* Posts by Unbelievable!

100 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Nov 2015

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Alarm raised after Microsoft wins data-encoding patent

Unbelievable!

When the patent concept was envisioned, they had no idea of today's technology

For me, software patent related laws (only) should be completely abolished and rewritten with RFC every step of the way.

As I see it now, it's akin to protecting 'the air inside' of an especially designed balloon, instead of protecting the balloon design.

anyway, it's far too complicated.

Ad blockers altering website code is not a copyright violation, German court rules

Unbelievable!
FAIL

Re: HTML copyright

*ahem*

@ https://forums.theregister.com/user/96254/

The copyright holder is not entitled infringe upon your statutory rights.

You may enter an agreement, but that agreement relates to copyrighted works.

It does NOT extend to eventual use. only republication and credit.

*ahem

Unbelievable!
Unhappy

jeepers. ANY business can just control your computer usage legally now.

simply buy an advert.

Fuck this shit.

Open source isn't the security problem – misusing it is

Unbelievable!

As charlie chan famously never said .. no person by themselves is a guru

As charlie chan famously never said .. "no person by themselves is a guru"

A guru picks up on lessons learned by others mistakes

(probably)

Never mind the Panic button – there's a key to Compose yourself

Unbelievable!
FAIL

this WINCOMPOSE is detected as malware - level CRITICAL

see

https://www.virustotal.com/gui/file/125119d0335c64067e5aea1e87781df9de6e6ba960fdccd001b25d4d3bbbfadf/detection

Google: We disagree with Sonos patent ruling so much, we've changed our code to avoid infringement

Unbelievable!

re: soz won't do it again, honest

"Why are they being allowed to get away with "soz won't do it again, honest" in this case?"

I could not agree with you more @IRON.

the Big Tech corps have no intention of sticking to rules or the 'spirit of the rules'. they constantly push and overstep, at users expense (it'll come back to the end user financially), knowing they just get a slap on the wrist.

The lawyers are the 2nd in line for the huge income. We should start setting about those.

And those making laws wholly elite that a degree is required to understand and practice law.

ONE GIANT CIRCLE JERK

Apple sues 'amoral 21st century mercenaries' NSO for infecting iPhones with Pegasus spyware

Unbelievable!
Black Helicopters

Re: But .. Isn't U.S 4 letter agencies and allies doing exactly the same stuff as NSO ?

lol

Unbelievable!

Re: But .. Isn't U.S 4 letter agencies and allies doing exactly the same stuff as NSO ?

Trolling? I won't rise to your attempt at insulting me, or the FAIL icon. You're clearly against the idea of acceptance of facts. If you won't listen to my point of view, then look around for yourself.

As for trolling, Not at all. Nobody's side but my own. You, they and everyone else can LIKE the universal data collection and surveillance by the 7 eyes or whosoever else you choose, but i dont have to and i wont insofar as i can.

It's Wrong. US, China, Russian, Middle east etc whoever does it. Russia and the other nations probably do similar.

But here in britain, we're served western news and political policies. Again in britain, it seems U.S interefere with everything around the world. You forget about Snowden leaks. And those agencies are all still doing that stuff. We just know about it now. "do as we say not as we do".

Unbelievable!

But .. Isn't U.S 4 letter agencies and allies doing exactly the same stuff as NSO ?

Seems like U.S just doesn't want other nations to do as US and the other 7 eyes nations do.

Once again U.S is the world police. (no i'm not sticking up for NSO, i just see a slightly wider picture.)

Magnanimous Apple will allow people to fix their iPhones using parts bought from its Self Service Repair program

Unbelievable!
Megaphone

Are the tables turning?

After a two apple devices and an unmitigated HATE for i-tunes, apple's super ridiculous prices, on top of apples severe overpowering enforcement to negate user 'flexibility of choice and customisation' aka WE CONTROL THIS.. YOU DO IT OUR WAY!!, i'm beginning to recind on my abject avoidance of the stupid tax hard/soft -ware provider.

