Posts by Guy de Loimbard

Outlook is poor for those still on Windows Mail, Calendar, People apps by end of year

Re: Missing an important detail --

"New Outlook proxies every single mail request through Microsoft servers."

That's going to prove interesting. Better not be scraping content for AI..... Can of worms at the ready!

£1B lawsuit targets Microsoft for allegedly overcharging Windows customers on other clouds

So... the Stasi are raising a complaint....?

Depending on your age, this may or may not be funny!

Broadcom loses another big VMware customer: UK fintech cloud Beeks Group, and most of its 20,000 VMs

Ignoring whether Beeks will impact VMWare or not, ultimately beyond the pale increases in costs, for no apparent increase in services or innovation will always cause users to consider is it worth it.

Enough variations on a theme discussed in this thread for sure, but whoever is advising companies to apply these levels of increases just to improve the bottom line, is still missing the key point: piss your customers off and they will look for alternatives.

Volunteer DEF CON hackers dive into America's leaky water infrastructure

In my experience, water companies tend to be incredibly reactionary and less visionary when it comes to Cyber Security.

You only have to see the apathy applied to Sewage spills (Storm Overflows) in the UK industry, to realise something with that level of impact isn't being addressed to realise that's pretty much the approach to anything that could impact the bottom line!

It will be dealt with when the regulator is at the gates threatening action.

Microsoft reboots Windows Recall, but users wish they could forget

Re: When stuck in a hole

100% with you.

We've invented something, you need it.....

What do you mean you don't? You do need it and we will rebrand it until you do need it.

Classic.

Anything to keep growth coming, clutch at straws, in the guise of things the public want, read the shareholders demand growth.

I don't want Recall, or Copilot AI+ PC or whatever it's being labelled as.

Eventually the mountains of electronic waste will catch up with Capitalism :)

Google blocked 1,000-plus pro-China fake news websites from its search results

To what end?

Not my field of expertise I will concede, but I cannot get my head around the amount of effort and time put into propaganda that some of these entities do.

The US elections was another minefield of misinformation too.

I wonder what the ROI is on some of these efforts?

Anyone?

AI PCs: 'Something will have to give in 2025, and I think it's pricing'

Exactly what I was thinking.

Where's the evidence of Businesses want to move to AI PCs ? Just because Gartner says so?

Seems like someone's trying to be relevant and it's not.

There's no rush to have AI anything as far as I can see in my experience to date.

I won't be rushing to get an AI phone either, as it sounds about as useful as a 3D TV does right now.

Mega defense corp Thales faces Anglo-French bribery and corruption probe

Cost of commerce in different regions

Having worked in the Middle East for a length of time, some of these payments were seen as the cost of doing business in the region.

I appreciate its hardly the way to do business in an open and transparent way, but has anyone seen the lobbying of politicians recently?

It will be interesting to see what the outcome is of both the SFO and the PNF is.

AI hiring bias? Men with Anglo-Saxon names score lower in tech interviews

Re: WRONG!

Succinct and to the point.

If you're going to use AI to do some of the heavy lifting, then you should expect "great" results, if you don't validate the outputs.

Seriously wonder about the future of the species if we throw all our belief into something this juvenile and unseasoned!

Healthcare org Equinox notifies 21K patients and staff of data theft

have some ID Theft protection....

FTFY.

Isn't that how this works?

Data breach = Useless Credit Reference Agency monitoring service.

Carry on doing nothing about poor cyber hygiene practices until the next breach.

Eat, sleep, repeat.

Data is the new uranium – incredibly powerful and amazingly dangerous

Glad to hear it's being discussed

Just because we can store data and keep doing so until either the cost of the cloud storage goes through the roof, or our NAS/SAN is full, doesn't mean we should.

The problem is as much about scalability without any real thought, as it is about whether we should be collecting so much data in the first place.

Just look at your classic office user, look at how large their email storage is, if it has a quota limit at all. Reams of inboxes have mega/terabytes of crap stored just because "I may need it" and there's no consequences if you don't manage it, until it's full of course.

My analogy to most users is: "If that was physical mail coming through your post box, you would have got rid of most of it within a matter of a day or two, why are you storing emails from 10 years ago?"

