Posts by sanmigueelbeer

Contact-tracer spoofing is already happening – and it's dangerously simple to do

Hello, my name is Ash and I'm calling from Microsoft. I am calling you because your computer may have been infected with COVID-19 ... Ooops, sorry. Wrong script. Can we try again?

Cisco hacked: Six backend servers used by customer VIRL-PE deployments compromised via SaltStack

Hackers hit remotely rootable SaltStack systems (04 May 2020)

The flaws were found by Finnish security vendor F-Secure early last month, and affect the SaltStack Salt master which sends updates to Salt minions that control servers, often large amounts of them.

F-Secure said that the vulnerabilities that are rated as the highest 10.0 severity, and added that they are reliable and simple to exploit.

Boeing brings back the 737 Max but also lays off thousands

I'm waiting for Trump to issue a presidential edict demanding China's aviation regulatory body to approve the 737 MAX is safe to fly.

Re: They are to big to fail

That's when the government will yank support and Boeing will go down hard

Boeing is one of those establishment that is considered "too big to fail".

But, who knows. Maybe some country in the Far East Asia might start churning out knock-offs called Boings.

Re: WHY would they build aircrafts that are: 1- grounded 2- unlikely to fly soon

Because it looks good on the front lawn.

Re: "more than a dozen initiatives focused on enhancing workplace safety and product quality"

They do, however need clearance to fly the plane commercially

Boeing needs approval from aviation regulators from other countries and not just the FAA.

Because of the MAX fiasco, the FAA has lost all "credibility". All the world aviation regulators, from Japan, China, EU, AU & NZ, Russia, etc. now have a "say" in it as the FAA "rubber stamp" is no longer worth any currency.

Remember when Republicans said Dems hacked voting systems to rig Georgia's election? There were no hacks

Re: A dry run for trumps loss in 2020

I doubt if he will lose.

There are so many ways to be the winner in the US elections: How come Donald Trump won if Hillary Clinton got more votes?

Unlike in other countries, voting in the US is not compulsory.

HP's hoping it'll be second time lucky with launch of Reverb G2 nerd goggles

Is it me or is HP a tad "late for the party"?

Laughing UK health secretary launches COVID-19 Test and Trace programme with glitchy website and no phone app

NHS Test-and-Tag

I can image the NHS call will go something like this:

You have received this call because you may be infected. We know who you are. We know exactly where you are now. An armed response unit is on their way to your location now. Get down on your knees, put your hands behind your head and get ready for their arrival. We hope you'll have a pleasant journey. Good-bye.

Raspberry Pi Foundation serves up an 8GB slice of mini-computing goodness

New Raspberry Pi 4 update beta lets you boot from a USB mass storage device

New Raspberry Pi 4 update beta lets you boot from a USB mass storage device

Vietnam accelerates – dare we say it? – digital transformation for a fourth industrial revolution

Vietnam challenges China's monopoly on virus diplomacy

Vietnam challenges China's monopoly on virus diplomacy

Made-up murder claims, threats to kill Twitter, rants about NSA spying – anything but mention 100,000 US virus deaths, right, Mr President?

Donald, your village called to say they DO NOT want you back.

Not going Huawei just yet: UK ministers reportedly rethinking pledge to kick Chinese firm out of telco networks by 2023

Re: shambles.gov.uk/2020-05-27#huawei

You just couldn't make this stuff up. Is this government or entertainment?

I cannot answer or deny as this is commercial-in-confidence, ole boy.

I can, however, *cough*Yes, Minister (Huawei Special)*cough* say to move along.

SpaceX Falcon 9 and Dragon cleared to hoist real live American astronauts into space

Rockhound: You realize we're sitting on 45,000 pounds of fuel, one nuclear warhead and a thing that has 270,000 moving parts built by the lowest bidder? Makes you feel good doesn't it?

To space and beyond ...

BoJo buckles: UK govt to cut Huawei 5G kit use 'to zero by 2023' after pressure from Tory MPs, Uncle Sam

I wonder if America will be laughing as much

Don't be silly. The Yanks are too busy counting the cash to laugh.

