Re: Security on a lockable chip
Using the lock switch on a SD card doesn't count.
Posts by tr1ck5t3r
204 publicly visible posts • joined 13 Jun 2016
Google reveals its servers all contain custom security silicon
Monday 16th January 2017 20:13 GMT
Re: Q
Theres a database which the FBI have which is the largest in the world. You can trace family trees back several generations, lookup sneaker patterns and practically anything else you could possibly want to know about an individual, right down to the time they were predicted to have a toilet break when at home, I shit you not.
Anyway, even if the chip does security and even if its custom built, if its got firmware which is NOT burnt into the chip for life, or needs someone to short some jumpers or pins on the chip, then it can be hacked.
The fact they use encryption when shifting data around between machines just makes it easier to hide the hacks.
So is that encrypted data passing down the wire, yours or mine?
BT installs phone 'spam filter', says it'll strain out mass cold-callers
Monday 16th January 2017 19:29 GMT
Re: And BT wonder why WhatsApp became so popular.
Actually BT & GCHQ have had this facility since the turn of the millennium, you just needed to know who to ask!
As its becoming more of an issue now affecting many people, its now being made available, but its got limited application when calls come from abroad and the number is withheld especially when considering how easy it is to get a VOIP number hooked up with VPN to some remote server in the back of beyond.
TalkTalk have something similar introduced some months after it was announced they were hacked in Nov 2015 but if a rogue calls does get through you have a number to call which bans the last incoming number, thing is I can never remember what that number is not that it works when its a withheld number from abroad anyway.
Managed to wind one of them up today though, had an Indian/Pakistani sounding chappy on the phone, couldn't remember what ISP he was calling from, so dragged call out, managed to get his supervisor on the line, who couldn't pronounce the word "voice" properly, but sounded deliberately Russian like Anton Yelchin when he appeared in Star Trek, thing is there was also a South African accent as well sneaking out as well.
Anyway how do I get rival companies on the ban list or get my mates number banned so he cant phone his gf?
Trump's cyber-guru Giuliani runs ancient 'easily hackable website'
Friday 13th January 2017 08:53 GMT
Re: The real issue
These spook agencies are playing a double game.
If you knew you were being spied on 24/7 by the state in an overt manner, then the population would be up in arms.
So as always, what the Corporates & Govt do is lie to you, to make you feel less angst ridden by the thought you are being spied on 24/7 for criminal and corporate monitoring purposes.
You know when you tell "white" lies to your kids as they grow up, because you dont want to pop their bubble or believe they wouldnt understand it?
Well guess what, the corporates & Govt do it to you as well, thats why parts of it operate in secrecy.
So with this in mind, now you know why Giuliani doesnt give a stuff.
How many bugs are just moving backdoors? Getting people to patch their systems is just part of the ploy for your make believe cyber security when really your systems can be accessed instantly with a moments notice.
How many OS's exists?
Its just only a select few know this exists, because its all part of the corporate govt charade you and billions of others around the world buy into every second of the day facilitated often by you, when you boss gets you to do something you shouldnt, often because their boss asked them to do something they shouldnt have sometimes because a big customer or supplier asked needed a favour.
You know how it works, you've done it yourself if you really think about it!
It's not just your browser: Your machine can be fingerprinted easily
Friday 13th January 2017 08:41 GMT
Some other tricks you can use to identify someone.
Use code in websites that will trigger reported bugs. If bug action isnt detected, then browser could be masquerading as some other browser.
Where bug is known to have impact on OS, again depending on action, could indicate unpatched system ready for exploits, how many of those are there in the world?
Considering the vague geolocation Google and other location services put you at if you were to search for a plumber (see Google maps with plumbers pinpointed on the map for you) and what the ISP will do to obfuscate your location, you have to ask yourself some of the following questions.
When you break down how many people live in this obfuscated area, how many people who at that moment in time will be away from a computer doing a job not involving a computer?
How many people will be at work on a computer?
How many people will be driving?
How many people will be shopping?
How many people will be asleep due to working shifts?
How many people will be waiting in hospital?
How many people will be doing other activities not involving web browsing?
How many people always check out the same few websites out of the billions available to choose from?
How many people who will be carrying their mobile phone around with them placing them in a location already, with various phone OS sniffing wifi if GPS cant be seen.
Do you really believe your mobile phone software when it says you have switched off wifi & gps?
Did you write the software or just naively believe the programmers say even though some have admitted you are the product?
When you take all of the above into consideration, you cant have privacy, in fact your interests and repeat behaviour visiting the same websites, at the same or similar times of day having specific interests give you away over and over and over again.
The military like to call this Signals Intelligence (or SigInt), businesses call this data analysis amongst other names made up by some executive who thinks they can coin a new term or phrase, and one way or another you work or support those big corporates who own your Govt and feel its their right, their duty to spy on you monitoring your work performance and your private life whether you like it or not, to extract the maximum out of money out of your slave wages whilst giving you less and less back.
