Is there much in the way of concrete evidence against the Russian govrnment and agencies? We hear a lot of rhetoric but we rarely get to see much in the way of evidence. On the other hand, we do have evidence that the NSA has been creating malware and that GCHQ were reading teenagers' encrypted sexting.
Posts by JohnG
1639 publicly visible posts • joined 27 May 2007
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Russia appears to be 'live testing' cyber attacks – Former UK spy boss Robert Hannigan
Oddly enough, when a Tesla accelerates at a barrier, someone dies: Autopilot report lands
Re: When will people learn
"Force them to hold the wheel, monitor their face, reaction times, issue activities to perform, keep them engaged with drive. And start bleeping and slow down if they don't react.
The problem is Tesla didn't bother with any of that in the first instance and has only begrudgingly implemented it now."
This is incorrect - the Tesla Autopilot does (and did at the time of the accisent) monitor if the driver is holding the steeering wheel and will first warn the driver but will ultimattely disengage. If it believes the driver is still not responding, it will engage hazard flashers, pull the car over and stop.
Re: Everything makes mistakes
"A human driver would have no problem with leaving the 101 for the 85 yet should not have allowed the car to attempt this."
The fact that the crash barrier had not been repaired since being damaged in a previous accident indicates that at least one human driver had a problem leaving the 101 for the 85.
Re: Non tesla driver here
"It's not fully autonomous, and I wouldn't be happy to leave it trying to drive without my guidance/overwatch if I were to get one."
Which is exactly what the user manual says you should do. The autopilot systems are in beta and full self driving is not yet available (FSD probably won't be available for a long time, probably eons or elons)
Re: Nothing is right first time
"They can have their teething problems OFF THE PUBLIC ROADS!"
Then the systems will never be ready for public roads, because they will not have been tested in the real world and will have insufficient data/"experience" of the variations in real world road markings, signage and driver behaviour.
"Or did I miss it and those early jets were taking passengers and crashing into airports killing people while they worked the bugs out?"
That is precisly what happened with the Comet and numerous other aircraft types. Of course, manufacturers and safety regulators attempt to address all the bugs before the aircraft enter service but numerous accidents have resulted in recalls and retrospective changes. This is pretty much the story of every accident investigation programme on TV.
Re: When will we learn? It's all about the money again.
"We need at least 10 years of solid off road, test track testing of these autonomous vehicles, tested to full destruction in as many situations as can be created."
Simulations and track testing really don't give adequate data, notably of variations in road signs and markings, the behaviour of other road users, etc.
Re: The sad reality...
"The sad reality...
...of rushed to market, not ready for prime time products."
The snag is, these systems need to learn through data gathered in the real world. The nuances of driving in the real world are not all available through the use of simulations and test tracks. The Tesla Autopilot systems are in beta and Tesla cars collect and send driving data back to Tesla (Tesla cars are always online to mothership.tesla.com).
Re: In America, the driver is ALWAYS responsible
"You're missing a point here, the guy was not the driver. Tesla was driving the car."
No, These things are driver assistance aids and Autopilot is in beta - the driver must be aware and in control at all times. Every time a driver enables Autosteer in a Tesla, there is a warning to this effect.
Re: Not an "autopilot"
"It was too easy to lose concentration when the CC was doing the work - not a good idea on a 70 MPH motorway."
True - and this effect can be increased with Atutosteer. The best approach is to consider yourself like the captain of a ship and that Autopilot is a really inexperienced and stupid trainee at the helm, requiring supervision at all times.
Correct. Automatic Energency Braking is an option which by default, is enabled at all times.
There are two levels of Autopilot: Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Autosteer. Automated Lane Changing is an option, which is disabled by default. All of the Autopilot features are in Beta and every time they enable Autosteer, drivers get a warning of this, telling them that they shoud keep their hands on the wheel at all times
Re: OlaM
Tesla repeatedly tells owners that Autopilot is in Beta, that they need to keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times and that they do not yet have "Full Self Driving". In the vehicle, there are two modes available: Traffic Aware Cruise Control and Automated Lane Keeping - but that doesn't sound as sexy as Autopilot or Full Self Driving - and some apparently intelligent drivers seem to ignore all the warnings and fixate on the marketing terminology.
UK Home Office hands Sopra Steria £91m digital visa contract
Re: Its just not right
"...the contract was awarded to Gemalto because, under EU law, there has to be an open and public procurement process for government contracts. The best 'value for money' / most adequate provider wins.
