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Re:I'm sick of this anthrax bullshit..... by dazed-n-confused · 2001-10-13 18:55 · Score: 2 · on Anthrax To Kill Snail Mail

I read a good article about this written by a phd in microbiology. It contains many more facts that I haven't discussed. You can read it here [villagevoice.com].

The author, George C Smith, has other techy-related achievements more relevant to many Slashdotters than "a phd in microbiology" -- author of The Virus Creation Labs, compiler of The Crypt Newsletter, frequent contributor to the Virus Myths stupidity-debunking site vmyths.com...

And he's dead funny, too.

BTW, "virus" throughout the above links refers to our old friend, malicious code, and not some new terror attack. (And anthrax ain't viral).

the UK man that was jailed by bnjf · 2001-09-15 17:57 · Score: 1 · on Maker of Kournikova Gets Wrist Slapped Too

he is the black baron, or chris pyle. responsible for SMEG.

Re:The 1990s UK Case - not about viruses by spectecjr · 2001-09-15 09:38 · Score: 2 · on Maker of Kournikova Gets Wrist Slapped Too

The conviction in 1990 wasn't for creating a virus. I know, because I was network manager at one of the sites involved and was responsible for logging network activity which formed part of the evidence.

Uh, actually, no, it was for creating a virus, and had nothing to do with mainframes as you suggest.

I had corresponded with the author (he was part of the SAM Coupé programming community). I know who he is. I have tons of his source code. And he was convicted for (on the surface of it) creating the first assembly-language polymorphic virus, and putting it into a virus kit.

The virus was called Smeg.

Here's a link that you might find informative:

News story

Simon

Re: Only earth targets? by netmouse · 2001-07-29 03:02 · Score: 1 · on X-33 Venture Star Reborn as Space Bomber

Eh, the worst part about it is the "Maybe once I'm old enough I'll move away." attitude, like making sure you don't feel personally responsible and ashamed is going to make the world any better.

There are more active things you can do. Follow the precedent of Henry David Thoreau and refuse to pay your taxes. It's called Civil Disobedience. Maybe you'll make it onto Letterman and have the chance to make a difference. :P

Seriously though, get out there and grow up. The U.S. has potential. "America -- Love it or Leave it" is supposed to be the catch phrase of the conservative assholes, not the intelligent next generation who could actually make a positive impact.

--netmouse

Re:So, who's REALLY in charge... by edibleplastic · 2001-07-19 20:34 · Score: 1 · on Code Red Worm Spreading, Set To Flood Whitehouse

Wow, we're hypocritical! It's not Napster that's infringing, it's the users! It's not DeCSS that's infringing, its the users! Prosecute the users, not the code!

One minute its that, now its Microsoft's fault because somebody else wrote a worm for their system. Placing blame where it isn't due doesn't help the matter--even non-monopolistic companies are vulnerable to hacking. Hell, maybe Yahoo!, CNN, eBay and all the other websites dDOSed last year should be held legally responsible for their hacking. Come on, let's try to be adults here.

If the government should sit up and take notice of anything, it should be along the lines of eligible reciver, realizing how vulnerable our country is to electronic attack.

Re:Rubbish by King+Babar · 2000-11-27 05:40 · Score: 2 · on Florida Election Votes Certified

Secondly, the margin for Gore's victory in the so-called popular vote is something like 0.3%, well within of the margin of error.

Others have said this, too, but I'm afraid that I don't know what they're talking about. If you would like to see some careful work on margins of victory (especially in Florida, surf on over to Professor Rusin's paper on this matter. After reading this, you should be clear on the concept that a margin of 200,000 votes out of 100,000,000 cast is highly unlikely to be reversed on any kind of more careful recount unless the original count suffered from some systematic bias affecting one candidate or another. You will then also find out how likely it is that, e.g., the Florida election outcome would be reversed by recounting ballots in counties where you know there to be systematic effects. Basically, Florida would still be close to a statistical dead heat in the situation where we have the totals we have now and the knowledge that there are thousands of untabulated ballots in counties known to prefer one candidate or another.

The questions here are political rather than mathematical, which is why the situation is so awkward for both sides. So not only can we say that recounts (like those we've had in florida) could result in shifting of numbers, but we can also reasonably presume that the slightest change in behavior of either of the candidates could have overcome that margin (i.e., under a popular vote).

Old interviews with Emmanuel by Anonymous Coward · 2000-10-24 21:02 · Score: 1 · on Emmanuel Goldstein Profiled

http://venus.soci.niu.edu/~ cud igest/CUDS3/cud337.txt

[OT] Here are numbers for you. by mcsnee · 2000-07-26 02:48 · Score: 1 · on Force Fields And Plasma Shields Get Closer

Here's a link to info about why the pro-capital-punishment governor of Illinois issued a moratorium on the death penalty in his state. Numbers? 12 people freed from death row in Illinois, more than have been executed, in the past two years.