If your favourite search engine keeps giving you the same few shopping outlets, and you keep being giving a limited choice of products and services to choose regardless of how you phrase your search results, then that search engine has already worked out who you are and they are now controlling your life by what they choose to show you.
Enjoy your life slave, you slept walked into that one didnt you?!?
Security hardened, pah! Expert doubts Kaymera's mighty Google's Pixel
Thursday 12th January 2017 18:22 GMT
Firmware zero days is where its at!
Target the firmware that can be updated and you dont have to worry about any of that software, in fact the software cant even detect the malware on the firmware then and its made even easier now most cpu's are multi core. Was that really a cache collision you detected or something else?
When coupled with the way the Capitalist financial system works, I wont go into details, you can then further exploit these security hardened devices even more. if you are prepared to plan ahead and bide your time!
So yes I agree with this professor but not necessarily for all the points he raises.
Qualcomm/NXP, Nvidia and Intel: The race to define the car platform
Train your self-driving car AI in Grand Theft Auto V – what could possibly go wrong?
Thursday 12th January 2017 13:17 GMT
I'm really surprised that these games companies, especially the one's linked to vehicles, like Need for Speed, GTA and others have not invested more in their AI platforms with a view to diversifying into AI for car companies or even individuals to licence?
Put it this way, do you want to download Googles vehicle driving AI or GTA's or EA's Need for Speed AI into your car in order to go from A to B?
Hackers are going to have a friggin whale of a time pranking granny who thought she had the Driving Miss Daisy AI or Thunderbirds Parker driving AI, when really its the Colin McRae driving AI hackers have uploaded in the car.
Still I wonder whether the pixel output will be on a one to one basis, or whether GTA can output more pixel data than the receiving learning to drive AI.
Plus whats the sound input/output like? Stereo online or some sort of high faluting surround sound from Dolby to further train the AI.
And finally will there be any other sensor data, like a pseudo gyroscope datastream, not mention fake engine management data which includes air density, humidity levels and the all important temperature sensor, ABS sensors and just for good measure a lux meter, just because I love my light and its important to quantify thermal radiation effects for road surface risks.
Who cares if Chrysler & Google's AI can spot a cyclist with their french stick carried horizontally pointing in the wrong direction which has the unintended consequence of holding up traffic!
Maps and alarm clocks best thing about mobes, say normies
Thursday 12th January 2017 13:00 GMT
Re: >So Mr Average uses his smart phone as an Alarm clock and map.
True buts its all about pro's and con's or compromising when your battery hasnt gone flat.
I'd not use a smart phone as a map in a high risk situation like on the mountains and other wild country area's, but for getting around civilisation if you dont feel like interacting with other humans to ask directions, it can and does work for many when thinking of satnav. Perhaps direct overt isolation is something that appeals to you, by being able to go from A to B efficiently?
I'd not use a smartphone as a replacement music player because analogue is infinitely better if you really like listening to music and/or prefer to not damage your ears through over exposure of loud stepped noise, although I note someone has now added a valve to a raspberrypi audio hat to improve the sound quality.
Books wont damage your eyes as much or keep you awake due to being exposed to too much blue light at night which suppresses melatonin, a useful hormone which not only increases the release of Mesenchymal stem cells to repair the body, but is also 4 times more potent when compared to the antioxidant Vit C, something we need in order to clean the brain in order to form memories, not helped by todays high usage of SSRI anti depressants which inhibits the brain's ability to take up serotonin to convert into melatonin and probably explains why its been called beauty sleep for hundreds of years.
I can read newspapers, listen to the radio, watch tv or watch a film if I dont want to waste time doing the job of an editor, programming director to filter out the rubbish content which infects the biggest websites so easily manipulated by mindless lemming herd mentality when its not being done by a swarm of bots which seems to infect search engines and other online content providers.
I can take comfort in the fact that spooky hackers are not reading my every thought and predicting my actions if I carry a diary or filofax around with me.
I can enjoy wearing a nice watch instead of carrying around a device more loaded with bacteria & virus than you will find in your local public conveniences both metaphorically and physically speaking.
I can enjoy my time to a higher degree by not being at everyone elses beck and call which happens most often at the least convenient times, which frequently correlates with the need to evacuate a part of my body, which further adds to the general stress of life by having to ignore said device.
Sure I can see the appeal for a mobile computer with the form factor attribute of smartphone, but I guess its how needy and dependent you are or others are on you which dictates to a certain degree whether you should carry a personal tracking device around with you at all times for your own safety and the publics safety.
I'm also reminded of the fact for thousands of years humans have survived without such technology which it could be argued has provided for a better method of distributing intelligence useful for the survival of mankind than we have now, when considering the implications of dopamine reward & addiction from instant gratification that technology gives us.