My reasons are simple... M$ are moving into the niche created by apple, whilst apple moves out. Yet doubly worse because M$ gives up data, removes options of longevity and support, and equally just does what it want's in terms of FORCING consumers. A cloud-based-only anything is not what everyone wants, nor needs, yet forcing new hardware to accomplish it's desires, at users costs, is tantamount to apple. At least Apples business model was clear from the start. ish.

~IF~ apple moves more toward the gap M$ is leaving behind, i shall certainly consider it an option, expensive, but definitely an option/.

Give us your biometric data to get your lunch in 5 seconds, UK schools tell children

Unbelievable!
Boffin

Ex-Employee of a sister company here. There's a lot more that this article doesn't touch on.

Big brother watch (err.. "BBW"?) are a little late.

.Capita and its 'Sims' product have been taking individual student photos for a very very long time. Which were, and are, used in schools as identity.

.Biostore have been capturing student fingerprints since 2005.

.Cunninghams have been operating cashless catering for students for a long time.

.EasyTrace was another.

There are many more companies involved already that go unnamed nor acknowledged.

There is an incestuous relationship between these companies. Like all data dependent companies, the data is all export > conversion > import when changing to a new solution provider, and all that data is based on a unique identifier.

Just one field, and all the other associated data goes with it.

Example: Sims has fields for passport numbers, parents marital status etc.

Data (biometric or otherwise) is exported and imported into systems, therefore exposed to a lot more 3rd parties.

Cunninghams doesn't see the big deal because It's another day to them. They integrate with all kinds of systems. Salesforce for example..

What's more.. a lot of the data end-users (solution providers) are owned by the same parent company. Cunninghams et al are a VERTICAL as the parent group call it.

@Register can contact me if they want.

Russian spies reportedly used SolarWinds hack to steal US counterintelligence details

Unbelievable!

Re: US vs THEM

damn.. ok need to rethink...

oo.. how about hexadec art? just need to CTRL + - in the browser to zoom out. and then

stand about 30 ft (65.3168 Reg Linguine) from the screen to appreciate the beauty! :)

Unbelievable!
Go

Re: US vs THEM

Agree. It's not a one way street. Snowdons leak goes to show that emphatically.

But I draw the line at blaming Vulture Towers for the lack of providing an icon. Instead we should revert to ASCII art like true old skoolers ;)

This is AUKUS for China – US, UK, Australia reveal defence tech-sharing pact

Unbelievable!

WHY do we have to go to them and start trouble?

Just don't let them near us. Simple.

I for one am tired of paying for grunts who are otherwise unemployable. The U.S picks fights to reduce unemployment. if they kept to their own shores, their "defence" budget, and ours in the Uk, would at least half. Defend our shores, no need to close in on others.

Aviation-themed phishing campaign pushed off-the-shelf RATs into inboxes for 5 years

Unbelievable!
Flame

wish these security houses would share their tools..

The more we (the general public) are kept uniformed and prevented from analysing activity on our own systems, the more security houses keep themselves in business.

.Profit before good intentions. So they won't help the end user. just tell the world they helped. SEC business is a big dog-eat dog situation. the problem is, it's a business. Money before all else.

FULLY SHARE THE TOOLS AND INSIGHT if you TRULY want badware to diminish

Another UK government limb that can't get IR35 right: Court service pays taxman £12.5m

Unbelievable!

Re: If HMRC had to take the GOV offenders to court? how would that work? particularly the DoJ?

Of course. i get it now!

Everybody involved makes money. Barristers (and their offspring and associates)..it's all upper echelon that play with the spoils.. Recirculating (laundering) cash (cleaned) back to the richest. none of it would be seen in taxpayers hands, That journey is only one way .

Unbelievable!

Re: If HMRC had to take the GOV offenders to court? how would that work? particularly the DoJ?

DoJ, exists in both nations.. Uk Department of justice even has a library.

Unbelievable!

Re: If HMRC had to take the GOV offenders to court? how would that work? particularly the DoJ?

+1 for managing to wedge in a Monty Python reference. I kowtow to your supremeness.

Unbelievable!
WTF?

