Posts by JimboSmith

No, no, no! Disco joke hit bum note in the rehab center

Re: poor taste

A mate had Bat Out Of Hell as a personalised ringtone for his Mother In Law. I say hadbecause his MOL pocket dialled him by accident whilst both at a family gathering. She was not amused and had him change it there and then.

Re: "If he downloaded Hallelujah, the problems would have been much worse"

The rather excellent Mitch Benn got jolly annoyed with Hallelujah was covered by the Christmas xfactor winner. I have no idea who it was or what it sounded like but I do like his song about it. What’s really nice is that he doesn’t use the actual melody but does his own so as not to tarnish the original.Stay the hell away from Hallelujah https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gQ_ayRYWbrc

International Criminal Court hit in cyber-attack amid Russia war crimes probe

And doesn’t offer a source for this claim either.

Data breach reveals distressing info: People who order pineapple on pizza

Re: Having grown up in Hawaii

Visiting the Caribbean one year my parents were told of this place half way up a hill (this may have been Bequia) beside a harbour that did fabulous pizza. Slightly dubious they went to this place which from research may have been Mac’s Pizzeria Trip Advisor reviews Here they were offered Lobster Pizza, which had been likewise recommended and they tried it. My dad doesn’t do new food ideas willingly but tried it and really liked it. He said it might be the combination of the location, the weather, that they’d booked by marine Vhf radio, that it was a holiday, as well as the food, but that was seriously good.

Google throws California $93M to make location tracking lawsuit disappear

Actually AT&T were long in the sights of one arm of the US Government who favoured break up of the telecoms giant. However the Department of Defence and the TLA intelligence arms (CIA, NSA etc.) opposed this and were successful. The reason they were so against breaking up AT&T was because the company was so important to the national security and defence of the USA including Continuity of Government.

Caesars says cyber-crooks stole customer data as MGM casino outage drags on

Re: Once verified

In a quite the corporation didn’t say:

Encryption, yeah we’ve heard of it but fail to see the relevance here.

Someone I worked with years ago was looking for something online and stumbled upon what he thought was a list of addresses with details of the owners financial status. Very excited he looked up the owner of the domain and called them explaining he’d found this list that shouldn’t be there.

It turns out they were summer rental properties not people’s homes. He thought HWNI meant high net worth individual when in fact it meant Hot Water Not Included, for the bills.

Meet Honda's latest electric vehicle: A rideable suitcase

It is to my eternal shame that I cannot give you more than one upvote for a reference to the great man that made me laugh out loud in a very quiet office.

Techie labelled 'disgusting filth merchant' by disgusting hypocrite

That would be an ecumenical matter..

Have an upvote for the Father Ted reference. RIP Dermot Morgan and Frank Kelly.

Portable Large Language Models – not the iPhone 15 – are the future of the smartphone

Re: Sure, it's possible, but why would you want it?

Similarly I wouldn’t use a LLM because it would likely hoover up more of my data than I liked/ make inferences about me based on what I inputted. I can see one use case of a LLLM (Local Large Language Model) for creating your children a bedtime story which your local automated assistant can then read to them. If the LLLM has only nice things/ mild peril to reference from, then it can’t devise a story that has mass murders in it etc. Other than that ……….

Re: Sure, it's possible, but why would you want it?

A few years ago I was asked by a big boss why I didn’t use Siri, Alexa Bixby, zor whatever the Google one is called. I said that they were great for some people but personally I couldn’t see the point unless they worked on a closed loop system. Once I had explained that I meant no connection to the Internet they were a bit more informed, and understood my objections better. I explained that I didn’t want a microphone in my house listening to my every word and having the ability to send it back to somebody else. They atill thought I was a bit paranoid until I said I wouldn’t say something in front of one of these things that I wouldn’t write on a postcard and send through the Royal Mail. I could see the colour draining away as I said if you’ve done a business call in front of one of these things then it could have heard the whole thing. “Even worse, have one in the bedroom when you’re getting jiggy with it.” That was not the right thing to say according to my boss who knew that the big boss had been given smart speakers by his wife on Valentine’s Day.