How does an addict quantify accurately quality of life, let alone acknowledge technology is an addiction which seems to be infecting the whole of mankind?
Thursday 12th January 2017 10:07 GMT
So Mr Average uses his smart phone as an Alarm clock and map.
In other news Mr Average also found a hammer to be a versatile adaptable tool when not in the possession of dedicated tools for specific tasks., whilst Mr Below Average who couldnt afford a hammer found a brick was equally as versatile and adaptable.
Now for a really cool micro-drum solo: Boffins chill gizmo below quantum limit
Thursday 12th January 2017 11:13 GMT
So some scientists have found they can use yet another form of energy to remove energy from an object, just like the local unemployable yoof-of-today has learnt to cancel out the background noise of the hood by wearing noise cancelling headphones.
So many parallels, what will they think of next?
New Windows 10 privacy controls: Just a little snooping – or the max
Thursday 12th January 2017 11:03 GMT
Re: Trojan horse
Trojan horse is very relevant title considering in the bigger context how the US tech giants collude with US Uni's, US Military & US Govt, despite the charade of creating laws in order to attempt to hold the moral high ground, whilst secretly screwing the rest of world in a variety of ways.
To be honest the backlash against the US and its various entities will be like a mega tsunami of anger built up over decades as the collective though processes of people around the world finally catch up and understand just what exactly these entities have been doing, testing the theory that empires crumble slowly considering how viral news moves today, in todays technological world.
Weaky-leaks: Furious fans roast Assange in web interview from hell
Thursday 12th January 2017 10:51 GMT
As we are all just tubes, if anyone wants to discuss their eating habits and bowel habits, then technically they are being open about being open. I dont see this with Assange, so what we now have is the case of who should we trust?
"Assange believes in full disclosure, whereas Snowden handed over his archive to journalists, who have since not published the vast majority of it."
Yet we also see with Trump & pee-gate, the fact that journalists also report fake biased news, so is Snowden any better or worse than Assange on full disclosure?
When looking at the hierarchical structure of families, society, business, Govt, finance and religion, one thing is for sure, those at the top of the pyramid structure exert the most power and this power can go to their head especially when secrecy is present. Those also at the top have or their relatives have previously exerted excessive mental and physical resources to achieve a situation which allows them to maintain for a variable period of time these lofty positions.
As privacy is a form of secrecy, just like getting spokespeople to reiterate what they have been told as this makes them more convincing liars, if we want to be scientific and logical about this, we should disband all pyramid structures, which means tackling the very laws and current implementation of the financial system that controls the human swarm intelligence today.
If you dont agree with me or simply dont know, then your education has done well to brainwash you into not critically thinking for yourself beyond your current needs as depicted in Maslow's hierarchy of needs which ironically is depicted as a hierarchical pyramid structure of all things, they very thing I'm calling for to be disbanded.
If you get angry with the above written text, then cognitive dissonance is the name given to the emotion & actions generated when holding two competing ideas in your brain, whilst that in itself doesnt factor in the chemicals that you eat, breath, cloth, cover, spray or wash yourself in that also determine your brain & body processes and subsequent actions, which in itself cant be quantified properly due to being more complex and numerous at an atomic scale that any expert in the minutiae of supposed sciences could could possibly calculate and quantify, making them no better than economic forecasters, psychics or water dowsers.
Simply put, if you know any experts who can claim to quantify Brownian motion on a human body sized scale which is, on a global scale, the aptly named Chaos theory or the butterfly effect, without taking into account chemistry and physics concurrently, is just a bullshitter trying to climb the monkey tree using a technique that has been previously agreed by other monkeys with a herd mentality but occasionally can also be novel in its approach if said loner monkey ego often helped along with plenty of testosterone permit them to go to come up with something new, whilst loosely sticking within the boundaries of agreed forms of communication and methods to appear not mad enough to end up in a psychiatric hospital aka a funny farm!
Rethink on bank cybersecurity rules might only follow major bank breach, says expert
Tuesday 10th January 2017 20:33 GMT
Even when the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) kicks in, if they don't see anything how can they report anything?
AV only works at the software level, it cant validate firmware and although Secure Boot goes a little way to secure computers, the same attack vectors still exist https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/drivers/bringup/boot-and-uefi when you consider you can still update firmware from within windows.
UK Parliament suddenly remembers it wants to bone up cyber security *cough* Russia *cough*
Tuesday 10th January 2017 20:26 GMT
Maybe the spooks already do, but keep the public in the dark as its convenient to have a bogey man, in this case Russia to maintain the divide and conquer that's been in place since Roman times?
