Posts by JCitizen

Researcher details how malware gives AV the slip

Re: Isn't this already known?

Yes you are correct! Advanced Persistent Threats(APT) are already a reality in the web world. Only a very blended defense can possibly hope to indicate the level of infection. Now, I will temper that with a nation state actors warning, that will defeat any defense you have - but the behaviors of your system will belie this threat! If you suspect this - I recommend you trash this computer and get another one, the infection level is so pervasive that nothing - not hardware or software is forever trustworthy from then on!!!

Even your ISP could be compromised by then! Don't admit to the depth of your suspicions to the service provider - just explain the symptoms and complain in an ordinary way. Do NOT admit that your paranoia includes such a calamitous attack. Just concentrate on their vulnerabilities and berate them for it - and try to threaten them with state action to their service reliability and reputation. It is all you can do - with the level the enemy has at his disposal. I have friends with Intellectual Property rights that could affect the national security of nations, that have been totally pwned with a combination of Apple products and Android devices; so don't assume this will be a protection. Never assume anything - my TELCO is under attack for service reliability for just discussing the problem I am having with my clients. The FBI and all other federal agencies are not even as good as keystone cops - so just forget any help from your government sources. I include UK sources as well.

Show Mother Russia you love her: Click HERE and AHHH NYET!

Ukraine should be carefull..

As much as I think I support their cause, one of my buddies has traveled through that country several times, an was treated very badly. I think US citizens should think twice about supporting Ukraine. The only reason to do it is to support the original nuclear treaty, and to contain Putin's ambitions. All other motivations are suspect.

TRIANGULAR orbits will help Rosetta to get up close with Comet 67P

I thought I read that it was going to fire a spike.

And tether itself to the comet on the way 'down' to the surface!

Germany 'accidentally' snooped on John Kerry and Hillary Clinton

Waddya mean?

Frankenkerry and Billary ARE terrorst suspects! These upright and stalwart German chaps should be given a medal! Heh! Heh!

Know what Ferguson city needs right now? It's not Anonymous doxing random people

Re: Moving forward?

State's powers still trump federal in many instances. But the US Federal Department of Justice still has a lot of its own power to enforce infractions of personal civil rights. It doesn't take much evidence to say some official or other deprived someone of their civil rights. Killing someone when it isn't clear deadly force was issued in a proper reaction, could easily be construed as improperly depriving this person of his civil rights and right to life. So the DOJ can always pull out that trump card even if no Missouri law was broken by the officer. The punishment is wide ranging, so it is nothing to laugh at.

Five Totally Believable Things Car Makers Must Do To Thwart Hackers

You could die, and nobody would know!!

It has been proven already by several studies and even videos made by researchers I've seen on 60 minutes, that vehicles can be totally controlled and even kill you! Imagine going along at 70 mph, and some cracker issues a command that orders the auto park to activate!!! Maybe you can catch my drift??

The highway patrol or whatever flavor of gendarme in your community wouldn't have a clue! The obituary would list the "accident" as "lost control of vehicle" - end of story!

Anonymous wifi the latest casualty of Russia net neurosis

Dissidents already have a plan..

I remember reading that the protesters in Tibet use the bot-net as a communication medium, they have to take control of at least one bot herder command and control server though. The underground apparently has access to the random links that this program is available on. That is apparently timed and passed by courier or other ingenious method. For obvious reasons the messages are completely in the open send as spam broadcasts, and are buried in the huge spam traffic that is all over the world. I assume dissidents can simply check their email or spam folder for messages and decide from the messages whether they apply to them or not. I supposed they could be encrypted, but disseminating the keys would be more difficult that providing the command and control download.

I imagine the bot herders will be finding ways to block this, as it reduces their advertising effectiveness. This may become unnecessary as I read on Krebs On Security, that some enthusiast groups have found ways to discover bot infected machines and reverse engineer a way to take over the command and control servers that way, or even create one from said bot infected machine.. Of course the PRC authorities are close behind these developments, and will be happy that our open discussions of these tricks will help them defeat these groups by fiat. Funny how freedom destroys itself - or at least seems to some days. Where there is a will there is always a new way!

