketing by now.

Digital minister Matt Hancock promises 'full fibre' eating plan for Blighty

Re: C'mon Aussie

Hey Jim,

come cross the ditch and enjoy some proper FTTP broadband aka UFB.

Regards

Those on the west Island

IBM Australia again blames ISPs for #censusfail, is also 'unreservedly' sorry

Re: Budget blowout?

Another point that I hadn't picked up on until the IBM submission was that they had a 40 hour outage at the request of the ABS. Admittedly they had 4 odd hours of downtime but the next 40 was not of their doing. Guessing that the ABS were too nervous to fire the IBM system back up again and went back to paper based system (and the $30M bill).

Re: Budget blowout?

Thanks for the info. Must be an interesting conversation going on between the head of IBM ANZ and the head of the Treasury on who's paying that $30M.

Budget blowout?

So the IBM take home was $9.7M for the contract from 2014 - today. Where does the $30M blow out come from? Telstra network charges, buying CVC bandwidth from NBN co or extra consultants at the ASD?? $30M for a blow out that didn't even leak any data seems pretty steep.

nbn™ says nobody needs gigabit internet, trumpets XG-Fast at 8Gbps anyway

Re: Gigabit not needed, what a load of crap!

Minor correction on those Kiwi UFB numbers. UFB 1 - due by 2020 aims to reach 75% and UFB 2 is looking to push that to at least 80%. The contractors can't keep up with demand right now but we should have a glut of fibre jointers available in around 2022 just when the west island suddenly works out the correct technology mix.

Furthermore the RBI project (they have split the urban / rural broadband rollouts here) has rolled out FTTN to a significant number of rural cabinets and built some open access cell phone towers. RBI 2 is aiming to get to 97ish % of the country in the next. In theory, the kiwi rural speeds should be around the same at the nbn MTM solution for the urban areas in the lucky country.

State of the copper?

So guessing these lab trials have brand new copper between two nodes and with no cross talk, dodgy crimps and so on?

I would love to see what speeds you get when deployed in the real world. I guess those on the west island will find out in about 5 years when it might get deployed.

One would think that with that massive bill to remeditate the local copper loop, you should just put in some fiber instead?

nbn™ dumps Optus HFC, will use fibre to the kerb for ≈700k sites

Leak confirmed?

So the info that allegedly came out of nbn co that at the time was all lies and made up, is now confirmed to be true now?

How much FTTP would have $800M got is the question someone should be asking? Optus (like Telstra) must be loving having their cash windfall. I wonder if the accountants can depreciated the assets as well?

So much for Mr Turnbull's much vaulted mixed technology approached. That 2014 renegotiation is not looking very flash now.

I think I'm still a fiber fetish which is a good thing, as (the non CVC) UFB has recently been installed in my building.

Airbus doesn't just make aircraft – now it designs drone killers

Whats the frequency Kenneth?

Its more like the 2.4 GHz ISM (industrial, scientific and medical) band that 2.6 GHz. 2.6 GHz is typically being rolled out for small cells in urban areas for capacity.

2.4 GHz is one of the bands your microwave in the kitchen can use to nuke your Marks and Spencer ready meal and is typically on a shared basis. So any user (RPAS included) has to accept interference and deal with it. What the RPAS does with the loss of command and control likely varies between manufacture.

A spot of GPS spoofing (at a technical level) would offer another level of interruption to RPAS in flight. Maybe spoofing the white house geo-fence for starters would be a plan?

For $800 you can buy internet engineers' answer to US government spying

Re: And if I'm paranoid enough, or my data is sensitive enough

You check against the publicly available hardware (schematics, parts etc) and software to ensure the right bits are in the right place.

If you wear a multiple layered tin foil hat, you then head off to the silicon foundry and rustle up the devices yourself to populate the board.

Student Loans Company burns £50 million in IT project superfail

Re: Surprise!

Never in my limited time on this planet have I had the displeasure of dealing with such a slow and painful organisation as the UK SLC. I wish I'd cleared my loan a lot quicker than I did so that I didn't have to deal with the mess that passes for the peak finance body for the students of the UK for as long as I did.

Sadly they have 2p of my money in their bank account. One day I will get it back but I suspect it will be a cold cold day in hell and prob by cheque, so my bank wont know what on earth it is and they get to keep it.

Rolls-Royce reckons robot cargo ships are the future of the seas

Re: System used?

Surely it's Docker and its containerised software platform?

Detroit Rock(et Fiber) City: Startup brings 10Gb service to Motown

Culture shift?

Maybe, just maybe they are not (yet) like the big boys and investing $ in the business and not just directing all income to the directors and shareholders.

Would be an interesting case study if the founders can shape company culture to be different from other ISPs in the US. Can they mandate / curate a positive company culture towards the customer and then keep it going if they achieve it in the first place?

Telstra's 'future of medical diagnosis' needs just 5Mbps

Who else builds MTM?

So Simon who else is building upgrading to the same mix of technology that Australia is trying to roll out? It appears not to be a popular choice unless you talk about the UK approach of doing very little in a coordinated nationwide approach.

Me thinks it sounds like you sing from the same hymn sheet as Mr Lynch of Comms Day too on the FTTP build. Surely as technology journos, you should all be aiming for the best long term infrastructure for Australia, not just the gravel roads as the AC above me notes for a short term fix?

Nokia to Oz: 5G will need fibre, and lots of it

So 93% FTTP is the right build mix

You know it, I know and Nokia knows it. Funny how Malcome Turnbull doesn't know it.

I feel for the poor souls inside nbn co who have to live with the MTM build on their CVs for the rest of thier working lives.

Australian Federal Police say government ignorant of NBN raids

Re: Tin foil had required?

and now the nbn staffer is getting in on the act with taking photos of the seized documents which are under parliamentary privilege. Would not like to be the nbn or AFP comms teams right now as its going to be a long weekend ahead.