Here's another couple of numbers for you: 12% of Americans are black, but 40% of death row inmates are black. Or how about these numbers: a black defendant is twice as likely to be executed (100 since 1973) if his victim is white than if is victim is black (49 since 1973). And a white defendant who kills a white person is 48 times more likely to be executed for killing a white person (242 since 1973) than for killing a black person (5 since 1973). Numbers are from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

And here's a list of some wrongful executions that have taken place in the US in the 20th century. Admittedly, only one of the victims on the list was executed since 1973, when the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty should be reinstated.

There are numbers for you. Will they make any difference? I doubt it... no matter how many numbers people like you see, you want to see more. You'll go on blithely accusing anti-capital punishment types of not providing enough numbers, or the right numbers, or whatever. I look forward to your reply.

[OT] Here are numbers for you. by mcsnee · 2000-07-26 02:48 · Score: 1 · on Force Fields And Plasma Shields Get Closer

Here's a link to info about why the pro-capital-punishment governor of Illinois issued a moratorium on the death penalty in his state. Numbers? 12 people freed from death row in Illinois, more than have been executed, in the past two years.

Here's another couple of numbers for you: 12% of Americans are black, but 40% of death row inmates are black. Or how about these numbers: a black defendant is twice as likely to be executed (100 since 1973) if his victim is white than if is victim is black (49 since 1973). And a white defendant who kills a white person is 48 times more likely to be executed for killing a white person (242 since 1973) than for killing a black person (5 since 1973). Numbers are from the NAACP Legal Defense Fund.

And here's a list of some wrongful executions that have taken place in the US in the 20th century. Admittedly, only one of the victims on the list was executed since 1973, when the Supreme Court ruled that the death penalty should be reinstated.

There are numbers for you. Will they make any difference? I doubt it... no matter how many numbers people like you see, you want to see more. You'll go on blithely accusing anti-capital punishment types of not providing enough numbers, or the right numbers, or whatever. I look forward to your reply.

Logical fallacies and the wonders of statistics by adimarco · 2000-05-24 22:34 · Score: 4 · on Napster Hurts Album Sales?

Coincident with the arrival of MP3 and Napster, these sales take a pretty severe dip downwards.

The majority of people are so easily mislead by statements like this because they lack a simple understanding of the basic rules of logic. In this case, for example, correlation is not causation. There is a direct, frighteningly statistically accurate, correlation between the number of priests in a given town, and the number of alcoholics. Both are functions of population...

I suggest consulting this page for a brief summary of common logical fallacies.

This study is so vague it's almost silly. While they determine that CD stores with physical proximity to universities have slightly declining CD sales, they make no attempt whatsoever to determine the actual cause of said decline, and simply *decide* that it is the result of .mp3 and the RIAA's boogeyman, Napster. One has to wonder who commissioned the study...

FUD. This is the real-world equivalent of trolling :) Shoddy science passed off as fact to an ignorant audience (for the most part).

Anthony

Finally... a story where this is *not* offtopic... by Anonymous Coward · 2000-05-19 20:38 · Score: 5 · on Oxford Yanks Student Page Over Spoof DeCSS

and I'm asleep at the keyboard. Doh!

Oh well... here it is.
Add your own, and spread this far and wide:

This announcement brought to you by the DeCSS Polar Bear.

Re:At least they didn't plan to blow it up by Saint+Aardvark · 2000-05-15 07:39 · Score: 1 · on U.S. Had Plan To Nuke The Moon

Christ, what are the odds...when I was in school I clipped the tagline of a People magazine (!) article on the guy to decorate a mixed tape cover with. Got it right here in front of me:

Shoot the moon? Hell, says Prof. Alexander Abian, why not just blow it up?

Sadly, Crank.net says he died of a heart attack. His homepage is still up at at Iowa U., and a fan has archived THE ABIAN LIST. See the gumption of a man who named the mass of the Cosmos at the big bang after himself (scroll down a bit). Finally, see the greatness of the man reflected in his exchanges with James "Kibo" Parry and Archimedes Plutonium.

Time for Slashdot to take a stand... by Anonymous Coward · 2000-04-05 03:12 · Score: 4 · on MPAA Files Another Injunction Against 2600

The following is a list of all the mirrors from the 2600 site.

the good old impending Electronic Pearl Harbor by Quikah · 2000-03-21 07:59 · Score: 1 · on Cracking Military Devices

This sort of story has been flitting through the press for years. A slightly new spin though, at least they are starting to get a little inventive. :) It is not going to happen. You cannot telnet to navigation.uss-cybersub.mil and take control of a nuclear sub. These systems are not connected to public networks. I am not particularly knowledgeable about what they use, but my guess is HEAVILY encrypted satelite transmission. So you basically need to hi-jack a satelite, break the governments encryption, hope they aren't using some obscure ass language :), fake some command orders, and hope that the commander of the unit is generally clueless and doesn't ask the superiors why they are suddenly attacking Canada. Not exactly something a script-kiddie is going to be able to do.

