If this is a sustained attack:
1) block these emails
That's why they put out this warning so those responsible can do this
2) educate staff to be aware of this atleast in the short-term
That's why they put out this warning so those responsible can do this
3) hold educated staff atleast partly responsible for any infections that result from this attack
We do.
4) we need to vote in a government that actually knows how to use a computer
No arguments here.
If all spoofers are the same then I'd suggest that people should seriously think about firing those idiots in the UK.
How do you meen all spoofers the same? Same person? Same site? Same trick? I think you mean the address, we had some of these where I work they weren't all from the same address but we had already been warned so nobody apend them. Why should someone be fired as the attacks have been unsuccessful because of these warnings. I could understand it if any damage was done but they have been successfully stopped from doing damage or getting information
Also, where is the antivirus software???
If you had read the link you would know that AV is not fully effective against this attack.
It can fail... so can the containment in a nuclear reactor.
Which is a reson why, alot governments are dubious of building new ones unless absolutely necessary and prefer other types (Chernobyl taught the world a lot). What's worse a nuclear reactor failing or a coal/oil/gas power plant.
Point is, your info is out there. There's nothing you can do about it.
want to bet? My information is far from out there. who has my DNA, fingerprints Etc? no one that's who who has all this information stored on there central database, No one. You would be surprised at what information about you is not out there
Wouldn't it be worthwhile for you to have it EASIER for yourself?
Saving myself a minute hear and there is not worth the price, im not that stressed about my life that I need to save a few minutes a day
If you are worried about it getting out there, too damn late. I'd rather them put into place better security for my data and use this ID card than leave it the way it is.
how will an ID card will stop others using the information they already have? How will it improve there data security, what data protection rights would get that you don't already have (assuming you're a UK citizen)
This ID card would make our lives that much easier and just because of a few problems that COULD happen, you are all against it. Seems short sighted to me.
Are you saying that because it is unlikely to be abused at the moment we shouldn't worry about it being abused in the future. Now that IS being short sighted! Just because they are a few problems that could happen doesn't mean they are not important. If you had a child who COULD suffer an asthma attack (no matter how unlikely) in the future would leave there inhaler at home because it was unlikely that they would need it, or do you take it with you because no matter how unlikely an attack the repercussions of such an attack are too serious to be ignored. Whether agree with ID cards depends on whether you think spending lots of money and ignoring serious potential problems are an acceptable price to pay for a slight improvement in convenience.
You sound a lot like one of those pro Euro people who's main reason for being pro Euro was the convenience of not exchanging money for a holiday and ignored the far more important economic arguments against the Euro. I'm surprised by the similar tactics, ignore the important focus on the trivial.
Frankly, I think it would be easier to keep secure all my info in one place than all my info in 10 places. Yes, it would be easier to get all my info that way but there's not much you could do about that.
unluckily I live in the Peoples' Republic of Glasgow, where we elect telephone boxes "because they're New Labour red".
That sums it up so well. Loads of people voted for labour who would have never voted Tory because of there policies, but voted labour (old all new there the same) despite them being further to the right and more authoritarian than any Tory government. People got conned by labour and are unwilling to admit even to themselves although that is slowly changing.
ok your opinion but how? Hint: it won't as we (civil servants) already have government ID cards and someone else being able to prove who they are quickly will save all of 1 minute in the course of things
You can for once prove you are who you are in the UK
I can now with drivers license, bank cards, pay slip, utility bill, national insurance card ETC (ironically my government ID is not acceptable/recognized).
For the normal law-abiding citizen it will actually be easier to acquire a new driving license or passport should you have lsot the old one.
not difficult anyway might save a minute or 2 in the scheme of things
Improved information flow through the public sectors, e.g. if you become unemployed and go to the job centre or such like, your tax code can be updated right there instead by changing your status.
There is no reason this can't be done now so it is unlikely to change with ID cards.
Credit card scams are ripe in the UK with people stealing identities and having to provide an absolute minimum of ID to empty your account
No more ripe than any other country many of whom have ID cards.
Just because it wasn't part of the empire doesn't mean you can't use it!
Grow up you pathetic child! By using that as one of your arguments you show you have no real arguments in favour and that you allow prejudice to cloud your judgment "some old colonial types oppose ID cards then I must be for them" well I have news for you a lot of old colonial types favour ID cards probably more than oppose them, not that there are many old colonial types left.