In the mean time exploiting the fundamental flaws of capitalism meaning businesses need to make profit so end up abandoning said products once sold & cash parted hands by not providing firmware updates let alone investing in unique username/passwords on IoT things as we saw in Oct 2015 when parts of the US and UK infrastructure were targeted seems to be a common tactic. Even when firmware updates are provided for a period of time after sale, it will have the effect of forcing people to keep buying into tech in order to stay secure, creating a dilemma for people, do they land fill their existing tech (think PC's without Secure Boot with Flame, Stuxnet, badBios, badUSB as the same evolving over the years suite of malware observed doing different things by different security experts) and then go without replacement device or choose to replace, or do they do nothing and facilitate the spooky hackers (spending tax payers money) doing this sort of thing?
You have to decide whats more important, that fancy gadget or putting food on the table, paying the mortgage or something else which forces you to think critically about your spending. After all if you are to do this security properly, you'd be running decent firewalls and vlan all your home devices in a bid to contain and isolate any possible threats under the sun whilst refitting your house with Cat5/6 to reduce the risk of attack from airborne communication or powerline network adaptor risks best seen on newbuild estates with standardised wiring.
Autocomplete a novel phishing hole for Chrome, Safari crims
You have the right to be informed: Write to UK.gov, save El Reg
Tuesday 10th January 2017 14:43 GMT
Perhaps its more to do with preventing the media from destroying peoples lives and also crowd control of the public. Lets face it, when all the pedo hysteria kicked off, an innocent paediatrician was targeted by vigilantes. Where was the media to control the crowd then?
At the end of the day we all want to have a good time whilst we live our lives, but we all come from different backgrounds, things that have happened to us in the past can affect our judgements and because intelligence is a very complicated matter which lets face it even the so called experts cant really agree on what exactly is intelligence, is it right for the media to go on a witch hunt just for profit?
If you want to go darker, then how about targeting known criminals to blackmail them into using their skillz to commit further crimes? Its very useful for overseas secret service agents to target known criminals in a foreign land to coerce/blackmail them into further indiscretions (whatever they maybe). So is it right for the media to publish information which has not stood up to the processes and high standards we expect in Court?
Its a double edged sword, but what people get up to in the private lives is their business not anyone elses provided everyone is consenting and not forced or tricked into doing anything whatever it may be, sexual, business misconduct or otherwise.
Microsoft's Blue Screen of Death dead in latest Windows 10 preview
Tuesday 10th January 2017 14:18 GMT
Remember you are the product as Google once said. Some 'mericans believe if you use their products, then you adhere to their rules. Besides its all in the EULA which you will note lets them do what they like to your systems and data.
So when is a mainframe not a mainframe? When its the cloud.
Names & definitions keep changing, but the data still ends up in the hands of a few all powerful.
NGO to crowdfund legal challenge against Investigatory Powers Act
Tuesday 10th January 2017 14:03 GMT
Re: The bill has to pass because HMG have been doing what it legalizes for decades.
Re legalising what its been doing for ages, exactly right. My uncle, Keith Rose of HMP Parkhurst breakout infamy used to sell GCHQ computer equipment and helped set up the Prestel messaging system for the Govt which was also used by the Royal Family. Due to my interest & abilities in computers I've been targeted since I was at school, getting grades marked down despite having a couple companies running my software whilst doing GCSE's and enjoying the school receptionist taking messages for me as this was pre-mobile phone days. But the govt/secret services actions don't just stop at hacking and placing dodgy stuff on your computer, they will also drug your food, getting local butchers to comply by sending uniform's in with letters (all official looking) on the pretence of said target not taking their GP prescribed med's for one technique. Its amazing what you can hide in your beef mince!
Of course trying to get another agency like the Food Standards Agency to test said food then turns up nothing, so it pays to educate oneself in a variety of subjects where possible to test yourself.
In the mean time, badBios, badUSB, Stuxnet, Duqu & Flame are all the same evolving suite of malware.
It works on computers built in 2004 and possibly even earlier (but not tested), it rewrites the firmware of some Hard drive manufacturers, CD/DVD drives, 8051 controllers typically found in USB devices like mem sticks & multi card readers, and seems to be adept at altering the Arm controller on (micro)SD cards that carryout the wear levelling, whilst also targeting the USB bus on both Windows & Linux. Not tested Apple.
If you look at the MS links regarding how the USB works, you can see how firmware is downloaded from a USB device when its connected.
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/ff537061(v=vs.85).aspx
"Because firmware is downloaded every time the device starts"
or check out https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/drivers/bringup/system-and-device-firmware-updates-via-a-firmware-driver-package
https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/hardware/drivers/bringup/boot-and-uefi
AV companies do not have access to device manufacturers firmware for independent verification which is a weakness in the industry standards, just like your ISP supplied router lets all traffic out without hindrance, when really all firewalls should block everything going in and out by default and then allow traffic in and out according to the users requirements. With people like the BBC advocating Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to the workplace, and their love of that oh so buggy Flash for media content delivery, is it any wonder systems get compromised so easily? BBC employers can be negatively and positively tested for roles required by the secret services.
