Slashdot Mirror
NBC News Confuses the World About Cyber-Security
Nerval's Lobster writes "In a video report posted Feb. 4, NBC News reporter Richard Engel, with the help of a security analyst, two fresh laptops, a new cell phone, and a fake identity, pretended to go online with the technical naiveté of a Neanderthal housepet. (Engel's video blog is here.) Almost as soon as he turned on the phone in the Sochi airport, Engel reported hackers snooping around, testing the security of the machines. Engel's story didn't explain whether 'snooping around' meant someone was port-scanning his device in particular with the intention of cracking its security and prying out its secrets, no matter how much effort it took, or if the 'snooping' was other WiFi devices looking for access points and trying automatically to connect with those that were unprotected. Judging from the rest of his story, it was more likely the latter. Engel also reported hackers snooping around a honeypot set up by his security consultant which, as Gartner analyst Paul Proctor also pointed out in a blog posting, is like leaving the honey open and complaining when it attracts flies. When you try to communicate with anything, it also tries to communicate with you; that's how networked computers work: They communicate with each other. None of the 'hacks' or intrusions Engel created or sought out for himself have anything to do with Russia or Sochi, however; those 'hacks' he experienced could have happened in any Starbucks in the country, and does almost every day, Proctor wrote. That's why there is antivirus software for phones and laptops. It's why every expert, document, video, audio clip or even game that has anything at all to do with cybersecurity makes sure to mention you should never open attachments from spam email, or in email from people you don't know, and you should set up your browser to keep random web sites from downloading and installing anything they want on your computer. But keep up the fear-mongering."
But can we please just keep on enjoying Slashdot too?
But that's the point isn't it? I want to keep enjoying Slashdot as I have for years, but that is most likely going to change, and well, there isn't a really good alternative out there. So I'm trying to communicate that in the one way that will make them reconsider: fucking up the comments. For some reason the Dice clones think that this site is very similar to a tech section from HuffingtonPost.com, and that all they need to do is tweak the UI to drive up traffic. If they can see that the fucked up comments are actually hurting traffic maybe they'll get the message that Slashdot really wasn't what they thought, and that it really is all about the moderation system and comments like everyone has been trying to tell them.
I'm not hopeful though. The sheer arrogance in corporate board rooms today is breathtaking. Look at the Xbone. They had lots of people shouting at them that they were headed for disaster, people who really cared. They told those people that maybe they ought to get with the times. Those people did: they bought PS4s.
Look where all this talking got us, baby.
You know that angry "What the fuck?" bubbling up in the back of your mind?
That's how gun enthusiasts feel when news people start making nonsensical claims about guns.
When some dumb ass says "military style" or "assault magazine clip" or someone ridiculous nonsense, we feel the way you do watching this story.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano