Posts by tapemonkey

Billion-record stolen Chinese database for sale on breach forum

The ultimate chinese take away.

Astroboffins discover Sun is surfing on 9,000-light-year gas wave that acts as Milky Way's stellar nursery

If the red car and the blue car had a race they'd be ok for gas. Only Brits of a certain age will get this

Elon Musk gets thumbs up from jury for use of 'pedo guy' in cave diver defamation lawsuit

Musks Pedo Guy Links

It seems Musk is an expert witness when it comes to pedo guys

https://observer.com/2019/08/jeffrey-epstein-death-elon-musk-tesla/

Irish eyes aren't smiling after govt blows €1m on mega-printer too big for parliament's doors

Not only the Irish

Some years ago my local hospital having spent millions on a major rebuilding project invited a royal dignitary and the associated press pack to open the new wing. It was only on the organised walk around that they discovered that the doors in the corridors were 1/4 inch narrower than the beds

Found on Mars: Alien insects... or whatever the hell this smudge is supposed to be, anyway

Jetsons

Is it just me or does the first pic look like George Jetsons flying car

Security? We've heard of it! But why be a party pooper when there's printing to be done

Re: One rule for you...

Back in the 90s I was working security at Northern Telecom.

Back then they were a big MOD contractor making all sorts of highly sensitive military comms equipment some of which found its way to the first Gulf War.

Now to enter the office building out of hours you needed a swipe card and key code.

Pretty good for the day you would think however when we did our rounds one of our jobs was to check peoples desk for documents marked SECRET or above and put them into the safe.

We often found TOP SECRET documents left on peoples desks, often open and the muppets even left their windows open even on the ground floor.

Times and tech may have changed but the idiots remain the same.

Poor old Jupiter has had a rough childhood after getting a massive hit from a mega-Earth

Re: Almost a great article

Whats next an article about Uranus

Yet another reminder: When a tech giant says its AI listens to you, it means humans listen to you. Right, Facebook?

Re: So AI is outsourcing to meat these days.

Thats 30 seconds of your artificial life you will never get back

PRANK

You could have some real fun with this. I think I will start using rhyming slang from now on.

You can imagine the conversations they will hear like "come on sweetheart I'll take you for a nice ruby and then when we get home you can park your jack on my boat for half an hour"

If you dont understand the slang thats the point.

Navy STEALS? US sailors dispute piracy claim

Re: I must be missing something

And don't call me Shirley

Talk about unintended consequences: GDPR is an identity thief's dream ticket to Europeans' data

Re: Over caution

But you dont have to get probate if there is not an estate to leave

One easy solution regarding identifying that the request for information is coming from the person who the information belongs to for say the local registrar of births deaths and marriages to have equipment of a similar size to a photo booth installed.

This booth could contain retinal, fingerprint & vocal scanners as well as facial regognition.

To access the booth you should first provide the registrar with the standard 3 forms of ID (Utility Bill,Birth Certificate & Photo Driving License/Passport).

Also provided should be a form with a photo attached signed by your doctor to say they have known you for 2 years or more and that this is a true likeness of you).

Once you have satisfied that step you enter the booth and are scanned. Then the data is transferred to a central encrypted database.

The booth then displays a QR code so that your smartphone can download an app that also scans for fingerprints, retina using selfie camera, voice and facial recognition. The app then transfers this scanned data to the database for cross checking (obviously with allowable tolerances) and if they match generate a key of suitable length and security. You include that key in your information request.

Obviously this will come at a cost say £50 per head to pay for the tech and maintanence but you would only need to do this once as the app would be transferrable from device to device.

I fully expect this to be ripped apart but the point is technology can be used to solve this problem.

Over caution

The thing is just like the DPA the training given to front line and even admin staff is woeful and usually provided by idiots who have no real understanding of it either.

A prime example was 2 years ago following the death of my wife I was calling various companies to inform them of her death and get her name removed or transferred into mine.

Some companies I called just accepted my word one saying "well you wouldnt lie about something like that would you". Me no of course I wouldnt lie ...COUGH COUGH

Then you go to the other extreme. I told one organisation of her death and they replied that because of Data Protection they could only speank to the account holder and needed here authority to speak with me. When I reitterated thatshe was deceased and I could provide a copy of hear death certificate they told me again they would need her permision to talk to me and that this was company policy. When I finally suggested that we all sit around a table, holding hands, and organise an effing seance they hung up.

When you put people in charge of anything you invariably end up with the lunatics running the asylum.

Storied veteran Spitfire slapped with chrome paint job takes off on round-the-world jaunt

Re: The horrors of war

Yes but with all the anti aircraft fire and bullets/shells filling the sky reaching the ground was somewhat deadly

The horrors of war

As a side story my now deceased father-in-law was a Spitfire mechanic stationed in Egypt during WW2 with I believe 45 Squadron.

