• Category Archives Computers

  • Imagine a life with no computers……ahhhh……bliss…..

  • Cant buy an iPhone in California

    Posted on by beno Comment

    I am at a total loss on this one….

    http://9to5mac.com/2016/01/21/california-bill-encryption-iphone-sales/

    California is now presenting a new bill that, if passed into law, would stop Apple from selling iPhones on its home turf, via ZDNet. The bill requires smartphone manufacturers to sell devices that have backdoors to allow them to be decrypted. Naturally, this affects iPhones which use high-strength security methods and make it practically impossible for anyone including Apple to gain access without the passcode. If this proposed bill sounds familiar, there’s a reason for that. A nearly identical proposition was made in New York state earlier in the month.

    Although the bill is only being proposed and isn’t law at this time, it poses a big issue for Apple which is facing pressure from politicians across the US to relax its stance on privacy in favor of security.

    Tim Cook and Apple has repeatedly taken a hard-line stance on privacy. Most recently, Cook met with White House officials to encourage them to back Apple. Cook wants government to plainly state that there should be a ‘no backdoors’ ruling regarding consumer electronics. These proposed bills in California and New York fly in the face of that policy.

    It would seem that for once, a big corporation has the consumers back when it comes to privacy… A fact that I have trouble swallowing.
    It would also seem that the government wants to make privacy illegal. A fact that I have no trouble believing at all.

    Bottom line, it’s a mess and it will be fought in court no doubt, or at the very least, behind closed doors.

    Bottom bottom line…. Your data is not yours. You only think it is.

    [And no, before you even ask, I am not going to be drawn into the discussion about if the FBI / courts / IBM / Facebook / The President or whoever should be able to force Apple to make a golden key to enable these departments to access data on a given iPhone. I am interested in tech, not politics].


    Computers 📎and tagged

  • ATM with lose wires

    Posted on by beno Comment

    Heads up. If you see an ATM with some loose wires around it, DO NOT use it.

    https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/02/skimmers-hijack-atm-network-cables/

    ATM maker NCR is warning about skimming attacks that involve keypad overlays, hidden cameras and skimming devices plugged into the ATM network cables to intercept customer card data.

    The thieves are getting more and more clever all the time.
    What they are doing now is putting their ethernet sniffing devices between the ATM and the Internet and sending the data offsite for capture and analysis.

    Bottom line. Stick to the ATM’s that are built into a bank.


    Computers

  • Windows 10 leaks – BIG time

    Posted on by beno Comment

    There are so many words that have been said about the whole way Microsoft went about its Windows 10 update, you really don’t need me adding to the noise. Just do a quick Google on the topic (hint, you get the choice, ‘Update Now. Update latter’ – yeah, some choice).

    The one thing that has sorta been mentioned, but not as much is just how much data Windows 10 throws around in the background once it is up and running.
    It comes down to two things for me, firstly, the arrogance that they think everyone has an unmetered Internet connection (and a fast one at that) and that of “what you can’t see can’t hurt you”.

    Once you unknowingly download 100+ mb of data under the guise of your current version of Windows updates and find that you really have had an entire operating system stuffed down your connection (without your consent)… Once you get past that, and you do the update, everything looks fresh and clean.

    It’s Windows 10, everything is in a different place and its all exciting and your getting used to things… who then, thinks about looking at their data at a packet level and look at whats going back and forth between your computer and Microsoft???
    Who has the tools to do that even?
    It is a pretty small percentage of the population let me give you the tip.

    So, here we are.
    https://voat.co/v/technology/comments/835741

    There you will find a big long table of ‘technical data’ (and some swear words in the comments below the tables).

    So, just to quickly summarize, that’s 3967 connection attempts to 51 different Microsoft IPs.

    This is for a clean stock install of Windows 10, it was not being used at all.

    Not sure what you consider normal, but three thousand, nine hundred and sixty seven connections is a bit much from where I stand.

    What can we do about it is the topic of another blog on another day.


    Computers 📎and tagged

  • Asus networking devices

    Posted on by beno 2 Comments

    Mixed feelings about this one, but want to throw it out there and have the discussion rather than pretend it did not happen or does not happen.

    I am NOT going to relive it (far too stressful), but I had a very bad week (and a bit) of networking trouble at my house mid February 2016. Long story short, we went through 5 different routers before we found one that a) worked and b) that I could live with.

    The router I ended up with is an Asus RT-AC3100.
    Not that long ago, there is no way anyone should have used an Asus router on any network…..

    http://www.engadget.com/2016/02/23/asus-ftc-settlement-router/

    the FTC found that the Taiwanese manufacturer’s routers had critical security flaws despite its promise to consumers that the devices can “protect computers from any unauthorized access, hacking and virus attacks.”

    Hackers could easily exploit one of those bugs to access users’ web-based control panels and change their security settings. If the user isn’t exactly tech-savvy, someone with malicious intentions doesn’t even have to hack the device. He simply has to use ASUS’ default log-in credentials: username “admin” and password “admin.”

    So, like most home router manufactures, they cut a LOT of corners on security and, well, pretty much ignored it.
    They got caught. They got fined. And here is the interesting bit…..

    Over the next two decades, ASUS’ routers and their firmware will undergo an independent security audit once every two years.

    From here on, they have to hand over the code that runs on their (my) router and have someone poke under the covers.
    If you are a regular reader, you will know that I am not running stock Asus firmware. This means that the code I am running has already been inspected three times. Once by Asus, once by the auditors and once by open source community that work on the firmware I use.

    So yeah, mixed feelings. I wish all companies took security more seriously, but that is a hope wish dream…. So in the meantime, getting caught and having to show your cards every 2 years for the next 20 is better than nothing.


    Computers 📎and tagged

  • The future is here. Now.

    Posted on by beno 3 Comments

    Please please please (Dad, you included when you have the spare bandwidth) check out this ENTIRE video. It’s only a few minutes, but you need to see the start to really be blown away at the end.

    I gota admit that I teared up (just a little) watching this…. Both from joy and wonder.
    It is just amazing how far these guys have come in the past 1-2 years.
    I once applied for a job in the robotics lab at RMIT long before I applied for the job that got me to Ballarat… I still love robotics…. Not going to say too much, but I am working on another robot at home (Yeah, in addition to the one I currently have in my groov demo)… A future blog for sure.


    Computers 📎and tagged