Another problem is hardware manufacturers don't provide the tools for end users to verify their firmware has not been altered, and considering some chip's can be reprogrammed, they have space for firmware malware to hide within.
It only takes a few lines of assembler to jump to another area sometimes not even on the same device to inject some additional code. Exploit the standards & rules like Bradley Wiggins the smoker did when winning the Tour de France and Olympics.
You only have to look at jmicron and how their cert's were stolen to help facilitate this for Stuxnet or Flame. jmicron are one manufacturer who have discovered they have had IP stolen, other manufacturers don't know due to not having secure processes & procedures in place, just look at Yahoo owning up about being hacked some years after the event, and companies are not legally obliged to report to users/customers the fact they have been hacked as its bad for business.
So by using psychological techniques to predict a users actions, early adopters (FanBois) are easily manipulated and good to target just like other novelty seeking individuals, you can have plenty of unwitting individuals carrying out your dirty deeds, and that's before you get into the art of hypnosis to further cover up any traces. Derren Brown knows a trick or two when it comes to social compliance aka peer pressure. http://www.channel4.com/programmes/derren-brown-pushed-to-the-edge
Welcome to the dark arts of the secret services......
Feds cuff VW exec over diesel emissions scam
Tuesday 10th January 2017 13:24 GMT
Re: UK Loves VW
The Civil Service Motoring Association (CSMA) magazine did a small piece on dieselgate and in it they stated the UK Govt knew a car manufacturer was fiddling the diesel emissions tests and it was not a VAG car.
So which car manufacturer was it? Maybe you should look over the pond to start your investigation....
In the mean time, I cant help but think the US Authorities have the wrong Schmidt in custody for covering up crimes. Perhaps this guilty person has a first name called Eric!
Top cop: Strap Wi-Fi jammers to teen web crims as punishment
British military laser death ray cannon contract still awarded, MoD confirms
Friday 6th January 2017 11:59 GMT
Wait till these get fitted into satellites, you'll be able to track any plane from low earth orbit and obliterate it, or even knock out satellites getting in your way. One thing doesnt ad up though, considering how much radiation there is in space, why can we build satellites & explorers to land on meteors, Mars & the Moon, yet we cant uild robots to clean up Chernobyl or Fukashima? Are they really more radioactive than the Sun?
Ex-soldier pleads guilty to terror crime after not revealing iPhone PIN
Friday 6th January 2017 11:31 GMT
Re: WTF!
Legal prosecutions need evidence, so if you forgot your pin, where's the evidence? Up until December the spooks evidence was inadmissible, now the Snoopers Charter is law, their evidence is now admissible but you cant talk about in court and just to get in a "banker", section 56.4 effectively back dates all activity of the spooks from 1985 onwards as now being legal.
So in effect you have a law where anything can be offered up as evidence which the defence team cant build a case against it. So any protagonist can be setup for whatever the UK Govt fancies.
Routes taken by UK prosecutors over supply of modified TV set-top boxes
Friday 6th January 2017 11:23 GMT
Re: City of London Police = Rent-a-cop
Its all in the handshake when dealing with police, and lets not forget they know where their bread is buttered when it comes to pursuing some "crimes", lets face it if you generate a lot of tax through the employment of lots of people (G4S, Serco, Tesco to name a few) or from skimming lots of transacations (think any financial act), you'll soon see who the Police decide to offer up to the CPS.
On the point of Nuclear police, I dont see many hanging out on Brownsea island near a certain mine or a variety of beaches like Budleigh Salterton, preventing people from taking Uranium - Vandium nodules for a little bit of home made enrichment.
Russia to convicted criminal hackers: 'Work with us or jail?'
Friday 6th January 2017 11:03 GMT
Re: so far not reported
I know of some people convicted of crimes who are now working for the UK Govt. The most obvious and blatant example are Parliamentary whips. The secret services pass on the "indiscretions" to the whips to use when necessary as blackmail against MP's who dont toe the line and you thought they worked for the public? The Secret Services also like leaking stuff about celebrities to the media, in fact many journo's are just the eyes and ears on the ground for the secret services under the guise of journalistic licence when working abroad and its something all Govt's use which is why Journo's tend to be untouchable in local disputes, if you were a local insurgent, I'd target the journo's to cut of the intelligence. Its surprising what the media dont discuss or report and thus you dont know about. However, the News for many is just a soap opera for serious people, just like the BBC's One show is Blue Peter for adults. The Register is the IT equivalent of Have I Got New For You for the UK IT industry!
NASA plans seven-year trip to Jupiter – can we come with you, please?
Thursday 5th January 2017 21:51 GMT
Re: Rolf?
Why do we believe the words of one or more people over others?
I wasnt there and dont know the guy, but this youtube video suggests its Stanley Kubrick confessing before his death that he was asked by the US Govt to fake the moon landings.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR4pf6pp1kQ
Just how hard would it be to keep these things covered up?
