Posts by M7S

Subtlety

"It might even be able to store all the hacks' notebooks used in El Reg's worldwide offices"

was that a hint to the manufacturers?

I think Infosec next year will be very interesting

as vendors of systems try to work out how to prove absolutely that their systems are compromised neither by design (collaboration/back door) nor theft (of the key, difficult at the best of times) nor cracking (insecure/defective standards etc). After all that's what they're trying to sell us so that we can assure our own bosses/customers that we as IT departments are being dilligent.

I expect to see an awful lot of "we would comply with any lawful request/court order and cannot comment further" type statements to be boilerplated onto their responses, which in light of recent articles should be treated with the contempt they deserve.

Other interesting consequences of this might be that if the companies/products/technologies are named and (if appropriate) shamed, then as well as a possible drop in sales, there might be some legal actions for refunds from past customers or even possibly, if a key has been (as is alleged) stolen from a security product vendor by the NSA or at least obtained in a less than honest manner (I've no idea of the points to prove in the USA for their equivalent of theft) then maybe there will be a case by a vendor for damages against the NSA (even if only for "damage to reputation"), although given how retrospective legislation apparently allowed the warrantless wiretapping to be swept under the carpet, I'm not exactly holding my breath.

Cat 2 Cables

Of course they'll be reasonably priced then, not like the £40 stuff currently touted to general consumers

I'm in favour of employees or agents of bodies to whom we must hand over data under force of law (public authorities etc) being held personally liable for careless/reckless loss. A conviction, possibly with jail time, should prevent them being re-employed thus ensuring "that lessons really are learned".

For private companies, the ICO should have a range of options, possibly including the right to withdraw their permission to hold/process data (perhaps with 30 days notice to prevent absolute chaos). That really would be fun to watch. Once permission has been withdrawn from a company, with almost the certainty of corporate failure, you can be sure that pressure from disgruntled (ex-)customers, shareholders etc will ensure that other companies rapidly take their responsibilities much more seriously.

Related information

This http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/350498.stm might explain why some people are a bit nervous. It would appear that, where they are not just pure lumps of metal, these things might not be totally safe if you bump into one. I'm sure the naval recovery bods are OK with this and have procedures and equipment to suit, but they're not the only users of the sea, or around there, underneath it*.

I'm not saying it would be safer to go piling into a ship chock full of munitions, fuel etc with something dangling from an extremity that might well be armed and dangerous, but given the fragility of the reef (in a number of ways) it is a bit of an unfortunate place to do it, from a PR point of view if nothing else.

*I had a nice trip in a yellow submersible vessel of some kind around there. Other tourists missed their slot. I wondered aloud if in the case of the Germans they'd been looking for something greyer with U and a three digit number on the side. Not every appreciated this for some reason.

Just a thought re security

Is it wise to ask our brightest boffins to go, pre-announced, into the lair of the suspected enemy to work, possibly under supervision/survelliance (overt or otherwise), revealing all "our" secret methods of probing kit?

Do the laser used to track where the driver is looking....

by any chance point at the head?

Only I've this pet shark wants to test both his hacking and gunnery skills.

I'm confused

So they can block payments to privacy companies, but seemingly can't stop sites hosting illegal porn (as opposed to the legal kind), or flogging dodgy pills, dangerous goods etc from accepting CC payments?

Genuine interest, but not just for an Apple one.....

One that functions as a remote keypad/screen for the xphone in my jacket pocket so I can see who's calling and accept/reject, dial numbers or look up contacts and control the media player functions, all whilst listening/talking through some tiny bluetooth headset.

That should cut down on all the opportunistic phone thefts involving bicycle riding ne'er do wells and similar problems.

All four bounty hunters?

There's a few more than that, even on the bridge of the Star Destroyer in Episode V.

Exactly what is to be gained by the granular remote switch off capability?

IIRC there was a case a long time ago when someone's equipement was damaged by either the frequency or voltage of the UK mains supply being dropped a bit during a time of insufficient supply, and the end result was you either get supplied power that meets "the standard" or you don't. I have no idea if this still applies.

If there's not enough power for an area, the surely they'd just cut it from the substation onwards? Much simpler and probably cheaper in terms of control kit. Apart from dealing with non-payers but there's already a mechanism for that. One also hopes that there won't be profiliing of customers with these things so that (for example) most people get cut off but not "VIPs" (politicians, local officials etc)

If some devices are recognised as being "critical" such as medical devices etc then will some form of UPS be required? That could cause an upset regarding costs but I'd also be thinking of one for things like my freeview+ box, simply as if I can't watch something at the time of broadcast as the power to the TV is gone at least I can hopefully watch the recording later, but for those people running a home based business on (say) eBay or even filling in government forms on the internet as a citizen, if the power to the PC/Router etc is going to just drop off then there's going to be an awful lot of complaints and non-compliance "the power company ate my homework/tax return" etc.

If they are thinking of some form of prioritisation where dryers are turned off before pumps on central heating boilers then there'll be a market in hacking your goods so that everying reports to the meter as being "critical for life" and doesn't get cut off.

Appropriate Topping

Cooling

Unit

Situated

Tangentially

Across

Radiating

Device

"ahem - copied quite illicitly using a dual-tape cassette recorder"

Clearly you are the one responsible for the fact that the computer games industry died an ignominious death shortly thereafter and is but a distant memory to a few older readers.

The RIAA, MPAA, BSA and others will no doubt want to hold you to account for the fact that they're all living in penury.

/irony

And none of this new-fangled broadband to overload the webforms neither

28.8k is your limit mate

(A policy helpfully supported by BT around where I live)

six original TV shows, including one about a bite-sized private detective

nothing like "Inch High Private Eye" that I recall from my youth then?

Or is the original bit just because they didn't even bother with a cursory check of search engines?