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NSA Hacker Chief Explains How To Keep Him Out of Your System (wired.com)

Posted by timothy on from the disinterested-party dept.

An anonymous reader writes: Rob Joyce, the nation's hacker-in-chief, took up the ironic task of telling a roomful of computer security professionals and academics how to keep people like him and his elite corps out of their systems. Joyce himself did little to shine a light on the TAO's classified operations. His talk was mostly a compendium of best security practices. But he did drop a few of the not-so-secret secrets of the NSA's success, with many people responding to his comments on Twitter.

70 comments

  1. Same link. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Same link as previous article, copy and paste error.

  2. Is there a link missing? by warm_warmer · · Score: 1

    It seems like the only linked article is relevant to the Slashdot story immediately preceding this one...

    1. Re:Is there a link missing? by warm_warmer · · Score: 5, Informative

      I think I found the right link: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2...

    2. Re:Is there a link missing? by mrsam · · Score: 3, Funny

      It seems like the only linked article is relevant to the Slashdot story immediately preceding this one...

      Must be the new owners of Slashdot, working hard to correct the persistent problem the prior owners with duplicate stories getting posted, all the time. Now, the duplicate links will get posted in completely different stories, going forward!

    3. Re:Is there a link missing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Thanks.

    4. Re:Is there a link missing? by BlacKSacrificE · · Score: 1

      He could prolly submit the story all over again and it would slide on through. I'd rather a dupe than an abortion..

      --
      [Sorry, this signature is unavailable in your country/region]
    5. Re:Is there a link missing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Here's the Wired article:

      http://www.wired.com/2016/01/nsa-hacker-chief-explains-how-to-keep-him-out-of-your-system/

  3. Slashdot Hacked by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    By my First Post.

  4. Slashdot has reached a new low by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Sorry, the link embedded within the article is http://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2016/01/nsa-gchq-used-open-source-software-to-spy-on-israeli-syrian-drones/, which is a link relevant to the previous story. I have no idea how that would happen, but editors should at least check the links. The correct link is actually http://www.wired.com/2016/01/nsa-hacker-chief-explains-how-to-keep-him-out-of-your-system/.

    1. Re: Slashdot has reached a new low by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The editor's responsible for the error's in the link's have been sacked. :-)

    2. Re: Slashdot has reached a new low by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The per'son re'spon'sible for the exce's's apo'strophe's in the previo's me's'sage ha's been 'sacked.

    3. Re:Slashdot has reached a new low by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Creepy as hell. "This is an innocent QR code so you can get more information".

      Does anyone think they're not at least inspecting incoming IPs from hitting that URL?

    4. Re: Slashdot has reached a new low by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Due to excessive Monty Python references, the person or persons responsible for the parent and grandparent of this message have been sacked, as have I.

  5. Step 1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    Step 1: Don't listen to anything the NSA (or the US government for that matter) has to say

    1. Re:Step 1 by greenfruitsalad · · Score: 4, Insightful

      the guy picks up a microphone and owns up to breaking constitutional rights, screwing with people's businesses and lives. the people, instead of arresting him, clap their hands and say it was a good talk. what the f**k? not even DMCA? let's all accept this lawless band of crooks, put them on a pedestal and call them elite corps

    2. Re: Step 1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

      That's a common myth in Tea Party circles - but there's tons of legal basis for the NSA's activities in the Constitution:

      http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2010/06/a-constitutional-basis-for-defense

      And yes, I feel somewhat dirty for linking to Heritage, but you cannot dismiss them as "liberals".

    3. Re: Step 1 by sumdumass · · Score: 5, Insightful

      No need to inject liberals or tea party circles into this. No one mentioned them and I would bet you would/could find several people on any side you picked who think there is a problem too.

      The US constitution does not place national defense above the US constitution though. This is problematic to the national defense trumps all argument because the 9th amendment specifically spells out that the enumeration in the constitution shall not be used to deny other rights held by the people. While the constitution generically spells out national defense, it specifically places reasonableness and warrant requirements for searches and other things.

      but lets explore this a bit. In the name of national security, some say the government can ignore the US constitution and invade a citizen's or local business's network, computer, telephone, whatever. Some say they can hold people without habeas corpus rights or even the right to a trial. Can they also ignore the constitution and just appoint senators and representatives in the name of national security? Can they install judges and such with no congressional oversight so those moves would survive a court challenge? Can they just decree something to be law without congress ever passing it or the president signing it into law? If so or not, I have to ask why and what limits would there be and how do those limits become recognized?

