Backups also help for other problems like: hardware failure, lost/stolen machine, user deleting something and wanting it back days later, having a moment of "gross administrative misconduct" at the root prompt, etc...
Posts by Paul Crawford
5636 publicly visible posts • joined 15 Mar 2007
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Profit with just one infection! Crook sells ransomware for $175
eBay threatens to block Australians from using offshore sellers
Alert: Using a web ad blocker may identify you – to advertisers
Re: Sorted.
That has been my thought, we need a browser that deliberately randomises things like canvas drawing and reported fonts, plugins, etc, so every site you visit has something a bit different.
OK, your IP address is an issue but you can use an IP-sharing VPN to anonymise that if you really need to and typically IPv4s get shared in many cases as a few machines behind NAT, and ISPs typically change them anyway.
IPv6 could be a whole nasty bag of worms though if folk get a fixed block so advertisers know that they can ignore the bottom 16 bits and the rest is basically fixed by your ISP and not CG-NAT'd or anything..
Good job, everyone. We're making AI just as tediously racist and sexist as ourselves
Deeming Facebook a 'publisher' of users' posts won't tackle paedo or terrorist content
Thing is, you could achieve much the same with small fines, just a hundred quid or so for each post not taken down in reasonable time, and same for each appearance of fake/misleading adverts, and suddenly Google, Facebook, etc, would manage to deal with most of the crap.
After all, they are pretty good at following users with targeted adverts, so how hard is it to develop a "this users is an angry moron" sort of profile and limit their ability to post/share shit?
Drupal sci-fi sex scandal deepens: Now devs spank Dries over Gor bloke's banishment
Linux remote root bug menace: Make sure your servers, PCs, gizmos, Android kit are patched
DD-WRT?
Seems no updated for DD-WRT for my TP-Link router since 2013 or so, so the big question* is this bug present in its kernel build?
[*] - Yes, there are obviously much bigger questions out there. Some even with > 3 syllables in more than one location, but in the context of this forum and embedded stuff, this is big enough,
Microsoft raises pistol, pulls the trigger on Windows 7, 8 updates for new Intel, AMD chips
Official science we knew all along: Facebook makes you sad :-(
Hasta la Windows Vista, baby! It's now officially dead – good riddance
Re: It's not all bad news
Lets face it - Facebook is probably the most obvious act of mass surveillance and the morons masses still lap it up. And now we have MS chasing the pair of them to see who can get the most secrets with the lest KY, but also oddly expecting us still to pay for windows.
Except of course for us rats penguins who jumps from that sinking ship a while ago.
Homes raided in North West over data thefts from car body repair shops
Apple wets its pants over Swatch ad tagline
As you stare at the dead British Airways website, remember the hundreds of tech staff it laid off
'Amnesia' IoT botnet feasts on year-old unpatched vulnerability
Re: Linux botnet?
Its simple really, if you take any OS and put in hard-coded passwords, or have badly configured web servers running with administrator rights, you have a cluster-fsk coming.
As for Winnows vs. Linux on the desktop it is, as usual, a complex question. If one is configured and used by a competent person and the other by a total muppet, you can guess what the outcome is without knowing which OS is which.
If compared on equal terms the two kernels have roughly the same number of serious flaws at any point in time, but Windows "enjoys" a much richer ecosystem of malware to exploit it and sadly many of the past MS decisions to make it easier to use (e.g. hiding file extensions, making execution rights part of the file name, etc) only serve to make matters worse for the average user.
Dieting cannibals: At last, a scientist has calculated calories for human body parts
FCC Commish: Hey, don't look at me – Congress should sort out net neutrality mess
Re: "Google dominates desktop search"
I think that is the most disingenuous aspect of the FCC's claim - it might be Verizon is biggest in mobile, but in fixed-line often those in the USA have only 1 or perhaps 2 real choices (excluding very expensive VSAT systems).