If HMRC had to take the GOV offenders to court? how would that work? particularly the DoJ?

it's just one of my random thoughts.

America enlists Big Tech to help it develop and execute cyber security plans

Unbelievable!

Security for security's sake - a self fulfilling nightmare

"...security isn't just about the tech stuff."

there is also the phenomenom of "secuirty for security's sake." As a reg article i read (a very long time ago), suggested that often, security efforts were complex, expensive and just for 'show'. And it was wise reporting. Sorry i can't find it right now. Anyway, I'll say why the article was correct and summarise.

When your budget is super tight, manpower overstretched, skillset limited, you have few options.

But the essence is simple;

Harden the business critical, but don't harden the difficullty in applying it.

What is critical? All data. But namely email, finance, crm and product related databases. Everything else can be reinstalled etc.

HARDEN FROM IN TO OUT. Protect your CORE. Necessary access only. Grow the hardening OUT and only add authed users as required.

Too many throw up arbitary ring fences on remote access and closing a few ports, but this is lazy "keep the punters happy" style. it should be later. The CORE of your business needs to be solid. Especially backing and TESTING BACKUPS and failover, Frequently. D.R starts from the same place. The core of the business. it should be the same for protection.

All your DNS were belong to us: AWS and Google Cloud shut down spying vulnerability

Unbelievable!

Re: Never trust a DNS server you don't fully control

"I fail to see how your proposal is practical dear AC."

If Bezos,

End if

China pushes back against Exchange attack sponsorship claims

Unbelievable!

Tired of U.S and 7 eyes nations doing what they want

Dear US, you are NOT the worlds police.

Concentrate your money on solving issues at home. You do NOT have to be involved in everything everywhere.

Mensa data spillage was due to 'unauthorised internal download'

Unbelievable!
Meh

Mensa can't really have that much to offer in terms of data..

don't the members remind us mortals of their membership often anyway ??

Now, the Magic Circle.. that would be interesting.

What Microsoft's Windows 11 will probably look like

Unbelievable!
Big Brother

Marketing. "Oops. a leak.. how did that happen?"

*SIGH*

This is a classic marketing "official leak".

aka 'Look at this, not at that pointy object closing in on your sensitive bits that you'd usually protect and guard against' (privacy).

NCSC chief: Ransomware is more of a threat to Britain than hostile nations' spies

Unbelievable!
Thumb Up

Re: Nope

Agree! They will do as they please.

Also, Let us not forget that Teresa May brought in law that MP's et al ilk, are beyond any kind of investigation regarding digital data. Even those that are no longer in the position of government or "selected" 3rd parties. At the same time giving up every UK citizens privacy.

Gen Z will blame boomers for that. *sigh*

FBI drops subpoena to identify readers of USA Today article about shootout with agents

Unbelievable!

it's annoying that it's one way...

"They" - the rulemakers in Gov and their mates and enforcers etc won't give their phone number if we requested it, let alone private browsing history!

First we were people, then we were numbers, then we were barcodes.

Now, we're not even an ip address.

Until it comes to parking fines or saying something that might offend a 5 legged barracuda with a proclivity for pronouns, then suddenly we are people again, before being treated worse than animals.

FSociety.

Australian cops, FBI created backdoored chat app, told crims it was secure – then snooped on 9,000 users' plots

Unbelievable!

Re: 'What kinds of mobile phones would these be then?'

But surely they connect to a cellular network. I'm pleased if this is the way forward rather than mass snooping EVERY individual. But methinks thats not going to be the case.

I think this 'success' will just empower the agencies further to do what they hecking want in terms of backdooring anything and everything they desire, alongside the sneaky entrapment methods that they eventually come clean about. utilising a method of 10% overt, 90% covert.

FCC gives SpaceX the go-ahead to drop Starlink satellite orbits by 500 kilometres or so

Unbelievable!

Nice use. Not heard the term "acolyte" in a long while.

Thanks Msr Speed. Nice article.

I personally am not a devout Musk / SpaceX fan by stretch of the imagination. But I am impressed by progress, speedy progress.

Also. NASA are not fools. Yes restricted to a budget, but also forseeing and expediting progress in areas that are for the competitors to demonstrate, is wise.

Time halts for no man. Why spend $ on waitin? Progress is effort, test, learn.

I personally, prefer the style of the "not a parking meter situation." (move /do something in some time or ..)

It's progress. It's PUSHING progress.

ACTION. Not bollox.

Yep, the 'Who owns Linux?' case is back from the dead

Unbelievable!

Lawyers, a circle jerk.

in order to become a judge, honourable member of society, you must first spend decades circulating in, and around, societal pirhanas. As a pirhana, your top desire is to be the fattest, longest living and most well spread of your species. You wont get that by being unpopular. So you fight other pirhanas at the cost of the food you devour (normies).

It's the only modern profession i know that you can lose every judgement, and still get rich (excluding prostitution).

As a judge, you can make decisions that set precedents that empower other pirhanas just that little bit more. and so the circle continues.

Ministry of Defence tells contractors not to answer certain UK census questions over security fears

Unbelievable!

Census 2021 -cash for stats is ridiculous. Gov have EVERYTHING already. The list incomplete

Gov have access to:

Online acitivity via ISP.

Location via mobile phone provider.

Spending, via card provider (visa, Amex etc)

Savings: via Bank

Dependents, job, income and pension... : via DWP (mostly targetting employers >employee)

Education: via DPE

also records of incarceration, hospital stays, arrests, complaints to councils, registered voters, lotalty cards, motor vehicles insurance, NHS prescriptions, gps, DVLA.... literally EVERYTHING.

to pay yet another bunch of cash for stats is ridiculous.

Google's 'privacy-first' ad tech FLoC squawks when Chrome goes Incognito, says expert. Web giant disagrees

Unbelievable!
FAIL

FLoC = F***ing Load of Crap

FLoC = F***ing Load of Crap.

Isn't that blatant enough?

UK to introduce new laws and a code of practice for police wanting to rifle through mobile phone messages

Unbelievable!

good article. but what's the difference between campaign group and pressure group?

good article. but what's the difference between campaign group and pressure group?

it seems some oarts refer to BBW as pressure group and other parts both pressure and campaign group, and Liberty a campaign group.

Can you please outline the differences between campaign and pressure groups in the context of this article?

Sorry for question if the answer is obvious, no harm meant. I am autist seeking understanding.

Thank you.

AdGuard names 6,000+ web trackers that use CNAME chicanery: Feel free to feed them into your browser's filter

Unbelievable!
WTF?

Go to extreme lengths to protect privacy, surely some law should step in?

the lengths that folks have to go to to just protect themselves from 3rd parties is insane. Wheres the law enforcers? What is required to get them to act?

Proof of concept code published for latest Saltstack CVE: Don't be an update laggard

Unbelievable!

"good faith"

"In the recent past, we have gone above and beyond our lifecycle policy in good faith to fix critical issues in versions no longer supported.

Going forward, this will be the exception and not standard practice"

- i can understand why. legacy systems might be time cosuming or even impossible to accomodate.

But ruling out help for 'critical' issues isn't a good image or message. Perhaps just a suggestion of 'help only on a case by case basis.' at least that puts out a message of hope and an expectation of being charged for.

"Good Faith" isn't what it used to be. nowadays is used as upselling.

1Password has none, KeePass has none... So why are there seven embedded trackers in the LastPass Android app?

Unbelievable!
Unhappy

The more doors, the more locks, the more vulnerabilities.

Seriously, security software should be just that. Nothing extra or sponsored by any party.

For each corp

have own agenda and policies and skills.

Next

Euro police forces infiltrated encrypted phone biz – and now 'criminal' EncroChat users are being rounded up

Unbelievable!

Surveillance via small print. Human rights to privacy are gone.

for as long as 'authorities' have the power to read encrypted or otherwise data transmissions, launch secret satellites for interception reason, issue nsa letters compelling service providers to obey and reveal etc... thats if they obey the law. truth is, if they want badly enough, one worker can be expendable.. just re-employed elsewhere//

ask yourself, why does any company require so much information when registering for a service? Surely that would put customers off?