So while you are sitting there with your 3000 handout from the government, I'm going to continue to pull 19 and 20 hour days trying to cram in work, school and studying. I think any US citizen that's put themselves through college can relate to this.
I suppose that's the diffrence between the US and UK. The UK wants people from all walks of life to be able to get educated were as the US can't stand to see people getting help to do things that would be otherwise impossible for them , Oh and most of the money a student gets is a loan that must be payed back when earning but the loan allows a student to concentrate on there university work and education and the government gets it's money back.
No matter how bad the UK gets slashdot serves to remind me the the US has it worse and likes it.
And the intelligence communities are explicitly to blame for this, because they provided the now-infamous "bad intelligence" on which Bush and Blair built their fallacious case for war,
Actually the UK intelligence agency Told the truth and it was the government who altered the documents changing the information from a slight possibility of battlefield weapons being ready in 45 minutes to a certainty of the US and UK being targeted within 45 minutes of an order being given. I suspect that it is a similar case with the US and once again the governments have diverted focus on there lies and failures from themselves to the Intelligence community.
I think its pathetic that the intelligence community which failed abysmally to thwart 9/11 and then come up with crap schemes like this to trace and identify possible terrorists. I'm sorry but they should be looking at schemes to find terrorists that don't involve abusing a cictizen's right to privacy.
I actually doubt the intelligence community are the main backers as ID cards are known to be ineffective at preventing terrorism, a few individual might back it because there political appointees.
The main backers are the police and government neither of which could be described as members of the "intelligence" community. The Government wants it because they (labour) are obsessed with control and technology the police want it because there lazy and don't want to do the simple thing of checking the electoral roll etc.
with the exception of the UK and Ireland since they don't bitch about everything.
Why do you hate UK and Ireland so much especially as we want to see MS sorted out (you did know the UK was one of the lead countries pushing for this didn't you?).
I'd hazard a guess that Europe would slide into the third world even faster.
Your ignorance is stangering and amusing. Will all computers suddenly stop? no, Will an alternative OS be developed? Yes, are there already alternatives? Yes. MS would never pull out because that would play into the EU's hands this is what they (the EU) want, the opportunity for other companies to grow, that is the last thing MS want.
If you were the MS chairman you sound like you would cut of your nose to spite your face and be proud of it.
free state run health care, free software, what more do you need, right?
A real free market without monopolies would be a good start.
(By the way, in practical terms the "Check Oil" light coming on means "Yo! You might just as well drive it straight to the dealership from here and have 'em put in a new engine, because it's already too late. Moron.")
If you keep driving around for i.e. go to the dealership like you suggest instead of stopping immediately or if you're doing high speeds on a motorway, very likely. But unless the car manufacturer did it deliberately the check oil light will come on before oil drops to too low a level (which is what it does indicate, perhaps your getting confused with the oil pressure light that some cars have damage can occur before that light turns on) not after engine damage has occurred.
I'm glad that both my granddad and dad are professional mechanics (I fix there computer they fix my car and we all learn about the other's area of expertise) so I can go to them rather than potential rippers* like you who give the motor industry a bad name, you sound like you work for a main dealer.
*Ripper=someone who rips of other i.e. unnecessary engine changes.
In the case of a mother who wanted to save her 6 month old child, but was unable to pay, the feeding tube was yanked because of a law Bush signed into law as Texas governor.
Wow when did that happen? do you have a link ir a name i can look up, im not american and this is the first i have heard of this.
well my presumation was american but im not worried about upseting you;). I was told that joke by an Australian temp who managed to make up (or reuse) an insult for everyone in the office, Good times.
It's alright just don't break the law same as the US. Guess I will avoid America with the amount of support of criminal activity gets. When criminals break the law they get punished one way of punishing them is to remove there property especially if there property was obtained by illegal means, this is no different to any country even the US. What makes MS so special that they have dispensation to break the law?
More like America demands others stick to the treaties but feel that it doesn't have to then acts all surprised and indignant that other countries insist that America also complies like everyone else, one rule for all.
MS losing 25 billion a year isn't half as bad as forcing every company to fire its current IT staff, buy all new software, train employees on said software and have any custom applications recoded for whatever the new platform is. Plus many more hidden costs.
Why would IT companies fire there staff and train them on new software? Also the rest of that sounds more like what happend with the milenium bug i.e. a short term large increase in the amount of jobs in the IT sector and a boost for the economy some non IT compaines may loss money* but many IT ones will make money.