Snowden latest: NSA targets Gaza, pumps intelligence to Israel

Re: US duplicity

Yes, and HAMAS happily spends every penney of it to buy rockets, rocket making materials, and build tunnels honeycombing the Gaza wall. They could care less of the welfare of their own people.

@ Gis Bun

I do believe I read, several years ago that Israel launched some of their own mini-sats, and now have spys in the sky as well. I don't remember the details, or if they were short lived. They do have their own space program of sorts.

Re: Gis Bun Hmmmm

Good post - I wonder how many of us are old enough to remember my first example of terrorism in the "Black September" actions in the early '70s. It was the first time I realized what terrorism was, as a kid. I remember seeing a passenger jet burned to a crisp, killing all aboard after a failed negotiation. No matter how justified Arabs and other Middle Eastern dwellers think they are - that image was burned into my mind, and I've never felt their cause is worth consideration, and never will. If they had taken the course that the South Africans had - they would have a cause the world could get behind - but no - they took this course of action that will only lead to death and destruction, of them as well as their enemies. It is the devil incarnate.

Americans to be guinea pigs in vast chip-and-PIN security experiment

The reason Americans don't like it..

We call it Cow-Chip-N-Pen we don't want to pay for such an expensive big fail - we've already had enoiugh of too big to fail already:

February 2008

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/techreports/UCAM-CL-TR-711.pdf

February 2010

http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/newsnight/susanwatts/2010/02/new_flaws_in_chip_and_pin_syst.html

" "

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8511710.stm

September 2012

http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/~rja14/Papers/unattack.pdf

Video summary of above report

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-19559124

(Source http://nc3.mobi/references/emv/) Posted by Jonathan E. Jaffe

Also Cow-chip-n-pen

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/19/chip_and_skim/

Even the Register will give me pause at the thought of this expensive debacle! There are vastly cheaper alternatives on the market, and one of them is PassWindow.

Famous 'Dish' radio telescope to be emptied in budget crisis: CSIRO

I keep reading..

In science journals that funded programs are needing all the assets they can get, even older legasy radio telescope assets. Why doesn't the government rent them out for money? I'd wager even the Chinese would make an offer! Of course some down under may be offended by "giving it up", but I don't look at it that way at all.

Brit balloon bod Bodnar circumnavigates planet

Drat!

The beat LOHAN to the punch!

Would it be bad if the Amazon rainforest was all farms? Well it was, once

Re: I've read of several studies...

From what I understand this was prehistoric to Western contact - but you could still be right, as archaeologists were shocked to find paper art of wars that depicted men with beards, blue eyes, and red hair! This was a tip off that Europeans may have visited much earlier than was admitted by history.

When I saw these studies in the Smithsonian as a young man, I was gob smacked! They had photos of the actual papers that were found preserved somewhere on a Pre-Columbian site(I believe, if my memory serves me correctly) At least I'm pretty sure it was paper, as that was an eye opener to me as well, as I thought at the time it predated paper, and stone work was the norm.

I've read of several studies...

where paleontologists realized the predecessors of the Maya,Inca, and the Aztecs were actually so numerous in population that much of the land of that period was under heavy agriculture. The great extinction that ended that period is of great interest to several sciences, and we should well pay attention, or we will be next!

Pentagon hacker McKinnon can't visit sick dad for fear of extradition

As per Brits bashing the US..

First off we can take it - thank you very much! I think we resemble that remark or more! HA! But you guys are ruining Obummer's pledge to make us more likable all over the world! Your messing up his campaign promise! Don't you feel guilty about that? >snicker-smirk< It seems the world has only become worse with his "Leadership".

signed

One proud 'Merkin!

AVG stung as search revenue from freebie scanners dries up

Friends don't let friends do AVG..

Everyone of my clients that went to AVG against my advice got a hosed computer! Avast has never let me down - I don't get that many popups, but after all you can adjust the alert level to reduce that. If you going to be a freetard, you got to expect some small discomfort. My clients are too indigent to pay for AV.