      My naive understanding is that the existence of this group is largely limited to pen testing with approval from network owners or law and assisting in law enforcement operations which presumably would already had warrant requirements satisfied. IT might do a lot more than that but I do not know for sure.

    4. Re: Step 1 by greenfruitsalad · · Score: 1

      ease up on that ganja or you'll soon claim they have legal basis for anal probing at all railway crossings.

    5. Re: Step 1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They do it because they can and no one stops them. In the end, the only thing that will make these traitors to their own oaths follow the constitution is force.

    6. Re:Step 1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Put them on a prison stocks pedestal and call them traitors!

    7. Re: Step 1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      The Constitution is not a suicide pact. Policies targeting domestic US citizens deserve open scrutiny and debate but actions targeting foreign countries are not Constitutionally protected nor are those actions required to be publicly disclosed. If you want to see a real life example of the elasticity of the Constitution just look at what FDR did prior to the US entering WW2. He blatantly violated the Neutrality Act using the subterfuge of the Lend-Lease Act while also "donating" a fleet of mothballed US navy ships to Britain. He unilaterally extended the US Atlantic oceanic boundaries so US warships could escort British convoys further and then used the sinking of a US ship by a German sub to bolster his attempts to gain public support for the US to openly declare war. Congress unanimously made it illegal for the government to wiretap suspected German spies in the US and he immediately ordered the Justice Department to ignore the law and proceed with the wire taps. Almost every action FDR took before the US entered the war was illegal according to strict interpretations of the Constitution. He also sent US fighters to China to support operations against Japan. All the pilots sent over had resigned from the US military prior to deployment but were quickly reinstated when the US declared war.

    8. Re: Step 1 by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's no less ridiculous than holding on to the tired idea of cannabis making you less intelligent. Science has effectively disproven this, maybe you could revise your discriminatory biases...

  6. Relief... by grub · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I was worried that the new overlords would start checking submissions for errors. I'm relieved to see they are taking the 'steady as she goes' approach.

    --
    Trolling is a art,
    1. Re:Relief... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      It's Timmy boy... I found that you can never set your expectations low enough around here.

      On the other hand, given that he seems to be the only editor left... and apparently spends all day and night scouring the internet for days-old news to post... you have to cut him some slack. Lack of sleep probably plays a part

    2. Re:Relief... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Repeat after me: Conformity is comfortable

    3. Re:Relief... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I was worried that the new overlords would start checking submissions for errors. I'm relieved to see they are taking the 'steady as she goes' approach.

      Posted by timothy

      Well there's your problem right there. Show Timothy the door and you'll see an order of magnitude increase in the quality of stories posted here.

  7. #1 best practice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Troll

    Keep systemd off your machines, as it contains NSA access and backdoors built in - aside from the system stability issues introduced.

    1. Re:#1 best practice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      what about systeme? or systemc?

    2. Re:#1 best practice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      System V is all that's acceptable.

    3. Re:#1 best practice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Keep systemd off your machines, as it contains NSA access and backdoors built in - aside from the system stability issues introduced.

      As much of a ClusterF**K that Systemd is , you cannot make a claim like that without SOME evidence.. otherwise shut up.

    4. Re:#1 best practice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Make that BSD init.

  8. NSA strikes again by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    They've censored their own link from the article!

  9. Sheep by ourlovecanlastforeve · · Score: 3, Informative

    Sheep should not listen to best practice advice from wolves.

    1. Re:Sheep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      Of course, of course. You should never take advice from a group of people considered the best at cracking systems worldwide, known for their ability to get into systems running on hundreds of varieties of hardware. Why, that would be foolish! Can you image, asking security experts what some of the general security practices are?

      Also, never, EVER, go to a doctor.

    2. Re:Sheep by ACE209 · · Score: 1

      Also, never, EVER, go to a doctor.

      If that doctor has a rich history of malpractice lawsuits, you are even right.