If you don't play how a company wants to play then they are more then free to walk out. I assure you that Microsoft leaving wouldn't be half as bad as for MS as it would be for many indie developers, as well as larger software companies, losing tons of business or going out of business that rely on their software.
Alot of them would make money by supporting windows also there are plenty unaffected the only large software manufactures that would majorley affect would be game companies.
* And that's not certain as they could find replacing windows cheaper than there next forced upgrade anyway.
Yes, and that would be just a brilliant move. Then every developer in the EU can worry that the precedent has been set, and that the government might take away all their lifetimes of work with the stroke of a pen
They would only wory if they broke the law in the same way and scale, most developers would be happy with the market opening up.
My apologies, I was actually unaware that the British never sent anyone to NZ - I just presumed, incorrectly as it turns out.
If you ever meet someone with an "Australian" accent ask them if they come from NZ if they do they will be pleased you noticed the difference and if not who worries about upsetting Australians.
kidding I like Australians except when there betting us at sport (which means I don't like them a lot of the time;))
I am just trying to find out exactly what the EU thinks they will accomplish due to these sanctions on MS. Right now it seems like the EU is really trying to see if they can push around a big US company and make it jump hoops. They want people to say, "Ooh, look. The EU made Microsoft do all this stuff and the US Gov't didn't. This new government really does have some authoritah. Oooh." That's why it's a farce.
It has much more to do with the law and actually enforcing it rather than taking a nice bribe it has everything to do with politicians actually doing there jobs for once in there lives Don't be bitter because your government has no backbone. There spinelessness is the real farce
That's the thing. The EU isn't helping it's people by imposing these restrictions on Microsoft. In fact, I think you could say they are hurting them by forcing them to use an inferior version of MS software compared to the rest of the world.
Nobody is forcing anyone to use a WMP less version just to make it available not exclusive also you can install wmp later or real or anything else that takes your fancy. How is supplying XP with out WMP automatically installed inferior? For a machine that doesn't need to play media files like most of those used by business it would be superior as it wouldn't have unnecessary fat or temptation for staff to something other than working. From a business point of view a WMP less XP would be preferable.
can see where you're going with this, but there is a difference. If you continue the story, the police don't go and give your gun to somebody else, even another police officer. It will be locked away and perhaps destroyed. In the same way I don't think MS source should be given away to others even if their intentions are to do good with it.
I could be wrong but don't the police in America confiscate any thing that has been bought with drug's money or other proceeds of crime. And don't they use it as part of there budget so they can provide a service to others? (Not quite giving it away but close) MS may not be drug dealers but there still criminals and as far as I know most countries have ways of taking Criminal's proceeds away from them and give it in different ways (usually indirectly) to society. These arn't rules pulled out of the air they are applying precident from other crimes to this one.
Perhaps you should have told them your will I let my MEP know, do you really think they have free time to ask ever person in the EU? If it matters to you tell them.
And, who the hell is 'the independent MSEU'
MS have big offices in Europe employing European staff etc. if MS did pull out these offices etc would likely be split of become MS Europe.
Slashdot Mirror
If this is a sustained attack: 1) block these emails
That's why they put out this warning so those responsible can do this
2) educate staff to be aware of this atleast in the short-term
That's why they put out this warning so those responsible can do this
3) hold educated staff atleast partly responsible for any infections that result from this attack
We do.
4) we need to vote in a government that actually knows how to use a computer
No arguments here.
If all spoofers are the same then I'd suggest that people should seriously think about firing those idiots in the UK.
How do you meen all spoofers the same? Same person? Same site? Same trick? I think you mean the address, we had some of these where I work they weren't all from the same address but we had already been warned so nobody apend them. Why should someone be fired as the attacks have been unsuccessful because of these warnings. I could understand it if any damage was done but they have been successfully stopped from doing damage or getting information
Also, where is the antivirus software???
If you had read the link you would know that AV is not fully effective against this attack.
Which is a reson why, alot governments are dubious of building new ones unless absolutely necessary and prefer other types (Chernobyl taught the world a lot). What's worse a nuclear reactor failing or a coal/oil/gas power plant.
Point is, your info is out there. There's nothing you can do about it.
want to bet? My information is far from out there. who has my DNA, fingerprints Etc? no one that's who who has all this information stored on there central database, No one. You would be surprised at what information about you is not out there
Wouldn't it be worthwhile for you to have it EASIER for yourself?
