Nothing new under the sun.
Remember when an American corporation build a email system for the EU politicians? Somewhere in the '80ies IIRC. Email was said to be read by NSA officials before the intended recipient read the email.
Next round of trade negotations between EU and USA were a disaster for the EU. This lesson has cost us billions.
The legal system manages the rights on books, movies and music.
DRM 'manages' the restrictions when playing a recording - in fact DRM often violates the rights of a consumer (e.g. when preventing making backup copies while the legal system grants consumers the right to make a backup copy).
Not all computer users use (up-to-date) anti-virus software
No, but about 85% of computer users do, and financial information is a question of hitting as many people as possible.
According a recent survey only about 50% of computer users do use AV software, the % of up-to-date AV software is even lower.
Even fewer computer users use (up-to-date) anti-malware software
This isn't worth saying seperately, and this is an AV issue.
According to afore mentioned survey, far less than 50% of computer users do use anti malware software.
Anti malware isn't a AV issue. Yes, sometimes anti malware comes bundled with an AV package, but it isn't the same as AV software.
And, even if computer users use both up-to-date anti-virus and anti-malware software, they will be vulnerable in the time frame between the release of the rootkit and the release of the anti-rootkit software upgrade that fights it
And since time and the physical universe stop forever when a rootkit gets defeated, it doesn't matter that they'll lose enormous amounts of money afterwards by being shut out afterwards.
Most rootkits spread in a random way, and sooner or later they infect a honeypot run by an AV / anti malware vendor. That's when the AV / anti malware vendor starts analysing the rootkit. If a rootkit writer can't prevent the rootkit to infect a honeypot, then there is a real chance one of the first infected machines is a honeypot.
Another way AV / anti malware vendors get informed about new rootkits is the new-malware-reporting functionality built into most packages. If the rootkit spreads to a machine protected with such a AV / anti malware package, then the AV / anti malware vendor get's a report about the rootkit. And this could be one of the first machines the rootkit spreads to.
So the rootkit writer wants to spread fast and wide before the AV / anti malware vendors have a fix for the rootkit.
in this time frame the rootkit writers will 'make' more money than most Slashdot users during their whole life
Since we're talking hours here, then if you really believe there's that rate of transfer (there isn't - the more you take per day, the higher the chance you get detected by other means) - then surely you can see why they'd want this door open for months instead of hours?
My Symantec AV updates itself once every day - as do most other AV packages. And the time between discovering a rootkit and writing a cure against it can take weeks - so the timeframe is larger than you think.
Honestly. Whoever modded that insightful wasn't thinking at all.
the originators should have no reason to sell this technology. The more crackers that use it for their purposes, the more likely antivirus companies are going to take notice and take more immediate, drastic steps to stop it.
That sounds a little naive. It's wrong for several reasons:
Not all computer users use (up-to-date) anti-virus software
Even fewer computer users use (up-to-date) anti-malware software
And, even if computer users use both up-to-date anti-virus and anti-malware software, they will be vulnerable in the time frame between the release of the rootkit and the release of the anti-rootkit software upgrade that fights it - in this time frame the rootkit writers will 'make' more money than most Slashdot users during their whole life
Can you uninstall Windows Desktop Search, or is it just another piece of MS crapware that:
you don't want to use because it's inferior to another software product
you don't want to have installed on your PC
can't be uninstalled once installed (like WMP, MSIE, etc.)
uses a lot of harddisk space
uses a lot of RAM
makes you're computer 'run' more slowly - i.e. after install stalls your machine
requires monthly high-priority security patches in order to stay moderately secure
?
As an OSS advocate I like this MS action. It will convert even more people to start using free software (without licence keys, erroneous deactivations after driver updates, unwanted and unasked installs of unwanted extra software, expensive 'support' contracts, etc.).
It is also clear that they maintain their monopoly by abusive practices and that the US government doesn't do anything to fix this.
There are at least three reasons why USA politicians aren't running to fix the Microsoft monopoly problem:
Next year is an election year in the USA. And Microsoft is a very large contributor for fundraising politicians, so a politician wouldn't want to alienate Microsoft.
The USA trade deficit. Microsoft has a net profit margin on both Windows and Office of about 85 percent - all Windows and Office sales outside the USA bring money to the USA without equally large expenses (in terms of used manpower / resources) inside the USA. Without the Microsoft monopoly, and the way Microsoft 'utilises' this monopoly, the USA trade deficit would be larger still.
<conspiracy> Microsoft Update uses the Windows License Key to check if Windows is 'genuine'. And if the License Key belongs to an entity that is of some special interest to, let say, the NSA, then the Windows Update server could sent a 'customized' patch to that computer. </conspiracy>
however this then presents other radioactive issues
... like radioactive radon seeping from the ground. The amount of radon depends on your geographical location.
So you not only need protection against cosmic radiation, but also against terrestrial radiation. You could use a ventilation system to minimise the radon problem, but this will cost you a lot of money if you want to store the film for 30 years.
Also make sure your construction material isn't too radioactive; materials like wood, cement, stones, iron etc. all have a (low) level of natural radioactivity; stones from different sources have different natural radioactivity levels. Even very low levels won't do any good to films stored for 30 years. Bring a Geiger counter with you when selecting your construction material.