"Unlimited storage" is baked into the cost of your licensing most of the time, but it's well hidden to the point it doesn't appear to have an empirical value that can be scrutinised.

So, until we re-educate data users, we've got a long way to go before we can secure it all.

T-Mobile US 'monitoring' China's 'industry-wide attack' amid fresh security breach fears

$15.75 million over the next two years to beef up its infosec program

That's not a great deal of spend is it?

Considering the size and footprint of T-Mob and its attack surface......

YMMV, but I don't think having to spend shy of $16 mil on improvements is going to do a great deal of beefing.....

Ford 'actively investigating' after employee data allegedly parked on leak site

Re: ...impacted employees ... access to identity theft and credit protection services...

Totally agree Headley Grange.

The consequences aren't sufficient to create the critical mass required for change.

Any significant changes to punitive measures will, I suspect, be a long time in coming never mind being executed.

Unfortunately Data/Information isn't seen as that important yet as the impact is hard to measure.

We can but hope for a new world order, however, I suspect I will be a long way into my retirement before it comes to fruition!

...impacted employees ... access to identity theft and credit protection services...

Oh good, that will help won't it?

FFS! This is the response every time there's a data breach.

It's simply not good enough.

Does nobody do encryption of sensitive data?

I know, I know, it's probably a legacy system that can't be upgraded, etc etc, but still.

This is a common theme.

Swiss cheesed off as postal service used to spread malware

Educate, Educate, Educate

It's easy to blame the end user for not being savvy enough to spot the fraudulent, nefarious activity, but.....

Not all users are as blessed the the El Reg readers are in the common sense and technical savvy that most have.

Ultimately, education and alerting to our fellow citizens is all we can do to upskill them and help combat this scourge of society.

Crims, however, will exploit anything they can to get the rewards they are after and as always, the weakest link is the human that is not fully conversant with these risks and tactics.

It would appear to be a clever use of social engineering and technical tooling that relies on the odd human making a mistake and becoming a victim.

QR codes. Handy and a curse at the same time.

Weekends were a mistake, says Infosys co-founder Narayama Murthy

Infosys.... hardly the bastion of quality and delivery

Having had the joy of working with Infosys as a partner, I can totally get onboard with other posters comments.

We had a "technical manager" assigned to our account by Infosys. Never saw the guy, never heard from him, but we did find out he was being billed to the company for his time.....

When challenged it was spun around and made out to be our fault for not using said manager?? Go figure.

I could go on and on about the other tasks that were assigned to Infosys, but there's little point.

I don't blame the teams at Infosys at the coal face, even less so if that's their bosses view of how to deliver.... just throw hours at it until you've killed your staff and get some new ones.....

Apple drops soldered storage for 2024 Mac Mini

Given most components are a lot more reliable

Apple doesn't have the greatest rationale for keeping people out of their hard earned purchases.

Let's be honest, as we move towards a more universal approach to standards on most electronics, the gap between Mac "superiority" and other platforms will decrease considerably.

Just me 10p's worth, and I am neither a fanboi, nor a nay sayer of Apple products.

Fujitsu does not trust Post Office in use of Horizon data in future third-party prosecutions

Thank you Steviebuk.....

Right on point... how the hell are they still trying to get away with this system as the basis of any prosecution....

There should be a moratorium on any prosecutions, historical or current.

Makes me very very upset!

AMD grabs a quarter of x86 market with desktop gains, but server growth slows

There are some arbitrary decisions made in business by old and bold, non technical manglers and directors, who think "they know" tech and will then use their "seniority" to force a business decision based on bias, not knowledge.

For instance, many moons ago, I had a manager demanding to know why "His IP Address" had changed on his work PC, can't remember why said manager knew his IP address, but after 15+ minutes trying to explain what DHCP does and why "His IP Address" doesn't matter in the context of a work network, I had to walk away and ask him to raise a ticket to get it "resolved"...

Some times manglement know better.... apparently!

Amazon confirms employee data exposed in leak linked to MOVEit vulnerability

That's pretty hard hitting

Some big names in that list.

Being a dinosaur, I still find it surprising, how much poorly protected, incredibly sensitive information is exposed in some of these types of breaches.

One day we'll get our collective heads around strength in depth and security commensurate with the value of the data and/or information.

