* Posts by Mahhn

288 publicly visible posts • joined 9 Mar 2016

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EU: These are scary times – let's backdoor encryption!

Mahhn

Future

Two things that would happen if the inept make encryption laws

Secure encryption is made illegal, enabling criminals access to pretty much anything.

Possession of any securely encrypted data becomes a serious offence. Files suspected of being encrypted - even if just broken files are used against you.

Suddenly political opposition will be found with encrypted files that nobody can open, and forever be silenced.

Microsoft to mark five decades of Ctrl-Alt-Deleting the competition

Mahhn

highs and lows

Yep - for PCs - W7 (w2000 with direct X) was the high point of Microsoft's OSs.

Windows 11 is by far the worst, yes miles worse that ME and W8 (I always thought that was a joke name, just w8 for it)

What's wrong with W11, How many more clicks to adjust volume? how many clicks to change wifi connection? to many.

They broke PrintScrn!!!! the hosed Notepad into WordPad. How much data is it snorting up its AI nose?

You wanted to save files locally, but they are all on OneDrive, so your access can be removed, while it is still mined for data.

And the entire pile of crap is still made on ,CSV and ,CMD files, now called XLS and PowerShit. Same thing. MS has lost all creativity if it every had any.

Hopefully an underground AI will make a new OS - that has no bloat, no memory restrictions, no 40 year old legacy code that can be breached in a million ways, still have .5 million patches.

But hey, it's only a few more clicks, you don't need that finger. How much RAM does the OS need due to bloat and bad programming? 2, 4, 6 gigs or more.. Gads when 128MB was enough, how bad of an OS do you have to build to keep screwing up that much.

Microsoft's many Outlooks are confusing users – including its own employees

Mahhn

Re: Baffling

"they’re strategic. There is a plan buried in all this mess"

Yes, it is the transition from things you Have, to things you Access. So that when ? says disconnect someone, it's like they didn't exist.

Data Control.

Mysterious Palo Alto firewall reboots? You're not alone

Mahhn

Multiple exploits acknowledged in Palo last night

some pretty serious: https://security.paloaltonetworks.com/

Might be a LOT more to the reboots that rebooting.

DEF CON's hacker-in-chief faces fortune in medical bills after paralyzing neck injury

Mahhn

Re: And now, imagine this happens to a nobody

Healthcare in the US is priced high by the insurance company's scam. They run the health industry. Every single item, process, review has to be insured at every step of process. Health insurance is the most profitable CEO job there is. (besides maybe weapons and oil) With huge bonuses when you prevent payout to customers that need medical services.

It's why so many people didn't care so much when the guy was shot last month, due to his employment in the evil empire.

Greedy people rule the world, because nobody else wants to.

Dark Tangent should pitch in heavy for him, after all, he got rich off of people like him working for free at the Con.

Why Google's Chrome monopoly won't crack anytime soon

Mahhn

Re: A decision that left me scratching my head

It's the data that goes though the browser that makes them the serious add revenue.

By using goog services you agree to their terms. Those terms include that they can monitor ALL your activity. Your geo location, every word you type in the browser, every page you visit, view time per page. All that goes into picking products to shove in your face to sell things. The search engine is not there FOR YOU, it is there to Market TO you, with the data harvested From you.

I hope nobody thought Chrome and Goog search engine were free - they are not, and you are not the customer, We are the product, the customers are the companies that advertise though google.

SafePay ransomware gang claims Microlise attack that disrupted prison van tracking

Mahhn

"accessing an endpoint via RDP"

No VPN? no MFA? just RDP into a pc as if it was sitting next to you....

was the password "Passw0rd" too

Russia tells citizens to switch off home surveillance because the Ukrainians are coming

Mahhn

Re: sad

There is so much more - Xi had his troops ready to invade Taiwan if the world let RU take Ukraine. NK was ready to go into SK if Xi went to Tiawan, and Iran was prepping attack on Iseral. The dominos were waiting to fall, what we ended up with is messy stagnation. The only thing keeping the corrupt idiots from taking over anything is other corrupt idiots (and maybe a few good hearted people) messing up their plans for their own. I doubt it will ever "really" get better.

Ransomware infection cuts off blood supply to 250+ hospitals

Mahhn

Re: Sternn!

Heavy, very Heavy - METAL!

nice man, best thing I read all day.

Tiny solid-state battery promises to pack a punch in pocket gadgets

Mahhn

Re: Re:Its more dazzling than incandescent bulbs

to true, I don't get how the auto industry missed that the LED lights they are using are SHORT wave, so they are not directional and scatter, which makes them painful to be driving towards. Which has started another industry of Driving Glasses to DEFEAT the LED bulbs.

