Posts by tallenglish

UK finds itself almost alone with centralized virus contact-tracing app that probably won't work well, asks for your location, may be illegal

I forsee three types of issues.

People.like me, that refuse to put battery draining spyware on my phone. I dont live in fear of every flu that comes along, no matter how hyped up it is. Fear is the mind killer, fear is the path to being controlled.

People that will install it on many phones (including old spares), just to keep pressing the big infected button to troll/scare the shit out of everyone around them.

People rarely using the app, so it is asleep most of the time.

Either way, the data they collect is going to be useless.

NASA to launch 247 petabytes of data into AWS – but forgot about eye-watering cloudy egress costs before lift-off

Someone got a good kickback

This cloud business seems very similar to the energy ponzi scheme that brought down Enron, buy cheap and sell at extortionate rates leaving people in Calefornia with large bills and power outages.

I guess with AWS, this will be high rates to get your data back and lost data because do we really think amazon will have redundancy to keep data over multiple DC securely. Just look how they treat the staff, cheap and nasty, so why do we think the staff will care much about the data they care for.

Rockstar dev debate reopens: Hero programmers do exist, do all the work, do chat a lot – and do need love and attention from project leaders

They forgot one

Diva

Close the windows, it's coming through the walls: Copper Cthulu invades Dabbsy's living room

Sounds like a "prefab"

Those buildings were supposed to be temporary, I am impressed if it is still standing and safe to live in.

Alistair Dabbs is such a millenial.

That cable likely cost a bomb from Richer Sounds because it is multi cored to prevent clipping. Connected to a equally expensive tube or Nad amp or similar with only audio selector and volume control - no remote here as settings rarely change.

Alistair, I say embrace the Boomer / Gen X ways when people werent lazy and embraced hi-fi audio, not some digitised crap sent to a speaker that is worth £10 and only good for listening to britiny spears or justin beiber shrilling.

BTW, we geeks have moved on from Xbox or jail breaking your old phone, to creating battle bots or drones with raspberry pi. The more raspberry pi you have "in a cluster" ot number of "projects on the go, and on youtube" is your official geek status.

I do miss the days when TV and Movies were original and not remade for the latest whiney pc babies and "woke" generation. When things were hard, but you had a sense of achievement for doing anything.

Long live the boomers and Gen X.

Row erupts over who to blame after NordVPN says: One of our servers was hacked via remote management tool

I dont get how the box itself was compromised

From what I know of iLo/iDrac you can only get to a login prompt on the box (like ssh or rdp connection to gui) after connecting to the iLo, or do things like reboot the server or destroy the raid array, etc not direct access to a root level account.

So how did they also gain what sounds like root access to the host server as well? That sounds like not only did NordVPN not do basic security (like locking down via ACL and removing common usernamed admin accounts), but their own server (which should be using TACAC+), also had crap security as well.

They were just begging to be pwnd, and NordVPN sound like they are run by a group of security noobs.

Black holes are like buses: You wait for one – and three turn up at once in galaxy merger

Re: A singularity enters an event horizon

Singularity is just a zero viewed from a different angle (at right angle), just as an event horizon is another zero.

The distance between the two defines all imaginary numbers, so it would take an infinite time to go from one to the other. What is outside the black hole is real spacetime, what is inside a blackhole is imaginary spacetime (at right angles or hyperbolic to us).

But just as we can point infinitely far from that event horizon to the edge of the universe, we could do the same from the same event horizon to the edge of the imaginary nubered universe on the inside (imaginary from our perspective).

There is no singularity, just like there is no number infinity that is reachable by traversing along a line of real numbers. It is just a placeholder to define the end, even if its impossible to reach.

I think it is all about the curvature

There are 3 types of spacetime, AdS (Anti de Sitter, collapsing), Minkowski (flat), and dS (de Sitter, expanding). This is what defines the cosmological constant in general relativity field equations.

Now we have seen plenty galaxies merge, why not think bigger and also say universes can merge just the same - and thats where the idea of local curvature comes in, what we call the visible universe is just the flat Minzowski plane we can see. We cant see up the hills (dark energy), or down the wells (dark matter) because we use light as our yard stick to measure everything, with the cosmic microwave background defining the edge where it turns up hill (everything flows away from the edge).

But matter and galaxies could just as easilly drop down the hilly edge of the visible universe (from another universe as it were, or more like a part of dark energh we cant see), just as we can see matter fall into a black hole. So assuming every galaxy is the same age as the visible universe is wrong, yes the visible universe aka the spacetime it is made of is almost flat (very small cosmological constant), but the matter in it doesnt have to be the same age as it.

What we see is just the valley surrounded by hills, assuming this universe is all there is and ever will be and it came from nothing in a big bang is just stupid small minded thinking at this point. Trying to conbince people the universe is not homoginous is a big task, but when you accept it, black hole size and age, dark matter and dark energy are no mystery at all, they are just matter and energy in different shapes of spacetime to where we are in the flat valley of the visible universe, with erroding hills that give us the expansion in all directions.

Now I have explained it using valleys, hills and wells, does it sound any different than what we see, even on this planet in nature? Why should the universe as a whole act any differently?

Google touts managed Linux, gets cosy with Dell in Chromebook Enterprise push

Seriously, who uses Google spyware/crapware these days.

With the exception of Android (which needs some google apps disabling to be usable).

Why would anyone use Linux from Google, when there are plenty of other better options without Googles spyware built in and uninstallable.

Never understood the Chromebook concept, which has everything stored in the cloud (which I class as insecure), or some SD card and running apps in a web browser, not even as capable as Android IMHO, you might as well have a tablet, which has more features and likely supports the full Microsoft Office apps as well as the google crapware versions.

There were going to unify ChromeOS and Android at one point - whatever happened to that.

At this point, I avoid using Google for anything, especially Chrome.

Samsung Note10+ torn apart to expose three 5G antennas: One has to pick up something

I got mine yesterday.

First impressions:

The supplied usbc headphones are shite, they have as much bass as a choir boy getting fiddled by a priest, and they hurt to have them in for more than 30 minutes. Maybe I have the wrong kind of ears. But my £30 jvc headphone (3.5mm) wipe the floor quality wise compared to the supplied akg.

The usbc is not universal, I purchased from amazon a usbc to 3.5mm headphone dongle before I got the phone that works on other androids thinking they would work on the Note10, it didnt, and Samsung neither supplied one or sell one that does. Looking now to see if there is one for the S10 as hopefully that will be compatible.

Still bloatware, no LinkedIn this time, still Faceshite, and now Netflix (not to bugged at that as I have a subscription, but like facebook, no excuse for it being a uninstallable system app).

One thing that got me, was the missing power button and the fact it doesnt say the front protector was supposed to be left on, took me 5 minutes to figure the bixby button is also power as well, sneaky way to get everyone to use that crap. I also pealed the screen protector off thinking it was just the initial plastic cover, like many did with the fold, just the note 10+ screen doesnt break if you do, you just wasted a perectly good screen protector.

Major issue is false screen presses (if you dont have a case to protect the edged from side of your hand. So I see there are limits to just how much screen to body you can have before it has issues.

Battery life is about 24h, and I am using it a lot with 9gag, firefox and outlook.

Major pain in the ass is 2fa app, now I have to re-register all sites as it doesnt copy the current registrations over. Cant blame sammy for that one and I see the security reasons for it. But it is a right chore.

Also depreciation on phones is as bad as cars, I got £200 rebate for my old Note8, given it cost a lot more and is only 2yo, that is a steep drop for what is still a decent phone.

Overall though, the Note10+ is a good phone, Bixby is less anoying and in your face and far more useful with its new routines (automated scripting to set phone in different times/locations). Microsoft support is just "Your Phone" built in now, so no different to any other phone.

I would agree with the 5G possible issues, I have about 1-2 bar at home (4G though), but on Note8 it was usually 3-4, still works for calls and text though, no dropouts.

Teen TalkTalk hacker ordered to pay £400k after hijacking popular Instagram account

only in the uk

I had to laugh, only in the uk is it aparently illegal to use ccleaner because cops are stupid and obviously incompetant at their job .

Wondering if putting your browser in perma private mode where it doesnt save any history is also banned for these orders.

I could understand if they said (like the USA), you cant use a computer at all, or forced the internet provider to record everything he does (at his expence). But relying on a criminal to behave and nannying him is just how stupid our police have come.

Mysterious 'glitch' in neutron stars may be down to an itch under the body's surface

Its the equivilent of a earthquake

Neutron stars are known to have friction, and just like earth has plate techtonics (caused by friction), why should neutron stars be any different.

They slow down as the friction builds up, then it is released in a quake that speeds it up temporarilly. Once that is released it goes back to normal, and starts storing the energy for the next quake.

Surely someone has spot that, especially as neutron stars are highly compessed?