He used to regail me with tales of his time there both the funny and the dark.

During German straphing runs of the airfield him and his best mate used to hide under the refeuling tanker because believe it or not it was the safest place to be.

I dont know the wisdom in this but he survived - the bunkhouse didnt.

On the darker side he was appointed as squadron photographer and it was his job to photograph the remains of enemy pilots who either died on impact or were shot parachuting to safety. The photographs make for grim viewing but are a reminder of the horrors of war.

I really should donate them to a museum or somewhere.

Bonkers British MPs rant: 5G signals cause cancer

Wales where men are men sheep are worried and politicians are thicker than pig shit

Hacking these medical pumps is as easy as copying a booby-trapped file over the network

Re: Unrestricted access during remote firmware update?

13 years old so it will be brand new kit for the NHS then

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

Re: Management's job

Phrases like buck stops here and golden parachutes are stroking my innately dark sense of humour. Is it too soon for Boeing the sound a Max 7 makes as it hits the ground

WTF

Hmmm spirit lefels anybody

Firefox armagg-add-on: Lapsed security cert kills all browser extensions, from website password managers to ad blockers

"We owe both our users and ourselves an unflinching post-mortem to make us better in the future," he said.

Perhaps Joe Hildebrand should go work in Boeing

We regret to inform you the massive asteroid NASA's all excited about probably won't hit Earth

Dont Panic

Theres no need to panic even now the UASF is readying a covert team operating out of its Cheyene Mountain facility to land on Apophis.

Once there they will generate a hyperspace window directly ahead of the astreroid and it will pass through the Earth averting a disaster.

Kent bloke incurs the anchor of local council after fly-tipping boat

I know where do they keep dredging them up from

Re: Tony Blackburn

I hope that pencil comes with a rubber we dont want it being used to multiply do we?

The first ZX Spectrum prototype laid bare... (What? It was acceptable in the '80s)

Re: 16K

There was and a line drawn 3D Defender. On the Speccy there was also Spectrum Voice Chess that somehow managed to eek out speech from an 8bit sound processor. Have had all of these machines and the one that still holds a place in my heart was the first ZX80 ordered it from an ad in the newspaper took 6 weeks to arive and when it did it came in kit form.

UK banking was struck by one IT fail every day for most of 2018

Re: it is time!

In other words you have money. Then when you look for it its gone. Sounds like a normal day in any home with teenagers

Lovely website you got there. Would be a shame if we, er, someone were to sink it: Google warns EU link tax will magnify media monetary misery

Re: Ah, capitalism at its best

Just because you do not know how to use a device correctly is not Googles or any other search engines fault. Heres a thought try Googling the solution

Senior slippery sex stimulator sales exec sacked for shafting .org-asmic cyber-space place, a tribunal hears

Re: Viagra is a "back-to-back bonking drug"?

Well as a back to back drug it turns two men into a very useful hat stand

Clone your own Prince Phil, says eBay seller hawking debris left over from royal car crash

Re: What I'd like to know

You T-Bone someone at 60MPH and it is pretty much irrelavent if their vehicles are armoured or not they are going over.

We all know Phil the Greek is a doddering old fool whose only use these days is as an advert for Dignitas

London Gatwick Airport reopens but drone chaos perps still not found

Surely for the danger posed it should be classed as an act of terrorism. 1 drone could potentialy bring down an A380. Just contemplate that for a second. Through one act of stupidity hundreds could have lost their lives. The perpetrators should face 15 years in prison under Section 58 of the Terrorism Act 2000

Manchester nuisance-call biz fined £150k after ignoring opt-out list

Re: Good! I hope my bl**dy insurance company's reading this

With these "accident" leaches I just wait for them to finish their spiel then say "It wasn't an accident I ran them over on purpose" before laughing maniacly. They usually hang up after a few seconds.

Holy smokes! US watchdog sues Elon Musk after he makes hash of $420 Tesla tweet

Re: Maximum Hubris

I wonder how long it will be before he is arrested on drug trafficking charges

A story of M, a failed retailer: We'll give you a clue – it rhymes with Charlie Chaplin

Re: Ironic, isn't it?

Yes they did it was their first shop front although initially they operated from a 1st floor location in Hadleigh Essex

Re: Ironic, isn't it?