      Though changing your intelligence agency might not be as easy as changing your doctor.

      --
      "we are all atheists about most of the gods that societies have ever believed in. Some of us just go one god further."
    3. Re:Sheep by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      The NSA isn't accused of being incompetent.
      This would be more like avoiding a doctor who could save your life, even though he's a brilliant doctor, because he didn't pay his taxes.

  10. Jesus, just link to the talk. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bDJb8WOJYdA

    Personally, he didn't say anything mind blowing.

  11. grain of salt, but sound advice by raymorris · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Indeed, I'm skeptical of anything from the NSA, but his advice matches with my experience (I've been doing network security professionally for a long time).

    He made one point that definitely rings true. People get excited about "advanced" stuff like zero-days and jumping air gaps with ultrasound, while their IIS hasn't been updated in three years, their users are opening funnycat.exe, and they've never tested their backups. It's not the NCIS stuff that'll get you, 95% of the time, it's the boring best-practice stuff that's missed; security updates, tested offsite backups, etc.

    1. Re:grain of salt, but sound advice by khasim · · Score: 2

      There's a part I disagree with him on. From TFA:

      "Thereâ(TM)s a reason its called and advanced persistent threat; we'll poke and poke and wait and wait until we get in."

      No. It's called that because it sounds scarier than "got past my mediocre defenses".

      If they did not have to burn a zero-day (or rappel through a skylight) to get in then it is plain-old "cracking". People just prefer to call it "APT" because no one can defend against an "APT attack".

      If they could defend against it then it would be a regular-type-attack that was successfully defended against.

      The rest of his advice is good enough.

    2. Re:grain of salt, but sound advice by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No. It's called that because it sounds scarier than "got past my mediocre defenses".

      If they did not have to burn a zero-day (or rappel through a skylight) to get in then it is plain-old "cracking". People just prefer to call it "APT" because no one can defend against an "APT attack".

      APTs, the Advanced Persistent Threats, are usually complex, modular, subtle pieces of software. The exact attack used to get the APT onto the system varies, but once there, it tries to hide itself, scan the system for vulnerabilities, and relay those back to a central server. Then wait. Only when the attacker decides to use the APT will it download an attack package (say, a privilege escalation and data scan module) and actually do something. It may take down a system, or retrieve data, or modify data. It all depends on the package downloaded.
      APTs are defended against the exact same way as any other piece of malware. It's just harder to do so, because they are:
      Advanced (complex, high-end code, frequently using zero-day or undiscovered vulnerabilities)
      Persistent (they do nothing but wait for long periods of time)
      Threats (dangerous, and capable of destroying systems, including backups, if present long enough).

  12. Well now it's news! by rebelwarlock · · Score: 4, Funny

    I was worried at first that this wasn't really news, but then I saw the summary said that people responded on Twitter, and now I know it's important.

  13. Letting a great man say why I did those... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    FROM (& I'd suggest listening to Mr. Chaplin do it, he delivers like NO other could have (even Robert Downey Jr., as good as a "thespian" as he is couldn't in the film "Chaplin")) -> https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

    "I'm sorry, but I don't want to be an emperor. That's not my business. I don't want to rule or conquer anyone. I should like to help everyone - if possible - Jew, Gentile - black man - white.

    We all want to help one another. Human beings are like that.

    We want to live by each other's happiness - not by each other's misery. We don't want to hate and despise one another. In this world there is room for everyone. And the good earth is rich and can provide for everyone.

    The way of life can be free and beautiful, but we have lost the way.

    Greed has poisoned men's souls, has barricaded the world with hate, has goose-stepped us into misery and bloodshed.

    We have developed speed, but we have shut ourselves in. Machinery that gives abundance has left us in want.

    Our knowledge has made us cynical. Our cleverness, hard and unkind. We think too much and feel too little. More than machinery we need humanity. More than cleverness we need kindness and gentleness.

    Without these qualities, life will be violent and all will be lost...

    The aeroplane and the radio have brought us closer together. The very nature of these inventions cries out for the goodness in men - cries out for universal brotherhood - for the unity of us all. Even now my voice is reaching millions throughout the world - millions of despairing men, women, and little children - victims of a system that makes men torture and imprison innocent people.