That's a hell of Huawei to run a business, Chinese giant scolds FedEx after internal files routed via America

Proof, or it didn't happen.

Where is the proof, or I call bullshit.

Hauwei is a pawn in some political game, since USA can't beat them fairly, the just remove them from the playing field. How many western companies are going to get hit with fallout from this mess.

DXC Technology seeks volunteers to take redundancy. No grads, apprentices, and 'quota carrying' sales folk

Company commits hara-kiri

Company wants employees, just not the experienced and paid kind.

Here is an idea, get rid of the overpriced and over paid execs at the top and work your way down, not start from the bottom working your way up.

This just shows the selfish way of execs and management that is ruining business in the west. The get paid extorsionate rates, while treating those that do the most for the company as cattle.

Pushed around and kicked around, always a lonely boy: Run Huawei, Google Play, turns away, from Huawei... turns away

This will only improve the Huawei

Less bloatware/spyware from Google. Less ad revenue for Google. China will very likely retaliate, banning Google or Apple phones being sold (or put such a punitive tax on them nobody can afford one).

Funny thing is I dont see any negative to Huawei apart from the annoyance of having to redesign the phone which likely might mean they miss a year or deploy later.

This really will only hurt Americans, or should we start calling them Americants

Oracle AI's Eurovision horror show: How bad can it be? Yep. Badder

Better than the real thing

But then again it would have to try hard to be crapper than the real thing.

OK, Google, please do a half-hearted U-turn: Stay of execution for smart home APIs after Big G goes cuckoo in the Nest

We hear you

Basically means they aren't listening and only responded due to bad publicity.

UK is 'not a surveillance state' insists minister defending police face recog tech

Let us be honest, the UK is guilty of many human rights abuses.

Easy fix - and the Goverment won't like it, but can't do anything about it.

Everyone needs to wear a burka, screw facial recognition and if anyone complains you can cry foul and say its part of your religion.

Or if your brave, wear a balaclava instead - aka the Irish burka.

If your really brave, wear a clown mask - everyone will likely run away and you can beat the crowds as a two-for.

Or wear the guy fawkes mask to make a point while your at it.

I just wish there was a real Rorschach mask - that would be cool.

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

Lets not forget, they also borked Tor

How many people that require anonymity now are compromised because no-script wouldn't load and Tor run javascript that showed their real location.

Well played FF.

Adding Baidu Search to the updated FF 66.0.3 adds insult to injury.

It is worse for the updated Firefox 66.0.3

Now only did we have the certificate snafum but the update auto installs the Baidu Search plugin as well.

https://www.ghacks.net/2019/04/10/mozilla-releases-firefox-66-0-3/

I do not want any Chinese spyware installed thank you.

I am glad I use Ccleaner as it shows what plugins and extensions are installed for every browser - and allows easy disabling of them and the location to permanently delete them.

What anoys me is these are hidden plugins - and that aint cool.

This deserves to be in the Who Me? section.

Will the Firefox engineer who forgot to check and renew key certificates please stand up.

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

Company is in maximum deflection mode.

Clasic case of "not our fault", which is just digging them a hole - just like the MCAS system did for the poor folk in the two crashes.

They build a plane that flies like a brick, because the larger engines block some airflow.

Knowing full well that the plane will nose up, the design a patch to force it back down.

They knowingly scrimp on redundancy or fault torerance in the software.

They knowingly don't train the pilots properly.

Now they started blaming the pilots, now they try and blame the software engineers.

When it is clearly management penny pinching and cutting corners that is the root cause of both of these crashes.

Lets not forget these are new planes, new hardware - nothing should be failing.

Failure always comes from the top down, the CEO and board should be brought up on criminal charges.

People should refuse to fly on these death traps, how can we trust a company which can't even admit they are at fault and puts profits over peoples lives.

I hope they go bankrupt and/or taken over and the directors involved go to jail.

Eggheads confirm it's not a bug – the universe really is expanding 9% faster than expected

Saying God did it, with extra steps

Why cant they just get over their egos and admit they haven't a clue, if the universe started in a bang then what caused it, where is the epicentre of this explosion?

Hell why not start by explaining what a dimension is and how time and space are different but part of the same thing. When they understand what they are they will also know how they were both created and how they interact with matter we can see.

I personally think space is a boson and time a 3/2 spin fermion, so both can be created or destroyed just in the same way light can be emitted or absorbed and particles are created in pairs.