A Faraday cage won't stop particle radiation, nor will it protect against short wavelength radiation like gamma rays (unless you build a Faraday cage from massive lead plates, without any holes in it).
It also won't protect you against radioactive radon gas seeping out off the ground.
If a higher solar output is heating up the Earth and Mars, then the other planets should be heating up too. Is there any evidence of a warming up of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus etc. ?
If an insect gets inside that computer, then it can block a laserbeam. So debugging get's back to where debugging started: keeping insects out of computer equipment, so they don't obstruct lightpaths.
Slashdot Mirror
Our democracy, in the United States, is stronger than it has ever been in our lifetimes.
I'm sorry to say you're wrong. Democracy is about one (wo)man one vote, not about one lobbyist one vote, or one corporation one vote.
The US of A recently crossed the thin line between democracy and democrazy, read the NY Times article: http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/corporation-says-it-will-run-for-congress/
Nothing new under the sun. Remember when an American corporation build a email system for the EU politicians? Somewhere in the '80ies IIRC. Email was said to be read by NSA officials before the intended recipient read the email. Next round of trade negotations between EU and USA were a disaster for the EU. This lesson has cost us billions.
Maybe you would like to read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FET
... and if you don't believe me I will delete your account
Warning: "Politics makes you a fuckhead"
I think politicians really really should wear this Turing-test T-shirt.
DRM 'manages' the restrictions when playing a recording - in fact DRM often violates the rights of a consumer (e.g. when preventing making backup copies while the legal system grants consumers the right to make a backup copy).
oops - days, not hours. My bad :-(
... because if they had tested it for more than 24.5 hours then they would have found the bug immediately.
To boldly go where no computer virus went before ....
According a recent survey only about 50% of computer users do use AV software, the % of up-to-date AV software is even lower.
According to afore mentioned survey, far less than 50% of computer users do use anti malware software.
Anti malware isn't a AV issue. Yes, sometimes anti malware comes bundled with an AV package, but it isn't the same as AV software.
Most rootkits spread in a random way, and sooner or later they infect a honeypot run by an AV / anti malware vendor. That's when the AV / anti malware vendor starts analysing the rootkit. If a rootkit writer can't prevent the rootkit to infect a honeypot, then there is a real chance one of the first infected machines is a honeypot.
Another way AV / anti malware vendors get informed about new rootkits is the new-malware-reporting functionality built into most packages. If the rootkit spreads to a machine protected with such a AV / anti malware package, then the AV / anti malware vendor get's a report about the rootkit. And this could be one of the first machines the rootkit spreads to.
So the rootkit writer wants to spread fast and wide before the AV / anti malware vendors have a fix for the rootkit.
My Symantec AV updates itself once every day - as do most other AV packages. And the time between discovering a rootkit and writing a cure against it can take weeks - so the timeframe is larger than you think.
That sounds a little naive. It's wrong for several reasons:
'nuff said
I think they monitor the datastream from the webcam - if the amount of blue light suddenly increases, then the user will be frustrated.
- you don't want to use because it's inferior to another software product
- you don't want to have installed on your PC
- can't be uninstalled once installed (like WMP, MSIE, etc.)
- uses a lot of harddisk space
- uses a lot of RAM
- makes you're computer 'run' more slowly - i.e. after install stalls your machine
- requires monthly high-priority security patches in order to stay moderately secure
?As an OSS advocate I like this MS action. It will convert even more people to start using free software (without licence keys, erroneous deactivations after driver updates, unwanted and unasked installs of unwanted extra software, expensive 'support' contracts, etc.).
There are at least three reasons why USA politicians aren't running to fix the Microsoft monopoly problem:
So you not only need protection against cosmic radiation, but also against terrestrial radiation. You could use a ventilation system to minimise the radon problem, but this will cost you a lot of money if you want to store the film for 30 years.
Also make sure your construction material isn't too radioactive; materials like wood, cement, stones, iron etc. all have a (low) level of natural radioactivity; stones from different sources have different natural radioactivity levels. Even very low levels won't do any good to films stored for 30 years. Bring a Geiger counter with you when selecting your construction material.
A Faraday cage won't stop particle radiation, nor will it protect against short wavelength radiation like gamma rays (unless you build a Faraday cage from massive lead plates, without any holes in it).
It also won't protect you against radioactive radon gas seeping out off the ground.
To bad most online people don't understand the above subjectline ;-)
If a higher solar output is heating up the Earth and Mars, then the other planets should be heating up too. Is there any evidence of a warming up of Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus etc. ?
Problem is, it will make the CPUs glow so hot and bright they outshine the lasers - LOL
Are you going to pay the electricity bill ? ROFLOL
Build the CPU around a large free space inside the computer, in such a way that each CPU has a free line of sight to every other CPU.
Oh, and make sure no dust or insects can get inside the computer, and secure the IDE and power cables so can't hang around inside said free space.
If an insect gets inside that computer, then it can block a laserbeam. So debugging get's back to where debugging started: keeping insects out of computer equipment, so they don't obstruct lightpaths.
That's a lot of info.
No, that's a lot of data. Info is the result of analysing the data.
Please stop insulting the Swiss. Swiss cheese is completely unlike MS security:
If you insists on comparing MS security with a cheese product, then compare it with foam-cheese :-)