Posts by pc-fluesterer.info

Ransomware-hit British Library: Too open for business, or not open enough?

"let the barbarians in through the gate"

The name of the founder of Microsoft was "Gates", not "gate", wasn't it?

Microsoft pins hopes on AI once again – this time to patch up Swiss cheese security

AI is a plain mock attack

Ransomware to 90% is not enabled by security holes in the sense of programming errors. Ransomware is enabled by design faults deep in M$' thinking. Most of ransomware comes with SPAM an the user has to contribute:

Open the SPAM (ok, take that for granted);

open the attachment (that's already questionable);

allow macros! (¹);

give the admin's password! (²)

(¹) How on earth can it be that a document (text, spreadsheet, presentation) sent by mail can contain macros so powerful that they can damage the OS severely? How on earth can it be that macros in an email attachment can be enabled at all?

(²) Following best practice, no user should™ have administrative rights, neither by knowing an admin's password nor by by normal working with administrative rights. But the latter happens way too often. Why? Because M$' products are "more comfy" with administrative rights - a design fault. Anyone remember Windows XP? That was effectively unusable with restricted user rights. The situation has since improved a little bit, but not enough by far.

Linux Mint Debian Edition 6 hits beta with reassuringly little drama

Here is a happy and satisfied user

I for one use LMDE since version 2. LMDE 4 was quite good, LMDE 5 really grown-up. Looking forward to LMDE 6!

Will it offer an in-place upgrade such as Mint does?

Only thing I dislike is Cinnamon. I prefer Mate since the beginning, which I just installed additionally. So I use Mate plus Cairo-Dock.

Do Facebook's algorithms drive political polarization? Meta says no, but researchers say it's complicated

No question here

Of course the tendency is away from the centre. The algorithms foster divisiveness, polarisation, radicalisation, because that catches peoples attention.

Mock fight

The main menace for democracy is not the algorithms but the individual targeted advertising based on "big data" user profiles. That can be quite manipulating, as seen in the election campaign for the MAGA POTUS. In Germany we have a recent example as well: https://targetleaks.de/

Linux has nearly half of the desktop OS Linux market

Re: "typical Linuxes are tools for nerdy hacker types" -- ?

""Mint is end user friendly to such an extent that it can beat Windows."

You're right, of course but to be fair, it's a low bar."

:-)

Re: "typical Linuxes are tools for nerdy hacker types" -- ?

The ones I am talking about would never ever do a search (of course not goggle) and manipulate the system on their own.

After I have installed the system, it just runs. And runs and runs and runs.

Only when an upgrade is necessary (not earlier than four years) I enter the scene.

While in the meantime the process of upgrading is automated and works so seamless that any reasonably intelligent person can do that.

"typical Linuxes are tools for nerdy hacker types" -- ?

"... typical Linuxes are tools for nerdy hacker types"? I for one strongly disagree.

I have used many flavours of Linux since the mid-90s. For many years now Mint and LMDE are my number one (and debian as host for VirtualBox).

End users get Mint from me. And guess what? Even the most non-nerdy ones are happy with it. Mint is end user friendly to such an extent that it can beat Windows.

My stance is: Anyone who can read and write can use Linux.

Unsealed: Charges against Russians blamed for Mt Gox crypto-exchange collapse

Crypto is for crims an gamblers anyway, so what?

nothing to be seen here.

'Strictly limit' remote desktop – unless you like catching BianLian ransomware

In other words: Best practice

All that FBI advice boils down to one single sentence: Adhere to best practice.

Fast-evolving Prilex POS malware can block contactless payments

How does it get there?

Well, that is what Prilex CAN do - impressive. But what's missing is step one: How does Prilex get into the POS system in the first place?

Bankruptcy probe: Celsius cheated investors 'from the start'

If it looks "too good to be true", ...

nothing to add.

Re: AST

Sell? To the "greater fool". ;-)

Russian meddling in 2016 US presidential election was weak sauce

Wrong subject, wrong findings

It may perhaps be true that Russia's trolls in the antisocial networks and the news didn't achieve too much - I for one still doubt that. But looking at the candid propaganda totally misses the point.

Anyone remember Cambridge Analytica / SCL / Emerdata? Run by a Russian named Aleksandr Kogan? He used data "stolen"¹ from F.c.book as basis for targeted advertising in antisocial networks. That discouraged suspect Democrats from voting. And the like. That was the real meddling.

¹) That is Zockerbergs narration. Still I believe that he encashed on that "stolen" data.

US House boots TikTok from government phones

Old white men and TikTok?

What the hell do old white men have TikTok (TT) for in the first place? Additionally, on "official" devices?

Up to now I thought that TT is only for teeny girls. ;-)

Zerobot malware now shooting for Apache systems

"unpatched or badly secured devices"

And further: "... insecure configurations that use default or weak credentials".