Saving myself a minute hear and there is not worth the price, im not that stressed about my life that I need to save a few minutes a day
If you are worried about it getting out there, too damn late. I'd rather them put into place better security for my data and use this ID card than leave it the way it is.
how will an ID card will stop others using the information they already have? How will it improve there data security, what data protection rights would get that you don't already have (assuming you're a UK citizen)
This ID card would make our lives that much easier and just because of a few problems that COULD happen, you are all against it. Seems short sighted to me.
Are you saying that because it is unlikely to be abused at the moment we shouldn't worry about it being abused in the future. Now that IS being short sighted! Just because they are a few problems that could happen doesn't mean they are not important. If you had a child who COULD suffer an asthma attack (no matter how unlikely) in the future would leave there inhaler at home because it was unlikely that they would need it, or do you take it with you because no matter how unlikely an attack the repercussions of such an attack are too serious to be ignored. Whether agree with ID cards depends on whether you think spending lots of money and ignoring serious potential problems are an acceptable price to pay for a slight improvement in convenience.
You sound a lot like one of those pro Euro people who's main reason for being pro Euro was the convenience of not exchanging money for a holiday and ignored the far more important economic arguments against the Euro. I'm surprised by the similar tactics, ignore the important focus on the trivial.
Frankly, I think it would be easier to keep secure all my info in one place than all my info in 10 places. Yes, it would be easier to get all my info that way but there's not much you could do about that.
An ID card wont change any of that.
Because they know about technology and know how badly it can fail and easily it can be abused. BTW when it's possible and true it's not paranoia.
That sums it up so well. Loads of people voted for labour who would have never voted Tory because of there policies, but voted labour (old all new there the same) despite them being further to the right and more authoritarian than any Tory government. People got conned by labour and are unwilling to admit even to themselves although that is slowly changing.
ok your opinion but how? Hint: it won't as we (civil servants) already have government ID cards and someone else being able to prove who they are quickly will save all of 1 minute in the course of things
You can for once prove you are who you are in the UK
I can now with drivers license, bank cards, pay slip, utility bill, national insurance card ETC (ironically my government ID is not acceptable/recognized).
For the normal law-abiding citizen it will actually be easier to acquire a new driving license or passport should you have lsot the old one.
not difficult anyway might save a minute or 2 in the scheme of things
Improved information flow through the public sectors, e.g. if you become unemployed and go to the job centre or such like, your tax code can be updated right there instead by changing your status.
There is no reason this can't be done now so it is unlikely to change with ID cards.
Credit card scams are ripe in the UK with people stealing identities and having to provide an absolute minimum of ID to empty your account
No more ripe than any other country many of whom have ID cards.
Just because it wasn't part of the empire doesn't mean you can't use it!
Grow up you pathetic child! By using that as one of your arguments you show you have no real arguments in favour and that you allow prejudice to cloud your judgment "some old colonial types oppose ID cards then I must be for them" well I have news for you a lot of old colonial types favour ID cards probably more than oppose them, not that there are many old colonial types left.
I suppose that's the diffrence between the US and UK. The UK wants people from all walks of life to be able to get educated were as the US can't stand to see people getting help to do things that would be otherwise impossible for them , Oh and most of the money a student gets is a loan that must be payed back when earning but the loan allows a student to concentrate on there university work and education and the government gets it's money back.
No matter how bad the UK gets slashdot serves to remind me the the US has it worse and likes it.
Actually the UK intelligence agency Told the truth and it was the government who altered the documents changing the information from a slight possibility of battlefield weapons being ready in 45 minutes to a certainty of the US and UK being targeted within 45 minutes of an order being given. I suspect that it is a similar case with the US and once again the governments have diverted focus on there lies and failures from themselves to the Intelligence community.
I actually doubt the intelligence community are the main backers as ID cards are known to be ineffective at preventing terrorism, a few individual might back it because there political appointees.
The main backers are the police and government neither of which could be described as members of the "intelligence" community. The Government wants it because they (labour) are obsessed with control and technology the police want it because there lazy and don't want to do the simple thing of checking the electoral roll etc.
See the difference?
But the Government have said they want a compulsary ID card the volountry one is just a trial to see how people react before they become compulsary.
Why do you hate UK and Ireland so much especially as we want to see MS sorted out (you did know the UK was one of the lead countries pushing for this didn't you?).
I'd hazard a guess that Europe would slide into the third world even faster.
