Posts by Cav

Sysadmins: Why not simply verify there's no backdoor in every program you install, and thus avoid any cyber-drama?

Re: Herculean task

Yeah, we can build software in the same fashion as the pyramids - thousands of people working for decades. That'll really work...

I can only assume you are not a developer. A system can have millions of lines of code, worked on by different people over years.

I vaguely remember an Australian project to mathematically prove a software app was safe and bug free. It took something like 100 staff members 7 years to verfiy some 7,000 lines of code. Code is complex and voluminous. Unless you want to wait years between updates you have to accept some bugs.

As for safe and durable constructions, plenty of buildings fall down.

US Air Force announces plan to assassinate molluscs with hypersonic missile

Re: What about "President" Biden?

You believe something for which there is zero evidence then. It was simple: Biden told his supporters to vote by post, Trump did the opposite. Comparison of the numbers of postal votes requested by those identifying as Democrats and those Republicans confirms that the advice was followed. Counting physical votes takes far longer than electronic votes. So Trumps win mirage of election night evaporated as the postal votes were counted. Trump is just too stupid to understand that.

John McAfee dead: Antivirus tycoon killed himself in prison after court OK'd extradition, says lawyer

Re: Why was he in a Spanish prison?

"If the government really needs all that money to supply the population with essential things, how come it managed to supply all that was needed 200 years ago by taking only a fraction of people's total income as it does today?"

You can't be serious? No one can be that ignorant of history.

People died for the lack of simple necessities of life. Roads were abominable. There were no schools, other than basic charity - usually religious - schools. There were no military opponents with hideously expensive technology - all you needed were personal arms and lots of bodies.

The disabled and sick just died.

What a bizarre comment.

Roger Waters tells Facebook CEO to Zuck off after 'huge' song rights request

Re: re. That doesn't mean that the citizens of Israel are responsible for those things.

The difference is that one is a totalitarian state, in which protests are crushed and the other is a democracy. Yes, the people of a democracy are resposible for the actions of the government THEY elect. An oppressed population that has resistance crushed, is not.

Australian cops, FBI created backdoored chat app, told crims it was secure – then snooped on 9,000 users' plots

The two subjects are totally unconnected. Why do you think they are? Are the police going to be getting criminals to install fake Facebook Messenger apps? If not then the cops will not be to intercept such messages as they were able to in this case.

Student Loans Company splashes out on 20,000 cybersecurity training courses – for just 3,300 employees

Re: "Mastering GDPR, Governance Security, and Compliance in Office 365" at £3,260 per head

It's perfectly obvious what was meant.

Linux Foundation, IBM, Cisco and others back ‘Inclusive Naming Initiative’ to change nasty tech terms

Re: Sapir-Whorf

"So "Ten Little Niggers" was filmed as "Ten Little Indians" and has now been re-titled as "And Then There Were None", it's still the same book and the original title was a product of its time; we're happy to villify totalitarian regimes for re-writing history but it's OK for us to do it in the name of not giving offense?"

That's not the same thing at all. Re-writing history, to hide truth, is very different to renaming a book, or movies based on it, from a term that would cause offense now.

Twitter Qracks down on QAnon and its Qooky Qonspiracies

Re: Such Hypocrisy

Absolutely, must be a troll. No one could be that stupid.

Brit housing association blabs 3,500 folks' sexual orientation, ethnicity in email blunder

Re: You have to wonder...

Too prove non-discrimination and ensure that you aren't unintentionally discriminating against any particular group. It really isn't that difficult to understand.

Re: re: why

Then you'd be wrong. If you don't know the people you serve then how do you know whether you are discriminating against them, intentionally or otherwise? Then, of course, you can also answer accusations of discrimination such as "You don't house gay black women" with "Well actually...".

London's Met Police splash the cash on e-learning 'cyber' training for 4k staffers

Re: Wow!

Let's hope you are nowhere near anything that requires critical analysis with all those assumptions...

Email blackmail brouhaha tears UKIP apart as High Court refuses computer seizure attempt

Re: @NeilPost

And yet it is rampant, unchecked American style capitalism that has crashed the global economy on numerous occasions.

An amalgam of capitalism and socialism provides the best outcomes for the most people. Both are necessary.

'Ethical' hackers say: It's just hacker. To be one is no longer a bad thing

The media didn't redefine troll as bully. A troll is a trouble-maker.

The origin of hacker, relating to technology, is from the 1950s and MIT, meaning anyone tinkering or working on tech. Intention is key. "Ethical" is not just necessary for "media reasons" but because there really are ethical and unethical hackers. If you intend to cause harm then you are unethical. The word hacker itself needs the adjective.

Pack your bags, you're going to America, Lord Chief Justice tells accused Brit hacker

Re: Here is a thought...

That's a joke, yes?

Interpol: Strong encryption helps online predators. Build backdoors

Re: Here we go again...

Chicago has high levels of poverty and is crime ridden anyway. It may have strict gun control but criminals just bring in guns from surrounding areas.

Your conclusion is false.

Well, they are quite correct.

Down vote all you wish, it won't change the fact.

Re: Here we go again...

Using that logic, we shouldn't try to keep any data secure because someone will always find a way around our defences. In other words, because you can't stop all instances of X that doesn't mean you shouldn't stop any.