The answer is to consider that you're actually registering onto a spy program.

If youtube can store and serve so, so very much video hi res content, easily. how much storage space and speed capaility do you think text based data would require?

Is HONK nothing sacred HONK? It's 2019 and an evil save file can pwn much-loved HONK Untitled Goose Game

Unbelievable!

Honk you very much for another informative article. :)

thanks for injecting some humour in the article. :)

I'm bereft of suitable comment (arguably not for the first time!) but cheers and thanks for the warning.

Remember, remember, it's now called November: Windows 10 19H2 update has a name

Unbelievable!

Re: 19H2?

"Sounds like a variance of the H5N1 Flu virus to me.."

a virus... pretty much. unwanted and undesirable effects for sure!

Unbelievable!
Flame

Each update brings another "telemetry collection" vector...

.. and i for one am sick of it.

I realise that the product is "LICENSED", but the abilty to do anything on a system level (for example prventing the collection of data) is becoming more and more restricted and infuriating, and we allow thenm to do this!

MS are a flipping business, not in any way authoritive. Any other business treating customers this way would be picking pitchforks out of their jacksies for years to copme. MS ARE NOT the law. we dont have to go along with it if we spoke up and get the product changed to the USERS wants. I'm certain that almost all users dont want their activity and data transmitted anywhere. however innocent. It's wrong.

.Trying stopping or altering or disabling a service that ends in an underscore and some random characters.

.Even some scheduled tasks are not allowed to be stopped.

So to stop an offending, unecessary service that is purely for data collection, you have to log in in safe mode, and HOPE your get the rights and then hope more that the next update doesn't undo it all again.

Unless you mess with registry permissions, and that's even more risky as you may find hardware is no longer found and all kinds knock on effects.

Permissions wise across the system, taking ownership is not enough because the "administrator" is no longer granted the god-level permissions they ought to have. i know not to log in with the admin account as a matter of course, but when i need to, the account just doesn't have the power.

I hate it. I hate it i hate it.

BBC said it'll pull radio streams from TuneIn to slurp more of your data but nobody noticed till Amazon put its foot in it

Unbelievable!

rant in 3...2.. sod that. bbc decayed badly. in the end most watched was, for me ..

.. "Points of View" but not for long. or maybe footy world cup yonkers ago.. decades?

License is an unecessary expense and grief. Part of license fee is spent onletters "occupier we are starting an investigation". those go straight into the bag to hand them upon visit. The letters are accusatory, and STRONG scare tactics, that are implying the householder of engaging in serious criminal activity.. (didn't we have laws passed that prevent remote selling of this nature?) and infuriating as such. innocent til PROVEN is the law of our land i believe?

i also have testicles.. does that make me a rapist? i have knives in the kitchen, i suppose i am a serial killer then? I even have past "best before" packets of mild chilli con carne mix in the kichen cupboard, yup: cultivating and storing for future distribution, mind expanding narcotics for use via nasal ingestion.. it's criminal the activity they get up to to scare even more money from people. over 75's free tv licence? not any more. prrphh. maddening money grabbing, wasting and shady distribution now. decades ago, it was respectable and people were honoured and pleased to part with exortion because the return was credible. Why does a broadcaster need to know anything (name, age, gender, employed, etc etc) about who watches things? just put an 0800 number at the end of the broadcast ..people that dont like the program will quickly get in touch. that should be it. end of. no more needed.

BBC is more than UK news (it mostly sub contract production to 3rd party producers, hat trick etc.. who also want profit!) and has a great many commercial operations, which are entangled financially difficult to separate. example: . DVD of a program bought from BBC worldwide was conceived and produced etc with taxpayer money. i mean license payer money. then sold at profit, funds of which are ingested back to the Worldwide distribution arm. Another: bbc magazines like top gear, these don't feed themselves. they include exclusive (fee payer financed) content. but cost the reader twice if they have purchased a license.

BBC should just get ad's or a card only viewing subscription. OR even, do a SKY and pay subscription AND get ad's for that subscription.

Personally, i dont want or need BBC.