Watt's the worst thing you can do to a datacenter? Failing to RTFM, electrically

Re: Check the power supply

The perils of smoking.

We were standing outside in 30-40mph winds in a temperature that wasn’t even 10 degrees Celsius. Some wag quipped that if she’d had the cigarette indoors we might not be standing outside freezing our behinds off*. The pasta thing was cremated and she’d only opened the window in the first place because it was so hot in the tiny kitchen. Little surprise it was hot given she had the oven set to maximum.

*Smoking was verboten within the entire university buildings but you could detect signs by looking for ash trays on window ledges.

Re: Check the power supply

A girl in my halls at Uni had never been away from home before to live and so the dark arts of laundry and cooking were new to her. Her mum had provided her with a handwritten set of recipes to cook whilst at university that were easy to do and things she’d eaten at home. Unfortunately her mum had forgotten something rather crucial which we only discovered when the building had to be evacuated. The recipes were written using Fahrenheit and the cooker only showed Celsius on the dial.

Never having cooked before she put the cooker as high as it would go because it couldn’t reach 430 degrees. After 15 mins she put the offending food into the scorching oven, a timer on for 20 minutes and she had then gone outside for a cigarette. Not long afterwards there were clouds of black/grey smoke emanating from the kitchen on our floor. Making things worse, because the window in the kitchen was open and there was a howling gale outside it quickly started smelling everywhere on the floor, well before the smoke alarms were triggered. Fire brigade were automatically alerted and the head porter had to call them to prevent a visit saying it was just a burnt pasta bake.

Bombshell biography: Fearing nuclear war, Musk blocked Starlink to stymie Ukraine attack on Russia

Re: So Musk has blood on his hands

The smouldering hulks of German and British tanks say otherwise

What about the far greater number of Russkie tanks that have been destroyed or captured? Looking at OSINT for values for tanks on both sides of this war from some people called Oryx who I only discovered yesterday after the Musky revelations and a mate tipping me off.

Ukrainian Tanks: 647,

of which destroyed: 420,

damaged: 53,

abandoned: 31,

captured: 143.

————————————

Russkie Tanks: 2301

of which destroyed: 1491,

damaged: 130,

abandoned: 132,

captured: 550,

So the Russkies have had three and a half times as many tanks destroyed as the Ukrainians.The total losses for stuff are even worse for the invading Russkies at 12,058 vs 4,392 for the Ukrainians defenders. Oh and the best part is they’ve got pictures of each one to back up these figures.

That’s a pretty explosive claim (pun not intended) and sad if true.

PEBCAK problem transformed young techie into grizzled cynical sysadmin

Re: Assumption

My mum called the bank immediately after she responded to a fishing email and then realised her mistake. The bank were very understanding and asked her for her account details to lock everything down and change numbers passwords etc. She told them what she’d typed and the woman at the other end apparently sounded puzzled. She asked mum for her details again and then said “not to worry” they weren’t her account details.

Mum now reckons that there are advantages to getting old and slightly losing your marbles after all.

UK admits 'spy clause' can't be used for scanning encrypted chat – it's not 'feasible'

Yeah I’m sure if you quizzed politicians in two different ways you’d get two different responses. (With apologies to Anthony Jay and Jonathan Lynn)

You ask your average MP

Q1. Are you concerned about children in the modern society we live in?

Yes of course

Q2. Are you concerned that children are exposed to technology from an earlier age than ever before?

Yes I’m concerned.

Q3. Do you think this exposure is harming our young people?

Yes I’m sure it is.

Q4. Are you concerned that these applications are allowing the sexual exploitation of children in this country.

Yes I’m concerned.

Q5. Do you think that there should be more regulation of mobile applications in this country?

Yes that’s appropriate.

