Posts by Oengus 1113 publicly visible posts • joined 27 Jun 2012
"Blackouts in Australia can be caused by snakes, birds, bats, and cats, but precious few by Russian hackers."
I wonder what percentage of blackouts are caused by the failure to invest in maintenance and upgrade of the network. I seem to remember a couple of years ago parts of the Sydney CBD experienced a series of blackouts caused by lack of capacity and failure to upgrade the network...
This sort of initiative is how "The Donald" is going to keep his promise about increasing jobs at home... Because examination of Social Media accounts by program is fraught with issues he will employ masses of extra DHS staff to manually go through these social media accounts.
Another election promise kept...
The attorney-general will not be able to exercise their powers on a whim: the Australian Security and Intelligence Organisation (ASIO) will need to recommend an intervention.
You have to remember that ASIO is basically the Australian equivalent of the NSA or GCHQ. When was the last time that those organisations stopped a politico from exercising whatever powers they wanted to use? Usually they are prompting the politicos to exercise powers that are dubious and borderline (or outright) illegal. ASIO will just be a rubberstamp to anything the attorney-general wants...
120 milliseconds from earth to geosynchronous satellite, depending on location of location of space station receiving message 120 milliseconds (low earth orbit) to 240 milliseconds (geosynchronous orbit on the opposite side of the earth) or more if space station is at L4 or L5. Then of course you have to double that for the return trip...
I vaguely remember seeing a PC that had Vista installed... I thought that Vista was long dead and buried (or at least should have been).
MS won't support Vista because it was technically a "Home" user OS. XP was technically a Business OS so theoretically anyone still using it has money to pay for support. MS long ago gave up caring for the home user (and lately I think they are only paying lip service to the business user without a subscription based service). Vista will not be missed by me.
CAV [connected and autonomous vehicles]
What about DAV [disconnected and autonomous vehicles] or UAV [Unconnected and autonomous vehicles] ?
Surely truly autonomous vehicles will be able to operate without any connection back to the mothership... Sure they may need to communicate with the mothership when their current task is complete to get their next assignment. They should, of course, be able to accept changes to tasking from the mothership during an assignment but shouldn't need to depend on the communications to do their task.
A more sexist and discriminatory comment I haven't read anywhere in a long time. Discrimination goes both ways and suggesting that women be promoted disproportionately or paid better because they are women is discrimination. Everyone should be promoted or paid higher because of ability and skills not because of their gender (or sexual orientation but that is another can of worms).
Think of it as if you owned a nice, new, reliable, safe and secure family car, but when you went to insure it the car insurance company said it had to be insured as if it were a classic Ferrari because the law said they were not allowed to ask you about your car
When I insure the family car I insure it for ~$30,000-$50,000. When I insure the classic Ferrari I insure it for $300,000-$500,000. Based on classic car insurance I have it is actually cheaper per dollar insured to insure the classic car than the family car. This is because statistically the chance of having to pay out on the classic car insurance is lower than the family car.
Reading the Technical specs for the battery in the Helios Smart ring I wonder about the usable life
Can I modify the ring patent to include a solar cell to provide the charge to keep the battery topped up and to provide the power to run the ring while exposed to light?
We want to implement the option that you can share your status on social media. You can share how much vitamin D you consumed. (found on the Helios Smart Ring website)
Why does all of this IoT crap have to have a social media link? When will these people get a life. All the more reason for not having social media...
The next thing you will read will be how these devices have been hacked and are used by criminals to tell in real time that you are not in your house (you are outside basking in the sunlight to get your Vitamin D score up) so they can safely break in and help themselves to your other kit. Alternatively there will be an attack on the users of the ring exposing them to excessive UV causing melanoma and other skin cancers...
Also, because it uses Bluetooth LE and has no On/Off switch just think of the tracking capabilities...
He therefore calls for nations to “improve security through proportionate and effective measures not with unduly disproportionate privacy-intrusive laws.”
Wow... a statement like this from a political type is almost unbelievable. I am worried that it will be a voice crying out in the wilderness and no one will listen (until it is too late).
the system was automated to such an extent that individuals accused of fraud often were not notified until it was too late to challenge the determination and were not provided with a way to respond.
Now I know where Centrelink got their data matching software for fraud detections
A large increase in tail activity signifies either that the cow is about to produce a particularly firm cowpat or that it is calving.
I wonder if they report the monitor the production cowpats as well - location, frequency, time to produce... to monitor the cows intestinal health.
includes unlimited cloud DVR storage with no fixed term contract, allowing subscribers to cancel at any time.
I am betting that when you end your subscription your cloud DVR storage evaporates as well.
Of course you can have unlimited cloud DVR storage... They are not going to keep a separate copy of each "title" for each subscriber. They will have one master copy (and numerous mirrors) and your DVR just indexes the content you recorded...
"cartridges full of one cartridge with CO2 to enhance cool-down effects"
The CO2 isn't there to put out the fire. It is designed to cool the battery down before it explodes. The cartridge is triggered when the device detects excessive heat and before ignition...
Hands up those people that haven't used a CO2 extinguisher to cool down their beer...
It seems that it is a universal requirement for anyone in charge of the security agencies to have the temperament of a spoiled six year old prat.
They won't accept that they can't have their way. They keep pushing the same agenda regardless of how many times they are told it isn't possible. They think that if they keep nagging we will eventually give in to their demands.
Actually had this happen on one system I was working with. Another Admin "forgot" where he was and typed the command only to realise a fraction of a second after he hit enter that he had forgotten to chdir to the trash folder he meant to clear.
Thankfully the backups from the previous night were intact.
The automotive industry is still relatively new to both application management and security issues, comparatively speaking, and is certainly working hard to address issues as they arise.
When will the automotive (and other IoT things) learn from previous experiences.
In the past criminals used to target for armed robberies. As banks got smarter and improved their security the criminals moved on to easier targets (Service stations and Liquor stores) so these upped the ante.
Cyber criminals initially targeted the banks because they were "soft". The banks learned and hardened their Apps. Now that there are new, easier, targets and the criminals will over time change their target. It is only a matter of time before the hackers attack "insecure" Apps on other platforms.
I wonder how long before the first ransomware app to hold a car hostage appears...
The Register can't help wondering what that's going to look like once a bunch of vendors have talked different vendors in different industries to implement different identity management and access revocation solutions
With all of these self interests at work there will be security holes that you could drive a double decker bus through...
At some point, there will be an online attack and the media – and parts of Washington DC – are going to go nuts about it and this will be the justification for the extension of Section 702 of America's Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.
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