Posts by Furious Reg reader John

EU urged to act after Pegasus infects phone of spyware inquiry MEP

Re: Pegasus infects phones :o

Which is no different to any other countries arms export controls. Not quite sure what point you are trying to make?

Given the EU and many of its member states actions, it already considers Israel a hostile state.

Re: The Word "Persistent" in the Phrase, "Persistent Malware" ...

"Have you heard of "searching the web"?"

https://www.google.com/search?q=is+pegasus+a+persistent+piece+of+malware+or+does+a+reboot+of+an+iphone+shut+it+down

It's amazing what you can learn......

Taiwan cops say student's radio kit brought bullet trains to a standstill

I wonder if the TETRA bug bounty will cover the bail?

Iran cyber actors disrupting US water, energy facilities, FBI warns

Wow, such a fanboi of the misogynistic, homophobic, islamic supremacist, genocidal, human shield wielding Islamic Republic of Iran and it's equally misogynistic, homophobic, islamic supremacist, genocidal, human shield wielding proxies.

It must be awful for you being a Canadian at the moment, but at least the country is on the slow path to being an Islamic republic. I guess it will just be a race between that and the return of the Mahdi.

Iran war drives urgent need to counter underwater attack drones

Re: Might I propose?

Israel already has it's Shark program: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel-related_conspiracy_theories#Sharks

I'm pretty sure that by now the Space Laser program and the Shark program have been combined, to create a joint UUV and an AUV system.

So perhaps the US and the UK should just buy off the shelf Laser Sharks from Israel, instead of developing their own AUV programs.

Country that put backdoors into Cisco routers to spy on world bans foreign routers

So if there is no encouragement to build in the US, and production remains in China and/or Taiwan, what happens when China eventually invades Taiwan? While it was worth a shot making China, and to a certain extent Russia, too dependent on trade to make military activity unattractive, it has basically failed as a diplomatic solution. Hostilities will happen at some point in the future, massively affecting the supply of these things into the US. Starting to bring back these sorts of capabilities onshore helps the US prepare for those times.

Britain's satellite-watching gap to be plugged with £17.5M eyeball in Cyprus

Re: What a waste

I think you've missed the point - the Cypriots are asking why on earth are there UK military bases there if the UK can't even defend those from attack. Any previously perceived defensive benefit the Cypriots may have had from having the UK bases has evaporated, so why put up with the inconvenience any longer.

Re: What a waste

Indeed, but getting into the whole Scottish dependence on England for funding, and the desire of many north of the boarder for economic and societal harakiri, felt, for me, like one too many raw nerves to touch. The number of downvotes I've already had for two simple truths regarding the inability to defend military bases and how this is contributing to our hosts getting fed up of our presence shows how deluded people are about the current state of the UK and the appalling performance over decades from the civil service that has lead to this.

Re: What a waste

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy7166denxeo

Re: What a waste

@sedregj - Let's see what happens to overseas British territories in a few years, especially if there is a UK government that has a darker Red and/or a Green tinge to it. I suspect that they will no longer be anything like Somerset or Perthshire. Love and Kisses, Mr Furious

What a waste

The UK can't even defend the bases from attack, so why bother installing high value targets there? The Cypriots are also going to throw the Brits out fairly soon...

State snoops and spyware vendors planting info-stealing malware on iPhones, Google warns

"Apple actually makes money from being secure" - I have a bridge you might be interested in buying for a special discounted price.

Apple make money from well designed and well marketed products, which also are locked in to Apple's control and are a closed system. It is wrong to think that being a closed system makes them secure.

Except Apple don't have the scale of security researchers that Google have accumulated over the last few years. Apple will be focused on Apple, whereas Google have business units looking in to everybody's tech.

Japan to allow ‘proactive cyber-defense’ from October 1st

Re: Missing from the International Institute for Strategic Studies Tier Two list

Whoops, my bad - China was on the list (or, at least, is on the list now).

Missing from the International Institute for Strategic Studies Tier Two list

China and Russia - which did seem to me to be major omissions from the article.

Cybercrime isn't just a cover for Iran's government goons - it's a key part of their operations

Re: Taste in goons

So what is it about the misogynistic, homophobic, religiously intolerant and ethnic discriminatory Islamic Republic of Iran that you find so appealing?

Cyberwarriors elevated to big leagues in US war with Iran

Re: Re:

Not sure where you are getting the million figure from. Iran has a population of around 90 million, with the various branches of the IRGC totalling around 250,000 - maybe the million is the number of sympathetic supporters? The numbers have been enough to keep things under the ayatollahs control, but probably not enough now if the rest of the population feels is the time for a change. The IRGC will be relentlessly hunted down during the current military actions, further diminishing its ability to be the ayatollahs enforcers.