Perhaps looking at the types employed in various Govt depts like the military, police & politicians are a clue to the types required to keep things secret from the public in order to keep giving the public HOPE!!!
It seems sci-fi is the new quasi religion thats keeping up with technology, just like humans employed to convert the spoken word from AI agents in realtime to "train" AI's.
A worthwhile film to watch for an alternative perspective.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capricorn_One
Kaspersky fixing serious certificate slip
Raspberry Pi Foundation releases operating system for PCs, Macs
Sunday 25th December 2016 17:37 GMT
Re: Here’s an idea …
Theres a firmware virus doing the rounds which isnt being picked up by any AV products on windows or linux. It seems to rewrite the some Western Digital HD's, and seems to work on Sansdisk mem sticks, (micro) SD cards as well.
If you get it from an advert shown on a webpage and print it to a pdf using the built in pdf print driver on ubuntu, it can spread using code built into the default pdf reader on ubuntu.
SquashFS also has some code which works with it, as does the USB bus in linux, but fortunately if your machine is infected with this firmware malware, the PIXEL desktop wont display the taskbar which could be one of your only clues about this firmware virus.
Check out Flashrom to start checking your devices' flash chips for this rogue code even if your manufacturer says the firmware cant be updated!
BT's hiring! 500 more customer service folk to answer your angry calls
Tuesday 13th December 2016 01:35 GMT
Re: Your call is important to us, if we bother to answer it
Just use 0800 400 400, you can get through to virtually all parts of BT on that number, both consumer and business. The 3rd or 4th question ask's if it is a business or consumer account and routes accordingly, either way its free and doesnt cost anything.
Look out, Brussels: Google's moving the goalposts, barks price comparison rival
Tuesday 13th December 2016 01:29 GMT
Re: RegTard Alert on High Status
The US Tech giants are a law unto themselves working in cahoots, I keep finding their code in their hardware and software that does things and thats before you take into their actors.
Edward Snowdon is a bit of a false flag as well on some of the stuff he has mentioned.
Bottom line is some in the US are hacking their allies whilst claiming ignorance.
US-CERT's top tip: Hack your crap Netgear router before miscreants arrive
Tuesday 13th December 2016 01:22 GMT
" you simply have to trick someone on the router's local network into opening a booby-trapped webpage."
Any old search engine result may work, if not use the offsite advertising network to deliver it instead.
Easy peasy..... Now who has that sort of control or over sight of such things?
Some will be Govt entities and other's will be big businesses.
Whose the loser's in all this? The little people as usual and lots of you work for them, brings a whole new perspective to the work life balance when you think about it!
Mirai variant turns TalkTalk routers into zombie botnet agents
Thursday 8th December 2016 17:31 GMT
Re: Talk talk still got customers then ?
Just about. For an experiment I plugged in an old adsl modem into a Windows XP machine using ppoe on XP to handle the net connection. I dont get any incoming hack attacks even though XP firewall is up and logging everything , but I can only access the bbc.co.uk, Google websites or sites with google search on. I cant connect to any ubuntu archives when using the minimal iso's (30-60MB), I cant connect to any gov.uk websites not even GCHQ. If I use an old Belkin which gets its time from a belkin server I can surf unrestricted and if I use a Dlink DSL3780 I can surf unrestricted, but take note, the dsl-3780 CFG file is an unencrypted XML file and it uses IPv6 for the TalkTalk tv & film service, and provides 3 unsecured wifi access points, ideal for bonding with your neighbours wifi to boost your download speed or for any old Tom Dick or Harry, to gain access to your network! Yet noone seem's interested, not GCHQ (yes I even called GCHQ), not the police not TalkTalk.
Why is this? Trying to set people up who upset the order perhaps?
What should the Red Arrows' new aircraft be?
Thursday 3rd November 2016 01:50 GMT
I wanted to vote for BAE's Taranis stealth unmanned jet.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAE_Systems_Taranis
Then we could see some real acrobatics pulling major G's forces.
All these guys are ex Red Arrows if you want to experience the effects of the display move's yourself, they provide sick bags as well.
http://www.theblades.com/
'Hacker' accused of idiotic plan to defraud bank out of $1.5 million
Tuesday 1st November 2016 23:39 GMT
Trick the spooks into hacking you and then demolish their techniques.
It takes a convincing psychological profile to get them to hack you and will span decades, as they like to observe and study. I might write a book detailing their techniques sometime if I'm in the mood, those chemical motivators are very tricky to manipulate.
UK will retaliate against state-sponsored cyber attacks, Chancellor warns
Tuesday 1st November 2016 23:34 GMT
Re: And what is the retaliation method going to be?
"In October defence secretary Sir Michael Fallon said Britain had used cyber warfare against ISIS as part of the bid to retake the Iraqi city of Mosul."