Also we have the underlying problem of ISPs wanting to be media players as well - so you get the conflict of interest between generic data use and a cable TV competition (and the risk of demoting other TV/video services by pricing or data cap rules).
Adblock Plus owners commandeer Pirate Bay man's tip jar Flattr
Who better?
However, for the model to work it will take someone more informed or serious about the future of news in a civil society than Eyeo or Flattr have so far shown.
That might seem reasonable from a publisher's perspective, but to most end users of the internet adverts have become a plague, blocking up bandwidth, conveying malware, and popping up/flashing/auto-playing video at every opportunity. From that point of view Eyeo (by blocking most intrusive adverts) is still doing a good job.
The supermarket analogy is very good, every major media producer has tried (and mostly failed) to control sales of their goods by legal threats and DRM. And it not really working, while the Pirate Bay may be fading from prominence, most artists are still not getting much from the "legal" replacements such as Spotify or YouTube. And they are not much more than an advertisement vector in many cases.
Nobody really wants to pay for using the Internet, any yet they are - via advertisement or their personal information being whored around - but generally they don't know it. A workable micropayment system and some fair rules for its use (e.g. pay and get anonymity (beyond the pay provider knowing) and no adverts, or free and get infested/whored as usual) could go a long way to "draining the swap" as they say these days, offering artists some reward better than adverts but probably not as much as the big media barons are used to.
So if Eyeo or Flattr are not up to it, who is any better?
It's 30 years ago: IBM's final battle with reality
Re: 286
The article has one significant mistake - the 286 did support protected operation, even the option for "no execute" on memory segments. But as it was designed to be either 'real mode' 8086 compatible OR protected mode you had the fsck-up of having to use a keyboard controller interrupt to bring it out of halt state back to 'real' mode.
The major advances for the 386 were:
1) 32-bit registers
2) The "flat" memory model and virtual memory support (not the 16-bit segments of 286, OK still segments but way big enough for a long time)
3) The option to easily change protection modes.
Governments could introduce 'made by humans' tags - legal report
Re: Illogical conclusion
The motivation for companies is to make money - if that is more effective with robots/AI they will. What they never consider is who is paying customers, it is just assumed that if they lay off some staff, or out-source to some cheaper country, is has negligible impact on their profits as most customers are unaffected.
There is no "joined up thinking" of what happens when every other company has done the same in the pursuit of profit, but government will have to address this or face a very nasty melt-down of society.
'No deal better than bad deal' approach to Brexit 'unsubstantiated'
But is it an incorrect analysis of the situation?
Yes we can walk away with WTO terms, and if we don't reach agreement in 2 years that is our only option (short of the other 26 agreeing unanimously to keep on talking). And while that might be good for the government in terms of appeasing voters fixated on immigration / free movement of people, it would be a serious blow to our industry that has major trading relationships with the EU after 40 odd years.
Wi-Fi sex toy with built-in camera fails penetration test
Power plant cyber threat: Lock up your ICSs and SCADAs
Re: Really bad design
Air gapping also gets interesting when WiFi or Bluetooth enabled components come into the mix.
That is a rather odd way to think of "air gapping". Really if you are accessible from the outside by wired or wireless means you are more vulnerable. Even with secure protocols it would still be relatively cheap to jam such systems from short-ish distances. Detectable for sure, but easier than getting inside a plant and depending on your attack it might just be enough to magnify the general chaos.
Re: Really bad design
Or does it actually just need the attackers to get someone/something to carry their data into the plant, which is a whole different (and much easier) task, as Stuxnet and others have shown.
And you think some two-bit script kiddie can pull that sort of thing off?
Sure we saw Stuxnet as a major achievement in cyber-attack many ways, but if you have the combined might of USA & Israel determined to do something, it will be done. Or a bunker-buster bomb or three.
Re: Really bad design
Yes, but air-gapping rules out the 3 billion internet-connected devices out there from having a go and forces any would-be attackers to actually physically infiltrate the plant.
