Recent news suggests that Microsoft is about to cram their current Windows 10 phones full of bloatware in order to make up for their horrible market share decline. TripAdvisor is going to be the first ad implemented: http://www.pcworld.com/article...
Sucks for those WP fans that tried to be loyal and support their chosen platform, but Microsoft ain't never gonna change from their old ways.
Tails is not immune to the observation that the chance and number of critical security errors increase as approximately the square of the number of new features.
Only recently was the TrueCrypt security review completely, a and a half after the project was abandoned. At least one successor fork, VeraCrypt is not adding features every week.
I would like monthly security fixes and no more than yearly feature additions.
That's precisely what TAILS' release cycle is. It's based off of Debian stable, so whatever that wasn't in Jessie won't be added for several years. There are scheduled security updates (as well as emergency releases for when the security vulnerabilities are particularly serious).
The release notes tell you exactly why they're OK with systemd:
"+ Sandbox many services using Linux namespaces and make them harder to exploit.
+ Make the launching of Tor and the memory wipe on shutdown more robust.
+ Sanitize our code base by replacing many custom scripts."
Maybe that will change if a backdoor or serious security vulnerabilities are discovered, but until then, one need not be afraid.
Perhaps someone may enlighten me here, but if I recall correctly, Tor doesn't actually hide the fact that you're using it, only what you're using it for, yes? Does Tails have some kind of extra protection to obscure even that??
That's kind of backwards. Any webmaster can tell when there's Tor users accessing their server. The purpose of Tor is to prevent a location trace (since all that you'd see is what exit node they came out of, not which node they entered through). The Tor Browser and TAILS supplement this because they're pre-configured (N.B. they strongly recommend you don't alter any of the default settings), so that every TB and TAILS user looks identical (i.e. they leave no special fingerprints that could be used to identify them).
On the firehose submission of this news, I recommended some additional information be included in TFS:
"This summary could use some more information. I'm here to help! What version of Tor (0.2.7.8) and the Tor browser (5.5, based off Firefox ESR 38.6)? What's new in 2.0 besides the OS and Tor updates (switch from Claws Mail to GNU Icedove, switch from SysVinit to systemd)? Did you know that it uses GNOME classic-mode instead of fallback-mode now? Did you know that Tails will now notify you if you're using virtualization software with proprietary binaries?"
I would get an iPad Pro or the Pixel C but the office apps on them are crippled (I regularly use regex, mail merges, macros, etc.). So an Ubuntu tablet with an attachable keyboard would be perfect for my usage. Looking forward to it!
I wouldn't classify Google as an "advertising firm", but on Android tablets, you can sideload Adblock Plus or Adguard (I can't get the former to work on cellular data, but the latter works like a charm for me). 6.0 has a file explorer built into the settings, but there's also a myriad to download from the Play Store.
Apple is new to reacting effectively to security. Microsoft gets beat up about security, but they have learned to attempt to react better. May not be perfect.
I know so many Apple people that think Apple immune security issues. I seriously wonder if we will see a day when Apple is is hit with the same type of security questions that have plagued Microsoft over the years.
Windows spent almost two decades with admin privileges by default 24/7, no mandatory-access control, installations that could occur silently and without user input, core system updates through the web browser, whilst also being the only real desktop PC operating system (i.e. it was the most lucrative target for malware authors). It's actually sort of miraculous that the security ecosystem wasn't in even worse shape than it was.
By contrast, OS X's origins in unix give it a fairly safe grounding. The keyring and SIP in El Capitan also seem to be quite robust. And Apple users are more trusting of automatic security updates compared to Windows users (Microsoft poisoned that well when they started pushing shitty drivers and malware through their updates).
A few posters nailed it, this is a 'Fear campaign' against an OS that LEO's have never been able to penetrate.
FACTS:
1. The core of the Blackberry 10 OS is QNX which is used for Aerospace/Defense systems.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
2. The current LEO issued "Smartphone Recovery Kit" as advertised does NOT support BB, but does crack iPhone & Android Smartphones
http://www.npr.org/2014/03/20/...
3. Not one shred of ACTUAL/PHYSICAL evidence? Just numerous 'stories' or references to vague third-parts apps...
4. While other Gov. Officials in various countries have had their communications hacked, Obama (and the last few Pres) have NEVER had their phone compromised......guess what Obama himself uses? dun..dun...dun.........BLACKBERRY
http://www.zdnet.com/pictures/...