One of the worst computers I ever worked on was one that had Microsoft Security Essentials on board - had his MalwareBytes-Anti-Malware not expired, he wouldn't have had a hosed machine! Anyone who runs as administrator all the time is just asking for trouble!

Black Hat anti-Tor talk smashed by lawyers' wrecking ball

Use the botnet...

All you have to do is crack one command and control server, and you've got it! Don't even bother to encrypt anything, just communicate in the open! The bot herders might get mad, but so what?

NASDAQ IT security spend: $1bn. Finding mystery malware on its servers: Priceless

Re: Business Opportunity?

HA! It is true that some of the most effective anti-malware I've seen in my honey-pot lab, are those crime-ware packages that assure no other criminal's cr@p gets a foothold on that territory. How ironic it would be to let them operate, just to keep the exchange secure!! Seems like they could skim a lot, and stay under the radar, and be worth much more that that wasted billion dollar boondoggle!

PANDA chomps through Spotify's DRM

Cable DRM nightmare..

Most of my tech friends have had so much trouble trying to play content on their DRM enabled devices, that they were forced to download a ripoff from torrents, so they could at least enjoy a facsimile of the content. I know what they mean - because when the MPAA finally approved HDTV cable ready DVRs beyond what TiVO and the cable set-top boxes had already on the market - they only let a very few OEMs get involved back in 2007. Like a fool, I bought one of those CTO media centers and tried to make it work. After three years of banging my head on a wall, and getting no help because I was on the flipping bleeding edge, that no-body knew what I was talking about - I just had to solve almost all the problems myself! Fortunately Microsoft pretty well gave up on that model and simplified it - but no one, that is a non-technical person should have to go through that hell, just to enjoy content that they bloody well paid hard earned money for! I shouldn't have had to either, but I was obsessed! I finally got decent performance out of the machine, but I will never try a project like that again. I can do without this crap and just go to surfing the internet and reading magazines for entertainment - never again will I go though that pain!

Many comments on here act like it is simple to crack this content - Hell this DRM is literally baked onto the hardware, and in this case it was from the bios to the back plane! If there was the slightest brain fart in the system, your speakers would shutdown, or the monitor would flicker or go black, or the machine would simply shutdow - no explanation or error code. What makes it worse, is I think nation state attackers are in on the software scheme of this, and are piggy backing on board to watch people for targets of opportunity - especially those they can grab their IP from, and commit other acts of industrial or military sabotage. Go ahead and call me a nut - I don't care - I'll bet you this comes out in one of Snowden's revelations some day - mark my words!

Alabama quadchopper hits THREE THOUSAND FEET next to AIRPORT

When I was a kid..

I almost shot an Air Guard cargo transport down with a rather large model rocket. The flight was making practice runs over an emergency landing field nearby, and I never knew it was coming - I couldn't hear it because it was flying so low and fast. I was using safety fuse to light the thing off, and I think the pilot was more alarmed than I, because all I could do is stare at the cockpit crew as they went over. The missile almost flew into the intake of an outboard jet. This old aircraft had both prop and jets. Needless to say, I tried to use electric squibs from then on so such an event would be less apt to happen; as if Murphy's law would strike twice - well maybe so!

Hackers reverse-engineer NSA spy kit using off-the-shelf parts

Amateur hour

These kind of gizmos have been around for a long while - nothing new to see here - moving along now.

MIGHTY SOLAR FLARES fail to DESTROY CIVILISATION. Yes!

Re: Survival

There is one thing about fiber cable that could theoretically be vulnerable it that it requires powered boosting every 1000 meters or so. The power lines that feed the boosters could possibly have trouble, but that all depends on how the cable company designed and implemented them.

YOU - NASA. Enough with the ROBOTS, get some PEOPLE to MARS

I see three factors..

1. The only reasonable mission to Mars is to study the planet as if it were Earth in the near future, which could happen, if certain disaster theories come true. So that alone would make humans being there paramount. You can't have a study of how humans can survive a catastrophe, if there aren't any humans there to study it.

