Posts by tmz 25 publicly visible posts • joined 11 Jun 2017
Modern HDDs contain a portion of their firmware stored on the platters. This is loaded into the HDDs controller processor/memory at startup to complete the firmware image. If any of this 'soft' firmware has been changed by the owner, in order to defeat the disk being simply bit-copied, then there is pretty much zero chance of reading the data without resorting to 'clean room' HDD recovery-style operations (removing individual platters to a donor HDD, for example). This operation alone could call in to question the forensic veracity of the resultant data extracted before decryption comes in to the picture. I would expect that the NCA have access to expertise to handle all this, even if not quite routine. I wonder why they have failed?
From the Bloomberg report:
"A U.S. official says the government’s probe is still examining whether spies were planted inside Supermicro or other American companies to aid the attack."
QC at Supermicro (or its documentation) would be the number one target for this, I would have thought.
"A third thing to consider is this: if true, a lot of effort went into this surveillance operation. It's not the sort of thing that would be added to any Super Micro server shipping to any old company – it would be highly targeted to minimize its discovery. If you've bought Super Micro kit, it's very unlikely it has a spy chip in it, we reckon, if the report is correct. Other than Apple and Amazon, the other 30 or so organizations that used allegedly compromised Super Micro boxes included a major bank and government contractors."
How is the contractor/attacker in any way in control of which MBs get sent to which customers. Surely that is entirely in the hands of Super Micro? Are these particular compromised MBs only available to certain customers? If so, how?
Microsoft has been trying to gain control of the sites for two years. In court documents, its lawyers filed a complaint on Aug. 13, 2016, alleging violations of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act to harm Microsoft and its customers.
The complaint alleges that two unknown individuals led the effort "to direct attacks against targeted networks, to infect computing devices connected to those networks that permit Defendants to compromise the security and conduct reconnaissance of and move latterly through those networks, and to locate and exfiltrate sensitive information."
They also accuse the individuals of accessing the computers and networks of Microsoft customers, intercepting communications via Microsoft's Windows operating system, making unauthorized use of Microsoft trademarks, "trespassing" on the computer networks of Microsoft and its customers, intentionally interfering with Microsoft contracts and profiting unjustly from their unauthorized use and access.
https://fcw.com/articles/2018/08/21/microsoft-domain-takedown-influence.aspx
The matter revolves around whether a warrant was needed to carry out a forensically detailed search of the defendant's phone. His lawyers tried to argue that a warrant was needed for such a detailed search thereby redering the evidence found on his phone inadmissable in court in the absense of such.
The Appeals Court found that 'reasonable suspicion' was enough of a hurdle to allow a forensic search of anyones phone. No warrant needed. In this case the presence of illegal firearms found in his suitcases (and his record of two previous attempts at smuggling firearms out of the US) had provided sufficient grounds for that 'reasonable suspicion'.
But the Court also found that for the average traveller, where no 'reasonable suspicion' exists, a forensic scan of their phone is not allowed as a matter of simple routine.
There was some additional detailed arguments over whether the phone, transported some miles from the airport for an examination that took several weeks, was still under the rules that apply at the 'border'. The Court found against the defendant in this part as well.
there sound like there are plenty of AC commentators here that I have worked with over the years.
Notes could do some things well and lots of other things not well at all. You just had to select the right project.
But, at the end of the day, it did at least allow me to pay my mortgage off 10 years early.
My son is on his 3rd Surface Pro, following returns for 2 machines that simply became unusable after just a few months.
I bought a USB connected keyboard for him to use after he had destroyed the supplied one out of shear frustration at trying to get it to work.
The solution for all this pain is simple though - never buy MS hardware.
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