Sorry for the fucking rant.

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise, politicians will philander... And US voting machines will be physically insecure

Unbelievable!

Mary Schmich - Pulitzer winner, inspired the ♫sunscreen song♫

And thanks to her. Amazing wisdom, perfectly worded and so , so true.

Baz Luhrmann put it to music. but Mary deserves a lot of the credit.

01-June 1997

https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/chi-schmich-sunscreen-column-column.html (you'll need a vpn if in europe, or set opera vpn to americas)

Remember that security probe that ended with a sheriff cuffing the pen testers? The contract is now public so you can decide who screwed up

Unbelievable!

Re: IF, and I stress the IF ...

i think thats too harsh. they did a job. they got caught as well.

it's affirmation that the protection in place works. they deserve an apology. imho, of course

Unbelievable!

it's a test of law more than penetration

clearly, the contracted pentest-testers did their work.

the arresting officer has issue with the authority that authorised the pentesting.

thats between the police and the law makers to decide.

the duo are vindicated. i wouldn't be surprised if they sued for loss of earnings and defamation of charater!

Flying priests crop-dust Russian citizens with holy water to make them stop boozing and bonking

Unbelievable!

nothing is wrong. or right. just perceived

I do like Russia and the things they are reported for due to some extreme weirdness by western standards.. But one thing is certain. They don't f^%k about too much.

"Red tape" is not so much a bureaucratic thing in Russia. It is what what you get forced wear around your important bits for being an A$$.

From pen-test to penitentiary: Infosec duo cuffed after physically breaking into courthouse during IT security assessment

Unbelievable!

This is going to set ground in law courts. Expect stringent licensing.

This is a break-in and entry. That they got caught is an aside and not worthy right now.

There will be entities at gov level pushing for even more grasp and control on any cybersec/pentest etc.

There will be tenuous, vague correlations drawn, en-masse and deliberately to make not only another taxable income via businesses, but an especially strongly regulated "activity documentation declaration" where commercial security entities will be required to divulge not only activity, but clients hiringtheir sevices and tools and techniques and a whole load of skills that the 3/4 character agencies assimilate. The bonus is the commercial or private sec outfit will be charged (tax wise) to basically give the gov training.

In the end, it (specialised licensing) will happen in 4 years or less, i say.

For heaven's sake: Japan boffins fail to release paper planes in space after rice wine added to rocket fuel

Unbelievable!
Coat

dick speed

Another great article with just the right amount of humour and excellent use of vernauclar and words i need to go and look up the meaning to.

Dick Speed. sorry man. you'll no doubt get me back. (oo-err!) Soon. Probably too soon. lol

Hack a small airplane? Yes, we CAN (bus) – once we physically break into one, get at its wiring, plug in evil kit...

Unbelievable!

Re: Threat model

Fair comment. I agree mostly. But, 'unlikey' doesn't mean 'disregardable'.

There's nothing not worth trying in a hackers mindset. Therefore anything vulnerable needs to be secured.

Who'd have thought 80 million could have been swiped via a bad router in a bank?

1 rule: Don't underestimate the enemy, he may have garnered inside knowledge.

One fairly simple example implementation of this exploit would be targeting a millionaire that just laid of a number of staff.

Dutch cheesed off at Microsoft, call for Rexit from Office Online, Mobile apps over Redmond data slurping

Unbelievable!

Telemetry.. it's not's not even needed. Why is it allowed?

Telemetry .. ha. There's no need for telemetry. Whats wrong with "report an issue" button, or just "feedback and suggestions?"

MS is just a business. Greengrocers, petstores, clothing outlets, etcetc.. are equally businessess. They don't refuse to let you buy a product unless you submit to EVERYTHING about YOU and EVERYTHING you do.

Telemetry is plain simple spying. It's not needed. Whereever the data is stored doesn't matter. The results of the analysis will be transmitted to where ever they like, and the data itself can remain in-situ.

We're all bogged down so much in the tiny detail that the bigger picture is slipping by. WHY does anything or anyone need so much information without users being able to stop or prevent it?

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