Your ignorance is stangering and amusing. Will all computers suddenly stop? no, Will an alternative OS be developed? Yes, are there already alternatives? Yes. MS would never pull out because that would play into the EU's hands this is what they (the EU) want, the opportunity for other companies to grow, that is the last thing MS want.
If you were the MS chairman you sound like you would cut of your nose to spite your face and be proud of it.
free state run health care, free software, what more do you need, right?
A real free market without monopolies would be a good start.
If you keep driving around for i.e. go to the dealership like you suggest instead of stopping immediately or if you're doing high speeds on a motorway, very likely. But unless the car manufacturer did it deliberately the check oil light will come on before oil drops to too low a level (which is what it does indicate, perhaps your getting confused with the oil pressure light that some cars have damage can occur before that light turns on) not after engine damage has occurred.
I'm glad that both my granddad and dad are professional mechanics (I fix there computer they fix my car and we all learn about the other's area of expertise) so I can go to them rather than potential rippers* like you who give the motor industry a bad name, you sound like you work for a main dealer.
*Ripper=someone who rips of other i.e. unnecessary engine changes.
Wow when did that happen? do you have a link ir a name i can look up, im not american and this is the first i have heard of this.
well my presumation was american but im not worried about upseting you ;). I was told that joke by an Australian temp who managed to make up (or reuse) an insult for everyone in the office, Good times.
Keyboards? Just hide the mice. Just put a post-it saying "this not a PC" on the monitor tat should confuse them enough.
It's alright just don't break the law same as the US. Guess I will avoid America with the amount of support of criminal activity gets. When criminals break the law they get punished one way of punishing them is to remove there property especially if there property was obtained by illegal means, this is no different to any country even the US. What makes MS so special that they have dispensation to break the law?
Always handy to know.
More like America demands others stick to the treaties but feel that it doesn't have to then acts all surprised and indignant that other countries insist that America also complies like everyone else, one rule for all.
Why would IT companies fire there staff and train them on new software? Also the rest of that sounds more like what happend with the milenium bug i.e. a short term large increase in the amount of jobs in the IT sector and a boost for the economy some non IT compaines may loss money* but many IT ones will make money.
If you don't play how a company wants to play then they are more then free to walk out. I assure you that Microsoft leaving wouldn't be half as bad as for MS as it would be for many indie developers, as well as larger software companies, losing tons of business or going out of business that rely on their software.
Alot of them would make money by supporting windows also there are plenty unaffected the only large software manufactures that would majorley affect would be game companies.
* And that's not certain as they could find replacing windows cheaper than there next forced upgrade anyway.
Thats true 1 polish soldier would be worth about 50 Americans.
They would only wory if they broke the law in the same way and scale, most developers would be happy with the market opening up.
If you ever meet someone with an "Australian" accent ask them if they come from NZ if they do they will be pleased you noticed the difference and if not who worries about upsetting Australians.
kidding I like Australians except when there betting us at sport (which means I don't like them a lot of the time ;))
Orwell was a liberal, 1984 was about the fear of fascism/authoritarianism.
It has much more to do with the law and actually enforcing it rather than taking a nice bribe it has everything to do with politicians actually doing there jobs for once in there lives Don't be bitter because your government has no backbone. There spinelessness is the real farce
That's the thing. The EU isn't helping it's people by imposing these restrictions on Microsoft. In fact, I think you could say they are hurting them by forcing them to use an inferior version of MS software compared to the rest of the world.
Nobody is forcing anyone to use a WMP less version just to make it available not exclusive also you can install wmp later or real or anything else that takes your fancy. How is supplying XP with out WMP automatically installed inferior? For a machine that doesn't need to play media files like most of those used by business it would be superior as it wouldn't have unnecessary fat or temptation for staff to something other than working. From a business point of view a WMP less XP would be preferable.
I could be wrong but don't the police in America confiscate any thing that has been bought with drug's money or other proceeds of crime. And don't they use it as part of there budget so they can provide a service to others? (Not quite giving it away but close) MS may not be drug dealers but there still criminals and as far as I know most countries have ways of taking Criminal's proceeds away from them and give it in different ways (usually indirectly) to society. These arn't rules pulled out of the air they are applying precident from other crimes to this one.
And, who the hell is 'the independent MSEU'
MS have big offices in Europe employing European staff etc. if MS did pull out these offices etc would likely be split of become MS Europe.