Posts by Herb LeBurger

Democracy-minded DEF CON hackers promise punishing probe on US election computers

Won't they get sued?

Won't the voting machine manufacturers just sue (or just threaten to sue) the researchers?

McCain: Come to my encryption hearing. Tim Cook: No, I'm good. McCain: I hate you, I hate you, I hate you

Re: Off script?

"since when has it become necessary to denote Shakesperian references on a UK website with hyperlinks to corresponding articles on Wikipedia?"

This dumb Yankee appreciates the links.

These big-name laptops are infested with security bugs – study

Re: Just load

@BitterExScientist,

I was at a developer conference recently where Dell had a booth for their Project Sputnik. I asked the dude at the booth what it was all about, he explained that they are Dell laptops with Linux preloaded. I asked "why not just install Mint on a ThinkPad?". He replied, "well if you want to go to all that trouble...". It's no trouble at all, I've been doing it for so long I don't even find it a chore. Just part of playing with the new shiny. And does anyone think Dell can resist putting crapware on their Linux boxes?

Seattle Suehawks: Smart meter hush-up launched because, er ... terrorism

I'll bet the FBI has set up a Stingray

... to find out what other shenanigans this Mocek character is up to. Even if they had to get a warrant, I'm sure telling the judge that he requested documents from the city would be enough to get it signed.

And while I'm betting:

"The information Sensus has redacted contains specific details that, if publicly released, would increase the risk of both cyber-intrusions and physical attacks on the utility grid," Sensus says in its filing.

Anyone else think these specific details are "The default password is 'password'. And the default password can't be changed." ?

Hillary Clinton broke law with private email server – top US govt watchdog

Re: "Printing and filing those records"

@DougS,

The State Department recording keeping policy requires keeping paper copies of emails? Citation please.

Or was Hillary's delivery of 55,000 pieces of paper just a big FU to the investigators? Bury them in paperwork, make it impossible to just run a search, easy to omit anything you don't want them to see, no metadata...

And no, this does not mean I support Drumpf. At best Hillary broke the rules because she didn't feel like following them. At worst she broke the rules because she planned to keep anyone from seeing some of her State Department communications. And she's still the lesser of two evils. The United States is truly Fucked.

Boffins achieve 'breakthrough' in random number generation

Re: Next big question

Wow, I was also thinking of 42. How random is that?

The bill for Home Depot after its sales registers were hacked: $19.5m

Home Depot has learned a valuable lesson here

... that paying some compensation and lawyers' fees is cheaper than implementing good security practices.

CIA boss uses AOL email – and I hacked it, claims stoner teen

Re: This is the WTF of the millenium

You are so right. Fucking mind boggling that the head of the CIA has work related documents in a personal email account. I work in the financial services industry. We can't access personal email from work. Period. But does the US intelligence community have any such controls? Nope. Unfortunately this will be spun as "See, this is why we need more domestic spying!".

US mega-hack: White House orders govt IT to do what it should have done in the first place

Don't worry

Spying on the American people will prevent this sort of thing.

Creationist: The Flintstones was an accurate portrayal of Dino-human coexistence

Re: Let's get something else sorted out first

Wait, which religion has aliens with big tits? I might want to rethink this atheist thing.

Ultimate hardware hack: Home Depot nailed by vice merchants

Re: re: DEBIT cards

@logistix

What do pump and dump or dine and dash have to do with PCI compliance or the links you posted? How did you fix those messes?

Microsoft charges the FBI $50 for a copy of your private data, claim 'Redmond hackers'

Re: $50 for a user's data being profitable? Unlikely.

"Receipts filed under FBI Contract JFB108289 regularly exceeded hundreds of thousands of dollars a month"

Surely hundreds of thousands of dollars a month should cover the overhead of providing this data. If doing so were affecting their bottom line, corporations would be a lot more upset about it than the after the fact "we're outraged!" press releases that we've seen. I'd like to think that they would automate most of the process of transferring the data to law enforcement so each request becomes more of a button click than a manual process, but who knows. I understand that automation isn't free, but since they can basically name their price I don't see how they could fail to profit from this.

I'm sure all the corporations involved in the PRISM data transfers were also well compensated for the infrastructure they had to set up to support it. Not just repaid for their expense, but with profit - think government contract.

ZOMBIE apocalypse! The 'LIVING DEAD' are HERE – Fox News confirmed it

@AC: It's content, not code, so wouldn't go through UAT. Though a review process might not be a bad idea...

Snowden leak: Microsoft added Outlook.com backdoor for Feds

Where did you get the SSL cert?

What if, as they did with companies like Microsoft, the government went to Verisign et al. and told them "you have to help us decrypt this traffic"? National Security and all that.

KEEP CALM and Carry On: PRISM itself is not a big deal

Re: Public awareness

If they're not collecting the content, then what is the Utah data center for?