Posts by big_D

Re: Out of the Frying pan, into the Fire?

We had Backup Exec running on NetWare 3.1, writing to a Sony tape system.

Re: Suddenly, all is clear

When I first started in IT, the company I worked for had an internal training division. There is nothing wrong with having a training division or an academy. But it needs to be a professional set-up and it need trained professionals running it.

Ours was so good that the training was actually also sold to clients.

Re: Site services...

No, definitely type F, with the earth prongs sticking out. I should know, I've lived here in Germany for nearly 20 years.

Re: Value for money

It depends. If you get your 30mbps for 38 quid, that maybe the cheapest. But if you get 100mbps for 45 quid, that is "more expensive", but better value for money.

I agree, if it was markedly more expensive, then it isn't necessarily better value for money, if you don't need the extra speed. But the prices, here in Germany aren't generally much higher than in the UK.

1&1 are currently offering 100mbps for 0€ a month for the first 10 months, then 39.99€ a month thereafter (2 year minimum).

My German LTE backup is faster and cheaper than the UK standard, albeit limited in volume.

Lucky you. I am on Vodafone Deutschland. It is supposed to be "up to 500mbps"... I get around 0.001mbps at work and 5mbps at home. Switching back to congstar, that is "only" 50mbps, but at least I get 10mbps at work and 45mbps at home.

My ISP at home is Osnatel and I get 50mbps for 39€ a month, including a landline and mobile flat rate. And I get 52mbps most days.

But I can confirm what the OP said, I get the 50mbps all day. I've never seen the speed drop off - apart from the time the builder down in the town dug through the fibre trunk into the town! 2 days of no bandwidth, then 1 week at 2mbps until full service was restored. Given how much damage the builders caused, I was surprised how quickly we got emergency coverage and how quickly full service was restored.

It has been that way for a long time.

A German friend of mine went on a school exchange year to California in the late 80s and, coming from the highly regulated Germany, was astounded how many of the freedoms he took for granted he had to give up.

The irony is that the German regulations often guarantee what you can do, not stop you from doing things.

For example, at 16, he could legally drink and smoke and buy alcohol and cigarettes, he got to America and he wasn't allowed to drink and he wasn't allowed to smoke at school.

He got picked up by the police for walking around the guest family's neighbourhood near Beverly Hills. The police told him that having people walking on the street made the residents nervous! He was advised to go out the back of the guest family's house into the woods. A couple of days later, a police officer mounted on a horse suddenly appeared in front of him on a woodland trail and said, "oh, you must be the German exchange student!"

Re: 3 times I've felt the long arm

I was riding through Belgium during the fuel strikes at the end of the 90s. The HGVs had parked diagonally across the lanes and then long queues of lorries and people protesting.

As I as on the bike, I was just riding down the lane between the two lines of traffic that was stopped, when an HGV driver saw me coming and swung his cab door open at the last second, much too late for me to stop.

There was a metal clunk and I twisted my head sideways and brought it down double-quick time onto the tank. That is when I found out that the height of my Honda VFR and my shoulders was a cm or 2 lower than the cab door!

Another time, my brother was riding through London and he pulled to the front of a queue and the Vauxhall Omega wasn't very happy and was gunning the engine and honking at him. As the lights went green, my brother took off like a rocket and the Omega gave it welly as well. He let the Omega hang on to him up to 80mph (London Ringroad, so 30mph allowed), then at the last second, my brother dove into the other lane and stood on the brakes, the Omega shot past him and straight through a speed-camera, still doing 80mph, with the driver gawping out the side window at my brother.

Re: DotNet bug

No, the problem is that SolarWinds was compromised and the bad guys could use SW's build process to build and legitimately sign their malware as an integral part of SW's Orion software.

The first comment, they infiltrated the SolarWinds network and they managed to get the trojan compiled with the SW code signing certificate.

Yes, the comment from Jake doesn't match with FireEye's description of the system. I can only assume he made his comment based on the information released by SW, which was fairly down played, then the FireEye analysis was released at a later time.

Re: It was the cleaners!

Sorry, too long living abroad! I mix up words every now and then.

Re: It was the cleaners!

Or the builders.

We needed a new AC in the server room as it was being expanded.

Queue the builders turning up and unplugging a VAX to plug in an electric saw!

Re: MicroVAX II Mayflower

My previous employer finally turned of their last VAX in 2015.

It is AWS, Azure, Microsoft 365, Oracle Cloud, Google Cloud etc. as well. It is B2B services, more than social media that are the problem.

The users of social media offer up public information - it is the tracking and sale of that information that is affected by Privacy Shield or the lack thereof.

But businesses using cloud services are in more danger. Their data has to be legally held within the EU or in a country that has similar levels of privacy and data protection. The US doesn't fulfil those requirements and Privacy Shield was an attempt to circumvent the problem, but due to the US Government's lack of interest, it failed miserably.

If I, as a business, store data in Microsoft 365 and Microsoft hand over that data to the NSA, FBI etc. without a valid EU warrant, which there won't be, it will be a NSL or a US warrant, then I am liable for the data breach and that will be financially ruinous (up to 24 Million Euros or 4% of international turnover).

Re: Good luck with that

That is the problem. The US Government is supposed to represent the people and do what is best for them, not represent big business.

You are right, and you are wrong.

Yes, the ECJ doens't have direct influence over the US Senate. But it does have a say about what is legal and not legal with European's data. And it has said, until the US gets its house in order, it is illegal for US companies to store data about Europeans on its servers.

So, no, they can't tell the US Senate what to do. But, until the US Senate does something, the flow of data between the EU and US is disrupted.

Also, it isn't about a conflict between spies and "businesscritters", as you put it. It is a conflict between spied and business weighed against an individual's right to privacy and control over their data. The EU, and especially Germany, put the individual's right to privacy above all else - even to the detriment of the authorities, for example the have to be exceptional circumstances, before the police can issue a photo of a suspect that is wanted and they can't use the persons full name either, let alone issuing private address information; for example a "Stefan Peterson, from 42 High Street, Hanover" would be "Stefan P. from Hanover" in the news and his face would be blurred out.

It becomes comical. There was a search for a killer last year, for 3 days a blurred photo was shown on the news, then the police went to court and managed to get it cleared that his image could be shown in the press, in order to help track him down. So, for 2 days his image was then shown in the clear. He was arrested after 2 days and the press could only use the blurred out image again. Consequent, but also a little crazy.

I am responsible for any data I have on other people, I have to ensure it is not handed to third parties without the written permission of the identifiable persons or a valid EU warrant. That means that if I store it on a US owned cloud service and they hand the data over to the NSA, FBI etc. or they sell the data to a third party, I am legally responsible for the data breach.

That makes using any service which has a presence in the USA a non-starter. It is financial suicide, as long as the CLOUD Act, Patriot Act and FISA Courts and National Security Letters can be applied to the "European" data.