It may surprise you that the UK is still actually in the EU and therefore must obey its laws."
We should have copied the EC. After the Brexit vote and many months before Article 50 was invoked, the EC quietly introduced a "Brexit clause" into the contracts of their new procurements. These clauses state something to the effect that contractors and their sub-contractors must demonstrate that they would be allowed to operate/supply goods and services within the single market after Brexit. The next part of these clauses states that if a contractor becomes non-compliant, the contract will be terminated and the contractor must reimburse the EC for the costs of a new procurement.
We could simply apply UK versions of the EC's Brexit clauses to scare off EU27 companies who do not have a presence in the UK, just as the EC has done e.g. with their last Galileo procurement.
Blood spilled from another US high school shooting has yet to dry – and video games are already being blamed
I find it interesting to compare guns and cars. I haven't of any significant number of Americans who would argue against the requirements to drive e.g. pass a driving test, have an eye test, hold a driving licence, have their car(s) registered. As I understand it, the limitations of public transport in the USA make car ownership a necessity for most. The same cannot be said for guns - few Americans could legitimately claim that gun ownership is vital to their everyday life. Despite this, the same people who agree with driving tests, licenses and vehicle regisatrations will argue that unlicensed and unregistered gun ownership is essential. I have even heard this argument from Americans who have subsequently acknowledged that they didn't actually own any guns.
Re: Early information
"Hasn't stopped London from having more murders than New York."
In a one month snapshot. When looking at annual figures for 2017, New York had 3.4 homicides per 100,000 people, whereas London only had 1.2 homicides per 100,000 people.
"I know the constant propaganda tells you we have very little gun violence here because of it, but the actual fact of the matter is that we have never really had a problem with gun violence to start with, even when guns were widely available to the public."
Gun control in the UK started in 1903 and became succesively tighter over the last 100 years. Guns have not been readily available in the UK in living memory.
Re: Early information
"Having laws against these things did not STOP them from happening."
True but statistics show that countries with laws limiting access to guns by means of licensing have gun crimes/deaths/homicide rates orders of magnitude lower than the USA. In this respect, the USA is an anomaly among developed wealthy countries, having gun crime/death/homicde rates on par with poor developing countries in Africa and South America.
Watchdog growls at Tesla for spilling death crash details: 'Autopilot on, hands off wheel'
Re: Crash (almost) re-created by another driver
"f the autopilot detects and warns for hands-off the wheel after 6 seconds, why doesn't it take further action if the situation isn't then rectified, e.g. by progressively reducing the speed by a safe rate?"
It does - but it first issues a couple of visual warnings,followed by an audible warning. After that, it slows, looks to pull off the road and stop.
Cloudflare touts privacy-friendly 1.1.1.1 public DNS service. Hmm, let's take a closer look at that
Europe dumps 300,000 UK-owned .EU domains into the Brexit bin
Brexit in spaaaace! At T-1 year and counting: UK politicos ponder impact
NAVISP
On the subject of ESA and UK funding, it is interesting to note that the UK has by far the largest chunk of funding available for NAVISP. NAVISP is a programme under which ESA member states can fund research and development in navigation and timing, oriented towards Galileo and EGNOS. Applications for NAVISP funding can be made for opportunities announced by ESA or companies can approach ESA with ideas, for which they would like funding. Details here: https://navisp.esa.int
Auto manufacturers are asleep at the wheel when it comes to security
Re: "...can pick up the signal from keys..."
"Keyless Car Starting is probably using RFID. That's much shorter range. The hackers need to get within a meter or two of your keys, so their can 'illuminate' it with enough RF to power it up. The system designers should include some handshaking, not just an easily copied serial number."
Thieves use two way repeaters to steal cars. Increasing the size of the antenna increases the range of RFID devices.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hig7sTLAB5Y
https://hackaday.com/2013/11/03/rfid-reader-snoops-cards-from-3-feet-away/
Some guy used a hacked Vtech toy with a large antenna to read RFID tags from 10m away.
A dog DNA database? You must be barking
Re: Laws only stop dogs who follow the law.
It might be accurate to sugest that dog owners who routinely let their dogs run free (and to attack livestock), may have not bothered to have them microchipped (despite this becoming a legal requirement since 2016) and they might also not bother to have their dog's DNA recorded on a police database.
Batteries are so heavy, said user. If I take it out, will this thing work?
