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Microsoft Promises To Defend World Chess Champion From Russian Hackers (telegraph.co.uk)
"World chess champion Magnus Carlsen has asked Microsoft to protect him against Russian hackers, as he expects to become the target of cyber attacks launched before the match with grandmaster Sergey Karjakin next week," reports Softpedia. An anonymous reader shares more details from The Telegraph:
The man dubbed the 'Mozart of chess' has spent months using high-powered chess computers to meticulously prepare moves for his grueling 12-game match against challenger Sergey Karjakin. But any leak of his analysis would hand a significant advantage to Crimean-born Karjakin, the fiercely-patriotic darling of Russian president Vladimir Putin... "The element of surprise is vitally important in chess," explained the Vibeke Hansen, from Microsoft Norway... She said Microsoft Norway will "ensure that he has a safe training environment and secure communication and collaboration tools".
HAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAAAHAHA!!!
We're sick of it. We didn't believe it when the corrupt clinton campaign used it, and we don't buy it now. Repeatedly beating this dead horse is only going to turn more people against you.
Not quite true. One of our main investors is a former Microsoft EVP so we have to use their garbage. Servers crashing has protected us several times against hackers. If you Windows server crashes, no one can hack into it.
This just disgusting marketing propaganda. Poor the fool who signed up for this. And fsck the brain that conjured up this steaming pile of bulldroppings!
FCKGW 09F9 42
It's like asking Hannibal Lecter for cooking tips. Just use OSX or Linux. Problem solved.
Usually, AI is when computers imitate human intelligence.
With chess now, it is the opposite : humans imitate computers.
Even more striking is the way they do it : they pick a subset of the solution, hoping that they can make the best use of it, hence the secrecy. In most practical AIs (ex: self-driving cars), this is the opposite : the AI is only able to do a subset of the task, using a human for the edge cases.
He's screwed.
"Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
Unplug computer from the internet.
If it needs internet access for CHESS of all things, you're doing it wrong.
...but enough to know not to bet on the white guy. I don't know much about security...but enough to know not to go to Microsoft.
You joke, but probably a dozen times in the past decade a server crashing has saved us from an intrusion. Our servers usually don't even run a week without crashing, but several of the more popular exploits make Windows crash more often than not.
You'll have a computer that doesn't open any ports to the world by default.
That will probably work, because Russia has no interest into revealing hacking tools just to have someone win a Chess match.
It's like asking Hannibal Lecter for cooking tips.
I'm not so sure: Hannibal Lecter at least seemed to know something about cooking.
He's reached out to a number of companies for help in various areas besides Microsoft. He's asked Yahoo to help him put together a profitable long-term business strategy, along with Twitter in case the Yahoo deal falls through. He's also asking Exxon to help with a clean-energy plan. And he's reached out to the DNC for help securing his email server.
With all his corporate partners he's set up for success!
Do you have ESP?
Um, no. The professional level software is Windows only. Carlsen is locked in.
Microsoft Promises
Microsoft Promises
Microsoft Promises
I'm crying tears of joy
It's easy to keep hackers out by not connecting that computer to a network.
Be seeing you...
From when I ran a honeypot server in a dmz for a while, I detected a pattern in where the attackers were from, and how flexible and smart they were.
Disregarding script kiddies and botnets, visitors from Russian and German IP addresses were at the top of the list, snooping around manually and looking at configuration files and kernel parameters, and sometimes recognizing that they were in a honeypot. Visitors from Indian and American IP addresses were at the bottom, doing brain dead stuff like uploading and trying to run x86 programs on a mips computer, and when it failed, trying it again as if it would magically work the second or third time...
Linux is obviously a lot more secure - however, get someone competent to set up security.
Using Microsoft, is essentially saying that you don't take security really seriously.
Russia ARE a boogeyman, they just hacked the Democratic party using fake servers and man in the middle attacks, sent emails though Kremlin propaganda office, and then handed over to Assange for release just prior to an election. It doesn't get anymore boogier than that. CIA has confirmed this.
You ARE being annexed, just the same way other countries have been annexed by Putin.
You really COULD wake up with a Viktor Yanokovych figure in power, who'll stuff his cabinet with pro Russia stooges.
You really COULD lose NATO, and with it the west of Europe with a President, weak on Putin's aggression.
Trump really does has all those Russian assets his son mentioned in 2008, but Trump now denies exist.
I know if you're a genuine Republican these are difficult to face, but he was NEVER the Republican candidate, he just hijacked the Republican ticket.
