LOL Master Boot Record?
The 19th century called, they want their boot loader back.
The FBI has alerted US businesses to data-wiping malware after hackers, possibly in North Korea, ransacked computers at Sony Pictures. The malicious software described in the Feds' warning is pretty close to the malware believed to have infiltrated Sony's network. Miscreants have leaked gigabytes of passwords, personal records …
Meanwhile, Rodong Sinmun has a splendid picture of E̶r̶i̶c̶ ̶C̶a̶r̶t̶m̶a̶n̶ Kim Jong Un (possibly raising his own 'fierce wind') on its front page today (http://www.rodong.rep.kp/en/), but sadly returns zero results on searching for 'Sony'...
"Noodle Contest among Famous Restaurants Held"
You missed it, read the coded message above and reconcile it with the text below which is from the body of the article;
<snip>
"The jury included cooking experts and teachers and researchers of Kim Il Sung University, Kim Chaek University of Technology and Pyongyang University of Architecture."
<snip>
I think that the noodle s here refer to data cables and for the "cooking experts" I would take that as a reference to coding experts.
I would say that this is proof that the Norks do indeed own the Interwebs <sic> and are Leet haxor you n00b .
It appears that the attack on Sony is just the latest painful lesson for all enterprises
The lesson is that if your OS is not a "productivity suite" but instead costs millions in lost productivity, then change it. This poor choice of OS could quite possibly send even a large business to the wall.
The beancounters should do the sums.
This poor choice of OS could quite possibly send even a large business to the wall.
The problem isn't the OS its the corporate shennanigans that go with configuring it. My home Windows boxes have never had an issue with intrusion, malware, or viruses, because they are properly configured and maintained. My works PC takes those decisions out of my hands and turns them over to a comittee of admins.
The OS that comittee configures is less relevant to how secure I'll be at work, than their ability to correctly balance the intrusion risk vs productivity equation. It's not wholly their fault either, given they have one security policy that has to work for skilled developers all the way down to a 17 year old PA working her first proper computer (having only ever used an iPad before).
Windows and Linux have both had rather too many security breaches and complications this past two years for any stack to be slinging brickbats at the other.
The mud slinging should be reserved for use against the proposed anti-hacking laws that could see anyone doing anything slightly dubious locked up for rather longer than violent criminals. I mean, it's not like you can use those laws against the Norks, their being the nuclear part of the axis of evil n all. I'm not saying hacking into corporate networls should be a free pass, but leaving without damaging or stealing anything hardly warrants jail time - especially if you're willing to co-operate with the targets admins to fix their vulnerability.
.....As a life long tech / developer, sometimes I feel.... We need to unplug and start over... Don't know if I'm alone in that thought... But how else can we stop our future being hacked?
.....It seems that every single day there's a major breach or a damning intrusion discovered... I don't enjoy surfing the web anymore. It used to be that just blocking Java and Flash was enough. But now I block all JavaScript, and Images from most of the net as I fear adblockers aren't keeping up.
.....But all those around me from my wife to my lawyer just keep screwing up. This week they exchanged emails via telephone when I warned them never to do that. As a result highly-confidential financial info was sent to the wrong email address.
.....But hey, I cant even get my close circle of friends to stop using Facebook for confidential info, they just keep on leaking private data into the wild. I've tried to educate them but it just causes endless fights.
.....If I was a Sony Exec I'd say that's it, stop what you're doing. Air gap every machine that has IP and protect against video-cable transmitter hacks. Lets go back to sending out screening disks via FedEx and include a service to pick-up disks after viewing.
We been told time and time again .. " if you have nothing to hide , you have nothing to fear "
Maybe the days where companies did what they pleased in backrooms is coming to an end. Exposing them and their shenanigans might be a good thing for the People and the companies in the long run.
Since they are so quick to sell us wholesale .. maybe , once in a while , we can turn the table and sell them wholesale with all their secret backroom wheeling and dealing. In this case , i think hacking Sony was more than overdue. Free economy does not mean companies do whatever the hell they want . When they do so without regards for the public's interest , is it not obvious that hackers are in fact doing us a favor ? ..
Most interested to hear thoughts on the matter.