Posts by Free treacle

We did not have Brave clashing with Rupert Murdoch on our 2025 bingo card, but there it is

Murdoch lives?

Came into the article hoping to find out his age, but was disappointed. We need more reporters like William de Worde!

Microsoft declares 2025 'the year of the Windows 11 PC refresh'

When is Microsoft going to realise?

rob-mitchell-nazi-are-we-the-baddies.jpg

Google's 10-year Chromebook lifeline leaves old laptops headed for silicon cemetery

Pick one, Google.

Built in obsolescence of three years.

Or do no evil.

You can't do both.

China-linked cyber-spies infect Russian govt, IT sector

lol

lmao, even.

Too late now for canary test updates, says pension fund suing CrowdStrike

Not the kind of lawsuit I was expecting

They only invested in the firm and are sad their investment depreciated, not impacted by the outage in some way? Stocks can go down as well as up, right? Maybe I just need a better broker...

The origin of 3D Pipes, Windows' best screensaver

Personally

I liked the bouncing triangles.

AI PCs might solve a real problem: The 'friction' that sees users ignore security

A non-AI PC is now considered Bog Standard?

Think I'm past my Best Before. Which way out to the nearest pasture?

Thanks for coming to help. No, we can't say why we called – it's classified

Re: 1 in a million scenario

I heard million to one changes crop up nine times out of ten.

Microsoft, Google do a victory lap around passkeys

Farcical

Biometric data should be your username, not your password. We should be adding layers to authentication processes, not removing barriers.

Bricking it: Do you actually own anything digital?

Gabe gets it right

There are titles in my Steam library which are no longer listed to purchase, but it seems Valve retain an option for me to download and play at any time. Removed content only seems to effect you if you haven't previously purchased it.

Wish I'd got the Poker Night games when I had a chance though.

Bank's datacenter died after travelling back in time to 1970

Colin, wherever you may currently be, you're a solid guy.

BOFH: Just because we've had record revenues doesn't mean you get a Xmas bonus

Beautiful

Thanks for this, many are the chortles I enjoyed.

Microsoft issues deadline for end of Windows 10 support – it's pay to play for security

My favourite version of Microsoft OS...

...is always be the final iteration of Windows (until the next iteration comes along)

It's ba-ack... UK watchdog publishes age verification proposals

Information control

This is just the first stage. It's relatively easy to pass laws restricting access to smut, after all who would speak out in its favour? Then we move to smut-adjacent material, links on Twitter or access from reddit. Maybe booze or gambling will follow. Then maybe objectionable news sites. We need to know about every online service you're accessing to PROTECT THE CHILDREN.

It wasn't just a few credit cards: Entire travel itineraries were stolen by hackers, Easyjet now tells victims

Re: January? March? Which is it?

Going to have to hypothise, but the time taken for a hack to be discovered and learning the extent of a breach are not always the same thing. They may have had to arrange a third party to come in to search through (perhaps?) incomplete/scant datasets and correlate evidence of what was actually exposed (and maybe they cut costs there too).

Customers should have been informed, countermeasures should have been put in place to secure personally identifiable data, money should have been spent by Easyjet (hah!). I don't have a high opinion of Easyjet (hence this borderline rant) and maybe they didn't take this seriously enough, but there that is why I believe they may have delayed informing customers (crossing their fingers it was something insignificant).

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

Terrifying to think industry leaders in security practices can be hit so badly by an attack. This must have been highly targetted to access this level of information; I wonder how they did it?

I stand with Lockheed Martin on the handling of the situation though; as soon as the data was lost the worst had already happened. Throwing money down the pit doesn't guarantee the data can be recovered or kept/leaked. Never pay the ransom guys.

Online deepfakes double in just nine months, scaring politicians – and fooling the rest of us

Verified video

I heard there was a way of encrypting videos with blockchain/crypto between frames so that there is a way of checking if a video has been cut/doctored. Devices would need to insert the encryption as a video is recorded so footage can always be traced back to a verified source.

How practical that is currently I don't know, but seems like a potential solution to use alongside machine learning.

Re: Profile pictures?

Using someone else's picture is problematic as a reverse image search can reveal the scammer is not who they claim to be. Using a unique (generated) image makes them seem more real.

*edit* so if we can detect the image is generated, it should alert users/systems to the presence of a fraudulent user.

DoorDash doesn't just pick up your food orders, it delivers your data to hackers, too

(and, while you're at it, stop reusing passwords)

"Average" users never will. My office lectures on password security are now bi-annual, but users typically change it to a different child's date of birth

*Microsoft taps your shoulder* Hi sorry yeah, we're still suing US govt for right to tell people when they are spied on

Microsoft *really* fighting for users?

I've heard of living long enough to see yourself become the villain, but living even longer until you become a hero again is an interesting twist

WannaCry is still the smallpox of infosec. But the latest strain (sort of) immunises its victims

"Don't pay following a Ransomware attack"

Please direct your sentiments to American Insurance Agencies; they're policies of paying the culprits in the hopes of recovering data have suddenly made ransomware attacks a lucrative market again

Newb admits he ran Satori botnet that turned thousands of hacked devices into a 100Gbps+ DDoS-for-hire cannon

The future's bright...

And, if people don't secure their connected lightbulbs, potentially weaponised.

Tesla Autopilot crash driver may have been eating a bagel at the time, was lucky not to get schmeared on road

TBF if I was in an assisted vehicle driving towards a stationary vehicle (as big as a fire truck too!) I would probably expect the systems to slow the vehicle before any collision. Wonder what happened in this instance.

If the driver is supposed to maintain a grip on the wheel this hardly sounds like an autonomous vehicle the way I am imagining it. Maybe there should be a tiered system to inform users exactly what level of engagement they are expected every journey before the vehicle moves?

Trump attacks and appeals 'fundamentally misconceived' Twitter block decision

So there's an election on the horizon and Donald wants another safe space for supporters to echo his praises. Can't have any dissenters sowing doubt or quoting the POTUS contradicting himself; better make it invitation only.

My MacBook Woe: I got up close and personal with city's snatch'n'dash crooks (aka some bastard stole my laptop)

It was obviously....

... a targetted move by a rival tech website trying to snaffle Vulture docs!

Srsly though, sorry you had to go through this. The mental trauma of being victimised like this is often worse than the loss of material goods.

Pokémon Red and Blue-era trading cards just made their owner a load of green: Complete set sells at auction for $107k

Worth slogging it out to the end

if only for onix-pected.

We've, um, changed our password policy, says CafePress amid reports of 23m pwned accounts

Keep it safe!

Best way to keep track of your unique username/passwords is to log them physically somewhere secure near your device. Someone breaking in to your home or office isn't going to be bothered with a notepad of your passwords and you don't have to entrust anyone but you to store your credentials should a digital breach occur (you are using different username & passwords for each site, right?).

Just a thought