* Posts by Destroy All Monsters

16005 publicly visible posts • joined 3 Jun 2008

Hack a garage and the car inside with a child's toy and a few chips

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Re: Well...

Neighborhood watch or not someone will look out the window.

UFOS!

Carphone Warehouse coughs to MONSTER data breach – 2.4 MEELLION Brits at risk

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Holmes

mega data breach.?

With 90'000 customers affected, it's more like a kilo data breach.

Eagerly waiting for the song "summer of breaches" by some nu metal band. "BreeeAACHHESSS!! RoooROOORrrooo"

Windows 10 is FORCING ITSELF onto domain happy Windows 7 PCs

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Paris Hilton

The thought occurs that there must be a global uptick in data transiting through the last mile(s) and possibly the backbones (unless it is just noise in the Netflick/Spotify global heat engine)...

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Paris Hilton

Re: blaming slack admins for this one

If you can't afford to do it properly in the MS model don't do it.

Woah. Adding insult to injury.

Is this the MS-customer version of "she had it coming"?

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Re: how about a reference?

Prior probability of this being true: >0.8.

The rest follows.

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Re: Win 7

You can get unused OEM version under the table for $$$.

In enterprise sector, there is no problem though. Just order "Windows 7".

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Windows

We haff ways of MAKING you inztall!

So they DIDN'T sign up for the free download-upgrade (the downlorade?) but are still getting it?

Very much highly irregular. That's not the ocean you hear, that's a chorus of lawyers.

Boffinry breakthrough: Bullied bumble bot bolts brutal brat beatdowns

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Re: 3 Laws

Dave Langford's version...

That's a pretty good set, very actionable too.

It's beyond me why Wikipedia labels these tongue-in-cheek. They WILL be implemented. With law "4) Classified" added.

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Re: Gundamn

Unless the children imagine that they have particular, possibly latent, powers, they should know then that attacking while unprepared will result in the total destruction of Tokyo!

It's incredibly easy to bump someone off online, and here's how to do it – infosec bod

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Devil

Film at 11

Controlling everything centrally via inept civil serpentry for "social benefits fraud", "tax avoidance", "illegal immigration" and "terrororoorism" will lead to Brazil situations.

Indeed.

Sane people, I BEG you: Stop the software defined moronocalypse

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Re: Bah!

Headlines of history:

Measurer of angles and explorer Charles Babbage invents "Sumerian Writing"! Locals can now write down the cows owed on pottery! Marketplace proclamation at 11. Praise Urdu!

Charles Babbage was recently seen consulting with the NSA on quantum cryptography. More on this at 11 - Next: The role of Kim Kardashian's arse in the Iran negotations. After this message!!

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Headmaster

Re: Is there a standard to aspire to?

Meaning an ISO standard for writing code/managing projects

1) Yes, there is a whole library of those.

2) No, it all depends on what the end product is supposed to look like. On what "quality indicators" to spend the most effort. What efforts to avoid. How risk management should look like.

3) Speaking of which, maybe ISO/IEC 16085:2006 Systems and software engineering -- Life cycle processes -- Risk management is the keystone of it all. ISO/IEC 9126 Software engineering — Product quality most assuredly isn't.

4) Always start with the SWEBOK (Software Engineering Body of Knowledge) list-of-pointers.

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Trollface

Re: Completely daft article

IoT = "software defined accidents"

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For example, I know nothing about SQL injections

Just use the correct library which will do the escaping for you. The delta between OUCH and GOOD is sometimes very narrow and just needs a bit of coaching.

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Holmes

Re: Might take a while

Lots of engineering relies on known, quantifiable methods to achieve nearly the same exact results as 100s or 1000s of nearly identical projects.

Only for pre-built housing. Each bridge (or ship) is its own development. Corners may be cut even there of course but the corner cutting the development projects is beyond ridiculous, frankly mafia-styling building (as seen in such countries as Italy, Greece, Southern France, Japan, Afghanistan etc.)

And we most certainly don't have formal mathematical verification methods.

We most certainly do and they are getting better. The fact that people don't bother to learn about these ("I'm a developer, not a mathematician") and prefer to start hacking wildly (going so far as to ignore compiler warnings and fart in the general direction of lint) just is testimony to the utter immaturity and irrealism prevalent in the "industry".