Q6. Do you support the government having the ability to check the content of anything sent by messaging apps to prevent kiddie porn being shared?

Yes obviously.

Of course you’re going to say yes to those because you care about (or want to be seen to be caring about) our young people (future voters).

But if you ask set of questions 2

Q1. Are you concerned about the rise of surveillance in this country we live in?

Yes.

Q2. Do you think this increase in surveillance is intrusive in our lives?

Yes it’s a concern

Q3. Do you feel we should have a right to privacy in this country?

Yes we should.

Q4. Are you concerned that we’re seeing more intrusions into our lives by the government and the security services?

Yes that’s was made obvious by Edward Snowden

Q5. Do you think that this intrusion is unwarranted and unjustified?

Yes my communications with my constituents should be confidential.

Q6. Do you support the current government having the ability to check the content of anything sent by you on messaging apps?

No! that’s a step or even several steps too far.

Easily done and the responses you supply are going to lead you to two answers to the final questions which are polar opposites.

The original is on YouTube here and in quotes here

They didn't "accept" anything. They're just waiting for it to be "technically feasible".

Which proves that they don't understand that it is not feasible, technically or otherwise.

This is just basic political maneuvering. Move the goalposts, look like you're doing something.

My mum accepts that it isn’t technically feasible and she exceeds the age of most (Bill Cash MP excluded) Members of Parliament. I did have to explain why you couldn’t backdoor encryption but she got it very quickly. She’s no technology expert but understands the concept perfectly and is a WhatsApp user as well.

Mozilla calls cars from 25 automakers 'data privacy nightmares on wheels'

Re: A long time ago...

my point is that the credit card data should under no circumstances be retained for longer than is required for the transaction takes, and should be used for no other purpose - even internally. If I want to buy something from again, amazingly I can stuff in that (or its replacement) a second time. The same applies for name and address. Using a credit/debit card should be no less anonymous than using cash (to the retailer. The card issuer will know, by definition, but equally, they should be prohibited from passing on that data).

Speaking as someone in retail I would hope at the very least they’re complying with PCI DSS standards:

https://listings.pcisecuritystandards.org/documents/PCI_DSS-QRG-v3_2_1.pdf

I'll see your data loss and raise you a security policy violation

Re: Outlook...

Yeah I worked somewhere where the policy was changed during my tenure there. No longer would local storage be allowed, everything had to be stored on the server. Also since the dawn of time you were never allowed to store anything personal on the servers. Some people dumped a lot of stuff onto CDRoms before this policy came into force. The plan was to restrict user access to the local storage and make it The IT director had the idea that we could then have hot-desking as you’d be able to log in anywhere and access your files and each computer would have the same software loaded. However one program that a few of us throughout the business used required local storage. It wouldn’t work without it and stored user specific data locally. So those of us that used it still had totally free access to the local hard drives. It also kyboshed the hot-desking idea which for a few people was a great relief.

UK flights disrupted by 'technical issue' with air traffic computer system

Re: Is this file necessary?

Stephen Stucker RIP.

Windows screensaver left broadcast techie all at sea

Re: Not a screen saver, but...

Customer: "That would help. What got me was the error message that popped up".

Support: "Oh?"

Customer: "Yes. It said "9 out of 10 intelligent people would have worked this out by now""!

Luckily, this customer was an understanding type with a sense of humour...

We had an in house program that one of the tech developers had written. It was all fine until he left and a few months later there was a user who said her hard drive was on fire. When the startled IT support bloke asked her why she thought this she said an error message. One screenshot later and indeed it did say “Your Hard Drive Is On Fire” which it obviously wasn’t. There were a few others that also cropped up but what was very odd was one of the other devs had rewritten the code after the original bloke left. That was supposed to have eliminated most of the more “interesting” things in the program.

One thing I did was to change the screensaver on a colleague’s machine many years ago when she hadn’t locked it. She came back from a long meeting to find scrolling across her screen text akin to:

“Why do you leave me alone for so long, computers have feelings too you know.”

