Posts by steviebuk

'Software delivered to Boeing' now blamed for 737 Max warning fiasco

I wonder

If it turns out someone elsewhere is responding to this statement while watching the news

"Senior company leadership was not involved in the review and first became aware of this issue in the aftermath of the Lion Air accident,"

With

"What? I did warn you about it. But you said it wasn't important enough and would cost to much of a delay to check so we note what you say but we're going ahead anyway." I wonder if that happened? Not saying it did, just wonder if it may have. Their lawyers will be telling them to deny everything at the moment. Or at least comment in a way that doesn't admit guilt.

Personality quiz for all you IT bods: Are you a chameleon or an outlaw? A diplomat or a high flier? Vote right here

Re: The insecure IT guy

They are the knob engineers. Not bothered about the not going to the pub bit, some people, me, just aren't interested in socialising. But I try to share my knowledge to whoever is interested. The ones that are like what you describe, are the ones that know, because you know more or the same as them, you'll be able to expose that they actually do fuck all, that's what they are really scared of.

Can't really answer properly.

Nothing for "Always been interested in IT, struggle to understand the really complex stuff. Still good at IT though. Always gets shit on. Gets silent pissed off when someone is being a cock. Moans a lot and never gets the good pay. Is actually nice to users that are nice back and gets on really well with some. But also takes notes of all the stupid calls in the hope of writing a book about them one day despite being a shit writer.

If the thing you were doing earlier is 'drop table' commands, ctrl-c, ctrl-v is not your friend

Disappointing ending

I was looking forward to reading that all day. Kept getting interrupted so couldn't. Then ended with no real ending. Even if the ending was boring as in "We recovered the database from last nights backup" it still would of felt like an ending.

A real head-scratcher: Tech support called in because emails 'aren't showing timestamps'

Not all apocryphal

At a place I used to work the PA to the CEO would be in charge of readings his emails and replying as him. You never knew what he'd actually read or if the replies were his or her's.

Mystery Git ransomware appears to blank commits, demands Bitcoin to rescue code

Re: The Microsoft curse

You know Bill Gates hasn't worked at MS for years. He's also not a majority share holder so wouldn't be able to decide what it does and doesn't purchase.

UK taxman falls foul of GDPR, agrees to wipe 5 million voice recordings used to make biometric IDs

The funny thing is

my voice is my password was obviously stolen from the film Sneakers. In that they used a recording playback of the persons voice. I wanted to test this on their system. Recorded myself setting up my voice password. Called HMRC back but there was no option I could find to even use it. So never got to test the play back recording out :(

What a pain in the Azzz-ure: Microsoft Azure, SharePoint, etc knocked offline by DNS blunder

So thats why mail

Was titting about earlier and yet their "health" status page said nothing was wrong.

Google vows to take claims of sexual assault, harassment seriously, just like privacy

Oh that's OK then.

"Google takes issue with those figures and argues women at the company make 99.7 cents for every dollar men make."

Did they not think about that statement when they announced it. There should be no fucking difference surely. For ever dollar men make women should also make a dollar. Fucking ridiculous.

NordVPN rapped by ad watchdog over insecure public Wi-Fi claims

Re: They aren't completely wrong

Because Nord's software has the option to tick "Invisibility on the LAN".

They aren't completely wrong

I stayed at a big chain hotel beginning of last year in London. Pullman on Euston Road to be exact, the one next to the British Library.

Sat there bored in my room so decided might as well take a sniff of the WIFI traffic. It's a big chain, will be pointless though as it will be secure but I was bored.

Erm....what? You haven't turned WIFI isolation on!?! So I can now see all the other devices in the area. You haven't even secured the machines downstairs in the lobby you let people use. You haven't secured the, what appeared to be old control information server, for the boiler or heating system somewhere that according to the log hadn't been rebooted for a years. You haven't secured one of your iis servers. Just click Network in Windows showed devices that were visible! Jesus!

To give them a small, very tiny bit of credit. I reported it anonymously while there via Twitter and they started to lock it down while I was still scanning. Maybe I should of mentioned it openly to them, may have got a discount for the room :)

At a lodge I stay at a couple of Christmas' ago their whole WIFI was shockingly poor. The speeds were poor, you could see and connect to the printer in their office which was only a stones through away and no I never printed anything to it despite really wanting to. No WIFI isolation and you could even get to the router and if my memory is write, sign in.