Such poor planning by industry and total disregard for human health, all to make a buck. And those nondisfused LED break lights kids put in are horrid.

Microsoft bigwig says the Feds catching Chinese spies in Exchange Online is the cloud working as intended

Mahhn

Re: I was expecting the upsell

yep, takes defender to monitor the pathetic old Kerber roasting and pass the hash of their 40+ year old authentication that has so many holes it requires special monitoring and even then, pfft exploit after exploit just walk right up. There is no Innovation at MS, just rehash and add more to menus. It's still running the same lame code with CMD and CSV as its foundation.

Chinese telco gear may become verboten on German networks

Mahhn

and since XI wants the equipment is place for a solid spy backboke, if it cost 500B to make and they sell it for $500 euro, they still got what they wanted - to infiltrate. Hard to beat that kind of infrastructure attack.

UnitedHealth CEO: 'Decision to pay ransom was mine'

Mahhn

Re: Citrix multifactor authentication already hacked

Most likely (most often) data is exfiltrated over days, during regular and peak web use (a company of thousands of systems bandwidth, 51GB is a drop in the bucket) so yes the data could get out un-noticed.

Feds finally decide to do something about years-old SS7 spy holes in phone networks

Mahhn

nobody will fix anything

if they fixed stuff it would hurt spying, it would hurt criminals spoofing. So no, nothing will happen.

On the bright side, you can do what I did - I gave up owning a phone 8 years ago. I live Infront of a dam PC for work, who needs a phone (no tv for over 20 years, total crap that is, more commercials than entertainment)

I'm just working until I die, trying to avoid unnecessary aggravation along the way.

NASA awards $150 million to prototype tech for humans on the Moon, and above it

Mahhn

Re: H3

I was sharing the estimated value, that is all. And that was from years ago.

Mahhn

Re: H3

https://intpolicydigest.org/it-s-time-to-mine-the-moon-for-helium-3-china-is-already-planning-on-it/

"The value of helium-3 on the Moon at current prices would be $1.543 quadrillion. "

Can noise-cancelling buds beat headphones? We spent 20 hours flying to find out

Mahhn

Game on

I picked up some JBL Quantum 800 headphones 3 years ago for gaming and music. Brought them on a flight to test noise canceling on the plane - I take them every time now. Just amazing.

I'm a tall guy, so it was important to me they don't squeeze my head, and they don't. They use of wifi and BT at the same time is pretty cool. And they have a button to turn NCC off and on without taking them off, if you want to keep listening but hear people talk. Looks like they have been superseded by the 810

Microsoft is busy rewriting core Windows code in memory-safe Rust

Mahhn

Re: "I expect Microsoft to reuse the existing compiler"

that has always driven me crazy. WTF was MS thinking to put gaming software on and by default turned on and Enterprise OS. Its like, they thought - hmm this is not exploitable enough, lets put something on these to make businesses IT staff scream.

How fiends abuse an out-of-date Microsoft Windows driver to infect victims

Mahhn

Re: I still blame MS for the problem

I think of the "trust but verify" as a pathetic attempt to sound nice, and not say Zero Trust, which is the only way. I don't trust people apps or hardware. But we have to allow just enough leash for work to get done, but keep it tight enough to keep the dog from running into traffic. Inspecting the leash, dog and environment non-stop. Gad I hope I live long enough to retire and be normal (stupid and happy).

Psst! Infosec bigwigs: Wanna be head of security at HM Treasury for £50k?

Mahhn

The results will be

Only three types of people will take this job;

1. Retired IT person that is board and wants to get out of the house.

2. Underqualified person that will use it as a stepping stone for 6 months while trying not to get fired.

3. A criminal that will be creating and selling back doors, that won't be outed for years.

Oh wait, there is option 4, use a human service program for an offended group, and give them a job they have no skills for so they can tell the world they are doing good - while really setting up the person, position and tech to fail. nope, this is option 2.

Belgium says Chinese cyber gangs attacked its government and military

Mahhn

Belgium peaking with caution

Because if Xi gets offended, he will replace the government of the Chinese province called Belgium.

Calls for bans on Chinese CCTV makers Hikvision, Dahua expand

Mahhn

Re: All Chinese CCTV systems connect back to China

maybe because china is the only country that locked up over a million people for their land, has been selling their Hair (well documented) and other parts - look it up. This isn't some insane historical thing from hundreds or thousands of years ago - it is right now.

NSO claims 'more than 5' EU states use Pegasus spyware

Mahhn

How many good people

I'd like to know how many good people (journalist, human rights advocates) were murdered by these governments due to this software enabling the corrupt governments to hunt down those that would expose them.

If any software has earned this name, it is Pegasus; 'Murderware"

Mahhn

Re: I don't understand

Great post!