She seemed to ignore that so I followed it up with something like

“That’s right swan off to another meeting and don’t put it in your electronic diary!”

She grabbed me when I got back to my desk and said in a hushed voice I think my computer is talking to me. I let on at that point what I’d done.

Re: huh?

Wasn’t at a company I worked for but a mate was working there and they were losing quite a lot of stock to shoplifting. He attended a meeting where the problem was outlined and suggestions were taken as to solving the problem. During the meeting it was outlined that fitting rooms were where the thieves were secreting their ill gotten gains about their person or in a bag. Somebody in the meeting seriously suggested putting cameras in the fitting rooms to try and catch them in the act. Unsurprisingly the lawyer and most other people were utterly against this. Can’t think why.

Bank of Ireland outage sees customers queue for 'free' cash – or maybe any cash

Re: It's a bank, of course it's not free money

During lockdown I was supporting my parents and not living at home. My energy supplier was still taking the same direct debit every month for both the Gas and the Electricity. When I eventually got home and through the mountain of post there were letters from said energy company. They were demanding a meter reading over several letters and telling me that if my account is underpaid they could in certain circumstances demand the entire amount owing immediately.

However having done meter readings they were way off in the wrong direction and I had significantly overpaid. I called up and quoted the readings which the woman on the other end said didn’t sound right. I explained that I hadn’t been at home for x months and the weather had been exceptionally mild. So that explained the lower than expected readings but I’d send pictures if needed. She said that I was significantly in credit and needed no further payment. Regarding that overpayment I said I could in certain circumstances demand the entire amount owing to me immediately.

She said she’d send it to another department and they would be in touch about the cash owed. After a couple of weeks they refunded me minus that months payment.

Judge denies HP's plea to throw out all-in-one printer lockdown lawsuit

Re: I ditched HP printers

I have 2 netgear plug-in wifi extenders that also require an online account to set up. I have no clue why.

Velop Mesh from Linksys has a similar system that unless you dig deep enough, requires an online account via their app. After a lot of faff, searching the internet and calling customer service I discovered that it’s possible without. They don’t make it obvious though and the instructions make no reference to it. When I enquired as to the sense (if there ever was any) in having my passwords stored on their cloudy computers the customer support rep said it helps you make changes when you’re not in the house. I said I was baffled as to why I’d want to do that. He didn’t have an answer that made sense in the real world.

New Zealand supermarket's recipe-generating AI takes toxic output to a new level

Re: Woah there !

My dad bought an outboard motor in the USA and the first third of the manual was taken up with things you were not supposed to do. Along with the things that would impair the motor like running it out of water with no cooling, were the things that would impair you. Don’t touch spinning blades on the propeller was one gem. Another was to avoid swimming close to the rear of a boat where the motor was fitted and/or in use. It was a two stroke motor and you were advised not to drink the fuel. etc.

Sparkling fresh updates to Ubuntu, Mint and Zorin on way

Re: they could do something very special

Strangely a good few years ago my mum was having difficulty printing something from Windows. She’d just bought a new HP inkjet printer that day against my advice and it wouldn’t work with the supplied drivers nor ones downloaded from the net. My comparatively tiny Linux EeePC that I had in my bag worked fine when connected by USB, it might have downloaded a driver itself can’t remember. She was very impressed though that my little computer worked so well and her big one didn’t. I spotted that the printer had an issue inside with a damaged ribbon cable so he took it back and had her money back. Bought a laser one after that

UK voter data within reach of miscreants who hacked Electoral Commission

Re: "The registers did not include the details of anyone who registered anonymously."

Have an upvote for the Scooby references.