I feel sorry for BB as a company, there has been a coordinated campaign for years to discredit and destroy them, granted US consumers aren't smart enough to value security and chose Free Apps/Cheap Price (Android) and Hip/Youthful (Apple) which, in a word, sucks:(
THIS IS MY FIRST POST TO/.
I know this is a polarizing opinion argument, but I tried to post links where possible and hope this helps clear some misconceptions!
3 Slashdot
Also they have haters who are either paid or do it out of personal spite.
Even Apple fanboys are more reasonable than BlackBerry haters.
Right on schedule. Does your boss really think that there's some company out there that hates BB enough to pay to hurt their online reputation, or is that just what he tells the shareholders to explain the massive drops in revenue?
Nobody said anything about 'cracking'.
They were able to 'read' the messages after hitting the user with a wrench to get the password.
Well, if you want to be pedantic... What TFS literally says is "Police in two countries have claimed that they can read encrypted data from BlackBerry devices". I myself can also read encypted data--it reads like random white noise, but I can read it!
Clearly they have some fanboys (else, why would Crackberry exist at all), but I didn't say fanboys. I said shills. The same ones that infested the comments section of Ars Technica after they posted a negative review of the Priv.
PGP works great for Linux users. If I had to make a guess as to why it's not working so great for BB customers, I would just take a stab in the dark and say it's related to the fact that BB's CEO openly defends putting backdoors in phones and computers for "lawful access" by governments.
I mean it literally: Thanks, MS, for having the longest (free) support time for OS's of any commercial vendor today.
I assume this is sarcastic, since this news story is about how Windows Vista (neither free as in beer nor speech) just got fucked before its promised EOL date. But in case you're being serious, I point out that RHEL and CentOS have about the same support life as Windows does. And those are *actually* free.
Our heads of national intelligence and security are easily compromised by remote hackers/social engineers. Sounds like a fairly big problem. Then again, our nation didn't complain too much when it was discovered that the Secretary of the Treasury either cheated on, or couldn't figure out, his taxes, so I guess this shouldn't be much of a shocker.
So, should we surrender the four years that we paid for to be hip and with the times?
What's fair and what's reality are two entirely separate things. The short answer is -yes- get with the times; IT is a moving target of progress. There are cheaper options however; you can virtualize old Windows 95 boxes if you require legacy 16bit code to run over a mapped RS232 port as an example. It's ugly, but VM-ing an obsolete OS that's bound to custom legacy applications is doable.
Are you fucking kidding me? We should spend hundreds of thousands of dollars migrating to an OS that provides literally nothing useful to us, seizes control from our hands, and spies on us--for no reason whatsoever other than because it would be "with the times"?
Isn't that a little of an overreaction? Twice a day is not that much.
We both know that if they put in a check box to turn it off, so many people would just click "never" because they do not want to be bothered with it, but absolutely would benefit from an upgrade. In the general case they should nag about upgrading to windows 10 for the same reason that they nag about general [security] upgrades. Because their are far more idiots that will just click "never" without even reading it, than their are intelligent, informed people who would benefit from the chose.
Please read the article. People tech savvy enough to edit the Windows Registry to avoid being nagged about an update are probably the "intelligent, informed people who would benefit from the chose [sic]". Yet Microsoft is bypassing their settings and attempting to force the upgrade on them.
In other words, "I don't care if I'm being spied on, I have nothing to hide." And also, "I don't care if the computer I paid for is forcefully seized from my control."
False. Even with all the settings turned off, Windows 10 sends your personal information to over 100 domains. They have to be blocked from the router (Win10 bypasses its firewall and hosts file, so those don't work): https://github.com/WindowsLies...
Unless your IT department didn't bother doing their job you're not being cajoled into anything right now. Computers registered on a domain are not subject to the same update policies as standalone, personal PCs. As for the ${x}00K cost to upgrade your legacy software, you're going to have to eat it some time within the next four years...
So, should we surrender the four years that we paid for to be hip and with the times? Or should we save our money and then spend the next four years migrating to an OS that doesn't forcefully seize control of our computers?
People bought Google and Apple products knowing that there was telemetry and a walled garden. Nobody bought Windows 7 believing that Microsoft would forcefully seize control of their computers and disable their manually-changed settings.
Slashdot Mirror
Recent news suggests that Microsoft is about to cram their current Windows 10 phones full of bloatware in order to make up for their horrible market share decline. TripAdvisor is going to be the first ad implemented: http://www.pcworld.com/article...
Sucks for those WP fans that tried to be loyal and support their chosen platform, but Microsoft ain't never gonna change from their old ways.