    To those who can hear me, I say - do not despair. The misery that is now upon us is but the passing of greed - the bitterness of men who fear the way of human progress. The hate of men will pass, and dictators die, and the power they took from the people will return to the people.

    And so long as men die, liberty will never perish.

    Soldiers: Don't give yourselves to brutes - men who despise you - enslave you - who regiment your lives - tell you what to do - what to think and what to feel! Who drill you - diet you - treat you like cattle, use you as cannon fodder. Don't give yourselves to these unnatural men - machine men with machine minds and machine hearts!

    You are not machines! You are not cattle! You are men! You have the love of humanity in your hearts!

    You don't hate! Only the unloved hate - the unloved and the unnatural! Soldiers! Don't fight for slavery - Fight for liberty!

    In the 17th Chapter of St Luke it is written: "the Kingdom of God is within man" - not one man nor a group of men, but in all men!

    In you!

    You, the people have the power - the power to create machines. The power to create happiness! You, the people, have the power to make this life free and beautiful, to make this life a wonderful adventure.

    Then - in the name of democracy - let us use that power - let us all unite. Let us fight for a new world - a decent world that will give men a chance to work - that will give youth a future and old age a security.

    By the promise of these things, brutes have risen to power. But they lie! They do not fulfill that promise. They never will!

    Dictators free themselves but they enslave the people!

    Now let us fight to fulfill that promise! Let us fight to free the world - to do away with national barriers - to do away with greed, with hate and intolerance.

    Let us fight for a world of reason, a world where science and progress will lead to all men's happiness.

    Soldiers: in the name of democracy, let us all unite!"

    APK

    P.S.=> Quoting a great man (Charlie Chaplin) from LONG AGO on that one - he said it better than I ever could - CHANGE STARTS WITH YOU, in "little revolutions"... apk

    1. Re: Letting a great man say why I did those... apk by Redmancometh · · Score: 1

      I'm agreeing with APK...the new owners of slashdot are! already making things weird.

  14. You have nothing to fear if by burtosis · · Score: 1

    You have nothing to hide.

    Actually, when Trump gets elected and has a full dossier on every political AND financial rival you really should have an escape plan.

    1. Re:You have nothing to fear if by MobSwatter · · Score: 1

      You have nothing to hide.

      Exactly, the people are broke and no amount of corporate espionage is going to preserve the District of Columbia.corp at this point with international shipping halted and 200+ countries that will not accept the US petro dollar as currency. Here's a question: If said spook hacker is not over there seeking refuge with Snowden, and not under indictment and/or already in jail, then does this mean that this is a sign that the republic is in process of being restored?

      The implications of this could truly be astounding.

    2. Re:You have nothing to fear if by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Considering there are only 196 countries in the world, including the United States, having the US dollar rejected by 200 countries is really impressive.

    3. Re:You have nothing to fear if by ProfanityHead · · Score: 1

      You forgot about Texas and Kentucky.

  15. I am so scared about Trump by Latent+Heat · · Score: 1

    . . . that he will have all the information to sell me junk that I don't need?

    1. Re:I am so scared about Trump by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      . . . that he will have all the information to sell me junk that I don't need?

      Is this before or after he bankrupts the economy building a wall around the US.. and can't get mexico to pay for it? Is this before or after he tries to deport half the country?

      I am sorry guy, Trump has no chance in hell of getting elected. NO CHANCE IN HELL!

    2. Re:I am so scared about Trump by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Deport half the country? Are you saying that half the country has violated immigration laws? Even if Trump became president there would be no wall built. He may try to allocate more resources for monitoring the border but even that will take time. Trump has put into words what many are thinking. His statements are usually crass and not always backed up by facts but that is standard behavior for all the politicians. He isn't beholden to any group for campaign funding and that alone scares the shit out of the professional politicians who are bought and paid for when elected. He has the Republican party running around in circles trying to salvage the situation. I think having Trump for President would be a highly entertaining and he couldn't do any worse than the last few presidents have done in running the country. I do think he is the only candidate that will get US foreign policy back on track by telling anyone looking to denigrate the US to fuck off during a live state of the union address. Out of everyone running for President he is the only leader while all the rest are nothing but politicians and this is the main reason for the support he has received by the public.
      I don't think he really wants to win. If he did win he would have to put all his financial assets in a blind trust while in office. I just can't see him doing that.