All admin faults.

But I bet that this case as well will be attributed as "malware that can target Apache". :-(

Researchers smell a cryptomining Chaos RAT targeting Linux systems

Initial compromise?

*IF* the malware is aboard it can do this and that - fine.

Big question is: *HOW* does it get there? What is the attack vector?

If it is installed deliberately I wouldn't call it malware. And the installation does need the /root/ pw, always.

To me this thing sounds more like "Give me all you money or I shoot myself!"

Legit Android apps poisoned by sticky 'Zombinder' malware

FUD

"This is why users should never install apps from outside of the Google Play Store." -- Plain nonsense. As others have pointed out already, the official PlayStore is full of malicious apps. Those are found on a nearly regular basis. Some may indeed have evaded Googles "checks", some others ...?

I for one use iodé instead of Android which doesn't have Google Play installed. I fetch what I need from f-droid or directly from the - trustworthy - manufacturer (e.g. AVM, Threema, Wire). I feel perfectly safe.

Apps (only non-paid) from the PlayStore, if really needed and not available otherwise, I get with the help of the FOSS Aurora app.

Rubbish

Each and every FOSS app from f-droid is more trustworthy than the PlayStore malware.

India set to extend deadline for absurd infosec reporting requirements

REPORTING is an "essential national defence mechanism"?

Well, I still keep on learning.

Up to now I thought that it is better to PREVENT an incident than to REPORT one that happened.

Well, looks like I will have to rethink. ...

How do you protect your online systems? Cultivate an insider threat

Re: "because of bad actions by employees"

To update your knowledge an opinion, I suggest you have a look at Denmark and Estonia.

In both countries public authorities rely on FOSS.

Here in Germany we had a lot of ransomware incidents hampering universities, cities, courts, revenue authorities, and the like.

Such incidents are unknown in the two FOSS countries!

Assuming that people are similar all over Europe, the only interpretation remains the intrinsic security of FOSS.

"because of bad actions by employees"

A vast amount of "bad actions by employees" would be totally innocuous if the IT wouldn't rely on M$ monoculture.

"Yes, people are the problem"? No, they needn't be.

Try the usual [email brings infection (malware or data stealer)] stunt in a FOSS environment.

Sophos fixes critical firewall hole exploited by miscreants

Best practice?

Since when is making your admin interface publicly accessible considered "best practice"?

Nearly one in two industry pros scaled back open source use over security fears

Re: Happens here

easy explanation: FOSS doesn't contain the backdoors required by state agencies ...

Re: "open-source software is deemed insecure, so it's not allowed" (28 percent)

really, can you? Did anybody ever sue M$? Or Apple? Or Oracle? Or ... (you name it)?

Internet pranksters send hundreds of cabs to Moscow street, cause gridlock

Uber

Perhaps it is worth mentioning that "Yandex Taxi" is a joint venture of Yandex and Uber, founded after Uber withdraw from Russia in 2017.

Critical flaws found in four Cisco SMB router ranges – for the second time this year

Isn't CISCO short for ...

Central Intelligence Secretly Covered Operation?

Bloke robbed of $800,000 in cryptocurrency by fake wallet app wants payback from Google

Compassion? Nil!

Move on, nothing to be seen here!

Windows Start Menu not starting? You're not alone

"Restarting your Windows device might help" :-)

"You changed the position of the cursor. For this change to take effect you have to restart Windows. Do you want to restart now? Yes/No/Perhaps"

:-D

HelloXD ransomware bulked up with better encryption, nastier payload

Re: "Linux under attack"?

I compare M$ Office under M$ Windows to a Linux desktop*) and LibreOffice, Collabora or the like. And a Windows Server or even - shudder - Exchange to a Linux Server with the equivalent mail server and groupware.

*) Choice of distribution is up to you.

Re: "Linux under attack"?

I wrote 'well administered' by purpose. It means:

1. The user doesn't know the root pw, so social engineering can do little harm.

2. Misconfiguration: Admin fault, not Linux fault.

My question is unanswered still: In common ransomware attacks M$ Windows and M$ Office play key roles. What would be a comparable attack vector against LINUX (not against admin faults)?

"Linux under attack"?

Well, I know how ransomware enters Windows systems.

What would be the attack vector for Linux?

I for one can't see anything comparable.

Don't come with "If the malware is in the system it can do this and that".

I want to know HOW the malware should be able to enter a well administered Linux System.

The victim has to install it manually and give the root password? :-(

Singapore uncovers four critical vulnerabilities in Riverbed software

Backdoor(s)?

you'd better close those backdoor(s) before Putins hackers exploit them. <eg>

Ragnar ransomware gang hit 52 critical US orgs, says FBI

Windows only, right?

Just asking ...