Your air fryer might be snitching on you to China

Thank you! "Air Fryer" is marketing speak for "Very small fan oven"

So it's not just me that has realised it's a tiny counter/desktop oven......

Re: Really? - probably needs some serious supervision anyhow.

Love that!

There are far too many individuals on this planet that need supervision in my opinion.

Including a large swathe of politicians globally!

FBI issues warning as crooks ramp up emergency data request scams

Any control that has an exception process

Will be open to abuse.

The very fact that something so critical, can then be superseded by a Government demand to get information, rarely provides the protection or control it sought to do in the first place.

As is noted by this very article.

Once you have a control in place that can be vaguely understood, or not, people will go to the exceptions process to circumvent the control, if it appears easier.

If you have such Patriotic-Super-Double-Secret process and the ability to scare the crap out of people to comply with it, well you know the certain creek, without a certain paddle you are now navigating.

YMMV obvs!

Another official four-day week pilot kicks off in the UK

9 Day fortnight

The last time I saw that being deployed I had to work the extra hours the "Day off" provided......

Not really doing what was intended, insofar, it was adding to the stress.

Then again it was a company based in the USofA and I was a consultant, so it's all about the hours billed.....

Still, having a long weekend, every other week was still good.

Mozilla Foundation crumbles as third of staff cast off

Re: Wait ...

Mad numbers when you distill them down.

4 mil per head?

I'm with you, exactly where is the money pit?

Users struggle with recipe when moving enterprise apps to the cloud

Smoke and mirrors show

The SAAS,PAAS, IAAS (add your **AAS to suit), well know it's a gravy train that will catch and awful lot of businesses out on costs,time, effort etc., etc., but by then, you're stuck between a rock and a hard place whilst you work out who or what needs to change to actually get the "savings" you were promised by the sales team.

For some organisations, Cloud will work, for others, they are pissing in the wind trying to keep up with the Jones'.

Schneider Electric ransomware crew demands $125k paid in baguettes

I can only applaud the ingenuity at requesting baguette.

It can only lift their profile, which may also be the reasoning!

Apple 'broke law' by pushing out labor-organizing dev

Why the need to be so harsh on employees

Is this type of behaviour typical in US companies?

If there are rules and regulations in place, why or how do the employers think said rules don't apply to them?

I'm on the wrong side of the pond, but I really don't get this abject hostility shown to the very staff that help the organisation's deliver their product or service.

Columbus, Ohio, confirms 500K people affected by Rhysida ransomware attack

Sue the researcher

So the obvious thing to do is to try deflect by beginning litigation against the security researcher?

Obviously if said researcher was being a cock and threatening to leak data, then fair enough, but seriously, shit slinging when you've had a significant data breach is a great way to deal with things!

Grindr used RTO to screw union, labor watchdog claims

Re: Ah, America

I'm always surprised at the lengths some employers go to, just to ensure they "beat" the employee!

haha.

Very funny!

You missed the joke icon!

Meta's plan for nuclear datacenter reportedly undone by bees

I second that most heartily!

Make the AI Bubble Burst! Now!

Public sector cyber break-ins: Our money, our lives, our right to know

One of the challenges here is getting the issues understood, with the right level of gravitas, then getting those issues in front of the right people, to decide how to "regulate".

The next challenge is defining what Cyber Security means and how to accurately and universally define it so you could regulate it.

I believe the great Grace Hopper once said that the value of data is not understood, or something similar, see this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZR0ujwlvbkQ1

Cyber Security events also have differing impacts and it would appear that only the fact something bad has happened is the constant, so we would find it hard to regulate Cyber Security.

Currently the myriad international regulators, acts of law and so on are beginning to have a level of Cyber Security baked into them, think DORA, GDPR, NISR, NIS2, NYS the list goes on, but there isn't a unified approach yet.

Now, if you're on about reporting, then there's plenty of that required from various National Competent Authorities, however, the requirements don't specify the public be fully notified.

It's a complex subject without a simple, single silver bullet as a solution.

The hunt is on for the scum who stole Britain's largest inflatable planetarium

Re: Will make a good movie...

Very good!!