What do you get when you allegedly mix Wireshark, a gumshoe child molester, and a court PC? A judge facing hacking charges

Re: Nuance

"If the court's IT department can't secure their network properly, that's their fault, not the judge's or the investigators'." If you leave your door unlocked and someone walks in an steals your belongings then your insurance company may not pay up but the perp will still be arrested for burglary. Carelessness is not a permit to do what you want.

Re: Oh come on...

"So it's perfectly legitimate for a firm to secretly hire someone to test the firm's security and practices to protect the firm, but it's not cool for an employee to hire someone to test whether their confidentiality is being breached by their employer / colleagues etc?" Yes, because they own the equipment!

Your logic is bizarre.

IF the network connected device is your own then yes, you can take it home and analyze it. What you don't have a right to do is connect it to the network owned by your employer and monitor that network in any way!

Re: Oh come on...

What ridiculous hyperbole. The owning company can give you permission to access any machine in any necessary fashion without the need to inform the target.

Re: "Her computer"?

"Sounds to me like it was a bring your own device deal. " Very possibly. That is the case where I work.

"So if so she has every right to have her machine checked." If she had it checked outside of work, yes.

"Sounds like its a bullshit charge in an attempt to maybe get her off certain "Cases" shes refused to take brown envelopes for, maybe." Pure speculation.

Surveillance kit slinger accused of slapping 'Made in America' on Chinese gear, selling it to the US government

Re: Prosecutorial pomposity

Agree with the first part of your post but:

"Even if they are found guilty, they'll eventually serve their sentence and rejoin the community - so shouldn't we make it a bit easier by allowing them some privacy where possible?"

If they are found guilty then they deserve the publicity and no privacy - after being found guilty. Not only are they punished but the publicity acts as a deterrent.

Morrisons tells top court it's not liable for staffer who nicked payroll data of 100,000 employees

Re: Depends if decent efforts at data security made by Morrisons

Yes, we specifically time our printing of sensitive information for when someone will be sitting on the printer to collect it. Particularly sensitive print jobs go to printers which only print when authorized users sign in.

Re: Depends if decent efforts at data security made by Morrisons

But many organizations do make decisions at a higher level than IT. I used to work for a company that refused to lock USB ports - because it "caused inconvenience'. That was an organizational decision. You and I know it was wrong. The rest of IT knows it was wrong but the organization made that decision. The same does apply to firewalls. "Why can't I get out to X? Unblock it at once."

"If ICT lock down usb sticks and then an IT manager steals some data is the company still liable" Why does the IT manager have access to the data? Appropriate access should be maintained and monitored by someone other than the IT manager!

Radio nerd who sipped NHS pager messages then streamed them via webcam may have committed a crime

No, "who is neither sender" The NHS is the sender.

Boffins blow hot and cold over li-ion battery that can cut leccy car recharging to '10 mins'

"but if I run out of fuel in my ICE motor I can get a jerrycan full from my local filling station."

I'm 50+ and have never had to do that - because of forethought.

We'll never get petrol\gas stations set up every mile... Oh wait, we did.

I remember reading, decades ago, that flat screen monitors would be impossible. Ditto video phone calls. "We'll never be able to compress the signal enough." and yet we did.

A ridiculous comment. Speeding kills far more than violent crime. Punishing morons is not stealing from them.

Six Flags fingerprinted my son without consent, says mom. Y'know, this biometric case has teeth, say state supremes...

Re: Thank you!

For me, primarily your last sentence. This is most certainly a can of worms that needs to be opened. No one needs to be fingerprinting kids. If you agree to that then you agree to opening the can.

Your comments are not the same.

Stalk my pals on social media and you'll know that the next words out of my mouth will be banana hammock

You need to continue with your DuoLingo exercises today.

'Coding' cockup blamed for NHS cough-up of confidential info against patients' wishes

Re: "unreserved apologies"

Wrong, clinical audit is carried out by CCGs, NICE and the NHS Counter Fraud Authority etc. Do you not want care commissioning bodies to confirm that GPs really are carrying out 200 minor operations per day, or that one of the patients in your area really did receive care in the Outer Hebrides? Shouldn't we check that a particular surgeon has a higher patient mortality rate or that particular treatments\medications actually work when we pay for them?

Re: The rule I proposed

No it wouldn't. There would be errors in that too.

Given to you by default? An annual report or after every hospital stay? Who will pay for the report to be generated and sent out? Hardcopy, of course, unless you expect granny to login and view the electronic version.

Re: ...shared with research companies and clinical audits

Clinical audits are carried out by other areas of the NHS. The Fraud Division and PCTs - or whatever they are called now.

Re: "unreserved apologies"

Well, there's the biggest load of tripe I'll read this week.

NHS systems fell offline for 1,300+ hours over 36 months, cyber-nasties fingered – FoI study

Re: 85% uptime?!

At the extreme that could be 1 PC down for 54 days, in three years, which would be irrelevant across the whole NHS. Without knowing exactly what systems were affected, and to what extent, it's impossible to say how bad the availability was.

Senior judge: Put AI in charge of reviewing social media evidence

"In another and more straightforward rape case, where complainant and defendant met on Tinder and there were only two mobile phones to consider, 150 officer hours were required to examine 20,000 items of data,"

Perhaps, if the police had been able to review the 20,000 items more swiftly, there wouldn't be the need for a defence, as no charges would be brought?