Electronic Pearl Harbor; Crypt Newsletter by lanner · 2000-01-03 07:07 · Score: 1 · on Apocalypse Not

Y2K, virus myths, and technological misinformation all belong in the same catigory.

Read the Crypt Newsletter article regarding the Electronic Pearl Harbor scare. Nothing new.

http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~crypt/

Guess who gets the blame most -- the media! I smell backlash, or at least a well deserved one.

It was like we were supposed to cheer or something when NBC reported, "...no major airlines disasters due to Y2K."

These people can not even tell you when the new millennium starts!

You're never free from risk--learn 2 deal with it! by c+o+r+e · 1999-12-31 04:20 · Score: 3 · on Bringing E-Com Sites Down for Y2K?

I'm a security specialist so I've dealt with this already in my company:

It is ridiculous to shut down sites as a precaution against "hacker" or virus attacks. Ask yourself this question:

When I bring the site back up, has the risk of compromise gone away?

The answer is a resounding "NO". There is always a risk of compromise. If the Internet is so dangerous that you have to occasionally disconnect from it to protect yourself, then why do you even reconnect?!?! When you reconnect, nothing has changed except the calendar. Also, how do you know that the hacking hype wasn't designed to get you to disconnect now, and then reconnect days later only to have a false sense of added security since y2k is over and get 0wn3d on the 5th?? Isn't this an unknown, unsubstantiated risk too? You'd better never reconnect then...

The idea of disconnecting due to a y2k virus trigger is equally as ridiculous. April 1 is a more common day for virus and hoax triggers. Should every company disconnect then as well? Also, out of the thousands of viruses, only a handful have been very widespread. A massive virus infestation is historically unlikely.

Disconnecting due to some unknown, unsubstantiated threat is especially ridiculous (look at Seattle shutting down the y2k party...). It's CYA for lame IS and security people, IMHO. There are always going to be unknown, unsubstantiated threats. IS and security folks' jobs are to set up defenses to protect from day to day--that will work regardless of the amount of attacks. Shutting a site down for fear of someone breaking in is a self-induced DoS. E.g. the military sites that are being shut down (see http://www.hackernews.com for yesterday and today) during y2k are still going to have the same holes they did on the 1st....

Check out more specific information on y2k virus hype, "precautionary disconnects", etc. at the following links and see what:

"Precautionary disconnect" -- a disturbing new trend

OVERBLOWN: "Y2k Viruses"

Y2K viruses: "It's Orson Wells all over again"

Fearmonger vs. skeptic: a Y2K virus conversation

The virus grinches who tried to steal Christmas

-core

www.deja.com at Echelon by Baldrson · 1999-10-20 13:24 · Score: 2 · on October 21 is 'Jam Echelon' Day

If you click here you'll notice the original address for Deja News was:

Customer Support-Nuking Dept.
Deja News Inc.
9430 Research Blvd.
Echelon 2, Suite 300
Austin, Tx. 78759

This address is about a mile from the Microelectronics and Computer Technology Corporation, aka "MCC". MCC's first director was National Security Agency director Bobby Inman.

Deja News' location within the Echelon building barely a mile from NSA-associated MCC is simply the result of a concentration of high technology businesses in the Austin area combined with some real estate developer's perverse sense of humor in choosing the name "Echelon" for that particular office building.

"Some of you look dubious." -- Larry Wall

Cyberterrorism == Bogeyman by Aaron+M.+Renn · 1999-10-03 22:09 · Score: 1 · on Jane's Intelligence Review Needs Your Help With Cyberterrorism

Threats of cyberterrorism are so overblown it is ridiculous. It should come as no surpise that the people most pushing this are military types angling for more funding and more powers of everyone (no strong crypto, tap everything, etc) under the guise of stopping "terrorists". If you want to read the truth, then stop by and visit the Crypt Newsletter.

BTW: Speaking of Jane's, there's a nice reference to "Jane's Market Forces" in Ken MacLeod's latest "The Sky Road". Another great in-joke that is one reason MacLeod is damn near the best thing going is science fiction today.

Re:is it possible to protect against? by Anonymous Coward · 1999-10-03 20:55 · Score: 0 · on Jane's Intelligence Review Needs Your Help With Cyberterrorism

See:

this skeptical link

Also, think 'Faraday cage', and look up current TEMPEST ELINT guidelines for governmental machines.

Here's two skeptical links by Isaac-Lew · 1999-04-05 04:03 · Score: 1 · on CNN on "hackers"

http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~crypt/ (The Crypt Newsletter)
http://kumite.com/myths/ (Computer Virus Myths)

Good reading, esp. for the unclued.

Does anyone else here read The Crypt? by Isaac-Lew · 1999-02-12 03:56 · Score: 1 · on Advanced Anti Electronic Weapons

http://sun.soci.niu.edu/~crypt/

Criticism of electronic warfare, especially as portrayed by the media.

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