What makes me laugh is all these athiests are biasing their whole idea of the universe, trying to fit their theories on something that originally came from a catholic priest.

That has to be the biggest and best troll of all time.

Behold, the insides of Samsung's Galaxy Fold: The phone that tears down all on its own

Folding is not the right way I think.

I still think the rolling screen idea is far better for this type of phone.

Like has been shown in various movies and would look more like a scroll - only issue with that is the touch screen bits.

Obviously they would then have to protect the back from nicks from desk, etc.

The other option is having a screen which folds around your wrist (like a watch, but as a phone in landscape).

Obviously issue with this is the amount of bend as evryones wrist is different width and would be hard to get it to fit correctly.

I don't think this current style will last as humans are too clumsy and break things easily - I guess one drop of this device will be fatal.

One drop of water will also be fatal.

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

Quantum is now a overused buzzword

E.g. I had a quantum turd today, I both sharted and didn't at the same time.

That said, entanglement needs photons from the same source - so any guff about instant communications is just that. Information can't travel faster than the speed of light EVER, its a law of the universe.

Also Qubits will always require to be ultracold as they measure quantum spin and any heat will easilly break any entanglement (which requires spin to be exact - the less exact it is or the more interference from other sources like heat, the faster it falls out of entanglement). I think new computer tech will come when we can manipulate how molecules interact - E.g. molecular motors we can switch on or off with E/M field for example. Qubits and measuring spin is just too unstable at reasonable temperatures.

Lastly repeaters - if you can repeat a signal, who is to say you can't also duplicate it at the same time (aka 3 entangled photons in T shape), so there is no guarentee communication isn't being snooped - just as we have the issue now with NSA and similar with wire taps. Granted this leaves only the governments that could spy, but it is usually them who do spy anyway.

Quantum will come when AI can work out how to work with stable molecules or atomic spin - the hard part is getting those larger entities entangled in the first place, once achieved we likely could keep the in that state far longer which is far more usefull.

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

Great idea but....

It roots your phone from what I have seen, so quite a few important apps will refuse to work.

Like banking and Sky TV.

So this is a none starter for most, which is a shame as it actually looks well put together OS.

Microsoft must be cringing as well

Lets not forget Windows 10 has Edge baked in as well as Cortana using only Bing.

So EU fine didnt do squat, the only option needs to be both Chrome and Edge and all baked in apps should be user deletable. Samsung is the worst baking in Facebook and LinkedIn spyware as well.

System apps should only be Android system, no excuse to have any browser installed at factory when we have WebView (which also needs options for addons as its also a massive threat due to it being used by all android apps - so no chance to block spyware, mallware or adware crap).

Seriously Google techs are either morons, or actively benefiting from peoples devices getting pwned.

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

Easy way to control data flow

Same as the rest of the world that is required to keep user info secure.

Stop 3rd parties removing it from your site (I think LinkedIn started doing something like this to stop recruiters mining the site for people to email for jobs).

The minute you let people take data off site, you lose all control - and that should never be allowed.

Shows how little Facebook actually cares about security of the data it holds, all it cares about is how it can use it to make more money.

There is another article on The Reg about how a local council just payed a huge fine for giving out 220 unredacted details of gang members, I guess Facebook is imune to these either as Murica cares more about the dollar than security or everyone is scared to call them on their BS.

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

If you are infectious - stay away from work

Should be common sense - same for chicken pox (or shingles for old folk).

I have had MMR and Chicken pox vaccines and had measles twice and chicken pox once (not at same time I was vaccinated either).

BUT this is Murica we are talking about - where nobody has sick leave, so are forced to come in to work even IF they are sick.

THAT IS THE REAL THING TO BLAME HERE.

Most civilized countries would allow sick people to stay at home so they didn't spread any infectious deseases unnecesarilly.

America isn't a civilized country though.

What a pile of poo

I have had my MMR vaccine and it doesn't stop you getting measles at all, it just minimizes the effects.

Drop this political bollocks just to make a point as you can still get measles (and mumps) even after being vaccinated.

Wow, fancy that. Web ad giant Google to block ad-blockers in Chrome. For safety, apparently

why does anyone still use this garbage.

I forgot to mention, Chrome refuses to let you stop autoplaying videos.

Which wasts bandwidth and is another form of anti-blocking they do now. And the main reason I do not use it.

Google is evil plain and simple, avoid at all costs especially the gapps like gmail as it is not secure and makes the job of the NSA, CIA, FBI too simple, not to mention any content you have can easilly be stolen mainly because their attitude to security of those tools is a joke (look how many stories el reg has regarding 3rd party tools scanning emails or amazon buckets being pwned).

why does anyone still use this garbage.