Then we have Eurostar that I was on just before Christmas last year. Again, no WIFI isolation so you could see all other devices connected.

So NordVPN weren't far off.

Sky customers moan: Our broadband hubs are bricking it

Re: It's been years since . . . .

I believe it does. I'll need to double check. Thanks for info.

Re: It's been years since . . . .

True but not everyone is a tech so that's the issue.

So modem mode on the router for Virgin. I have an older Vigor but it's not a cable one. Can I still use that on the Virgin setup? As I assume the Vigor just connects via cable to the Virgin?

Re: It's been years since . . . .

This is what I have been doing for years and want to do the same with the Virgin shit box they send but I'm reading more and more that you can't use your own router on Virgin? Is that right?

There's NordVPN odd about this, right? Infosec types concerned over strange app traffic

Re: 234 new rules....

How'd you do these tests. All I knew how to do was run wireshark while Nord was running and saw the NameCheap.inc references. But didn't know what else to look for.

Brit events and info biz Incisive Media admits open server port may have left readers deets exposed

I'm confused

So its a "potential" breach because a port was left open. But they claim there wasn't an actual breach, but then mention "a breach" later and finally submitted a report to the ICO. But why? If there was never a breach then you don't need to report it. You don't need to report "potential" breaches otherwise everyone would be doing that.

iFixit surgeons tut at iPad mini 5 X-ray: Looks like a mild case of pain-in-the-arse-to-repair

Re: They claim to be...

"Renewable engineer". I will continue, until The Reg give us an edit button, to blame touchscreen typing and not the fact I rush and sometimes don't proof read ):o(

They claim to be...

....becoming a more green company, forcing their supply chains to use renewable engineer. Yet its clear, Apple are doing fucking all for renewable phones and devices. Making it harder and harder to repair yourself, using, what appear to be sweatshop third party repair services in the US (CSAT Solutions) and fighting more and more to squash the "Right to Repair" movement.

Apple are, quite simply, cunts.

It's your what in a box? Here's a thing to make your bosses think about malware responses

But having just signed up to see what all this was about, they software they want to stick on your network, they give you the code for, so you can see what the code actually does. I've still not run any of it yet, I was just curious.

Re: Exercise of the Pox

European Institute of Applied Buddhism?

I'll get my coat.

The peelable, foldable phone has become the great white whale of tech

So...

...we've gone from clamshell (foldable phones) to iPhone style smart phones, now back to clamshell (foldable phones) again.

Hmm.

UK cautiously gives Huawei the nod for 5G network gear sales

Re: No one buys telecoms services based on how secure they are

And using a provider that has full coverage for the emergency services which EE don't. Especially at Royal Sussex in Brigton. The EE signal is very, very, very poor to non-existent.

Bloke faces up to 20 years in the clink after gun held to dot-com owner's head in robbery

"I opted for the privacy protection thing my registrar uses"

That's a free option now for the EU due to GDPR. It's good. Some arse providers however, still try to sell it as "an option" within the EU. Some at some point, when people realise, I think there will be lots of refund requests from certain shitty providers.

Wannacry-slayer Marcus Hutchins pleads guilty to two counts of banking malware creation

Re: So now he has admitted to creating nasty malware.

No. He reverse engineers code for a living. He just happened to find that first. I'm sure other researchers would of eventually found the kill switch.

He's been under house arrest not prison.

But Mitnick spent a big chunk of time behind bars without ever being charged. And they kept him in solitary because some stupid judge believed the lawyers when they said he could set off a nuke using the inprison phones.

Considering all his done now, sending him to prison would be a massive waste of money. Just give him a suspended sentence and on the quiet hire him.

Google rolls out Android Easter Egg for Europe – a Microsoft antitrust-style browser, search engine choice box

And why...

...has the EU and America still need thrown one of these cases at Apple? Especially with iTunes.

We've read the Mueller report. Here's what you need to know: ██ ██ ███ ███████ █████ ███ ██ █████ ████████ █████

They should just look into..

..possible abuse of power to help line the pockets of his empire. As that looks more likely than anything else. Is there any evidence of it? I suspect there will be somewhere. But I could be wrong.

Surprising absolutely no one at all, Samsung's folding-screen phones knackered within days

Re: Pretty well Inevitable for an Alpha Version

And them knowing their product and how to handle it. They should give it to someone who's not seen it before.