And that is a difficult and very high risk approach as whoever is caught (assuming not shot on sight) can't wave their hands and say is was the Russians/Chinese/USA/Israel/etc with little evidence to back it up.
Canadian court refuses to let Feds snoop on Megaupload servers
Re: What's he done wrong that others haven't
In short - not big enough and not American.
Take a look at the complaints about YouTube screwing over artists / producers since its inception and wonder if it did not have Google's might behind it and all that lovely campaign money to US politicians why it survived.
Edited to add: As Adam also raised the point - Google too has the ability to restrict copyright material but only if you sign up for a pittance from their services. https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/04/14/you_and_your_wellies/
Mediaeval Yorkshirefolk mutilated, burned t'dead to prevent reanimation
Is this a solution to Trump signing away your digital privacy? We give Invizbox Go a go
Re: VPN providers
Pays your money, places your trust...
Even if they do have a SECRET spying agreement, do you think that would extend to telling your local councillors or school board about anything you / family might have been up to? Do you think that those TLAs would share such spying intelligence with insurance companies or job recruitment agencies?
In short, do you think that would matter to most people's activities unless very dodgy and they have a high security clearance?
Re: VPN providers
"I can't speak for the VPN provider, I personally won't use them because unless they are in the Maldives"
You could do a little research such as:
https://torrentfreak.com/vpn-services-anonymous-review-2017-170304/
https://www.bestvpn.com/best-vpn-services/
(a bit advertorial, but they do cover country-of-origin in the pros & cons)
https://airvpn.org/
https://www.mullvad.net/
It is true that ultimately you are placing your trust in a VPN company instead of your ISP & government, but the flip-side of that is VPN providers depend on trust so they are more likely to honour that than ISPs that are (a) open to whoring you to advertisers, and (b) generally under the thumb of the government.
Which is another reason to ALWAYS get a VPN from another country - even if they do log your activity (against any stated policy) they are virtually guaranteed to demand a proper court order in their own country, and not answering some back-door surveillance law of your government. Oh, and don't forget to test your VPN with one of the many leak-detecting sites out there...
It sounds like a great solution for the technically-challenged that value their privacy.
Lets face it, most people have little to fear from the likes of GCHQ/NSA/FSB/etc because the majority of folk who are likely to be after them or pestering them won't be getting data from such agencies. However, if you are politically important or work high up in a 1$B business that is unlikely to be the same case, but then you would have some competent IT folk to take care of you and you would not use a skanky old Android phone would you?
Sadly many don't realise the long-term consequences of world+dog having all of their secrets on hand to monetize via advertisement or blackmail with down the line...
Kremlin-linked hacker crew's tactics exposed
BMW chief: Big auto will stay in the driving seat with autonomous cars
Re: Gotta agree with BMW here
"given Google and Ubers current attitude to regulations"
One major difference is the big software businesses like Google, etc, have never had to write or certify safety-critical stuff.
Just now they hare playing at testing cars on the road but at what point is it all going to be subject to the sort of analysis, testing and approval that companies that write for aircraft systems, etc, have to do? And if not, why not? Why should a motorised object that are more than capable of killing and maiming be programmed by the sort of folk who write web browsers that randomly fall over with "Opps!" messages and they think its ok?
BOFH: The Boss, the floppy and the work 'experience'
Europe to push new laws to access encrypted apps data
Re: "you stand out like a sore thumb"
No, you just encrypt before using WhatsApp or similar. Unless they decrypt and check EVERY WhatsApp message then they won't see your message as having any unusual characteristics. By time they do it probably too late anyway.
Depending on how any back door is implemented the cost of decryption could be made very high, for example to thwart mass surveillance but keep to the letter of the law, so they would need to have prior knowledge of suspects to check and then you are back to square one - to crack the 2nd level of encryption you need to arrest them and so on to obtain the key, so its no longer usable for surveillance as the suspects know they are being followed.