It eats ram.

It tracks everything you do for googles profit.

and now this, blocking your right to block anything you dont want.

It is the very definition of spyware, and malware as the anti-blocking will allow bad scripts and others onto your pc.

What worries me is Android and webview, which for the most part have no choice to use Chrome.

With assistant AI and intrusive apps and browser, GDPR that only ever give you the option to accept. The concept of user privicy these days is a joke.

I now block all cookies all the time (dont use any site that complains).

I block all remote fonts.

I block all javascript except for trusted sites.

I never use Chrome ot any Google app (except Android, as I trust Apple even less).

I use VPN and Tor as much as possible.

Seriously, when are people going to wake up they are thought of as cattle to these pychopaths.

$24m in fun bux stolen from crypto-mogul. Now he fires off huge fraud charge. Like, RICO, say?

Isnt this what hardware wallets are for.

2fa is only as good as the medium it runs on.

I would use an offline wallet for one for that amount and use either Authenticator or better yet a hardware based 2fa device like trezor. Especially if I had that amount of crypto and so many online wallets have been compromised as well.

Not got much sympathy for this guy, he was pwned for being naive. Although I can see his issue with ATT for negligence, SIM swaps need to be done in person at a store of some kind so things like signature and other authentication can be checked first, allowing over the phone just asks to be abused.

Microsoft's 2018, part 2: Azure data centres heat up and Windows 10? It burns! It burns!

Failure shows there is something funny going on with the data

"eye-opening admission that the Azure Service Manager did not support automatic failure and, er, used the affected data centre as its primary metadata storage site. Ouch."

How else are the NSA to track everything on the system (even from EU).

Why else would they have everything going to one DC, thats not a rookie mistake - its deliberate.

They would have issues if they wiretapped stuff outside the USA, but make it require something in the USA, at which point it is out of sight and out of mind of everybody.

It also means the USA can effectively switch off any Azure services as and when they please - so for that reason I would never trust Azure or Amazon Cloud for that reason - as I can't trust the USA government, and because of that any USA organisation to handle data securely and safely.

Just look at the cavelier way Facebook has been with peoples privicy, if anyone thinks Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Apple are any better they are very dilusional.

If at first or second you don't succeed, you may be Microsoft: Hold off installing re-released Windows Oct Update

Tried it

Got to 25% for me and gave up.

At least it didn't delete anything (except itself), although I was smart enough to do a full backup just in case it decided it didn't like VMware or Bitlocker.

Think they need to hand testing back to the humans as this new AI doesn't seem to be working at all.

Euro bureaucrats tie up .eu in red tape to stop Brexit Brits snatching back their web domains

By that same principle we should shut down the EU access to the Internet that travels through the UK and shut down the Euro clearing house in London.

Grown ups dont think that way though.

You dont need to be American to have a .com domain, and I wonder how many none EU residents like Americans will also be affected by this beyond people in the UK. What they are doing is petty and will kill the EU TLD not protect it.

Very petty indead.

By the accounts above, they are willing to ditch 10-20% of their revenue and increase costs to even their own people just to spite folk in the UK that likely mostly use .co.uk or .com domains already.

Thats the mindset of a 2yo spitting its dummy out and blairing its eyes out.

This us why we need hard brexit, and they can screw the divorce payment as that requires they act like adults.

I think the EU and the self elected morons in charge are done for not because of Brexit because of their own selfish and childish actions.

More than ever I am proud I voted Brexit.

Microsoft: You don't want to use Edge? Are you sure? Really sure?

Er, what about Cortana now

Cortana insists on using Edge and Bing, you can disable it for standard search - but you need to do some ninja powershell to manage it.

You cant uninstall edge without breaking windows 10.

Microsoft seems to be making windows 10 into xbox along with all the adverts. I no longer play that thing due to the crud on it.

Windows also now has loads of network drivers installed even if you dont need them (like lldp, qos, ipv6) and you cant uninstall them.

And Skype for business still insists on stealing focus when it loads, to hell if your trying to login to your work vpn or not.

I will give microsoft one thing, they know how to make the most anoying UI - this crap with Firefox and others just looks like scorched earth policy to me because their fancy browser is even crapper than the last.

HTTPS crypto-shame: TV Licensing website pulled offline

Yet another Crapita cockup

This is what happens when you don't pay your empoyees half enough or care about them, haven't a clue about what your selling or care about the security of your clients.