Soon the most popular 'real' desktop will be the Linux desktop

Re: functionality

“ Unix-based users JUST DON'T GET IT. Unix was hyped for the desktop...it failed (Apple's adoption of BSD, and their taming of it for the Average Joe, aside). Linux fails because of the same ARROGANCE that users want the 'superiority' of Unix / Linus OS, but then have to sacrifice on end-user application functionality and friendliness. Get a grip, they won't make that compromise - and HAVEN'T, for DECADES - but nothing changes with the Linux crowd. They're wrong, you're right, but then you wonder how your Pet Baby never gets the desktop respect you think it deserves, because "Unix!". Average Joe ALREADY has a choice for Unix-system stability - it's called MacOS - and people attuned to that go there, with far more support, far more polish, and a joyous user learning curve and end-user experience. Linux, as it stands, doesn't stand a chance against that - that can change, but hasn't, for decades.”

Yeah except if you want to use MAC OS you have to use the Apple Hardware which is a bit on the pricey side. Yes I know you can create a Hackintosh but that’s hardly a “joyous user learning curve” creating one of those. Plus I wouldn’t call Finder a great “end-user experience” either, but it might appeal to some people.

Mom and Pop end users don't have MS Office on their radar when they pick their new computer, "But honey, will it run Office?" isn't a common discussion. In the U.S., "Will it run TurboTax?" is a much more common concern, never mind "But how does it do when I'm on the internet?", "Will Joe Jr. be able to do his homework?", "Will it run my games?", and of course cost.

Now most people aren’t even aware that there is another operating system they can use on their computer. Have you tried to buy a PC without Windows pre installed? Difficult isn’t it, and nigh on impossible on the high street. My last laptop had Windows pre installed and part of the purchase price was paying for that. I’d rather have had a cheaper laptop than pay to have a copy of windows I don’t want or need.

Windows 11 is painful to use and if I didn’t have to use it at work I wouldn’t. That was released far too early, without everything working correctly and some redesigned programs that are worse to use than their predecessors.

How to get a computer get stuck in a lift? Ask an 'illegal engineer'

Re: We had a similar incident

A colleague at a prior employer had moved offices from a single to a joint office that had recently been vacated. There was a desirable view from one desk but not the other and my mate had had his computer set up on the non viewing desk. The other occupant wasn’t due in for a day and he put a ticket into IT support to have the computers swapped round. Except that at 5pm no one from IT had visited and although he thought he might be able to move his own PC he’d chickened out. The other one scared him because it was an “all in one” where the network cable needed you to open something difficult on the PC case to unplug it.

So he calls me, I said no problem and did the deed at 6pm once the place was empty and we’d both finished for the night. I told him to drop the IT ticket or they might switch them back which would screw up his plan. He assures me he will and then took me for a quick thank you drink. He didn’t cancel anything when he got home (alcohol related amnesia I believe) and got lucky in that the IT bloke who came up looked at the setup and left it alone as it was already set up as per the result requested on the ticket.

SAP CEO push for cloud-only 'innovation' shatters users' trust in German-speaking heartlands

Re: Yes and no.

If you’ve got data relating to customers on SAP and there’s a damn good chance that you will, then on-prem you have more control of that data. It would worry me that with that data in the “SAP cloud” if the cloud is hacked who takes the GDPR 4% of turnover hit. Personally I’d have it written into the contract in big bold letters that if there is a data breach to their cloud and my data, then it’s the SAP who take that hit. 4% of the SAP €31bn 2022 turnover, unless my maths is borked, is €124m per breach which isn’t chump change. If enough companies did that, SAP might have a bit of think, or not as the case may be given their current intransigence.

Voyager 2 found! Deep Space Network hears it chattering in space

Re: Contact!

Interesting that this news is released the same day as Dara O’Briain Wonders of the Moon airs on television. Coincidence……..?

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Yes more than likely. Very good programme and worth a watch on catch-up if you’re interested.

The choice: Pay BT megabucks, or do something a bit illegal. OK, that’s no choice

Re: 100m goes a long way

A good few years ago there was a landlord (in the west of England) who told his student tenants that they wouldn’t be getting their deposit back.Why, because it was needed for cleaning the place they’d just handed back the keys to. They along with one of the mothers decided that they weren’t going to settle for this and took the landlord to court to recover the money. The mother said in court that the place was spotless when they students vacated the property.