UK councils bat away DDoS barrage from pro-Russia keyboard warriors

Comedy statements

The fact that half the El Reg commentards have all pointed out you'd struggle to notice the difference tells you enough about our relationship to Local Government!

Dropbox to shed another 500 staff, CEO takes 'full responsibility'

Re: Is proof reading dead?

Good catch isthemonkey.

For a moment I thought my English had been lost to another era.

Cloud repatriation officially a trend... for specific workloads

Re: Why do ppl act before they understand the Problem, and the Solution?

Before you deal with the troublesome person, just think they may be the only one listening.

Very good point John Miles.

I've never looked at from that angle before and may be something I'll consider when it arises next, in any context.

Re: Cycle in, cycle out

That's classic, look at the money as the problem, i.e. we want more, or the shareholders do etc., the never ending chase of growth/profit at all costs means anything that appears to demonstrate savings, or better margins will be laser focussed upon.

The standard approach is always kill headcount and buy some new tech that "promises" to show savings......

Huawei's farewell to Android isn't a marketing move, it's chess

Re: Nokia 7110 - When did some idea come along that smartphone users must not use them for calls?

My kids all of them age range teens to adults..... They simply cannot understand why you'd want to speak and hear each other!

I'd like a Phone OS that's less invasive with it's telemetry and advertising etc etc.

I don't have an issue with my smartphone per se, but I did like the period when every phone manufacturer would produce funky designs and try and grab one's attention that way!

A more simple time for sure!

Re: Nokia 7110

Very good point and well made Michael.

It's a smart device with a phone module that allows calls..... if you wish, unlike my kids who think actually speaking to you via voice is archaic when I should be "snapping" them if I want their attention.....

Re: Nokia 7110

Thank you Hubert.

Put a smile on my face at the start of the day!

Pint for you good sir! ===>

Nokia 7110

The best phone I ever had, pre smart phones.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nokia_7110

I know I'm a dinosaur, but I use my phone to make calls!

Revolutionary I know, but I don't see the excitement about having your device track your every move and report it to the manufacturer's HQ, and others, for the purposes of making more money out of you.

I'd have another Nokia 7110 any time.

Chinese attackers accessed Canadian government networks – for five years

Where cyber can provide advantage

Then it will be used to best effect against poorly protected networks and infrastructure.

Don't underestimate what data and information has as a value to any other entity or state.

Diplomatic, technological, financial advantage are powerful motivators.

Merde! Macron's bodyguards reveal his location by sharing Strava data

Re: Again?!

My thoughts entirely when I saw the headline.

Remember BG teams don't do all security, just the bits they like!

Brazen crims selling stolen credit cards on Meta's Threads

I find reporting pretty much anything to Meta provides nothing tangible.

Personally it takes a lot for me to be pissed off enough to report something, but apparently Meta's Community Guidelines are morally superior to anyone else.

You just get the "Feck you! We don't care what you think!" auto response from their bots.

Five Eyes nations tell tech startups to take infosec seriously. Again

As long as security is

Playing second fiddle in the business it will often be overlooked.

In my experience to date, Security is seen as a cost centre and is reluctantly funded in some organisations, in others, it's front and centre and is well funded and invested in as business leaders see the indirect benefits.

To be fair, the guidance is a solid place to start, but the messaging is often not getting through.

If you're going hell for leather in the tech space, security is not the first thing that is being considered.

Dutch cops pwn the Redline and Meta infostealers, leak 'VIP' aliases

Re: The game of whack-a-mole continues

Good point Pascal.

A great analogy as it's good to see that the long arm of the law is able to keep pace with the technological changes and advancements of these types of tools.

Senator accuses sloppy domain registrars of aiding Russian disinfo campaigns

Domain names are the wild west

There's not enough substance to this politician's soundbite, yes there is some really slack regulation in this space, but if you hammer US registrars, the miscreants will move to another area with less regulation.

Prevention, not cure is really where the focus should be, at least in the long term.

If so many individuals are that gullible to fake news, what or how do you address that glaringly obvious issue?

Is Microsoft's AI Copilot? CoPilot? Co-pilot? MVP creates site to help get it right

If only as much or more time

Was spent on product quality and robustness as MS seems to spend on reinventing names for things most end users aren't that wedded too!