Tails is not immune to the observation that the chance and number of critical security errors increase as approximately the square of the number of new features.
Only recently was the TrueCrypt security review completely, a and a half after the project was abandoned. At least one successor fork, VeraCrypt is not adding features every week.
I would like monthly security fixes and no more than yearly feature additions.
That's precisely what TAILS' release cycle is. It's based off of Debian stable, so whatever that wasn't in Jessie won't be added for several years. There are scheduled security updates (as well as emergency releases for when the security vulnerabilities are particularly serious).
switch from SysVinit to systemd
Yeah, that freaked out the Devuan paranoids https://lists.dyne.org/lurker/message/20160127.151137.ab4c9937.en.html
The release notes tell you exactly why they're OK with systemd:
"+ Sandbox many services using Linux namespaces and make them harder to exploit.
+ Make the launching of Tor and the memory wipe on shutdown more robust.
+ Sanitize our code base by replacing many custom scripts."
Maybe that will change if a backdoor or serious security vulnerabilities are discovered, but until then, one need not be afraid.
circumventing censorship without a trace
Perhaps someone may enlighten me here, but if I recall correctly, Tor doesn't actually hide the fact that you're using it, only what you're using it for, yes? Does Tails have some kind of extra protection to obscure even that??
That's kind of backwards. Any webmaster can tell when there's Tor users accessing their server. The purpose of Tor is to prevent a location trace (since all that you'd see is what exit node they came out of, not which node they entered through). The Tor Browser and TAILS supplement this because they're pre-configured (N.B. they strongly recommend you don't alter any of the default settings), so that every TB and TAILS user looks identical (i.e. they leave no special fingerprints that could be used to identify them).
On the firehose submission of this news, I recommended some additional information be included in TFS:
"This summary could use some more information. I'm here to help! What version of Tor (0.2.7.8) and the Tor browser (5.5, based off Firefox ESR 38.6)? What's new in 2.0 besides the OS and Tor updates (switch from Claws Mail to GNU Icedove, switch from SysVinit to systemd)? Did you know that it uses GNOME classic-mode instead of fallback-mode now? Did you know that Tails will now notify you if you're using virtualization software with proprietary binaries?"
I would get an iPad Pro or the Pixel C but the office apps on them are crippled (I regularly use regex, mail merges, macros, etc.). So an Ubuntu tablet with an attachable keyboard would be perfect for my usage. Looking forward to it!
I wouldn't classify Google as an "advertising firm", but on Android tablets, you can sideload Adblock Plus or Adguard (I can't get the former to work on cellular data, but the latter works like a charm for me). 6.0 has a file explorer built into the settings, but there's also a myriad to download from the Play Store.
Apple is new to reacting effectively to security. Microsoft gets beat up about security, but they have learned to attempt to react better. May not be perfect.
I know so many Apple people that think Apple immune security issues. I seriously wonder if we will see a day when Apple is is hit with the same type of security questions that have plagued Microsoft over the years.
Windows spent almost two decades with admin privileges by default 24/7, no mandatory-access control, installations that could occur silently and without user input, core system updates through the web browser, whilst also being the only real desktop PC operating system (i.e. it was the most lucrative target for malware authors). It's actually sort of miraculous that the security ecosystem wasn't in even worse shape than it was.
By contrast, OS X's origins in unix give it a fairly safe grounding. The keyring and SIP in El Capitan also seem to be quite robust. And Apple users are more trusting of automatic security updates compared to Windows users (Microsoft poisoned that well when they started pushing shitty drivers and malware through their updates).
I wonder how popular this politician will be when he realizes that this will ban the purchase of iPhones in the state of New York.
A few posters nailed it, this is a 'Fear campaign' against an OS that LEO's have never been able to penetrate. FACTS: 1. The core of the Blackberry 10 OS is QNX which is used for Aerospace/Defense systems. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... 2. The current LEO issued "Smartphone Recovery Kit" as advertised does NOT support BB, but does crack iPhone & Android Smartphones http://www.npr.org/2014/03/20/... 3. Not one shred of ACTUAL/PHYSICAL evidence? Just numerous 'stories' or references to vague third-parts apps... 4. While other Gov. Officials in various countries have had their communications hacked, Obama (and the last few Pres) have NEVER had their phone compromised......guess what Obama himself uses? dun..dun...dun.........BLACKBERRY http://www.zdnet.com/pictures/... I feel sorry for BB as a company, there has been a coordinated campaign for years to discredit and destroy them, granted US consumers aren't smart enough to value security and chose Free Apps/Cheap Price (Android) and Hip/Youthful (Apple) which, in a word, sucks :(
THIS IS MY FIRST POST TO /.
