This is technically called a "Denial of Service attack via resource poisoning" and it's really, really hard to prevent motivated people to stop poisoning information sources (see Wikipedia on any politically controversial topic). Admittedly Wayz is an app (not a self-driving car nav system) but while the specific access techniques to get to the database are different, the attack methodology is precisely the same.People who don't want Wayz routing cars through their neighborhoods are feeding it false data.It was here that Connor learned that some Waze warriors had launched concerted campaigns to fool the app. Neighbors filed false reports of blockages, sometimes with multiple users reporting the same issue to boost their credibility.
Thursday, June 9, 2016
Why self-driving cars are a huge risk
Because people are already subverting their navigation systems:
Wednesday, June 8, 2016
HAHAHAHAHAHA!
Thank you, Internets:
That's pretty tasty, right there.An attempt to cover a screw up so bad that it will cost you everything, then lie, get caught, & continue to lie to try & cover the lies.Tim got so drunk he took his old man's car, hit a tree, totaled it, then took off. When the cops showed up at the house to question his dad about the car, he called Tim to the living room. Tim tried to Benghazi his sister by blaming her even though a traffic camera recorded the whole incident & caught him exiting the wreck. Tim tried to convince the cops it wasn't him, it was just someone who looked like him, continuing the Benghazi.
This is why we can't have nice things on the Internet
Because people don't do the technology equivalent of fixing a ripped screen door or peeling paint:
Telnet has been known to be Double Plus Ungood for about 25 years. And remote access to 11 Million databases? Gah.
Me, I recommend drinking heavily.
Millions of services that ought to be restricted are exposed on the open internet, creating a huge risk of hacker attack against databases and more.
...
Le sigh.Millions of systems on the internet offer services that should not be exposed to the public network. The survey uncovered 15 million nodes appearing to offer telnet (usually unencrypted), 11.2 million appearing to offer direct access to relational databases, and 4.5 million apparent printer services.
Telnet has been known to be Double Plus Ungood for about 25 years. And remote access to 11 Million databases? Gah.
Me, I recommend drinking heavily.
It looks like Snowden tried to deal with NSA spying through official channels
And of course, got stonewalled:
The NSA, it seemed, had not told the public the whole story about Snowden's contacts with oversight authorities before he became the most celebrated and vilified whistleblower in US history.Well knock me over with a feather.
Tuesday, June 7, 2016
So what will happen when Bernie makes College free?
Ignore for a moment that "free" certainly doesn't mean, you know, free. South Korea has nearly 100% college enrollment. What do they see?
A 2013 McKinsey study found that lifetime earnings for graduates of Korean private colleges were less than for workers with just a high-school diploma. The unemployment rate for new graduates has topped 30 percent.Huh. It's like the whole thing is some bizarre mix of Cargo Cult sociology along with a generous dose of "high paying jobs for Democrats".
Monday, June 6, 2016
How do you get access to a store's credit card terminals?
You ask:
Here we see the Bad Guys waltzing into a restaurant acting like they're Tech Support. This is a surprisingly hard problem to address.
CiCi’s Pizza, an American fast food business based in Coppell, Texas with more than 500 stores in 35 states, appears to be the latest restaurant chain to struggle with a credit card breach. The data available so far suggests that hackers obtained access to card data at affected restaurants by posing as technical support specialists for the company’s point-of-sale provider, and that multiple other retailers have been targeted by this same cybercrime gang.There's a long history of this sort of thing. Both MIT and Cal Tech have traditions of students doing pranks. Often these are elaborate, and done in broad daylight (I recall one where a statue was loaded onto a flat bed trailer and driven away). Key to this was having the Guy With The Clipboard - anyone who came by to ask what they were doing was asked to sign for the "pickup".
Here we see the Bad Guys waltzing into a restaurant acting like they're Tech Support. This is a surprisingly hard problem to address.
How Donald Trump can win 40 States
This election is not about policies, it's about identity. Donald Trump has managed to reach out to the long-neglected working class. The response in the primaries has been overwhelming - Trump has gotten more primary votes than anyone in GOP history. So the question for the general election is what will be the turnout from the working class? If the turnout is high, Trump will win in a landslide; if working class turnout is low, Hillary will likely win.
