back to article Seriously, Cisco? Another hard-coded password? Sheesh

Earlier this year, The Register observed that the less-lame replacement for WPA2, WPA3, should start landing in user devices this year. That prediction got a kick along this week from Qualcomm, which announced it's going to roll WPA3 out on all wireless product lines. The company told us in February the security standard …

  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Unmentionable

    "... and serves no purpose but to perpetuate gender stereotypes”, the poster added.

    Using the word 'man' is wrong? Always? Isn't this just another instance of humourless absolutism?

    But poster above insists we must use 'person'? Is that really reparative, or merely retributive social flexing? Ah, but social rage is all the rage.

    When individual words become more important than the larger picture and message, you're indulging in dickhead signaling. (oops)

    BTW: when the next person suggests to you that we *must* have N number of <previously excluded class> as heads of organizations *now*, to correct out past imbalances in representation, ask them to suggest the next N heads of, say, NOW *must* be men. That'll be fun.

    1. bombastic bob Silver badge
      Headmaster

      Re: Unmentionable

      "But poster above insists we must use 'person'? Is that really reparative, or merely retributive social flexing? Ah, but social rage is all the rage."

      Well, proper grammar (see icon) defaults to MALE pronouns when the sex of the subject/object of the sentence is unknown. Changing that out for "the singular 'they'", or mangling anything with the word 'man' in it to be 'person' instead, is beyond silly.

      And I shall continue to DELIBERATELY use 'man' 'he' 'him' etc. whenever I might catch myself accidentally doing otherwise, because I know it will irritate the P.C. police. And it's GRAMMAR-IFIC!

      1. Solarflare

        Re: Unmentionable

        Personally, I feel they have a good point. To fix this we should change it to human-in-the-middle. We can then remove the hu- prefix to shorten it a bit.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: Unmentionable

          Personally, I feel they have a good point. To fix this we should change it to human-in-the-middle.

          They should rename it to mammal-in-the-middle attack. I've always suspected that those server hamsters are stealing user's infos.

          1. Nick Ryan Silver badge

            Re: Unmentionable

            They should rename it to mammal-in-the-middle attack. I've always suspected that those server hamsters are stealing user's infos.

            My goodness! What primitive looking technology you have there. You didn't even invest in the "turbo button" which, for those that weren't in IT at the time, was a very clever button that was linked to a mechanical hopper arrangement which released sunflower seeds into a transparent holder just out of reach of the central processor unit. Due to potential overheating issues it was important not to run with the turbo button pressed for too long.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          " we should change it to human-in-the-middle"

          No no, it's now huperson, personkind, etc etc....

          1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

            Re: " we should change it to human-in-the-middle"

            No no, it's now huperson, personkind, etc etc....

            Facist !

            It's huperoffspring and peroffspringkind now

      2. chivo243 Silver badge
        Thumb Up

        Re: Unmentionable

        @bombastic bob

        Unless we're talking about sea going vessels? She's a yar vessel?

      3. P. Lee

        Re: Unmentionable

        >GRAMMAR-IFIC!

        More proof of the generation-skipping matriarchy.

        I feel oppressed. Who wants to grab their colouring book and form a safe-space with me?

      4. Registered Register Registrant

        Re: Unmentionable

        Blake used "they" for the first-person singular in *Songs*. If it was okay with that master of English, then it's okay generally.

        But *person-in-the-middle attack* has no ring to it. If we want this to be a purely technical term, something like *malicious network interposition* would be more appropriate, though perhaps harder to remember.

  2. Richard Jones 1
    WTF?

    Why Move From Pig in the Middle?

    When I was young the game was pig in the middle, OK time moves on but surely pig in the middle scoffing at whatever trough of knowledge they fancy is more accurate. Pigs have an excellent sense of smell so make great goodie sniffers.

    1. Jim Mitchell

      Re: Why Move From Pig in the Middle?

      "Pig in the middle"? Is that a UK thing? We play monkey in the middle here in the US.

      1. Yet Another Anonymous coward Silver badge

        Re: Why Move From Pig in the Middle?

        "Pig in the middle"? Is that a UK thing? We play monkey in the middle here in the US

        Monkeys are rare in the UK - and almost never achieve high elected office

  3. Nick Ryan Silver badge

    Wi-Fi Certified EasyMesh lets access points “self-organise”

    I presume that like the other auto-config schemes this will result in every damn router in the area "optimally" choosing to use the same WiFi channels as every other router in the area, reducing a slow medium to something more like frozen treacle.

  4. Outer mongolian custard monster from outer space (honest)

    cve-2018-0222 "because in this day and age, no serious enterprise class vendor still hard codes credentials and embeds secret hidden accounts in firmware" - as said by some clueless middle manager commentard, whilst belittling my experience for even suggesting it still happens.

  5. Nick Ryan Silver badge

    But this is *positive* gender stereotyping...

    But surely this is positive gender stereotyping...

    This evil, nefarious, good-for-nothing person in the middle is, of course, a "man". No woperson would ever do anything nasty. As a result of this, wopersons are not associated with this crass classification and smearing of their indirectly identified with gender, should they wish to identify with one at all.

    I'm sure this makes perfect sense for at least one of the nutters who is doubtless getting very angry on somebody else's behalf. In the meantime, I'd like ships to stop being referred to as "she", because - well, just because. We should also delete the French language from existence because it, like many other languages, crudely assigns gender stereotyping to inanimate objects.

  6. handleoclast
    Coat

    Cisco denounces "security as an afterthought"

    Said a Cisco spokesperson, "We at Cisco thoroughly condemn 'security as an afterthought.' It is entirely the wrong approach. Instead we don't think about security at all."

  7. LateAgain

    MITM

    That's more likely Machine In The Middle. Soon to be Machine Intelligence...

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: MITM

      I started using machine-in-the-middle years ago, not because of sex but to press the point that these are machines, not people, doing the interception.

  8. EnviableOne
    Coat

    PC going madder

    now the word person is not permited as it has the male noun son at the end, the PC lobby would have you use the term perkin.

    Personally, it think we should keep MITM, and change the definition to Mallory In The Middle or if we want a new term either:

    Transparent Interstitial Transition Strike

    or Network Re-routing Attack

    (answers on a postcard)

  9. JavaJester

    Why not Machine in the Middle?

    If you change Man in the Middle to Person, then you must change the acronym to PitM. This will serve to confuse new comers reading past literature, and experienced practitioners reading new literature. It will likely be off-putting enough that after a few eye rolls it will be added to the to do never list.

    If you change it to Machine in the Middle, the acronym stays the same and the gender neutral goal is accomplished. Historical literature using the MitM acronym remains understandable without any additional burden to the reader (assuming new entrants to the security field who are taught the new terminology), and experienced practictioners do not have to learn another acronym for an arguably flimsy reason.

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