This is the European Commission speaking, largely a mouthpiece for the various EU governments. As such the tech companies should call their bluff and force it to a vote on a law (with explanations of how such a back door won't be discovered and abused) to the European Parliament. Many MEPs don't share the same authoritarian streak and it might just get kicked back when the public realise how their own privacy is being screwed over.
Windows 10 Creators Update: Clearing the mines with livestock (that's you by the way)
Virgin Media suspends 4 staff over misreporting connections
Re: My experience with Virgin Media has been reasonable
If you really want something stable and under your control - don't use any ISP-supplied router / wifi point.
Get something half-decent that supports an open firmware such as DD-WRT or Tomato (say Linksys WRT1900ACS or similar, maybe also a switch or fancier device to do both) and spend an hour or so reading up on it, installing and configuring it.
Don't forget to set up a separate IP range for "guest WiFi" so your visitors and any dodgy devices (like most Android phones...) are not on any moderately trusted internal LAN's range (also you can bandwidth limit that so they don't throttle your business use). You can also set up a VPN on such a router if you value your privacy, but depending on your usage it might be better to keep the VPN option for mobile devices and/or any machines you use for sensitive data and don't need top-speed or the fixed IP address.
BDSM sex rocks Drupal world: Top dev banished for sci-fi hanky-panky
Salem reunited
So we have an example of beliefs being used against someone, but because its not, for example anti-Semitic or anti-Muslim there is little legal challenge of it not any apparent need for those in charge to fully justify their actions. Even the accusation of witchcraft these days will get little mention.
Has his interest in Gorean role-playing caused any harm? Have there been any cases of play-partners presenting stories of abuse? If not the Drupal team should shut-the fsck up and get on with developing software, not acting as moral police for communities who are probably able to make their own minds up (no matter how odd it seems to most of us).
Ex-military and security firms oppose Home Sec in WhatsApp crypto row
Re: @ MNGrrrl
If I could up-vote you 100 times I would!
The sad thing is we are dealing with vain and ignorant politicians who want to appeal to the tabloid-reading masses and thing that a "technological solution" like backdoors will make that quick and cheap.
It won't, it will fail in its prime goal and cause untold damage to the millions of innocent law-abiding people who have a right to privacy and to secure business dealings.
Manufacturers reject ‘no deal’ Brexit approach
Trump's America looks like a lousy launchpad, so can you dig Darwin?
Re: Fuel + oxidizer = thrust
If you look around you should find:
http://library.sciencemadness.org/library/books/ignition.pdf
Its an informal history of the development of liquid rocket fuels. It is an eye-opener of a read for anyone with interest and even a basic grasp of chemistry. Some of they stuff their considered and even tried just beggars belief! But given the original goal was to deliver terminal global nuclear destruction to the Earth I doubt the toxicity or handling problems were very high on the agenda of the day...
(Note the PDF won't show correctly in Firefox but looks OK in evince or probably other PDF readers of your choice)
Bloke whose drone was blasted out of sky by angry dad loses another court battle for compo
Carnegie-Mellon Uni emits 'don't be stupid' list for C++ developers
Re: Oh, goodie!
"FORTRAN is basically a universal assembler"
Not really. While *ALL* compiled languages eventually result in assembly-level instructions, C is a slightly special case in that it allows quite easy means of arbitrarily addressing memory locations and interacting with asynchronous events such as signals/interrupts. It also has many bit-wise sort of options in terms of manipulating integers, bit fields in structures, etc, that are useful for hardware driver I/O, etc.
That is not part of the usual FORTRAN syntax nor (I presume, not used) COBOL. E.g FORTAN 77 had no memory allocation support, you had to define fixed-size arrays at the start.
Re: Coverity is decent
It is also available free to FOSS projects.
While there are numerous warning that can be ignored, the golden rule for all such code-profiling tools is to make sure you understand the nature of the warning before you fix it or ignore it.
Also worth a mention are some free (at least on Linux, maybe others?) memory checking tools like valgrind and the good old electric-fence library. While not checking your source code as such, they do help with detecting run-time memory errors such as double-free, leaks, etc.
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