Lawsuit klaxon: HP, HPE accused of coordinated plan to oust older staff in favor of cheaper, compliant youngsters

Re: HP hiring younger staff

Is that grooming

Only if one wants to get "screwed"

... by the policy.

Where's me coat?

US senators call for more transparency over $12bn TSMC fab plant investment

Re: Remember the last "triumph"

Do you know anyone in TSMC White House?

I got a bridge to sell. Cheap!

Re: What am I missing here?

TSMC want to spend $12bn building a semiconductor plant in Arizona USA and senators are complaining?

And NVIDIA gets sued because it made money. WTF has the world turned into!

Lets see: Jack Reed is a senator from Rhonde Island, Patrick Leahy a Vermont senator and Chuck Schumer represents the state of NY.

Yup, they want a piece of the $12bn pie.

This is how US politics works: For every action there is an equal and opposite criticism.

AT&T slapped down for its '5GE' ads: You don’t have a proper 5G network, so stop saying so, says watchdog

Re: they'll be back in a few months

But if AT&T builds ONE (1) 5G tower in the middle of the Mojave ...

(And call this site COVID-19.)

With millions upon millions out of work in the US, here come the scammers claiming victims' unemployment money using stolen info

Re: Got an "IRS" call today...

Much later, I got ready and managed to record a very rude scammer. One of the recordings can be found here (YouTube).

Enjoy.

Re: Got an "IRS" call today...

The guy called me some naughty things in an East Indian language then slammed down the phone

Oh that's nothing. I once inserted the word "Pakistani" in the sentence to an Indian scammer (describing his nationality).

Let's just say, he didn't hold back.

NOTE: I regretted not recording that call.

Attorney General: We didn't need Apple to crack terrorist's iPhones – tho we still want iGiant to do it in future

I don't get it. IF the FBI (and other TLA agencies) have cracked the encryption, why have a press conference to let every-man-and-his-beast know about it?

I don't get it. What is the benefit? Bragging rights?

If American tech is used to design or make that chip, you better not ship it to Huawei, warns Uncle Sam

Globalization: Who's fault is that?

When the US spearheaded globalization they handed the "keys", lock-stock-and-barrels, to China. Because the US no longer manufactures, the schools, colleges and universities stopped churning out graduates that once provided the backbone and lifeblood to the US manufacturing "might".

The late Steve Jobs summed it all when he had dinner with then US President Obama (original article HERE or HERE):

He called America's lackluster education system an obstacle for Apple, which needed 30,000 industrial engineers to support its on-site factory workers."

"You can't find that many in America to hire," Jobs told the president. "If you could educate these engineers, we could move more manufacturing plants here."

And we all know how much the current and previous "get along".

The US sold the "goose that lay the golden egg" and now it wants it back.

Like with Apple's announcement (opening a manufacturing plant in Texas), I'll wait for the TSMC factory to produce chips (in commercial quantity) before believing.

One last bit, remember this article: A tale of Apple, the iPhone, and overseas manufacturing? China has set a very high "standard" of expectation that no American manufacturing can match: When Apple revamped the design of the iPhone's screen at the last minute, a foreman (one person!) woke up 8000 workers in the middle of the night with nothing but a fookin' biscuit and a cup of tea. Overtime? Nadda. How about a biscuit (only one) and a cup of tea instead? Try doing that sort of stunt in the US and the mighty labor union will be all over you like an itch in places you can't scratch.

Tales from the crypt-oh: Nvidia accused of concealing $1bn in coin-mining GPU sales as gaming revenue

So Nvidia is being sued by investors for making a profit?

Did I just bump my head and woke up in an alternate reality?

Fancy some post-weekend reading? How's this for a potboiler: The source code for UK, Australia's coronavirus contact-tracing apps

How has Vietnam done so well to combat COVID-19?

How has Vietnam done so well to combat COVID-19?

Can anyone see any issues here

In some countries, the contact-tracing app is, currently, on a volunteer basis. Manual contact-tracing relies very heavily on the unreliable memory of a person.