Locking mobile phones as if they have been stolen & getting Vodafone to switch off some cell masts in the area as if there is a London 2011 riot going off is hardly retaliatory, but it just about counts as "cyber warfare".
Whoosh! China shows off J-20 'stealth' fighters and jet drones
Tuesday 1st November 2016 23:26 GMT
Re: Political posturing
A $100M in China or Russia goes alot further than a $100M in USUK as the cost of living is more expensive in USUK land.
Interesting to note the UK Taranis drone has gone all quiet.
What advantages does it bring over a conventional aircraft? Can pull tighter maneuver's more G force which humans cant tolerate, slightly more weapons and fuel capacity over conventional aircraft.
What are its weaknesses? Games console players with a passing interest in hacking might upgrade from the games console to real life and take matters into their own hands. Lets not forget the virus that made into onto the ISS, but hacking the communications and brains is more of a challenge especially when you can do a flyby over the Mall!
Cant see the RAF wanting to down one of their own, even if its just a bot riding a controlled explosion.
Are the custom distro's running things like the F35 and other Mil hardware really that secure?
Sweden axes 700MHz spectrum sale over 'national security' fears
Tuesday 1st November 2016 23:11 GMT
Re: Say goodbye to good Mobile coverage.
No need to build masts, with the latest OS's sharing wifi resources and 802.11h products hitting the market next year (26km range), you'll see devices effectively become mobile roaming hotspots where ever people go in the world. Project Loon could end up being a loony idea, but routing traffic and caching will become an interesting subject in the years to come squeezing out the last ounce of efficiency from a rapidly changing evolving the network.
Search engine results increasingly poisoned with malicious links
Monday 31st October 2016 07:28 GMT
Re: If I visited dodgy sites...
Considering how easy it is to spin up a website nowadays, and considering this TED talk warning people of their filter bubble from March 2011 https://www.ted.com/talks/eli_pariser_beware_online_filter_bubbles and considering the level of surveillance there is when you combine the advert tracking which deliver viruses & other malicious software often zero day types, you really dont know what are dodgy sites now a days.
Some of the things I've caught is the TalkTalk tv box trying to access windows 7 desktop, and sites like DailyMail.co.uk & Akamai networks being blocked by Snort for the data they have been delivering. If it wasnt for the vlans & firewall setup I've had at home I wouldnt have caught this stuff. Attacking home devices to gain access to work networks is a valid attack vector especially if you provide support to other companies is not beyond the realms of possibility.
Even running from a Linux live CD, I recently heard a laptop emitting a funny noise similar to the old dialup modem handshake which wouldnt have been picked up in a room with normal noise levels, but would have been picked up by microphones in nearby devices.
In fact one hack I discovered last night, appears to target CD roms, causing it to not read from genuine media but does boot from fake media printed to look like Dell Windows CD's. The fake Dell CD's will install on any non Dell computer, the genuine Dell media will not install on non-Dell devices. If you do a diagnostic on the Dell optical drive it throws an errorcode 0152 incorrect status 1A Error Registration 0020h but only when you run diagnostics on the device. Thats your only clue.
Bottom line is, you cant trust any of your tech and unless you log everything and have disposable servers handling your encrypted internet traffic for things like email servers or serving webpages, and then pull that back to your internal main servers unencrypted whilst logging it and acket inspect it, you have zero chance of spotting some hacks considering the resources some entities have.
Coming to an SSL library near you? AI learns how to craft crude crypto all by itself
Sunday 30th October 2016 10:37 GMT
Re: arXiv = Academic Wikipedia
Peer review is over hyped, you could call it the Religion of Science.
As Thomas Pynchon once said, if you can get them to ask the wrong question, you dont have to worry about the answer.
All peer reviewed study is, is the ability to theorise a solution to a problem, and then come up with an experiment which proves your theory. However as so much of life is more complicated than the simple tests carried out in peer reviewed studies, only the low hanging fruit has been picked so far in maths, physics, chemistry & biology.
Think about it, how easy is it to come up with a peer reviewed experiment which proves that a light switch can switch off a light bulb? If you didnt know about who made the lightbulb or electricity, than what conclusions would you draw from a light switch and a lightbulb that is on until switched off? Thats a simple but is no different to the methods employed today to reverse engineer the human body and other things in the scientific world. Plus the way the current financial system works, inhibits the ability to study so much we as a species are shooting ourselves in the foot, but not even employing a logic method to organise peoples efforts and time into a productive manner. Just look at the wasted brains employed in the world of High Frequency Trading as one example, monkeys just gaming the current system springs to mind.
Sunday 30th October 2016 10:28 GMT
Re: Tired of smoke-screen AI research claims that a vendor does not know how its AI works
Re tired of smokescreen, yes bullshit baffles brains and like you say if someone says they dont know how their AI works either is not very good or is bullshitting.