And security vs ease of use is not nearly as much in tensuon in most engineeing fields.

This is best solved by applying a label on the box "consumer-grade, use at own risk" vs "pretty good, comes with assurance and insurance, pay more". This already happens today but the message is intentionally mixed. For example, a pretty expensive but rather lousy WinNT is targeted to the whole range of demands, with the sole differentiator the price (a "feel good about this" pricing model). In all cases, if something happens, you are on your own. That's not the way to do it.

Oracle waves fist, claims even new Android devices infringe its Java copyrights

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Re: precedent?

No. Microsoft did an embrace-and-extend on an implementation of the JVM, causing Sun to get nervous and sue for breach of contract, the contract allowing Microsoft to implement their own version of the bytecode-processing virtual machine on Windows.

IIn the present case we are talking about the APIs for the Java language (the shims, not even the implementation of the APIs).

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Windows

Re: WTF?

Well, that phrase would only make anyway sense if Oracle were in the market of offering

1) An ORACE™-BRAND oracle™ JVM™ (or similar implementation, like an Oracle Dalvik)

2) A potentially complete Java™ 8 language implementation

3) A potentially complete Java™ 8 API implementation (the "java.*" namespace)

for mobile devices in the first place.

Which AFAIK they don't.

There used to be Sun-era rather horrific Java Micro Edition and "Java Limited Configuration" implementations. (CLDC and CDC). I didn't think these are still a thing but Wikipedia says these can still be found on mobiles.

Interestingly As of 22 December 2006, the Java ME source code is licensed under the GNU General Public License, and is released under the project name phoneME. Hmmm... LARRRRAAYYYYYY!

(I remember developing for Java ME generating pages in Wireless Markup Language. Those times were BAD)

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Re: To quote a greate sage ...

Don't get despondent, get mad!

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Re: Java question...

Have an upvote for a Groklaw-level posting.

The law of unintended consequences might well strike again because of OracleLeisure Suit Larry. It will be 1000 times worse than the "software patent" metastatic cancer that was injected in the early 90s with developments ignored by "the industry" until it was too late.

OracleLarry the Hutt hasn't even noticed that what makes Java interesting is the JVM, not the rather pedestrian language (particularly pedestrian in 2015) and the sometimes quite horrific-in-usual-Sun-style APIs. I would ditch them in a moment for some Clojure.

(...who owns the copyright in original LISP? John McCarthy? Ayyeeee!!!)

Power Bar: EE was warned of safety risk BEFORE user was burned in explosion

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Re: Am I missing something?

Said power bar shot off across the room like a rocket, landed under the poor girls bed.

Sounds like a SWAT team performing a vist. I would have fired a few 5.56 through the window to make them chill the fuck out.

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Holmes

Re: Er, have you ever heard of "risk assessment"?

You could easily keep other data such as number of times returned, charge level and time to charge, etc.

You also need to monitor G-forces, maximum heat reached so far, whether someone used a hammer on the battery... actually a S.M.A.R.T. battery interface. Best add X-ray imaging checks at the store. As there are still doubts how these sticks of dynamitebatteries evolve over time, it's an interesting little problem.

X-wings, pirates and a generic Lara: Gamescom 2015

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Windows

Re: Games hold one's attention when younger...

Jesus, could you patronise that up a bit for me Grandad?

Listen boyo, this shotgun here has dealt with animals way cooler than you.

Now get off my grass.

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Windows

Isn't Lara a bit young?

From the footage shown you could have plucked Lara out of the game and replaced her with Uncharted’s Nathan Drake, The Last of Us' Joel or any of Assassin Creed's assassins, so close was the gameplay to all of the above.

Guards were sneaked up on, glass bottles were lobbed as a means to distract and matchsticks were used to keep my eyelids open. The fault wasn’t with Lara alone either: Quantum Break, Remedy’s time-travelling, cover-based shooter, looked similarly insipid

Face it: One's getting old. Games hold one's attention when younger but at some point one has to move to more interesting, rewarding (or not) real-world activities. Whereupon one regrets all the hours spent creating random activity in electronic hardware (but the sights seen and feels had were overwhelming, maybe more so in retrospect)

How the Arab Spring blew the lid off the commercial spyware

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Big Brother

And if you stayed till the end of the closing credits...