Singapore has shared their contact-tracing app with Japan, South Korea and Taiwan. (I am not sure if China developed their own contact-tracing app or not.)

While South Korea has made the app mandatory for everyone (including foreign visitors), Taiwan has also relied heavily on this app.

East Asian countries (Singapore, South Korea, Taiwan, China and Japan) using contact-tracing app are seeing the results and are "flattening the curve". While the rest of the world are still scratching their collective heads and scampering for stable supplies of PPE and reliable testing kits, these East Asian countries are gearing up for the "second wave".

Facebook, Google, Amazon, Netflix, etc. probably have more personal information about me than this contact tracing app but while Amazon, Facebook, Google, Netflix, et al, are doing this to make money, this contact-tracing app is here to help me save my life, my loved ones and a few others.

NOTE: In mid-March, a close friend lost both her parents, ten hours apart, to COVID-19 in TWO (2) days after entering a NYC hospital. Until now, nobody knows who gave it to them or when they got infected.

My previous comments about contact-tracing app vs privacy were viciously down-voted. And maybe I deserved it then. Before down-voting my comment (again), put yourself in the shoes of the people who have died and their family.

Thank you for taking the time to read this comment and I apologize for unable to make it short.

Bored at home? Cisco has just the thing: A shed-load of security fixes to install, from a Kerberos bypass to crashes

Re: ALERT: These patches will break OSPF on FTD appliances

CSCvu20521

ALERT: These patches will break OSPF on FTD appliances

Just got word that these patches will break OSPF adjacencies on appliance(s) running FTD.

Appliances running ASA are NOT affected.

Reddit threads HERE and HERE.

Hope this helps.

Data centre reveals it modeled interiors on The Hunt for Red October sets

PING!

Give me a ping, Vasili. One ping only, please.

China successfully launches its biggest-ever space truck to fire up its space station ambitions

Well I guess China will need to mine (steal) more intellectual property in order to make the space program a little safer.

To be fair, NASA got a lot of help from Russia who are the top-of-the-tree when it comes to rocket engines.

So Chinese space agency do not necessarily get their "secrets" from NASA (or the US for that matter). All they need is for Premier Xi to ask Putin and the "deed is done", Comrade.

Now we know what the P really stands for in PwC: X-rated ads plastered over derelict corner of accountants' website

Re: PwC

Porn, we come.

Florida man might just stick it to HP for injecting sneaky DRM update into his printers that rejected non-HP ink

Re: HP printers

... fixed the ‘security issue’ by not letting the printer onto the Internet

There is an option to disable printer downloading updates automatically.

I hope HP loses this one

The lawsuit is not a "loss" (against HP) if HP settles out of court.

We're in a timeline where Dettol maker has to beg folks not to inject cleaning fluid into their veins. Thanks, Trump

Re: We apologise profusely.

Please forgive those misguided dolts who elected this moron as president

And please forgive the fut nucks who DID NOT VOTE.

Hopefully this nightmare will end next January

No. It won't. (Because Putin says so.)

Lead by example, Donald. Lead by example

First Donald recommends everyone take chloroquine.

Next, Donald recommends injecting disinfectants and cleaning fluids.

I think it is high time for Donald to put his money where his mouth is and lead by example.

Re: Suggestion

Pssst! Wanna know a secret?

Word around Wall Street has it that someone is lobbying of the POTUS the idea that dipping the body in liquid nitrogen will get rid of Coronavirus completely.

So invest in liquid nitrogen manufacturer. Now. Before Wall Street opens on Monday.

And you didn't hear this from me. Get it?

Re: POTUS Supporters

North Korea (allegedly) did... To the first cases in the country... No sorry, it was the carriers that got shot.

NK Official: I've got your COVID-19 test result.

Patient: Am I positive or not?

NK Official: It was nice knowing you, comrade.

<BANG!>

Are you fixing that switch? Or setting it up as a Minecraft server?

Re: OK, so can run a game server on a switch

why the hell does a switch have that much computing power

I can answer this question: Remember the short-lived 3650/3850? Cisco engineered the platform with not enough memory (like FPGA). This is why the switch cannot run Converged Access (making the switch become a WLC) any more.