So the real question is how can Trump guarantee a massive working class turnout? With all due modesty, I believe that I have precisely the single issue that would do this.
Consider: working class wages have been static for two decades. Taxes have gone up, the cost of gasoline and rent has gone up, but there's been no corresponding increase in wages to offset this. The sense of endless treading water has fueled Trump's rise. Playing to this sense of "I can't win" seems to be the sweet spot for a Trump campaign.
The play is this: instead of income tax cuts (which disproportionately for to the upper 20%), revoke the Social Security worker-paid tax (FICA). This would be an immediate 7.25% increase in take home wages for 60% or more of the population. The likely cost would be $400M a year or so.
So where would Trump find that sort of coin? Adding it to the deficit is perhaps a winning play (c.f. Bernie Sanders), but is without doubt irresponsible. Having at least a deficit-neutral funding source would be preferable. So where do you find $400M of current government spending that Joe Everyman doesn't care about?
Grants:
And what's the counter-argument for Joe Everyman? How about "You'll take home $4,000 a year more than you do today." And the added argument of "So what current programs are worth $4,000 a year to your family?" will resonate. After all, the current spending is captured by special interests, none of which is interesting to Joe Everyman.
In an instant, Trump can refocus a significant percentage of government expenditures on a populist plan. That seems to be a winning play. Hillary is all about special interests, Trump would own the idea of reducing government burden on the working class.
And while this plan doesn't have the advantage of reducing overall expenditures, it does reduce the regressive nature of the tax structure. After all, the (Democratic party program of) Social Security is the single most regressive tax that the population struggles with. Trump would reduce (although not eliminate) that.
This seems like it would guarantee a massive working class turnout in the General election. Traditional Democratic party constituencies like blue collar and union blocs could break Trump's way. Hillary would have to spend more to try to keep these constituencies, and have to worry that her get out the vote efforts would just increase Trump's union vote. It might help Trump get more votes from the Black and Hispanic blocs - after all, it's a simple program with a lot of financial benefits directly to them.
Properly executed, this could lead to 40 or 45 States going to Trump. That level of support would intimidate Congress into enacting the needed statutes. They read the election returns, too.
So the real question is how can Trump guarantee a massive working class turnout? With all due modesty, I believe that I have precisely the single issue that would do this.
Consider: working class wages have been static for two decades. Taxes have gone up, the cost of gasoline and rent has gone up, but there's been no corresponding increase in wages to offset this. The sense of endless treading water has fueled Trump's rise. Playing to this sense of "I can't win" seems to be the sweet spot for a Trump campaign.
The play is this: instead of income tax cuts (which disproportionately for to the upper 20%), revoke the Social Security worker-paid tax (FICA). This would be an immediate 7.25% increase in take home wages for 60% or more of the population. The likely cost would be $400M a year or so.
So where would Trump find that sort of coin? Adding it to the deficit is perhaps a winning play (c.f. Bernie Sanders), but is without doubt irresponsible. Having at least a deficit-neutral funding source would be preferable. So where do you find $400M of current government spending that Joe Everyman doesn't care about?
Grants:
Certainly canceling most of these would cause a storm among the chattering classes. You'd hear nothing but how "Donald Trump is destroying the foundations of society" all day, every day until the election. It would be 24x7 anti-trump coverage about how he is undermining society. Every. Single. Day. For months.The federal government spends over $500 billion annually on grants-in-aid to state and local governments, making grants-in-aid the third largest item in the budget after Social Security and national defense. In recent decades, federal aid to state and local governments has soared and, thus, increased their reliance on federal aid for the financing of certain government functions.
And what's the counter-argument for Joe Everyman? How about "You'll take home $4,000 a year more than you do today." And the added argument of "So what current programs are worth $4,000 a year to your family?" will resonate. After all, the current spending is captured by special interests, none of which is interesting to Joe Everyman.
In an instant, Trump can refocus a significant percentage of government expenditures on a populist plan. That seems to be a winning play. Hillary is all about special interests, Trump would own the idea of reducing government burden on the working class.