Saw this last night http://www.channel4.com/programmes/how-to-build-a-human and whilst it comes closer to passing the Turin test, theres still so much to do to improve AI to make it convincing.
Theres also somethings things AI cant do at the moment which is why so many people following the current teachings are destined to fail in the long term, including Google (& DeepMind), MS & Facebook to name but a few. Asch conformity is catching, so its fun watching the herds rollout their bullshit. I'd suggest they best concentrate on securing their systems as best they can, and roll back the marketing hype.
Here today gone tomorrow springs to mind!
Researchers tag new brace of bugs in NTP, but they're fixable
Sunday 30th October 2016 09:35 GMT
Re: Why not filter by comparison?
Set your firewall ip to block all ip address irrespective of port and protocol, and then only allow UK University's, like Manchester's for example, your time server will still get hacked, at least mine have. That tells me even the UK Uni's various systems have been hacked, unless GCHQ are injecting hacks.
There is one point worth making though, unless you are a target, which I am due to my uncle being Keith Rose whose used to supply GCHQ with telecoms equipment and who famously broke out of Parkhurst embarrassing the Govt before further embarrassing them again by bypassing the phone security in prison to do a live radio interview, why would they hack you and expose their abilities?
Not everyone will see these hacks, but the bugs which are backdoors in your opensource software are numerous. Log everything and hash all files, dont even trust read only filesystems!
Have disposable internet connected servers and unencrypted packet data on all your internal main servers and log the packets, dont even trust your workstations if they connect online to encrypted websites then you can reduce the hacks to your system.
Friday 28th October 2016 09:09 GMT
"Finally, we suggest the firewalls and ntpd clients block all incoming NTP control queries from unwanted IPs”"
This problem has been around for a few years now even when sat behind firewalls when getting your NTP time server to synch with online NTP sources. Surprised its only just been aired but will they spot and fix all the bugs, only your server logs will tell.
EU announces common corporate tax plan
Samsung's free-falling financial flameout
Self-driving cars doomed to be bullied by pedestrians
Friday 28th October 2016 08:55 GMT
Are those fake CCTV camera's fitted to your building sir?
Even if car manufacturers fitted fake sensors to the vehicle, doesnt take much to put in the registration plate of the car seen further down a road into say Autotrader when placing an advert and pull up the cars details?
5G superfast broadband will have its uses in the City after all!
And on that point of looking up data quickly and easily, if you think you are not on the public electoral role, find out by putting your details into this website. https://www.bensonandhedges.co.uk/
Lets just hope they monitor their website activity and its not been used for phishing unknown unknowns as Donald Rumsfeld would say.
Friday 28th October 2016 08:51 GMT
Re: Hoodies playing chicken...?
Re Drive off auto locking systems, the ones that locks doors when speed goes above a certain amount, like all hoodies are Linford Christie or Hussain Bolt. Bringing car to a halt or crawl unlocks the door, and even if said system didnt unlock door, a brick through a car window is very easy. Do it properly and you dont even set off the car alarm if its a parked car whilst the brick exits through the door window on the opposite side.
Theres so much tech around which actually doesnt work or solve any problems.
Phishing fraudsters pose as UK bank social media types
Thursday 27th October 2016 23:56 GMT
Re: User Error, make them pay for their ignorance rather than me
"Never give personal information to people you do not know, if you do know them ask why they need it"
So many systems/companies use the same metrics, its not hard to build a bigger data set besides how many people have a dect/gsm phone to listen in to?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/12/31/dect_hack/
http://www.instructables.com/id/Telephony-DECT-Sniffing-with-Dedected/
https://myassgeek.wordpress.com/2011/07/31/how-hackers-hack-gsm-phones/
Not hard to port to a little Raspberry pi Zero complete with battery pack stuck in your gutter!
"Never accept anything from sources that you cannot sue/have arrested in the event that they are bogus"
How many people check the id of someone in a yellow flouro jacket turning up at your door? Even if you checked their id and perhaps called the number on the card, how hard is it to forge an id card and setup a voip system for some people to call? http://www.voipfone.co.uk/EP_UK_Telephone_Numbers.php
https://www.sipgate.co.uk/basic/
Look at Kim Kardashian in Paris for a recent example of how people are obedient to uniforms of sorts even criminals wearing police uniforms after jewelery.
You show me a "system" and I'll show you a hack beit electronic or psychological.
Take social media, you can scan their social media and run scripts to pull out pertinent info like names & dates and rehash them into a targeted password list for other online services they may use.
People leak data whether they like it or not, and determined hackers will get what they want.
Even biometric data like fingerprint scanners can be fooled, ergo nothing is fool proof as these police officers demonstrate themselves. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_fIOM24grQo
So with that in mind, how would you like your grandparents or parents to be treated when they are hacked?
Biting the hand that feeds IT