Re:

The IRGC are the enforcers of the ayatollahs and oversee the military. Disrupting the IRGC reduces the effectiveness of their over watch of the military and increases the chance of the overthrow of the Islamic Republic autocracy.

What would replace it is unknown, but there won't be the same influences that Iran has exerted on many of the surrounding areas when they have gone thorough similar upheavals.

The region may well become even shittier than it currently is as a result of the current offensive actions by the US and Israel, but it will be quite difficult to achieve that given the results seen so far.

'Merica-made Mac Minis marked for manufacturing

Re: Tech's Ass

Ah, WA, such a lovely place - what South America was to the Germans after WWII, WA is to South Africans after Apartheid.

UK data watchdog fines Reddit £14.47M for letting kids slip past the gate

Re: The perpetrator is not held liable?

Not quite - in the UK it is illegal to sell alcohol to under 18s, and the store is responsible in the law if they do sell alcohol to an under 18. Saying "I thought the 11 year old was 18 years old" isn't a defence. You have to verify that they are over 18, either by them clearly looking aged, or using ID if there is any question.

The 11 year old is still doing something illegal, but the store is also doing something illegal.

Traffic cops chasing a perp (as long as they are not irresponsibly risking public safety) are not breaking the law.

Microsoft being hacked - Microsoft may not have taken suitable measures to protect the data they hold, so would be guilty of not conforming to data protection laws, but the hacker is still commiting an offence, regardless of what Microsoft may or may not have done to stop them.

January blues return as Ivanti coughs up exploited EPMM zero-days

Re: You misspelled incompetence

Yes, and they are handling reporting and information sharing with their customer base really badly. They have just announced the Jan 2027 EOL for the remaining Ivanti product we are using, so that's the final nail in the coffin for Ivanti as far as we are concerned.

Tech employees demand their leaders take a stand against ICE

Re: CSuite are doing the right thing

I'm hoping the "shouldn't be anonymous" comment was made about El Reg comment votes, not proper votes.

Re: “other creators”

IBM were an active participant in the holocaust, and the other US companies were trading with the Nazis despite knowing what was happening. There was no political action taken to stop them, which was a failing of the Democrat led US government.

Re: CSuite are doing the right thing

It's a very small number that don't consider non-Jewish citizens as "our people" - this is a total misrepresentation of the reality in Israel.

If the RAF had given plenty of warning to clear the Falls Road before any bombs were dropped, it would have been a legitimate tactic to deal with embedded IRA military infrastructure. If the IRA had forced the civilian population to stay in place, that would have been the IRA's own choice, just as it has been with Hamas, PIJ, PFLP and all the other letter salad armed groups.

"reducing (global) anti-semitism" - do you also blame how a woman is dressed while enjoying a night out for being raped that evening? And whatever Israel may or may not do, whether it exists or not, won't alter global antisemitism.

The problem of honouring the Oslo Accords isn't an Israeli problem. The PLO, seen as the most moderate element on the Palestinian side, still has the prime objective of eliminating Israel and making the land Jew-free. This is why you can't draw comparisons between Good Friday and Oslo - with Good Friday, there was at least some desire on both sides to end the conflict and reach a consensus. Once the Palestinians reach that point, they will be pushing on an open door on the Israeli side.

Re: CSuite are doing the right thing

There are also large numbers of politicians from all the other parties making "borderline unacceptable statements" about all sorts of things, and many people think that is a good thing as well.....

Re: CSuite are doing the right thing

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

Just in case anybody wants to forget the involvement of USA companies under the Democrats.

Re: CSuite are doing the right thing

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/volkswagen-1

But don't forget that the people protesting the loudest about Jews at the moment think they are righteous, enlightened progressives.

ATM flashes a port or two for the enterprising hacker

Re: False alarm, no bork

A denial of service attack seems to be the easiest option to compromise the InfoSec. The availability of the system components doesn't really seem to have been part of the design considerations. It's possible the C and I elements have been overlooked as well, but as Empire of the Pussycat has suggested, maybe there are controls in place to cover these.

'Ralph Wiggum' loop prompts Claude to vibe-clone commercial software for $10 an hour

Re: Sounds awful

Other than it has now "evolved" to be the "King's English"....

Future of UK's multibillion Ajax armored vehicle program looks shaky

Re: Ajax upgrade

Surely a left turn?

Britain goes shopping for a rapid-fire missile to help Ukraine hit back

Re: Shit show likely

https://www.theregister.com/2026/01/25/uk_defence_grapples_with_ajax/

Re: Of course the real truth

My guess - all of the above, apart from "Want it by yesterday".