And while this plan doesn't have the advantage of reducing overall expenditures, it does reduce the regressive nature of the tax structure. After all, the (Democratic party program of) Social Security is the single most regressive tax that the population struggles with. Trump would reduce (although not eliminate) that.
This seems like it would guarantee a massive working class turnout in the General election. Traditional Democratic party constituencies like blue collar and union blocs could break Trump's way. Hillary would have to spend more to try to keep these constituencies, and have to worry that her get out the vote efforts would just increase Trump's union vote. It might help Trump get more votes from the Black and Hispanic blocs - after all, it's a simple program with a lot of financial benefits directly to them.
Properly executed, this could lead to 40 or 45 States going to Trump. That level of support would intimidate Congress into enacting the needed statutes. They read the election returns, too.
Sunday, June 5, 2016
When Bernie Sanders gets elected*, every Ghost in the land is screwed
Heh:
The Silicon Graybeard turned me on to this site. It's pretty darn funny. Any his site is one of the smartest places on the 'net. You do read him every day, right? Thought so.
* This will be a real paranormal problem, because Hell will have frozen over. No telling where all the damned should will go then.
* This will be a real paranormal problem, because Hell will have frozen over. No telling where all the damned should will go then.
Saturday, June 4, 2016
Friday, June 3, 2016
Why do people get into Information Security?
It seems that it's the least stressful job around:
I posted a while back on how you can get into the field on the cheap.
Everyone knows that being an infosec analyst is a cushy job – but did you know quite how much? Because according to job website CareerCast, it is literally the least stressful job in the country.
The company measured 11 stress factors, including the amount of travel, deadlines, competitiveness, physical demands, risk to your life, and being in the public eye and concluded that the best of all possible worlds was in infosec.
"The proliferation of sensitive content stored online, as well as the growing importance of cloud computing, is fueling the demand for more information security analysts. Job prospects and competitive pay make this new addition to the Jobs Rated report one of the best jobs for 2016," CareerCast argues.
...
In fact, CareerCast seems to have a thing for infosec analysts, putting it not only bottom of the stress league but also listing it as the third best job to have in the United States, with a median salary of $89,000 and a healthy 18 per cent growth outlook. It's beaten only by statistician and data scientist.Not sure I'd say that it's the least stressful job around, but job opportunities abound and pay is good. And that's only getting better.
I posted a while back on how you can get into the field on the cheap.
Why do people get into cybercrime?
Because that's where the money is:
An analysis of the finances and operation of a ransomware outfit has shown it's entirely possible bankroll a modest-sized crime gang on victims' payoffs.
Dark web monitoring firm Flashpoint has been following a ransomware-as-a-service campaign organized by Russian crooks since December 2015, tracking the recruitment of associates, distribution of the malware, and payment processes.
...
Of course, you would only use your Powers for good ...The investigators found there were an average of 30 ransom payments made every month, netting the boss around $90,000 a year and his affiliates about $600 a month, although that varied depending on how successful they were at infecting systems. Larger ransomware gangs will trouser far larger sums, of course, as much as $90,000 a week or more.
Thursday, June 2, 2016
Quote Of The Day: From The Mouths of Babes Edition
Yeah, I know it's the second QotD. This is excellent:
Even a toddler knows that his is a useless waste of time for everyone.Today I learned that Stansted Airport security will make you put your child’s comforter through the Xray machine. And before you get it back, if the beeper goes off, ask him to stand still on his own to have a wand waved at him.My two year old boy sat down and screamed at the man. I was very proud.
Pets. They'll save you.
This Public Service Announcement has been brought to you by Your dog will get water all over the floor and your cat will feast on your dead flesh once you're gone.
Hillary to be charged with money laundering and accepting bribes?
The Huff Po seems to have pulled the story, so be careful:
James Comey and The FBI will present a recommendation to Loretta Lynch, Attorney General of the Department of Justice, that includes a cogent argument that the Clinton Foundation is an ongoing criminal enterprise engaged in money laundering and soliciting bribes in exchange for political, policy and legislative favors to individuals, corporations and even governments both foreign and domestic.Hmmmm.
Original post by Frank Huguenard, since removed from HuffPo.Double Hmmm.
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