How did she know? She’d helped them clean it and made sure it was done properly and wasn’t a half arsed job. The judge said he believed the mother was a very credible witness, telling the truth and that the landlord should hand back the entire deposit.

Last night on the way home I stopped at a supermarket which by chance was having some cabling done. There were a few boxes of Cat9 cable in one aisle and I asked the shop assistant was it sold per meter or per box? Oh and did he have the price for each please? He looked at me blankly until I laughed and he realised I was joking.

RIP Kevin Mitnick: Former most-wanted hacker dies at 59

Yeah I read it on holiday and couldn’t put it down.

RIP Kevin, the world would have been a far duller place without you.

Someone just blew over $190k on a 4GB first-gen iPhone

You mean the one that had the display fixed so it only ever showed maximum signal, only worked without crashing if you follow a preordained sequence of actions and didn’t deviate from that? That phone?

And before all the downvotes from Apple fans that’s actually true. Please read the relevant pages in Dogfight: How Apple and Google Went to War and Started a Revolution to gain further insight from people involved. AT&T also installed mobile base stations around Moscone to provide guaranteed signal.

Typo watch: 'Millions of emails' for US military sent to .ml addresses in error

Re: I had/have a related problem

I own a domain name that is a .com and the .net is owned by a mom and pop business in the USA. I used to get emails for them every so often and would forward them on. One year I got back from holiday and found one about their insurance expiring, where the agent had mistyped it despite the incoming email being from the .net

Then I spotted that all the mails were going to one address only [e-mail]. So I set up an automatic forward for mails addressed to that but incorrectly to the .com not the .net Nothing has reached me since.

We will find you and we will sue you, Twitter tells 4 mystery alleged data-scrapers

Re: Four IP Addresses

That all said, this is pretty standard Twitler stupidity. He's become increasingly isolated and paranoid, to the point where he needs a bodyguard to follow him to the bathroom at Twitter. Whatever cocktail of drugs he's got himself on, they clearly have not been having the desired effect(s).

The next Howard Hughes?

NASA 'quiet' supersonic jet is nearly ready for flight

Re: That diagram/faux graph makes me a little suspicious.

You’d rather they stuck to standard Reg units I see. https://www.theregister.com/2007/08/24/vulture_central_standards/

California man's business is frustrating telemarketing scammers with chatbots

Re: Definitely a good use for chatbots

"I rarely get cold calls"

Last one of those I had was at work and when asked by the lovely chap from the Indian Subcontinent if I had been injured in the accident that wasn't my fault, I said:

Me: "Yes it was awful I've never been in a fatal accident before at least not one where I died"

Sounding very interested: "So you were injured in the accident?"

Me: "Yes mortally wounded as it turned out, the funeral was lovely though"

Sounding very interested: "Can you describe your injuries?"

Me: "Yup Death by Decapitation and not the good kind*, not going to walk away from that"

Sounding extremely interested: "Have you spoken to a lawyer yet?"

Me: "No very few people talk to you when you're dead, I'm grateful for your call."

Sounding disinterested: "Are you saying you didn't survive the accident?"

At this point there is the sound of someone else joining the call.

Me: "Yes, and I wouldn't recommend cremation if I were you, bit hot!!!”

Line goes dead

Ole Juul on these very forums had a brilliant one for the your computer has a virus scammers.

I usually just tell them I'm not running Windows. Next question is "Mac?". "Nope - BSD", I say. Some ignore that because they don't know what it means and I tell them they're an idiot and that's the end of that conversation. Others say "oh" and hang up.