EU, US close to replacing defunct Privacy Shield II

CLOUD Act and PATRIOT Act

At least those two laws prohibit a new "agreement". Such an agreement is plain impossible as long as these laws exist.

Linux Snap package tool fixes make-me-root bugs

The idea behind SNAP is ...

to accomplish a vendor lock-in!

Cyberattacker hits German service station petrol terminal provider

"Cyberattack" sounds like the usual excuse

The truth:

"We are working in a M$ monoculture; we neglected our preventive IT scurity; a staffer opened a SPAM AND opened the attachment AND allowed macros."

Ouch!

Instead of the common "attack" by SPAM it may have been an attack against the known weaknesses of the M$ Exchange Server, automated as well.

Three US states plus Washington DC sue Google for using UI design 'dark patterns' to harvest your location

Re: Secrets -- or turn to Custom-ROM

You'd better turn to a FOSS custom-ROM in the first place: LineageOS, System /e/, iodé, Sailfish, you name it.

... or use FOSS

so why do you use gmaps at all? There are FOSS maps such as MagicEarth or OSMAnd.

Apple's anti-ad-tracking iPhone feature took a '$10bn' chunk out of social network revenues

yes: Refrain from Apple

easy done: Don't use Apple spy devices.

No need to use F.c.book

"I have family all over the world that I want to easily keep in touch with"

Well, there are other, and most of all CLEAN, ways to accomplish that!

Signal, Threema, Wire, even Telegram is better than F.c.book, Insta or WA. And there are federated networks such as Jabber/XMPP or Element/Matrix.

No need to use F.c.book.

Informatica UKI veep was rightfully sacked over Highways England $5k golf jolly, says tribunal

"how playing golf benefited the business"

How may playing golf benefit the business? Hm. Just thinking, though.

Canon makes 'all-in-one' printers that refuse to scan when out of ink, lawsuit claims

neither nor

Lexmark: Last time i got my hands dirty by having to deal with the SW-crap they produce, it behaved like the computer had become member of a so-called church which to leave is near to impossible. Try and deinstall a Lexmark printer! The whole Windows printing system is an unrecoverable mess. Lucky the man who has an image of the clean and functioning state.

HP: Had the same issue with a HP MFP many years ago. The scanner part was defective. Repair economically not worthwhile. The printer part in solidarity refused to work, same as Canon :-(

Facebook posts job ad for 10,000 'high-skilled' roles to 'build the metaverse' – and they'll all be based in the EU

anybody remember Google Glass?

And the public rage that stopped it? Where is the rage against the Metaverse?

yes. They lie at you with a pale face.

Android OS vendor variants transmit data with no opt-out

Re: Why worry?

"Google know more about you and your life than you will ever remember" - WRONG

The chocolate factory has nothing to gain here. The majority of the spying services, including doubleclick, is blocked in my PI-hole. I don't accept any cookies from spies. With various add-ons I fight browser fingerprinting and other means of tracking. About me Google may know a little bit, but that is about 2% of the knowledge about average John Doe.

"vote with your feet and opt out": Yes, that is exactly what I do and what I recommend. Replace Android by a clean custom-ROM.

"Alterntives ... are they good enough": The answer is, YES. For me and a lot of other people. Well, true, you need to invest a small portion of brain 1.0

"Governments": If you are target person of the state spies you can't escape them anyway. But you need not feed the Utah data centre of the NSA. It is ok to make their lives a little bit harder. ;-)

addendum

instead of guessing you can see here the contents of the different variants of OpenGApps: https://github.com/opengapps/opengapps/wiki/Package-Comparison

Re: LineageOS misrepresented?

I completely second that. Cf. my post "multiple errors".

multiple errors

The researchers used LOS *with* additional OpenGApps in the "nano" variant.

Alas they were ill-informed.

1. You can have LOS utterly clean without any Google crap.

2. If you need GSF (Google Services Framework) because you want to use apps that require it, you can install the "pico" variant of OpenGApps or install MicroG, which both contain the essential GSF. The "pico" variant is only half of the size of the "nano" variant. Imagine what makes up for the difference ...

3. You can have LOS with MicroG integrated as "LineageOS for MicroG" https://lineage.microg.org/ or as "System /e/" as in the paper.

4. Even more privacy protection is available as "iodé". That is LOS, MicroG and additional amelioration of privacy protection. Only drawback is that it is available currently only for a restricted set of devices. https://iode.tech/en/iodeos-installation/

I for one use it on my Sony Xperia XA2, perfectly satisfied. It even has a built-in Ad- and Tracking-Blocker. I have 99,9% of the functions I want available AND perfect privacy protection.

When criminals go corporate: Ransomware-as-a-service, bulk discounts and more

Re: ... or use FOSS

the truth hurts, does it?