"As a result governments acted. The British government put restrictions on Gamma until they fled the country, the French acted against Amesys, and the US government has now amended the Wassenaar Arrangement to deal with the issue."

And then they went and abraded Lybia and Syria to the stone age under the banner of "regime change/making the Middle East safe for Israel"

THE END!

Microsoft vacates moral high ground for the data slurpers' cesspit

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HOW DID YOU GET INTO THE MS MEETING ROOM?

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Re: Microsoft? High morl ground?!

ISTR from my readingof Groklaw over the years that MS was behind the SCO farce.

Only tangentially. That guy from SCO (Daryl McBride I presume) wrecked the company all by himself.

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Today, "worrying" IS doing something wrong. Be happy, keep shopping! ♪ ♪

Crackpot hackpots pop top of GasPots

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Headmaster

Is the prison-industrial complex posting here?

I find the permanent call for "jail time for company execs" for weak security awareness (a sort of disciplinary bulverism) in this here venue both obnoxious and moronic. Stop it.

Microsoft lures iOS devs with open-source app tools for Windows 10

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Global cybercrime fraud boss ran secret pro-Moscow intel sorties

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Re: One more reason

> atrocities in Crimea

No-one even got killed.

Meanwhile the US has offed quite a few tens of thousands of Iraqis/Afghanis and continues to seek "regime change" in Syria by getting in bed with Saudi Arabia and other ISIS enablers. Well, the put some effort into it recently and sent 45 "moderate rebels" to Syria, who then get promply pwned by the Nusra front.

Give me 10 Putin instead of 1 Team America.

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Paris Hilton

In one instance he probed Ankara regarding what it knew of the movement of Russian fighters to Syria, according to the research.

Hold on, there are "Russian fighters in Syria"? When? Why?? Unless these are irate jihadis from Chechnya.

Pentagon email hacked, Russia already blamed

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Paris Hilton

From COCOM dom to collar-wearing sub

Couldn't the US just retire from that bullshit "IT" thing? They are no longer able to handle it, politically or technically. Or mentally.

Biggest security update in history coming up: Google patches Android hijack bug Stagefright

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Paris Hilton

Re: Re asdf: Incredible!

iOS was deployed on more than a billion devices world wide

I didn't know Apple was big in the embedded market?

Junior defence staffer on trial for 'posting secret dossier to 4chan'

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Facepalm

Re: Whats more stupid?

Do you even know what a Darwin award is?

Could be you are the guy with the Totenkopf-adorned General's cap, in which case, apologies.

AIDS? Ebola? Nah – ELECTRO SMOG is our 'biggest problem', says Noel Edmonds

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Mushroom

It's pollution of brains

Jesus Christ these people are utter scum, fecking telemarketers of crap memes.

Fuck your "energy", when you die it's not departure, your energy is transformed into low-grade heat. This has been known for a long time.

Give him a free ride to Syria.

Microsoft changes 'Outlook Web Access' to 'Outlook on the web'

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Re: Outlook on the web?

Geek thanks I have been stressing whatever remains of my liver with the best the no-yet-muslim-and-affiliated-alcophobics world has on offer!

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Trollface

Outlook on the web?

How about "The Road Ahead"?

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Re: >featuring the orange-highlighted ' Action toolbar'

It's pretty ok actually but the Microsoft-specific text formatting which interworks with nothing and uncopyable text in the most impossible places (like, IN THE ADDRESSBOOK, HMMMNNNNN!!?) really riles me up a bit.

IT security staff have a job for life – possibly a grim, frustrating life

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Holmes

Re: Only with software

Software is the only product that you buy broken and then have to pay a periodic fee to get it fixed gradually

It depends.

I know a few vendors who will sell you software that has a fat chance of being "not broken", for some collaboratively agreed-on values of "not broken". The downside is that is rather simplistic and won't fullfill desires for glitz and swag. And unless you are a Known Name, your VISA card is not going to take the price tag either.