Yes, Assange, we'll still nick you for skipping bail, rules court
Re: Schrödinger's Embassy
It isn't clear that Assange has broken any US law and the US authorities have not levelled any charges or submitted any request for his extradition, here or in Sweden. The previous US government showed absolutely no interest in Assange and the case in Sweden seemed fairly weak. The current US government has shown some interest in Assange but haven't actually done anything yet. He has definitely jumped bail in the UK and courts typically take a dim view of people ignoring them. He might be better off facng the music in the UK - then getting free treatment for his tooth and his shoulder whilst serving time. As he is only likely to get a couple of weeks for jumping bail, his time might be up before he has finished his treatment.
CPU bug patch saga: Antivirus tools caught with their hands in the Windows cookie jar
On this issue, I'm with Microsoft: it isn't Microsoft's responsibility to check if every third party AV product has not done silly things to the OS that would make systems fail when the Meltdown patch is applied. MS have simply said to the AV companies "This is what the Meltdown patch does. You know what you products do, so you are the ones to decide whether your products are compatible with the Meltdown patch". Short of not issuing any patch, I don't see what other choice MS have.
WikiLeave? Assange tipped for Ecuadorian eviction
Re: Time for a chat ...
"they'll decide that, since charges are no longer pending, the original arrest warrant is no longer valid thus the 'jumping bail' condition is equally invalid"
No, they won't because he did actually jump bail - effectively, treating the court with contempt. It is a bit like saying, I shouldn't have to pay a parking fine because the car concerned has since been scrapped. It isn't how the law works.
Re: hang on a moment...
Well, that is the case now Donald's in charge. Had he just faced the Swedish investigators in the first place, he would most likely have had no conviction. If he had been convicted, the sentence would probably have been less than two years - in a comfy Swedish prison. He could have been out when Obama was still in charge - and that administration really wasn't interested in him.
Yes - which is likely longer than any prison sentence he might have served in a relatively comfy Swedish prison - if the Swedes had ever actually charged him, gone to trial and won. He still has to answer for jumping bail in the UK though. Had he left the Ecuadorian embassy (or never entered it) when Obama was in power, he could have been long gone by now - Obama's administration never showed any interest in him. Trump's administration may be a different matter.
Russia claims it repelled home-grown drone swarm in Syria
Google lets Android devs see nanosecond-level GNSS data
Re: Excellent! Android DIY ICBM
Note that this involves a test app which logs GPS data on an Android device. Once the logged data is transferred to another system (Windows, Linux or Mac), it can be analysed by the software described in the article. None of this stuff provides any navigation/guidance functionality.
All this stuff has been posted by someone called Mohammed Khider - I cannot see any problem (unless his middle name is "Al").
How to hack Wi-Fi for fun and imprisonment with crypto-mining inject
Russia could chop vital undersea web cables, warns Brit military chief
Ex-cop who 'kept private copies of data' fingers Cabinet Office minister in pr0nz at work claims
Assuming the policeman concerned has not added the porn to his illegally retained copies of the data on Green's computer.... The implication is that it is possible to download and/or stream porn via parliament's network i.e. they don't filter porn/malicious/dodgy websites. No doubt, their systems are protected with security software that receives quarterly updates of security threats.
Re: The issue I have with this
"To be exact, the copper who kept copies insists it was all legal porn."
There is a slight problem with chain of custody of which, one would have thought, a former policeman who specialised in forensic IT should be aware. How do we know the policeman or someone else has not introduced porn to the illegally retained copies?
According to a police report into the operation, the government had been embarrassed by the information leaks and had mentioned the leaking of secret documents when they called in the police. By the time the police were conducting searches and arresting people, they knew that no classified material was involved but their search and arrest warrants stated otherwise. The police report described numerous other problems with the investigation, that was probably why the CPS decided that convictions were highly unlikely and dropped the whole thing.
Russia threatens to set up its 'own internet' with China, India and pals – let's take a closer look
Devil's advocate
If the situation were reversed and all the root servers were in Russia and China, how long would US and EU governments take to decide to take matters into their own hands? I suspect they would reach such a decision in minutes.
Given the somewhat toxic state of relations between USA/EU/NATO and Russia/China, almost anything seems possible now. The idea that, if the US government/military decided to interfere with the running of root servers, brave Internet warriors would then continue to run free root servers in the face of US authorities is just silly.
Germany says NEIN to purchase incentive for Tesla Model S
The Porsche Mission E will apparently be available in 2019, allegedly for just over €70,000 - it will be interesting to see if the €60,000 subsidy limit remains in place. Interestingly, a Porsche Mission E has recently been seen on German roads, apparently testing in the company of a Tesla Model S.