Bet the details are stored in some plaintext file on the server too.

Chap asks Facebook for data on his web activity, Facebook says no, now watchdog's on the case

Front for the NSA

I agree with some others that this info is really only useful to organisations like the NSA and CIA to track users.

I am sure they have backend access to all the buckets in Amazon, Google docs and tracking data, FB user base and this supposidly anonymous data so they could tell you more about yourself than you know yourself.

Snowden likely only knew small part of the state sponsored spying in the USA, why else are they so paranoid of others like Russia (takes one to know one).

Re: @Doctor Syntax

I think the way they may weasle out of it is the site that has FB links has to have shown the GDPR accept all request and part of that is allowing 3rd parties to use the data from that site and in this case, FB is the 3rd party.

So ironically FB will blame everyone else, in the "you must have clicked accept all on xyz.com website to view it and part of that acceptance is to allow FB to track you while using that site".

What I am not sure about is the legality of how they merge those site tracking to one unique ID or if they do at all - if they do then the must have some identifyable info about the user and could easilly grant the request (albeit data taking a long time to collate), if not then it is fully anonymised then it only allows for custom advertising to that website based on what type of users are visiting it and that wouldn't require GDPR data given to any one user I think.

Question is what are they slurping, are they infuring things like sex and other preferences by the type of site visited (like men mainly go to car websites) and sexuality based on what you search for in pornhub, etc?

Google responds to location-stalking outcry by… tweaking words on its BS support page

Google survey in activity controls

I got a 1 minute survey when I checked my activity controls and history today.

Go and tell google what you think if you don't like their policy on location spying.

Anyone actually checked the permission capability of the phone?

On a phone (Android 8+) at least you can turn off location access by app as you can for camera, microphone and everthing else, so I guess this issue must just be for those still on crap phones or old software. I would suggest you also turn off things like Location, NFC, WiFi and Bluetooth sensors that are not being used as it is just better security. I have also gove as far as disabling apps that I don't use, like google search and maps on my Samsung phone. I just checked my activity log and I haven't got one entry for over a month - so it is possible to stop the spying, it just takes quite a bit of effort and is not default on as it should be.

It would be better if Google had the same granularity of permission controls on the web interface as they do for Android devices - that way you could pick what each app could use, and only give access to trusted apps and for trusted uses in that app.

Google keeps tracking you even when you specifically tell it not to: Maps, Search won't take no for an answer

Easy Answer

Disable the various google services you dont want on the phone like search and chrome and maps if you dont use them. Same for any other bloatware like facebook/linkedin on Samsung phones.

Pause everything on google privicy, screw the fact it breaks things like google play movies and tv.

Lastly if something gets through, go and clear all history for everything to the beginning of time on a regular basis if needed. You will also see what gaps and apps are not behaving over time.

I did that and google has little to no history of anything I do, even watching movies on google play or youtube.

When's a backdoor not a backdoor? When the Oz government says it isn't

David Ike was right

Problem: government creates the problem by not doing the job they are already paid to do. (underfunding police, creating weapons, etc).

Reaction: government reacts by hyping up all their failures (terrorism, pedophiles, organised crime).

Solution: government provides the solution to greater control, requiring more government. (more taxes, more usless laws).

Real Solution: get rid of the problem, get rid of the idiots in charge that are just creating more work for themselves to feed their massive egos.

And we thought China was bad

China and its great wall is starting to look progressive. Australia is obviously trying to get rid of all the criminals we didn't want from the UK.

Providers from USA and others need to ban Australia out of principle like we do to China to protect encryption products and people in Australia are going to need to get VPN and slow down their already shite connection speeds.

Yay, you gotta love Aussy progress from the land that dredges the great barrier reef to let coal mining ships through.

Bank on it: It's either legal to port-scan someone without consent or it's not, fumes researcher

If Its JavaScript Block it

Not sure the point of this, miscreants will just block the javascript and fake any expected results - so mallware will just be able to bypass it as they usually act as man in the middle for HTTPS especially if they are some bad Firefox/Chrome plugin as we have seen previously with the theme tools.

Hackers normally just go for a fake site to steal details anyway.

So I don't even see the point of Halifax bothering with it?

Zero arrests, 2 correct matches, no criminals: London cops' facial recog tech slammed

Ask Facebook

They should just ask Facebook, the have the monopoly (and dataset) to match against and we already know it works (no matter how creapy it is).