Re: Shit show likely

Are you sure that "Ajax is fine" ?????!?!??!

https://www.theregister.com/2025/11/11/uks_ajax_fighting_vehicle_late/

https://ukdefencejournal.org.uk/uk-government-has-sought-legal-advice-on-ajax/

Shit show likely

Will Ajax be the launch platform for this shit show of a project, solving that shit show of an APC project by sending them all off to Ukraine?

New Linux malware targets the cloud, steals creds, and then vanishes

Not been mentioned on El Reg yet, but this is probably related

https://www.reuters.com/world/china/beijing-tells-chinese-firms-stop-using-us-israeli-cybersecurity-software-sources-2026-01-14/

2026 brings a bumper crop of Microsoft tech funerals

What about Windows Server 2022?

The article does not mention that Windows Server 2022 Mainstream Support ends on 13 October 2026 as well. Others maybe missing from the article as well.

UK government exempting itself from flagship cyber law inspires little confidence

Re: Gravy train

"Might even need to fall on his/her/other sword for that failing." - Yes, but the incompetent/corrupt civil servants in the department involved, who are actually the ones responsible for managing the systems involved, would carry on without any censure and continue looking forward to an early retirement on a gold plated pension, with a gong or two thrown in to reward them for their service.

ISS spacewalk postponed over mystery astronaut malady

Morning Sickness?

Cloudflare pours cold water on ‘BGP weirdness preceded US attack on Venezuela’ theory

Re: tinfoil hat time

If there is a way to do it, you won't be able to buy a licence to use it from the NSA - that will be one they keep all for themselves.

Trump admin sends heart emoji to commercial spyware makers with lifted Predator sanctions

Re: while at the same time...

FTFY - "sanctioning DIShonest ICC judges and functionaries for NOT doing their job."

Welcome to America - now show us your last five years of social media posts

Re: Seems to be working

Was the bottom of page 1 when I made the comment, and the level of apoplectic rage the story had already generated made it too good an opportunity to miss.

I'm not American, so I'm not MAGA, or anti-MAGA, as it's none of my concern. However, I am amused at how batshit crazy Mr 45 drives certain people.

Seems to be working

The number of undesirables saying they will never visit the USA seems to show how brilliant this request for comment by the DHS actually is.

Researcher claims Salt Typhoon spies attended Cisco training scheme

And in other news, water is wet

Who could have foreseen that network training courses might be something that people who use networks might attend.

Barts Health seeks High Court block after Clop pillages NHS trust data

Is this an attempt to stop the press talking about Barts?

As any injunction given will be ignored by Clop, isn't this purely a play to restrict reporting about the incident and nothing to do with data privacy?

Cloudflare suffers second outage in as many months during routine maintenance

Not a great look, but Cloudflare are pretty good

While the two recent hiccups haven't been great, it doesn't alter the fact that Cloudflare offer a great product, which is why so many sites use it.

While it's "only" 20% of the web, it's probably 80% of the useful web that uses Cloudflare*. The lack of decent alternatives is the bigger concern to me.

(* Random stats plucked from thin air, so please don't quote me on this....)

Landlord quirks leave thousands of flats stuck in the broadband slow lane

You'll need to replace the battery in the not too distant future. If you haven't configured it to do self tests (or it's not possible to do self tests on the model you have, and you aren't occasionally pulling the mains plug manually to test) you'll only find out the battery is knackered when you have a power cut, which might not be the best time to find out. A battery swap should be fairly easy, and can be more economical if you use compatible batteries, saving you the APC brand tax.

London left buffering as Hyperoptic backup link refuses to boot

Yes, constantly using your "backup" links lets you know when they aren't working, rather than discovering they aren't working the second you fail over on to them.

Ofcom fines 4chan £20K and counting for pretending UK's Online Safety Act doesn't exist

Re: The Online Safety Act is not just law, It's state censorship.

If you haven't worked out why what a political party in the UK say's it wants to do vs what actually gets done, leaving no difference between the parties when they are "in power", it's because the incompetent civil service is who actually runs the country and refuses to do what the government of the day tells it to do. It really won't matter if the Conservatives or Reform replace Labour - the civil service will ignore the policies that they don't agree with, the status quo remains and the problems that the civil service thinks aren't problems will carry on being problems.

Re: a better way to keep people safe online.

I think your faith in the BBC to provide this service is wildly misplaced, let a lone why on earth you would even expect the BBC to do it.

Have a look in to using a DNS service that filters adult and malware services (Cloudflare for families / OpenDNS Family Shield) if you want something along those lines.