Google has more reasons why it doesn't like antitrust law that affects Google

Mahhn

Re: While I applaud the Democrats

You are correct, it is normal for them not to read the bills.

As the famous quote goes from Nancy P "we have to pass it to see what's in it"

which really means,,, it's a stool sample.

Mahhn

Re: While I applaud the Democrats

Reminds me of the Patriot Act, that removed the right to a hearing of any kind if "suspected" of X. Should have been called the vanishing law.

China offering ten nations help to run their cyber-defenses and networks

Mahhn

It's not about profit to china, it's about control. Currency cost is of little to no issue.

It is public information that over 30 years ago china started their task of taking over the globe through financial means, until other resources are needed. It's been working pretty well, less those pesky westerners not always selling out.

Info-saturated techie builds bug alert service that phones you to warn of new vulns

Mahhn

Re: Reader

That's being set up for failure and low moral. Nobody should be put in that place.

Treat yourself better than they do, offer a solution (staffing) with a "there arn't worse jobs out there" or "I can't watch the place burn down anymore, it's to hot in here" type notice. You deserve better.

Microsoft previews $3-a-user Defender for small biz types

Mahhn

So nice of them

to go from Free to $3 a month/ $36 a year, for a product with 0 support, is silly at best. Better rated products in the same price range abound.

There are far better options than having a chicken guard the hen house.

Google to auto-enroll 150m users, 2m YouTubers with two-factor authentication

Mahhn

2SV = Two Step Viper (Ventrure bros)

Sorry goog, you can't have my phone number, since I don't have one of my own (carry a work phone). You can have the Email back and youtube is as much commercials as it is anything - heck I remember watching things on YT to avoid commercials, back in the day lol.

All good things come to an end.

Thanks for the heads up Reg, I'm backing up my address book today to avoid loosing contacts :)

Apple warns of arbitrary code execution zero-day being actively exploited on Macs

Mahhn

with the old free version of BlackIce firewall configured well, it wasn't to bad.

Zoom's $15bn merger with Five9 probed by Uncle Sam for national security risks

Mahhn

Re: Not a problem for us..

Thank you

Mahhn

Re: Not a problem for us..

You got me interested, I reviewed their pages to see if it can replace zoom, but it seams focused on mobile apps. Two conflicting pages on the desktop - one says they stopped developing it, another says its supported - so idk. I'd love to dump zoom, but this looks more like a dev toy than a common video chat. Maybe if they decide to make money it will mature into something to replace the CCP spyware.

Stop worrying that crims could break the 'net, say cyber-diplomats – only nations have tried

Mahhn

Badges? we don't need no stinking badges.

" warfare needs rules"

Yeah, good luck with that. Should we hand out blankets and hot coco to everyone involved? (SouthPark - InSecurity)

Bangkok Airways hit by LockBit ransomware attack, loses lotsa data after refusing to pay

Mahhn

Re: Don't mess with Dr Prasert

I hope he doesn't worry about nationality, and just feeds the fish.

United Nations calls for moratorium on sale of surveillance tech like NSO Group's Pegasus

Mahhn

only way

Sadly, the only way to truly avoid digital surveillance/data harvesting for abuse, it to not use the internet and avoid being logged (no medical help, no property, no public or registered transportation.) pretty much a cave man. And even then you will be a counted statistic.

Windows 11 comes bearing THAAS, Trojan Horse as a service

Mahhn

Is it to kill PC gaming - to drive people to xbox?

Feels like MS is at war with PC gamers. Over bloat an OS so bad with what you would expect are add in apps that you might turn off during gaming, but if you can't turn it off - is it really our PC or MS's and we are allowed to use what they want us to, not what we want to?

I've been waiting 20 for linux to be top for gaming, and it still isn't. Clearly MS has zero interest and wants to push people to xbox. Maybe someone can carve out a stripped version of 11, like the PE installs, I don't need to print, join a domain, my firewall is at the edge, don't even want default AV or any browser.

I know, I'm asking for a low profit, highly desired unicorn, but a guy can dream.

India orders takedowns of social media posts it claims harm fight against raging COVID-19 outbreak

Mahhn

Re: Miracle Mineral Supplement

Reading that is perplexing legally, as they apparently sold millions worth, and it is supposedly dangerous, so much it reads like it would kill someone instantly. But they aren't being charged with causing anyone harm, just disobeying a request to stop selling it. Also this, https://www.cdc.gov/healthywater/drinking/public/water_disinfection.html

Microsoft president asks Congress to force private-sector orgs to admit when they've been hacked

Mahhn

Re: MS has no room to talk

I did eventually end up with a way to report it and they took the malware down. It was though a different address. But thank you for posting a way also.