Supreme Court of UK gives Morrisons the go-ahead for mega data leak liability appeal

Thinking about it...it's a tough one

As has been mentioned, if you say "No they can't be held responsible." then all breaches could be just blamed on a rouge employee. But if all reasonable checks and protections were put in to stop data being stolen, but that rogue employee managed to discover a way round said restrictions, then surely you can't blame the company. Especially if those holes weren't massively obvious.

Don't spies operate on a friendly bases. As in, keep your enemies close, hide in plan sight. Be friendly, act trustworthy so that no one suspects. Would you say the FBI is responsible for Robert Hanssen's actions or was that just a man in a position of trust who knew how to exploit that position.

If Morrisons did everything they could to avoid such a lose yet the person managed to find the tiniest of holes, then surely you can't blame Morrisons.

Re: If Morrisons is liable for what an employee did ...

I disagree. You'd have a point if the data was left out on a desk easy to grab. But if the person goes to extreme lengths due to finding a flaw in process, then as long as that flaw isn't something that's stupidly obvious that should of been plugged ages ago or a hole that was previously report but ignored, then you can't really blame the company owners for the lose.

What's long, hard, and full of seamen? The US Navy's latest cybersecurity war gaming classes

I assume

They have their own security to check over the code otherwise said bidder could sneak malicious code into their training. Although you'd also hope the training suite was isolated.

"On the plus side, the Navy notes that no travel is required and the developer will not need a security clearance, as the contract is unclassified."

Silk Road 2 + Dread Pirate Roberts 2 + 1 Liverpudlian = over 5 years in prison

On other articles...

...the police claim its not possible to be anonymous and use sites like Tor & VPNs to hide. But those articles then contradict themselves by stating he was traces by following packages he purchases.

IE under fire, Triton goes under the microscope, and Norsk Hydro reeling from ransomware attack

Easier said than done

"the report should serve as motivation for anyone still using IE to make the switch to Edge (or consider a non-Microsoft browser)."

When you work for a charity that relies on old apps that only run in IE and don't have the budget to change.

King's College London internal memo cops to account 'compromise' as uni resets passwords

Re: The mind boggles

But it hates spaces being at the beginning of a password. AD likes it, syncs that to azure ad which then breaks the users office 365 login as fucking office 365 doesn't like the leading space.

Fing annoying trying to work that one out, although didn't take long but, against best practice, I had to ask the user their password to find out that was the issue.

US boffins tangle with quantum entanglement in spooky rack-mounted networking hardware

Won't quantum...

Computing end the saying "Have you turned it off and on again?"

No because its on and off at the same time*

*I'll get my coat. I known virtual nothing about quantum physics so don't know if that crappy joke even works :)

Analysts get hot under collar as ex-Oracle cloud guru ditches corporate wardrobe for Google

Make better software

"Google's new cloud chief, Thomas Kurian, has talked up plans to win enterprise customers by expanding his sales team"

That is the only way Google can get more enterprise customers. Make an offline version of GSuite that is more powerful. That is the problem. It just looks like a cheap version of Office 365 and only aimed at small business'. One of the most annoying issues of Google Docs was not being able to interchange page orientation within a document which you can with Word, however Word Online suffers the same issue.

Everything about GSuite always felt basic. Want to use something like Powershell to manage GSuite? You can't. It appeared to be an after thought so they created GAM, well Jay Lee did. I believe he created it before he joined Google, but I could be wrong.

Although useful, the WIKI wasn't regularly updated so some of the commands at some point, would appear broken, all because the guides hadn't been update. And it had one flaw I pointed out years ago which, last time I checked in 2017 was never fixed. You'd setup GAM to allow your account to admin GSuite. It would download keys to your device and you'd run it from that folder. However, there was no authentication after you'd set it up. So, as I proved several times at work and with my own test GSuite setup, all you had to do was steal/copy someones GAM folder and away you go. You had full admin access to GSuite without requiring a users name and password.

BT Tower broadcasts error message to the nation as Windows displays admin's shame

It's probably been..

...going for ages without needing a reboot. The day it craps out everyone goes

"Erm, does anyone actually know where the PC is that controls the display on the tower?"

"No. Dave did but he left years ago. I know he passed the info on to Mary his replacement but she also left over a year ago".

"Well someone needs to find it and reboot it as it's crashed"

Everyone goes out and looks "oh yeah :)"

Something similar may have happened at a theatre we supported a few years back. I never even knew the PC existed that was sat balancing in the cupboard for the display board in the lobby. And I'd been there at least 10 years.