2. The only real reason to go into deeper space is to mine the asteroid belt - do that and Mars will surely follow the money as a way station. Also doing manufacturing by robots there and on the moon would end industrialized pollution on Earth - well worth it!

3. Private industry will beat the US or world cooperation to Mars anyway, so all we have to do is bide our time. Several billionaires have already chartered this path. Let the rich blast themselves into space - El Reg readers seem to like that idea very much already.

Security bods mop blood, sigh: NEW CryptoLocker zombies? We don't see their kind

Re: Heimdal software

Only curiosity would motivate me to click that download; but really, if I didn't already know whether I was bot-pwned, then I deserve to have my @ss handed to me! >:(

Thanks for nothing, OpenSSL, grumbles stonewalled De Raadt

Re: So....

Well then I'll just take my coat and go home(says he - HA!)

Did NASA probe detect a KILLER GAMMA-RAY burst in Andromeda?

I was ignorant of the range of these events...

If you are anywhere near a galaxy hosting this event, especially with the poles of the burst aimed at you, then you are toast! I guess we now know what Revelations was describing when the heavens disappear in a roar of fire! Instead of looking for asteroids, maybe we should be looking for the systems with the mass to do this? Or maybe we'd really rather not know? What are you going to do about it anyway - especially if it comes like a thief in the night? How would you survive with all life and the atmosphere gone on planet earth? Hiding in the underground sounds like just delaying the inevitable.

Tens of thousands of 'Watch Dogs' pirates ENSLAVED by Bitcoin botmaster

Wow! Talk about a distrubuted computing...

project! A massive way to get enough power to mine Bitcoins. Everyone should have seen this one coming a mile off - not that it would have prevented it.

Poll: Climate change now more divisive than abortion, gun control

Not all right wingers care about it either way...

I personally like the whole change thing, just so I can get on the alternate energy band wagon. Do I really care? No! I just wan't competition in the energy market so if one source gets too expensive I can flip the bird at them, and change to a cheaper source! I think this is going to happen no matter what scientist or any other moron believes. Economy is the huge gorilla in the room here. I can't wait to buy my first electric car powered by local wind farms! I have a huge SUV hybrid and I can't believe the gas mileage I get while hypermiling in town. I've already saved enough on cheaper energy costs to literally pay for the vehicle. All the rest of you can go on arguing now - Thanks!

Titsup Russian rocket EXPLODES, destroys $275m telly satellite

Heh! Heh!

(nt)

Watch this! The changing face of malware

The trick is..

If you run as a limited user in any environment in Linux, OSX, or Windows NT6, you can defeat most malware as long as you have security settings that work in an infected environment. If you are going to use anti-malware at all, then be sure and pick them that run at the kernel level, so they have a chance of fighting manipulation by the criminals. Most of the time a good file cleaner can defeat any malware in a limited rights environment! I have no idea what Apple and Linux users have for that, but I'm sure it is possible. Just clean the files before doing something sensitive, and chances are good that you will not be keylogged or anything else that can run at user privileges and take advantage of anything at all!

There are a few things that can happen regardless, but a good HIPS will catch it every time. ( so far - tomorrow may change everything)

Senate slams ad servers for security failings

Re: Protection against malvertising ..

I agree if you can live without it, but I can't unfortunately!

I agree with Guus Leeuw

Put AdBlock Plus and Malwarebytes' Anti-Malware on your device, and be happy.

Scientists warn of FOUR-FOOT sea level rise from GLACIER melt

This has all happened in Earth history before...

The only thing we have to fear is how FAST it changes. which, I will admit is something for fear! If the tropical fish in the sea die because the temperature isn't just right, or there are giant ocean animal deaths because the salinity of the water is not right for their survival - then yes! We have a problem. Instead of fretting and wasting money about that, we should realize that a giant part of the frozen tundra will be freed up for growing food year round and feed the world even better! I'm just not afraid of global change - I think more of us should have faith. Especially since most of the believable scientists say it is too late already!