    3. Re:I am so scared about Trump by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      It's the people who hire illegals who are violating immigration laws.

      The illegals are simply responding to "market forces". It's the "free market" at work!

  16. Why? Since it's God's day today, ok... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying 'Who shall I send & who will go for Us?" & I said 'Here am I. Send me!'" - Isaiah Chapter 6, verse 8

    * Since IF you want a job done right, do it yourself, & "pay it forward" showing others how to themselves - don't give them a fish: TEACH THEM HOW TO CATCH THEM THEMSELVES!

    (For those "little revolutions" I noted that a really pretty nice SMART young lady I met from Argentina on the way to Prague on a train told me of while we spoke for hours, & I never forgot those words!)

    APK

    P.S.=> It's a righteous act meant to help better the world (a VERY f'd up place, & getting worse imo & I've been visiting like the rest of us are, for 1/2 a century++ as of TODAY (it's my B-day, along with Guido Van Rossum's no less too, inventor of a very decent programming tool in Python I respect)) & since today's God's day? I thought it'd fit here... apk

  17. antysky by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    doesn't so much decrypt as descramble. not quite the same thing.

  18. you can't win by epine · · Score: 2

    Here's a conundrum—a real stumper if you plan to swallow his advice whole—they know what's really in all those automatic patches, and you don't.

    Tuesday a patch arrives. Wednesday a patch for the patch arrives. What exactly happens during that brief episode of 24?

    1. Re:you can't win by jeff4747 · · Score: 2

      It's not that they know what's in the patches.

      It's that they have thousands of extremely skilled and well paid people who do nothing but figure out how to break in.

      Meanwhile, you're trying to defend your network while dealing with users asking where the "any" key is, and your executives demanding to be able to go to malware-infested porn sites at work.

      You will lose against the NSA (or any nation-backed equivalent) because of the massive disparity in knowledge and effort.

    2. Re:you can't win by justthinkit · · Score: 1

      I remember when antivirus companies began talking about heuristics. The idea that they could dynamically figure out threat levels. Then I noticed a strange thing -- updates got bigger, DAT files grew and grew -- and they shut up about heuristics. They realized that this would kill the need to buy next year's AV product.

      So, given that best practices for all kinds of stuff have been around for decades, isn't it at least a little curious how often patches come out? Grandparent's point is the most likely explanation. And is the same reason for the so called "data breaches" -- "Here you go, NSA, knock yourself out," followed by "We found a weakness and here's the patch".

      By way of deception...

      --
      I come here for the love
    3. Re:you can't win by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      No, heuristics are difficult. They're very CPU intensive, easy to get wrong, and once you know how the heuristic works you can bypass it just as easily as anything else. In order to get heuristics right you need a full AI system and a complete profile of every program that gets run on your computer. End users don't tolerate that sort of performance hit nor should they for the minor increase in security.

      Patches keep coming out because our programming and spoken languages make it impossible to create bug free programs. Trying to do so is insanely difficult and impossible when team members come and go and when you develop under business constraints or market pressure. You cannot afford secure software. Anyone promoting "programming is art not engineering", "self-teach, don't take formal classes", "anyone can code", "everyone should code", "program performance", "good end-user experience", etc... is promoting insecure software development.

    4. Re:you can't win by justthinkit · · Score: 1

      Eloquent, and full of specifics. And I don't believe it.

      Qualcomm's Eudora email program is proof you can create a perfect program. And proof that when you do, your income stream stops.

      In the Eudora case they took the high road so few do and gave it all away. Until October 11, 2006 [needle scratching across a record].

      Perfection is a different mindset from profit.

      --
      I come here for the love
    5. Re:you can't win by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Episodes of 24 were meant to depict an hour of that day, that's why there's 24 per season.

  19. Diverting us from how they actually get in. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Whilst expounding on best practices that every security professional knows, and perhaps everyone else should, he is diverting your attention, time and energies away from how they actually get it.

    Whist you are busy shoring up your doors and windows, they are wriggling up through the sewer pipes.

    Very cunning.