The new 9K have more CPU and memory (from what I was told 4x the amount).

Re: Good idea

However not so sure when IF the Infrastructure and Ops team manager finds out.

There, FTFY.

Stuck inside with time on your hands? The US govt would like to remind you it's paying $5m for Nork hacking scalps

DarkHotel (APT-C-06) Attacked Chinese Institutions Abroad via Exploiting SangFor VPN Vulnerability

DarkHotel (APT-C-06) Attacked Chinese Institutions Abroad via Exploiting SangFor VPN Vulnerability

Darkhotel is another group of North Korean hacking team/unit.

They have been accused of hacking into the World Health Organization a few weeks before.

Based on the article above, they have been accused to have hacked several Chinese government health agencies.

IBM age discrimination lawsuit suddenly ends, suggests Big Blue was willing to pay to avoid discovery process

(IN)Justice has prevailed!

Thank God the USA has the best justice IBM can buy.

Amen, brother. AMEN!

SE's baaaack: Apple flings out iPhone SE 2020, priced at £419

Apple could help support healthcare workers by paying more corporation taxes

Apple paying the correct taxes in the countries they operate in? A snowball's-chance-in-hell that'll be.

From Brit telly presenter Eamonn Holmes to burning 5G towers in the Netherlands: Stupid week turns into stupid fortnight for radio standard

And if scientific evidence is dancing in front of them butt naked, will they listen?

There was a comedian who summed this all up succinctly (and I'm paraphrasing): Being a celebrity is not a guarantee a person of intelligence.

Microsoft's Teams clocks 2.7 billion minutes of meetings in a single day as April starts to run out for Windows 10 2004

Microsoft Teams to raise viewable participants to nine

Microsoft Teams to raise viewable participants to nine

Taiwan may turn traffic advice app into massive tracking system

Re: China's new coronavirus cases rise to near six-week high

Never seen a box of masks made in USA or Europe. Have an old box of masks (don't remember why I bought it a while ago, but it shirley came handy now), it's made in China. So much for "cleaning out worldwide stocks of western-made PPE".

Kindly have a read at this: Trump administration weighs legal action over alleged Chinese hoarding of PPE where it states in the article:

Around the same time that China cracked down on PPE exports, official data posted online shows that it imported 2.46 billion pieces of “epidemic prevention and control materials” between Jan. 24 and Feb. 29, the White House official said.

The gear, valued at nearly $1.2 billion, included more than 2 billion masks and more than 25 million “protective clothing” items that came from countries in the European Union, as well as Australia, Brazil and Cambodia, the official said.

I have several boxes of P2/N95 face masks (3M and Honeywell) that was bought back in December 2019 due to the Australian bushfire. They were all made in the US.

China's new coronavirus cases rise to near six-week high

China's new coronavirus cases rise to near six-week high

There is a "trade" happening in the open stage right now: In January to February 2020, China has been cleaning out worldwide stocks of western-made, western-branded PPE (face masks/face shields, hand sanitizers, gloves, hazmat suits, etc) and in "return", China has been "donating" some of their "excess stocks" (aka items that even their own health care system won't use) to the world.

How China is losing the world’s trust following its cover-up of the coronavirus crisis

The article/editorial states: Across Europe, China’s attempts at “mask diplomacy” are backfiring, with reports of faulty or incorrect shipments of protective gear and test kits being cited in Spain and the Netherlands.

The latest "casualty" is MD of Finland's National Emergency Supply Agency has resigned after purchasing faulty face masks from China (article).

Ransomware scumbags leak Boeing, Lockheed Martin, SpaceX documents after contractor refuses to pay

That ship has sailed ...

this contractor has allowed this information to be accessed by unauthorised individuals

Oh that ship has sailed long, long time ago. As a matter of fact, that ship has even reached it's destination port and (may have) offloaded highly-classified cargo before anyone knew about it.

Europe calls for single app to track coronavirus. Meanwhile America pretends it isn’t trying to build one at all

Is that google app or an iPhone app?

Huawei's Harmony OS, of course.