I used to work in science research...

my lead scientist was clear in that the number one thing to do as a scientist is to pander for more research dollars - otherwise you are out of a job! Not a good thing for a fellow who risked his money for 8 years of pure hell studying at the university. So we are all in this theory stuff from someone who desperately must jump willy-nilly on the climate change band wagon and FAST, or risk losing valuable government larder! I'm sorry, but we are listening to the wrong source for this. Talk to a geologist, and he will sardonically tell you the earth has seen all this before, including the CO2 levels long before modern man existed.

The climate change "birthers" push on data collected in the last few years of an earth system which has arguably lasted 4.1 billion years. And we only look at the last few centuries, and are willing to risk all of civilization on that thin evidence?! I'm sorry, but I must guard my pocket book on this, if I can charge my EV with wind and solar cheaper than petrol, then I will darn well do that, but only if it is cheaper! We all got to survive after all!

Silverlight finally becomes popular ... with crims

I'm saying that..

I have direct evidence that the crapware that MPAA REQUIRES is being taken over by nation states, at least in this criminal environment. Why do people just trust these spywares in their computer? Anyone that makes software/hardware powerful enough to turn off your monitor, intercept your email in a MITM attack, reboot the computer without warning, block necessary SSL certificate updates, and quite frankly are so cocky they even put notes in files without really trying to hide them on what the target was doing last time they took them over, so they can pick up where they left off! This is a disgrace, and I've been fighting it since 2006. All you have to do is read the news headlines, some of them here at the Reg to see this has been going on for some time. Why trust something you absolutely have no control over, like NAA and MPAA authorized spyware? That is just naive if you ask me!

Thanks to the MPAA..

I'm just about positive that all DRM is being exploited by nation based bad actors using it for industrial espionage. From what has happened to my clients, the forensic trail leads to this reality. We are all losing our national interests to the MPAA and the industry's greed.

PayPal Manager bug left web stores open to cyber-burglars

Well I'd hope so!!

During the Heartbleed fiasco, I was testing PayPal servers and one of them was mis-configured, and presented a vulnerability not related to heart bleed. They said they'd look into it. I haven't retested them yet, but we'll see.

Interstellar Fight Club: Watch neutron star tear Goliath a new hole

So - you feeling lucky punk?

I know what your thinking - did my neutron stars go off? Well I got a gamma ray burster here that could just blow the whole face of your planet off!! Feeling lucky punk! HA!

Boffinry breakthrough: First self-replicating life with 'alien' DNA

And then came...

The Beast from the abyss!

WTF is Net Neutrality, anyway? And how can we make everything better?

Dear noominy noom...

I assumed most would see the a US situation is not of their own. but what is stopping the power of the people in your country? I realize that in a dictatorship this can't happen, but the FON network that was experimented in France could. Using a MESH network, the people put up their OWN network! I realize France probably put up some seed money, but when you look at what gamers pay for high cost equipment and software, this network would be a believable alternative - possibly even in a dictatorship - if properly organized in an underground network.

In the FON network everyone supports the other with a MESH infrastructure that is provided by individuals with a properly setup wireless router, or even more sophisticated transfer points. Some traffic would be shared, of course , a lot like P2P is now, but with a tunneling protocol that would shield each users activity to everyone else.

In the US we have many wireless channels we could force the FCC to free up, like the unused portions of the old VHS and UHF TV spectrum no longer use or needed by on air TV broadcasting, the many line of site microwave towers now laying dormant because of the growth of 3G, laser line of site back bone built by individual tinkerers, Citizen Band - a now dormant spectrum, which now that it is also digital could free up HUGE aerial assets!, even the HAM radio enthusiasts could join in this movement. What do you have in your country - neighborhood? Do you not have the power of the people?

I'll throw some salt over my shoulder

for this article, as it is obviously not a neutral view - But I live in the desert out in the middle of no where. We have so few people here, we had to build our own networks, which include wireless, cable - both copper and optical fiber, and for a short time, satellite. Our association sold off the satellite assets long ago, and finally sold their cell phone assets to another customer owned cell service. So no we only have cable tv/internet/landline service using this association. However - depending on which community you are from, there is everything from AT&T U-Verse, to Verizon wireless, to power-line internet available. I live in the most restricted community in miles around and I still have 4 choices of all three services from four different providers. All of them with unlimited plans that are very competitive.