     

  20. If you think by JustAnotherOldGuy · · Score: 1

    If you think he's actually telling you anything that would really keep him out, then you're exactly as gullible as he wants.

    Oh, sure, he'll give you some bullshit, low-level tips, but do you really think that the "NSA Hacker Chief" is going to do anything that's going to make his job harder? I sure don't.

    --
    Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
  21. Laws? by Quinn_Inuit · · Score: 1

    Once upon a time, I thought those would have been sufficient.

    --

    Stop learning! Only you can prevent esoterrorism.
  22. I had the NSA hackers visit uor site by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Management brought in the NSA security team to look at our network. Most of the issues they found were with our security systems and people.I showed then on day 2 the internal list of issues with servers and desktops and they said it was much deeper and broader than what they were going to provide us.When they gave us their report it had a few good points and fixes and lots of things that were not issues.

  23. Finally ppl are getting confort with eletronics... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "The earth is like a tiny grain of sand, only much, much heavier." - LOL

  24. I've kept 'em out for decades... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Between the security guides I wrote based on the highly esteemed CIS Tool (which took fixes from me no less) http://www.bing.com/search?q=%...

    Along with the speed, security, reliability, & anonymity gaining APK Hosts File Engine 9.0++ SR-4 32/64-bit http://www.start64.com/index.p...

    Which the guide also uses (by "yours truly", The "LORD OF HOSTS" so-to-speak) that does far more for all of the above benefits for FAR less than browser addons, DNS servers installed locally (fixing its security issues by avoiding it resolving faster locally w/ hosts cached in RAM + protecting you vs. current threats of all kinds), even firewall programs (which need layered on drivers , hosts don't & they operate on IP addresses in Windows - modern threats use host-domain names 99% of the time) & even antivirus programs (that wait till your infected to be effective, hosts block that from happening at all in the 1st place)?

    It ALL works to make my subject line above truth & fact!

    * :)

    (To the tune of users of my guides & hosts program NEVER being infected @ all, yet going FASTER (which other "so-called security 'solutions'" certainly cannot claim or nearly as well on all fronts I noted...))

    APK

    P.S.=> "It's not EASY being 'world-class'" like me I tell ya, lol, & to my naysayer/detractors who never prove me wrong here (or the dolts @ arstechnica especially whom I floored in 2003 @ Windows IT Pro Magazine outside their private playpen @ ars)? YOU WISH YOU WERE ME (& you know it)... apk

  25. Why? Since it's God's day today, ok... apk by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    "Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying 'Who shall I send & who will go for Us?" & I said 'Here am I. Send me!'" - Isaiah Chapter 6, verse 8

    * Since IF you want a job done right, do it yourself, & "pay it forward" showing others how to themselves - don't give them a fish: TEACH THEM HOW TO CATCH THEM THEMSELVES!

    (For those "little revolutions" I noted that a really pretty nice SMART young lady I met from Argentina on the way to Prague on a train told me of while we spoke for hours, & I never forgot those words!)

    APK

    P.S.=> It's a righteous act meant to help better the world (a VERY f'd up place, & getting worse imo & I've been visiting like the rest of us are, for 1/2 a century++ as of TODAY (it's my B-day, along with Guido Van Rossum's no less too, inventor of a very decent programming tool in Python I respect & use @ times myself)) & since today's God's day? I thought it'd fit here... apk

  26. what he didn't say by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    is not to host your data on any server under an American owned company because then they will just force that company to grant access without having to inform any one.

    At least make the bastards earn their pay checks and do some spying.

  27. Medicine worse than the disease by Tony+Isaac · · Score: 1

    Remedies like whitelisting might be effective, but if you've ever worked in a corporation--typically large ones--that use it, you know that it's a nightmare to manage. When you need to get something done, waiting for your whitelist request to be approved can take so long that you might as well not try to use the tool.

    It's interesting that the author said NOTHING about password complexity. This is one of the stupidest security measures, at least in the way it is typically implemented. For example, you must change your password every month, it must have three different punctuation characters, numbers, upper, and lower case, and can't be any one of your last 50 passwords. All this type of rule list does is make people write down their passwords (because they can't remember them) or find some pattern that defeats the system. Two-factor authentication is far better and more secure.