I remember fondly visiting their first premises (before they got an actual shop) in Hadleigh Essex. It was a 1st floor location above another shop. When I walked in it was a mess of boxes crates and reels of wire. I was there to get some components to repair my CB radio and was greeted by a really helpful guy who knew just where everything was located in the jumble. Then a few years later I was at the grand opening of their 1st shop in Westcliff (on the outskirts of Southend-on-Sea). Grand times. It was after the mass expansion of the company that they lost their small business feel and I believe that was the root of their eventual downfall. They became too expensive and non competative plus they lost those people that were a mine of great kmowledge in their core business - components. The guys in that first shop were hobbyists as well and so knew their stuff. For me that was the main reason I shopped their because of the staffs wealth of knowledge. Sadly they lost sight of those values that made them stand out from the rest and so were destined to fail.

Enigma message crack honours pioneering Polish codebreakers

Forgotten Heroes

Everyone remebers the name Turing but he didn't, despite popular belief, do it alone. There were many heroes at Bletchley and I was fortunate to meet two. Sam Wiggin was the husband of my old primary school teacher and worked on Bombe as an engineer. George Cutler was RAF and tasked with delivering the decoded messages to various destinations.

As a spotty 11 year old I remember Mrs Wiggin telling us, as she taught binary, that her Sam had said one day every one would have their own computer. That was way back in 1976 and just how right he was.

Every single man & woman who worked so tirelesly to shorten the war deserved remembering.

https://bletchleypark.org.uk/

Woman sues NASA for ownership of vial of space dust

Re: The ongoing ruthless take backs.

Or all those alien bases Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin saw in 69

Which? calls for compensation for users hit by Windows 10 woes

Re: Where's the problem?

That doesnt help when the latest update completely borks the most up to date drivers. I am a tech with years of experience but when this update broke a blind mates onboard sound driver there was literally nothing that could be done except buy a usb soundcard. This meant he was without a PC until it arrived because without sound his screen reading software was useless. Also some people like my mate are unable to do maintenance for themselves and rely on the goodwill of others or PAY

Re: Good luck with that.

I got a desperate call from a blind friend who uses screen reading software to use his PC. After the update his onboard sound was borked (still is) and that was a massive deal to him. Without sound his PC was nothing more than an expensive room heater. I had to order him a cheap usb soundcard to plug in as I dont live nearby and couldnt install a PCI card. The PC is a Zoostorm and the onboard was nothing out of the ordinary just a Realtek HD so you would have thought MS would have checkecd that before release to the general public.

MS should realise that some people rely on their computers for far more significant things than business. To my mate it is his lifeline aginst loneliness. He lives his life in total darkness, not something most of us could cope with, and to lose that because someone did not invest a bit of time to ensure their product was fit for purpose is extremely hard on vulnerable people like him.

Airbus windscreen fell out at 32,000 feet

Chipped windscreen

Should have called Gavin from Auto Glass

https://youtu.be/WcwgpiYtIXQ

NHS WannaCrypt postmortem: Outbreak blamed on lack of accountability

Re: Local IT professionals can never keep up, cloud automation is the key.

and theres the rub. In the UK certainly with Government departments there is an ongoing debate as to the legality of Cloud based systems. The fact that most cloud providers are off shore and managed by third parties (the physical boxes containing the data) would put us at odds with the Data Protection Act.

I work in a IT department in a Government Agency the IT is subcontracted to a large multi (bluish) company who have their own cloud based solutions and this has been mooted and booted numerous times.

Dont shoot the messenger

There also needs to be more personal responsibility. Having worked in IT departments in the public sector for some years I see it far too many times. Passwords written on post it notes stuck to screens even in full view of street level windows. Passwords so easy that a child could guess them. Companies even UK Government Agencies using 128bit WEP for WIFI that is so easy to crack a teenager with a smartphone could do it in 10 minutes without even entering the building. Middle management flouting IT security policies and when they are told that it is a breach IT being told to shut up and god forbid you escalate it to senior management because IT will always lose. This will have initially been down to someone opening an email attachment from a dubious sender despite being warned by their relevant IT department not to do so. It will have been in the terms and conditions of their employment that they had to adhere to all IT security policies but they failed to do so. If a user is found to have flagrantly ignored IT security protocols no more pussy footing there needs to be harsher penalties and even jail time when appropriate.

Dont get me wrong the systems should have been patched and up to date and the fact they were not is unforgivable and the inquests will lay the blame where they see fit for that one but how many times do you have to tell people not to open email attachments.

One thing I will say I have noticed IT departments do fall down on and MS too is the default setting in Windows needs changing. By default known file extensions are hidden so if you have an attachment come in that is for example invoice.pdf.bat it will only show as invoice.pdf and the user will not be suspicious. Now most email filters block .bat and .exe but I have seen them slip through in fact my own boss was caught just like that with the cryptolocker last year. This should be changed as a matter of urgency by all IT admins because even a USB drive with a dodgy file can slip through this way.