This phenomenon of a few companies monopolizing much of this networking is curious to me. Why do we out here in the desert have more choices than a city slicker in a huge community? It could be that we are a small potatoes market, so the truly big companies aren't interested in taking over the whole show, because the return isn't good enough. I have another theory though. It isn't that we are a backwater community which doesn't interest the big players - it is that we built our own networks in the 1st place, and that scares the POOP out of the Comcasts and AT&Ts of the world? If you are not happy with your competition in your market, band together and build your own customer owned association to build a new network that you profit from!! The old contracts that used to block this 100 years ago have long expired, and in fact were declared illegal in the courts, so as long as you are building fiber and not cluttering up the airwaves, you can own your own network and profit from it your selves.

This is the true American way, and it scares the HELL out of the fat cats! That is why there is so much "competition" in my area, because they want to destroy the last bastion of customer owned networking, and they will spend everything they can to do that - even if they have to lose money in a back water(desert) community. Bear in mind folks that we also built the fiber back bone in the middle west, so even Sprint used to borrow our assets to reach from the eastern US to the west. So far the associations are still winning however, because one of them still has the best deal on unlimited everything for 29.99 a month on 3G wireless. I was shocked when I visited a buddies house who uses this service. He can add any device for a small stipend and one of them was a 3G dongle for his smart TV. He was watching video movies on it that rivaled anything Netflix had, but I'm not sure which video streaming service he was using, and he was picking them on his smart phone to command the HDTV. He also has unlimited voice, and text/email. Life doesn't get any better than this! :D

We're from the same dust cloud, bro: Boffins find Sun's long-lost sibling

Re: Bad news...

No more than rap music, which has not changed since 1980! HA! I'd say they are in competition for longest lived music media!

Malarial vaccine firm seeks crowdfunding for robo-saliva surgeon

And then another super bug would be born...

I say the mosquito traps designed by NASA and sold so ubiquitously in the US would do a better job. Don't we have enough problems world wide with antibiotics and the like? It was my understanding last I read, that Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation found these destroyers to be the most cost effective way, short of controlling breeder water sources, to dampen malaria world wide.

I designed a similar version in 1991, that was a sure killer of not only mosquitoes, but a large portion of the stable flies as well! I never patented it, but NASA took the lead in the late 1990s.

Thanks for nothing, Apple, say forensic security chaps

Re: Boo. Hoo..

I keep reading they can do this in the US too - but that just doesn't compute that you can just throw the 5th Amendment out the window without a Supreme Court battle. It may even be a 4th and 10th Amendment issue as well when looking at the whole of it. Perhaps no one has fought it because of the preponderance of the evidence other than what is encrypted made the revelation of it unnecessary? Hmm?! Of course these have been border crossing cases, and maybe they think even US Citizens rights end at the border?

Re: Alternate article title

What!?! No breaking phones in half and throwing them into public trash cans, like Mr. White in "Breaking Bad"????

NAAAaa! That's too easy!

Marauding quid-a-day nosh hack menaces teepee hippie villages

Excellent article!

You guys would make great "Doomsday Preppers"!! Looking at the list of ingredients shows most of the produce would store nicely in plastic sealed containers for years.

You could quit you job and become a consultant to nervous rich kids on how to survive the coming apocalypse! :D

Target finally implements chip and PIN card protections

Re: Meet the new cards...

That is probably just as well. With these kinds of crooks, Cowchip-N-Pen is just a speed bump!!

Privateers race to capture forgotten NASA space probe using crowdsourced cash

Re: history repeating itself

That's exactly what I was going to say!!

Apple stabs Heartbleed bug in AirPort Extreme, Time Capsule gear

OOoops!

Well my brother's a Mac head, and he is already realizing Apple is just like every other concoction out there - you will find vulns in about anything if you look hard enough. I'm sure he'll have to patch both his Airport Extreme and time machine as well.

Now I'm wondering if my company is being honest about their GPL firmware?!!