DO NOT LET PUTIN ANNEX THE USA, the way he annexed the Crimea and nearly got whole of Ukraine with Putin puppet Yanokovych.
I'm guessing that Sergey Karjaki might be looking to seek asylum in another country if he doesn't win this competition.
I'm sure if Carlsen asked, they would port whatever software he needed even to Commodore 64 for an endorsement.
Hey! If it wasn't for MS security I wouldn't have a job!
Quite bluntly, the whole IT security owes MS big time. If they didn't get people used to crappy security, people would actually be outraged now about all the security holes in various hard- and software. But since people are used to it, companies get away with it and I get paid well to plug those holes.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
ibm watson was no line for the jeopardy games.
So that there will be no Karjakin !
You're right, but there is also some subtle psychology and gamesmanship going on here.
Magnus Carlsen is much, much stronger than his opponent. He's the highest rated in history, and there is a huge gap between him and everybody else. And of the top 20 or so players right now, he's really the most able to play for a win from an equal position. Or for non-chess-players, that means he relies less on preparation than his opponent! Simply discovering his preparation would be less of an advantage than it would be against anybody else in the top grouping.
So yeah, it is funny to ask MS for help; but it also promotes a match that is here in the US by name-checking a US company. it also, if believed, might give encouragement to those who would try it, and there might even be a honey pot waiting. And, the most important and real driving reason, he's bragging that his opponent would need some help to win.
All the top chess players agree that psychology is a very important aspect of the game. Even for intelligent, very-well-prepared professionals, it is still really hard to avoid making even minor mistakes through a whole chess game. Magnus Carlsen not only plays a lot of great moves that astound his competition, he also makes less routine mistakes. So hard is it to not make small mistakes, that there are lots of mistakes even at the world championship level. Well, everybody else makes lots of mistakes; Magnus makes very precious few. A slight psychological advantage that leads to one time where his opponent makes a slightly hasty move, pow, game over, and the match is very difficult for an underdog to recover. So even just the threat of psychological advantage can create one, because Magnus really is that much stronger!
Also, they would need to have already hacked his preparation to have time to make good training advantage out of it. They either are already training based on his training; or they aren't. That won't happen last minute.
It doesn't surprise me at all, because I read the pathetic long logs that Brazilians create trying to crack ssh passwords.
The same IP will try for *years*. I don't even use allow ssh passwords, people. Crack a private key, or go home, jeeze.
That's the most braindead thing I've probably ever seen posted on an IT security article on Slashdot.
The idea that changing OS can magically give you absolute security is an astoundingly dangerous myth to peddle.
Please, step away from the keyboard before you cause someone some kind of data or financial loss.
It is well known that chess players try to unsettle their opponents before important matches, and a world championship match is as big as it gets.
However, capitalizing on the fact that the opponent is Russian, the match is played in New York, the fact that it starts immediately after the presidential elections, and that there was a lot of noise about Russia hacking US servers, is quite low.
Well below what is expected from a reigning Chess World Champion.
Disgusting stuff.
It's like asking Hannibal Lecter for cooking tips. Just use OSX or Linux. Problem solved.
This comment works very well but it's incomplete, doesn't take into account what end result is trying to be achieved, and may actually work against you.
Let's go for taste
It's like asking Hannibal Lecter for cooking tips. Just use McDonalds or KFC. The last two will get food into your mouth with limited effort or knowledge of cooking required. The former is likely delicious (working against you, lots of meat is delicious and I don't see humans being any different), but will actually require effort to cook.
Security is a process not a thing. Saying just use Linux you'll be secure is just utterly braindead, especially against a targeted attack. Now given the choice between me just using Linux or having the resources of a multinational despite what you think of them, against a state sponsored hacker I'm probably better off with the latter.
You'll have a computer that doesn't open any ports to the world by default.
So a useless computer? I mean if you're not going to open any ports then just disconnect it from the internet and then your Windows system is just as secure as Linux by default.
You're missing the fact that very very few attacks come in via some "open ports" typically because those "open ports" are behind some firewall or NAT and aren't actually "open". If they are open then there's likely a reason for it and they will be just as "open" on Linux as Windows.
Security is a process not a thing.
...doing brain dead stuff like uploading and trying to run x86 programs on a mips computer, and when it failed, trying it again as if it would magically work the second or third time...
Well, it's an x86 program. It often *does* magically work the second time.