Searching on their site for "report abuse" (among others) should get more than xbox results though.

Mahhn

MS has no room to talk

Just this morning I went to report to MS that we received a phishing Email with a link to "malware hosted on their dynamics.com domain."

There is literally no way to report it. Even called them, unless I would give them an account number, they didn't care.

MS needs to get their cranium out of their donkey before they tell anyone else to be responsible.

In wake of Apple privacy controls, Facebook mulls just begging its iOS app users to let it track them over the web

Mahhn

Alternative - no app needed for FB

Run your mobile browser in Desktop mode for the FB website, then there is no need for the app.

You can even use the IM just like on a desktop.

fyi - Location tracking, if you disable it "you" don't see the reports anymore, they are still generated for the customers that pay for them.

United States Congress stormed by violent followers of defeated president, Biden win confirmation halted

Mahhn

Re: ...and where exactly do you live in the US?

"What about the Americans that can't afford good insurance?" Didn't obomba fixed that years ago - Oboma Care

Recent figures say something like 30% of Americans are in medical debt - Insurance is a scam in the US, and always has been. Making them mandatory (oboma) drove their profits up higher, and hurt people more. You might have to live it to understand it.

But yeah, our insurance scam called healthcare sucks.

Ad-scamming, login-stealing Windows malware is hitting Chrome, Edge, Firefox, Yandex browsers, says Microsoft

Mahhn

UN-bundled goodness

"Microsoft says~~~ And it advises those who find the malware on their system to reinstall their browser."

Well it's a pretty darn good thing that MS was required by governments to UN-bundled IE to the OS, or everyone effected would have to reinstall windows and not just their browser.

Privacy campaigner flags concerns about Microsoft's creepy Productivity Score

Mahhn

"Your daily briefing" Unauthorized data access

Like most offices we use MS Office products. This "productivity tool" raised a lot of red flags at our business when it started self generating Email to the people with the "Your daily briefing" crap. Since all our external Email is Tagged, and this didn't have that tag, and came from nobody - you caused concern by implimenting these apps without permission. If one of our sys admin had done this without a Change Control there would be trouble. I wish I could punish you MS, at least charge you for wasting my, and our users time.

Microsoft - we, the administrators like to make decisions about the tools on our network. We do not approve of you simply enabling such invasive tools without our explicit permission, and understanding. This harvesting of data in what should be a 0 trust environment is very concerning.

This isn't some free service like google where all data is expected to be harvested for marketing purposes, this is supposed to be a secure environment.

We are offended, and it will reflect in our product choices, since paying you for a product isn't enough, you need to steal data we have not authorized you to, regardless of PII being stripped - it came from our company without our permission.

Ticketmaster: We're not liable for credit card badness because the hack straddled GDPR day

Mahhn

Re: CC cancelled

to bad they cancelled it right off and didn't just block the charge, but at least they took some action and didn't let charges build up, and have to deal with that.

Still would have been nice if they notified you when they cancelled it - before you had to deal with being declined and having to call them.

Mahhn

CC cancelled

Couldn't he call his CC company and have them re-activate it and just left the clearly fraudulent Ticketmaster charge blocked? Sounds like "his" particular issue is with the CC company. (I'm reading this story as 2 parts, the problem he had, and the overall Ticketmaster response)

Apple's global security boss accused of bribing cops with 200 free iPads in exchange for concealed gun permits

Mahhn

Re: Concealed?

Explanation; Some states (where I live) allow anyone qualified (FFA background, no legal restrictions on you for crimes, crazy or non-resident) to Open Carry, meaning it cannot be hidden from plain view, even in your car, it cannot be in the glove box. Concealed carry (where I live) is now legal for everyone (resident/not a felon, bla bla), but used to require a $10 permit fee, 3 references and approval from the Chief on the local PD.

I have been with people that get nervous if they see a gun on anyone (including police). Very conditioned response. So some people who carry prefer to carry concealed to not scare people that are uncomfortable. They only time I worry about a gun, is if it's in someone's hands and not under peaceful condition (like at home, the range). But I have been around them my entire life. The average driver worries me much more, well, there are lots of videos every day on that..

Mahhn

Re: Why do Apple employees need to carry guns ?

who are you to decide some people's lives have less value and don't deserve protecting while others do.

Election security fears doused with reality: Top officials say Nov 3 'was the most secure in American history.' The end

Mahhn

Re: "Most secure in History"

What do you mean "no fraud"? There is plenty, and it is being rooted out and well documented. Will it be enough to effect the election, I doubt it. But calling a system "secure" before proving it is, does not pass this techs sniff test.

Might as well say "Windows 10 is the most secure OS ever - there is no need for running an AV scan...."

now it's sounds pretty stupid like that doesn't it?

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