I know this is a polarizing opinion argument, but I tried to post links where possible and hope this helps clear some misconceptions!
3 Slashdot
Shill #2, right on schedule.
Also they have haters who are either paid or do it out of personal spite.
Even Apple fanboys are more reasonable than BlackBerry haters.
Right on schedule. Does your boss really think that there's some company out there that hates BB enough to pay to hurt their online reputation, or is that just what he tells the shareholders to explain the massive drops in revenue?
lol ... spoken like a true apple fanboy, just sayin ...
What?
Nobody said anything about 'cracking'. They were able to 'read' the messages after hitting the user with a wrench to get the password.
Well, if you want to be pedantic... What TFS literally says is "Police in two countries have claimed that they can read encrypted data from BlackBerry devices". I myself can also read encypted data--it reads like random white noise, but I can read it!
Clearly they have some fanboys (else, why would Crackberry exist at all), but I didn't say fanboys. I said shills. The same ones that infested the comments section of Ars Technica after they posted a negative review of the Priv.
PGP works great for Linux users. If I had to make a guess as to why it's not working so great for BB customers, I would just take a stab in the dark and say it's related to the fact that BB's CEO openly defends putting backdoors in phones and computers for "lawful access" by governments.
BlackBerry has an intense cadre of Internet shills that likely will be defending them within about a day or two. Just watch.
For any sane person that cares about their privacy and safety, this should be the nail in the coffin for BB.
I mean it literally: Thanks, MS, for having the longest (free) support time for OS's of any commercial vendor today.
I assume this is sarcastic, since this news story is about how Windows Vista (neither free as in beer nor speech) just got fucked before its promised EOL date. But in case you're being serious, I point out that RHEL and CentOS have about the same support life as Windows does. And those are *actually* free.
Our heads of national intelligence and security are easily compromised by remote hackers/social engineers. Sounds like a fairly big problem. Then again, our nation didn't complain too much when it was discovered that the Secretary of the Treasury either cheated on, or couldn't figure out, his taxes, so I guess this shouldn't be much of a shocker.
Save your money and time by not purchasing software which is so delicate it breaks when a version number increments.
Had I been with my current company a decade ago, I assure you, I would've strenuously advised this.
What's fair and what's reality are two entirely separate things. The short answer is -yes- get with the times; IT is a moving target of progress. There are cheaper options however; you can virtualize old Windows 95 boxes if you require legacy 16bit code to run over a mapped RS232 port as an example. It's ugly, but VM-ing an obsolete OS that's bound to custom legacy applications is doable.
Are you fucking kidding me? We should spend hundreds of thousands of dollars migrating to an OS that provides literally nothing useful to us, seizes control from our hands, and spies on us--for no reason whatsoever other than because it would be "with the times"?
Isn't that a little of an overreaction? Twice a day is not that much.
We both know that if they put in a check box to turn it off, so many people would just click "never" because they do not want to be bothered with it, but absolutely would benefit from an upgrade. In the general case they should nag about upgrading to windows 10 for the same reason that they nag about general [security] upgrades. Because their are far more idiots that will just click "never" without even reading it, than their are intelligent, informed people who would benefit from the chose.
Please read the article. People tech savvy enough to edit the Windows Registry to avoid being nagged about an update are probably the "intelligent, informed people who would benefit from the chose [sic]". Yet Microsoft is bypassing their settings and attempting to force the upgrade on them.
In other words, "I don't care if I'm being spied on, I have nothing to hide." And also, "I don't care if the computer I paid for is forcefully seized from my control."
False. Even with all the settings turned off, Windows 10 sends your personal information to over 100 domains. They have to be blocked from the router (Win10 bypasses its firewall and hosts file, so those don't work): https://github.com/WindowsLies...
Unless your IT department didn't bother doing their job you're not being cajoled into anything right now. Computers registered on a domain are not subject to the same update policies as standalone, personal PCs. As for the ${x}00K cost to upgrade your legacy software, you're going to have to eat it some time within the next four years...
So, should we surrender the four years that we paid for to be hip and with the times? Or should we save our money and then spend the next four years migrating to an OS that doesn't forcefully seize control of our computers?
People bought Google and Apple products knowing that there was telemetry and a walled garden. Nobody bought Windows 7 believing that Microsoft would forcefully seize control of their computers and disable their manually-changed settings.