But one time as response to "your computer is sending out viruses" I said "yes?" and he repeated the statement several times until he finally heard me. "Yes, that's what I do for a living", I calmly said. "How may I help you?" He was silent for moment, then said "just a moment, I'll get my supervisor". The supervisor came on and repeated the accusation, and I explained to him that this is no surprise since "that's what I do for a living". I could literally hear the wheels spinning in his head for a moment, and he finally said "Oh, that's fine then." ... and hung up.

Microsofties still digesting pay freeze upset by Nadella's 'landmark year' memo

Re: What Makes You Think You're Safe?

Windows 11 especially the bloody Taskbar and start menu is a right pain to use and not considered an upgrade in these parts.

I agree and don’t talk to me about the New “Paint” which speaking for myself is dreadful and I am unanimous in that.

Re: Aspiration

A note appears on your payslip:

It has come to our attention that you have been working late into the night and coming in quite early. We wanted you to know that this hasn’t gone unnoticed.

Therefore please find a deduction below for the extra heat, light and power you’ve used.

Now Apple takes a bite out of encryption-bypassing 'spy clause' in UK internet law

Re: Proof of the UKs diminishing political structure ...

We believe E2EE can be safely backdoored whilst keeping users' privacy

I had to explain to my Mum a short while ago that end to end encryption underpins a lot of the modern world. “So why don’t they include these back doors all the politicos talk about then?” Well because if you do that and someone discovers this back door and works out how to open it, you’re screwed. So online shopping and banking would be totally impossible without E2E. WhatsApp (and Signal) both use it too etc. She now accepts that we can’t ditch it nor backdoor it.

She’s retired and has been for a good few years so has been around a lot longer than the average MP. She did no science at school because she was female and they didn’t back then. She’s got children and grandchildren so has thought of the children thank you very much. If she can understand this…………..

Re: So, we're back to square one again

Drama was made subject to state censorship in 1737 in Britain to 'protect public morals' in response to satirical attacks on the government in plays by dangerous domestic terrorists like Henry Fielding (author of 'Tom Jones'). Sound familiar?

It’s not unusual

Mine’s the one with the red dragon on the back.

Dialup-era developer writes ChatGPT client for Windows 3.1

Re: Your scientists were so preoccupied with whether they could...

A chat bot... it was a chat bot they were going to remember for a very long time.

Another redesign on the cards for iPhone as EU rules call for removable batteries

Re: UK specific model?

Samsung have mobiles with removable batteries and backs that have IP68 rating, have done for years. Take a look at the Xcover range to see examples.

UK smart meter rollout years late and less than two thirds complete

Re: Don't need remote disconnect

You can’t be talking about the proposal to use a single decryption key for smart meters communications can you. What could possibly go wrong with that?

Re: Don't need remote disconnect

I keep reading about "they'll switch off your power!". I believe SMETS1 and 2 meters have no switch. They don't need one.

I believe that your belief may be mistaken as GCHQ disagree with your assertion, and they were involved in the specifications for these things.

Now, let's suppose that despite the security controls put in place by an energy supplier, an attacker compromises an electricity supplier system and starts sending lots of disconnect commands. Firstly, they can only send valid commands to meters where this supplier has ownership; they can't do anything at all to meters bound to other suppliers because they simply don't have the keys that those meters will trust.

Let’s also assume the attacker wants to disconnect all the meters that this supplier runs. Since he's compromised the supplier system, he can generate the disconnect messages and correctly sign them using the supplier's identity. He then sends them off to the DCC to have the authentication code (which only the DCC can generate) added to the message, and have the messages delivered to the meters. There's a function in the DCC called 'anomaly checking' and it does what it says on the tin - looks for weirdness. In the case of disconnect commands, we don't expect many to be sent on a daily basis. So, there's a simple counter in the DCC. If it sees too many disconnects being sent, it just raises an alarm and stops the messages being routed on.

my bolding in the above

https://web.archive.org/web/20170701222013/https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/articles/smart-security-behind-gb-smart-metering-system

That made me laugh out loud, have an upvote.

Re: Smart DCC, a subsidiary of Capita

There’s a reason Private Eye call it Crapita.