His ignorance covered the whole earth like a blanket, and there was hardly a hole in it anywhere. - Mark Twain
The match is just after the election, so chances are about 50/50 that the rules will be changed to Parcheesi just so the new president can fool himself into thinking he's the best ever at understanding chess.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
Magnus Carlsen is much, much stronger than his opponent. He's the highest rated in history, and there is a huge gap between him and everybody else.
Highest rating achieved normalized to an equivalent (ELO) rating system:
2893 - Fischer
2882 - Kasparov
2880 - Botvinnik
2878 - Carlsen
2870 - Capablanca
So if by "highest rated in history" you mean 4th highest... sure.
source, with a very nice historical graph animation system
He is significantly higher rated than his opponent, but his opponent isnt even in the current active top-5 rated at the moment (he is in 9th):
2853 - Carlsen
2823 - Caruana
2811 - MVL
2810 - Kramnik
2795 - Aronian
There is no doubt that Carlsen (2853) has a big edge against Karjakin (2772), so there is no need to be dishonest about it.
"His name was James Damore."
Are chess competitions nowadays still face to face at a given venue, or are they now online? If they are online, unplug the cable doesn't sound like a plan
Also, how does a cyber attack help anyone here? In chess, both the players would have to think out their moves and then play, and everybody will see their move at the same time
But all the server breakins that have been in the news have been done w/ Unix servers (I'm using Unix generically here to cover UNIX, Linux, BSDs, et al). Not defending MS, but everything online is prone to attack
That's an ironic comment, given that during the Cold War, it was Liberals who would accuse the GOP of warmongering and Soviet baiting
While corruption is an issue in Russia, it does need a strongman. 8 years of Boris Yeltsin exposed what would happen if Moscow tried to be truly democratic, and allow anyone to do anything. You had the Chechens revolt, and carry out unspeakable terrorist attacks in Moscow, Beslan and anywhere they liked.
Also, people look at the territory covered by the Russians - from the Bering Strait to the Baltic Sea - and conclude that they are one big bully. But the historic reason that Russia got so big was that they had to. In their history, aside from being threatened by countries on their West - like the German states and Sweden, they were also the target of attempted conquests by the Mongols/Golden Horde, Tatars and Turks. Also, reason Tsarist Russia conquered Central Asia - it wasn't a lebensraum issue, but rather, the fact that the Kazakhs would conduct raids on the border and enslave Russians living on their borders. Same issue w/ the Crimean Tatars, who people now hold up as helpless victims of Russia: the Crimeans would launch raids into Russian and Polish lands to enslave people, and even burnt down Moscow on one occasion. But everybody assumes that they were this small tribe sitting in Crimea and minding their own business when the evil Russkies marched in
You are absolutely right about Islam & Muslims, and the insane thing about events since 2001 is that even while the West came face to face w/ Jihadist movements in their countries, they turned a blind eye to the identical threats towards Russia and China. If one is against the stated goals of theirs, there is no reason to support it anywhere. And the US, which was supported by Uzbekistan after 9/11 w/ 2 military bases there, stupidly supported the Islamic Movement of Turkestan in an attempted coup, and that resulted in them being kicked out of those 2 bases and getting into the shit list of the Tashkent regime. Granted that President Karimov (and now his successor) were not Jefforsonian democrats, but one can't be that if the opponents are Jihadists who want to restore the Timuride empire.
Russia is a wonderful country, but its leaders are corrupt. I don't like the Russian authorities and I hope Russia will one day have a peaceful revolution that implements a working and free democracy. But that will probably never work as long as Russia remains an empire. Without a strong and corrupt leadership Russia will crumble apart in hundreds of little states.
You could say much the same about the US - or the UK come to that (and probably most others)
Wrong and ignorant. It's not some non-management guy working in IT who decides what OS and software to use at a corporation. He's just taking advantage of the situation. The upper management makes decisions like that, based on input from vendor salespeople; the IT department's job is to support the products that upper management decides on.
Nah, I just tell him where to put the band aid, putting it on costs extra.
Seriously, if people knew what kind of crap they're using I'd be a lot poorer.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Security is the minimum of what the system can do and what the admin can do. Not the average. The minimum.
And good Linux admins know that they're worth money. Now add the willingness of the average manager to pay someone who does some actual work and you know why.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Airgap the PCs used for chess. Don't communicate online about your strategies (OTOH, if you're the best chess player, you can talk about your success strategy and others still won't beat you. Skill is not about having an unique secret.)