HMRC accused of not understanding its own IR35 tax reforms ahead of private sector rollout

Exactly. And the idiots in government and/or HMRC don't understand the people contracting do it because they can make more money. However, they have the big disadvantage of not knowing where the next pay cheque will come from, not knowing if they'll be employed for months, not getting sick pay, not having pension contributions made and all number of things.

I now see companies just hiring "contractors" to abuse this. So they can get rid of them with only a weeks notice and not give them any benefits.

The MPs didn't mind themselves abusing expenses though. Only saying "It was wrong" once they'd be caught.

Overzealous n00b takes out point-of-sale terminals across the UK on a Saturday afternoon

Re: You should have been sacked

The mainframe tech sounded like, sorry cover yours eyes and ears, a cunt. Being in IT support, I really can't stand techs like that. Its not like he did it on purpose. Everyone makes mistakes. All I'd have said is "At least it will make you double check the command next time :)". There is no need to be nasty.

Its why I love where I am now. You are forgiven if you make a genuine fuck up. There is no benefit in berating people or making them feel small. You just advise them to be more careful and check their work.

Assume the person who decided to leave someone new to the job unsupervised had words said to them?

I recently moved a handful of users to a new test OU to test out my new group policy. Forgot to apply direct access to this OU. So those few couldn't connect in while at home. Oops. Nothing I could do, I made my apologies and they were fixed the next day when they got the updated policy. Thats it. No bollocking required. I learned from my fuck up and haven't done it since.

Oops! Almost a year in and ICO staff haven't been handed a GDPR privacy notice yet

Unless it's a big data breach they don't appear to give a shit. Reported something some months ago and their site pretty much stated that. Go to the company first, if you get no joy create a ticket but again they appear to only give a shit if its a large breach and in the papers.

Trend Micro antivirus fails to stop measles carrier rubbing against firm's Ottawa offices

Re: If you are infectious - stay away from work

Commonsense but when you then call up sick and get told "Sorry but you're already at the limit of your sick leave. If you don't come in unfortunately we'll have to put you on sick report" or get told something similar. You can then understand why people go in when sick.

Much like, many moons ago, when I had an open wound on my leg after having a minor op done on it. And having a note from the doctor saying "Don't go in or it could get infected" I was asked by a manager at Waitrose when I called "Are you sure you can't come in? Can't you do office work?".

That is the problem.

It's time to reset the 'Days without a Facebook data loss' sign after 500 million records left exposed on AWS

If...

...we were all so ready to adopt "cloud" then we wouldn't have so many of these breaches.

Or maybe I just don't like "cloud" that much.

Prince Harry takes a stand against poverty, injustice, inequality? Er, no, Fortnite

Re: Unpopular opinion

Because we don't see him saying the same about cigarettes & alcohol. And he now has an account on another form of medium that people find addictive, that being Instagram. But we don't see him say that should be banned as they need to make their money some how, and they just know their Instagram will blow up and they can make a pretty penny out of it. A pretty penny out of other peoples addiction.

Although The Reg has lost a lot of street cred by linking to the god awful Daily Mail several times in this article. But I do like the ending :)

Razer – perfectly happy to sell you a laptop for over $2,000, but when it comes to fixing security holes... tough sh*t

Re: Official sponsorship

Like

"I can't be asked". Someone kept saying that to me until I pointed out it's "I can't be arsed".

Re: Official sponsorship

I need to stop typing on my phone and also stop rush typing. Why oh why can't we have an edit button!

Re: Official sponsorship

But you could argue a game is a simulation of a product so understandable. A car being in a show and seaming being shit you could argue, is the actual real car. However, I guess you could then argue, the story line might be that the car is supposed to be shit but in reality isn't.

Hmm. Still find it odd but then America is so litigious, one of the reasons I wouldn't want to live there. Got a paper cut from paper over there, sue the paper company. Poke yourself with a needle while sowing, sue the needle company & so on.

Re: Official sponsorship

Oh yeah :p

Re: Official sponsorship

Jesus that was a mess. I need a physical keyboard as touchscreen on the phone is shit.

That should of said "If Apple hasn't agreed, you have to blur or cover the logo or they can sue" it's a very strange system in the US. Surely it's free advertising.

Just the small matter of the bill for scrapping Blighty's old nuclear submarines: It's £7.5bn

I'll give you...

...£100 for the lot as scrap. Must be some copper in there somewhere. Then take it down the local scrap yard for a little profit for the rest.

I'll get my coat.