I, for one, welcome the rise of the Infrastructure Endgame Machines

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Re: mainframe

Zion!

McAfee tells El Reg: 'My shootout with the police was highly exaggerated'

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Trollface

HEAT!

"Crack shot or not"

Do I sense innuendo?

Global spy system ECHELON confirmed at last – by leaked Snowden files

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Trollface

Re: Put a stop to it...

Copy and paste messages like this every time you make an email and cell phone call, will plug up the system and neuter those seeking to data mine the communications networks.

Ah. something like this.

There used to be an Emacs plugin for Usenet posting back when the two Kevins were a thing, but I can't remember (ruffles around in Phrack magazine archive... dissociated press? no that's not it)

Well, I didn't find it but I found this in 1996

Catching glimpses of shadowy enemies at every turn, (crying CIA guy) Deutch characterized them (hackers) as operating from the deep cover of classified programs in pariah states. Truck bombs aimed at the telephone company, electronic assaults by "paid hackers" are likely to be part of the arsenal of anyone from the Lebanese Hezbollah to "nameless . . . cells of international terrorists such as those who attacked the World Trade Center." ... Restated, intelligence director Deutch pronounced in June there was classified evidence that hackers are in league with Libya and Iran and that countries around the world are plotting plots to attack the U.S. through information warfare. But the classified data is and was, at best, anecdotal gossip -- hearsay, bullshit -- assembled by perhaps a handful of individuals working haphazardly inside the labyrinth of the intelligence community. There is no real threat assessment to back up the Deutch claims. Can anyone say _bomber gap_?

Oh yeah. T'was ever thus. And China was not yet on the USAsian map ...

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Mushroom

Re: Excellent article!!! WTF was ECHELON doing on or about 9/11?

1) Since at least Nixon (book review, book review etc.) we knew that we were up shit creek without a paddle.

2) The paranoia of The X Files for example was not generated from thin air; it was an expression of the general feeling that there were things going on in deep state that were not kosher at all. The bizarre wheelings and dealings and civil liberty infringements of the Clinton years were like a rash slowly breaking out.

3) I don't know whether ECHELON was involved into 9/11 but there definitely was failure of TLAs to "connect the dots" apparently more due to careerism and internal interference running than anything else. But there was also bizarre distraction noise generated by Israeli services just prior to 9/11, and we would like to read the 28 pages indeed.

4) The "regime change in Syria" omnishambles is typical for modern governmental action. Plus currently the US is playing Al Qaeda's airforce in Yemen (for the Saudi friends) while NATO-alley Turkey is supporting ISIS to "abrade" the Kurds. It will get worse. Don't get me started on the Ukraine direct-to-video bullshit.

Nuke icon because that's we are moving towards.

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Re: Citation Needed

Disappointed Conspiracy Theorist

You can go to The Intercept, there are links at the article end. For what it's worth.

You can now go back to watching NAVY CSI arsehattery.

The history of Yakima in an NSA historiographical newsletter? Come on NSA; just publish a book already.

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Re: The main purpose of mass surveillance is not security

Power is power. That's good enough.

I find powerful operators also grabbing the millions as a side-dish just disgusting.

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This is a Major Major Major Major moment!

Remember Impero, the school software biz that went ape over a vuln? Someone's got revenge

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Gimp

Think of the environment before publishing this software cockup!

"To save future cost, time, and carbon footprint, should security researchers be contemplating similar methods, we wanted to make clear that an email to security@imperosoftware.com will suffice!"

This sounds like the guy who has to deal with Picking Up What the Dog Left Behind tries to smoothen problems caused by Oversized Egos In a Child's Mind Supported By Lawyers in the upper echelons.

(No these are not the names of GSVs)

Fork off! FFmpeg project leader quits, says he's had enough with these forking AV libraries

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Linux

I will get a makerel and watch a good dolphin sex flick.

Despondent Penguin!

Lights out for Ada Initiative – women's group closing shop

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Any PHB worth his salt, of course.

We made a new Do Not Track thing – not like you'll use it or anything, huffs emo teen EFF

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Re: Bah!

Bend over to find out!