Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Cybercriminals Hack Hospital PCs Demand Whopping 9000 BTC Ransom

 


It has been more than a week now that Hollywood Presbyterian Medical Center’s (HPMC) computers have remained down due to a severe ransomware attack. The attackers have asked for $3.6million or 9,000 BTC in ransom and it seems that until it is paid, the systems will remain inaccessible
The hospital staff is trying its best to deal with the damages since they have lost access to some of the patients’ data and their email accounts. Computers responsible for conducting several key operations such as documentation, CT scans, pharmacy and lab work are currently down. The staff is left with few other options and so, they are relying on fax machines and telephones to keep the day-to-day operations of the hospital running.

 


Thank you for demonstrating the problem with connecting every single computer you own to the internet.
Why is this relevant ? The forced (as in totally against your will do any dirty trick to make you do it) upgrade to Windows 10 demands your computer be online all the time to receive updates and to use your "software as a service" (ie: you don't own it , and you need to be connected for it to work).
Basically , you're trying to stay offline to avoid being hacked, and money soft is demanding you stay online all the time so you can be hacked. Oh and they don't care about anything but making money. Hand over the cash and who cares if you go bankrupt they got the whole world as their customers. 


PS: Everyone get an old junker and put Linux on it and start practicing , because at the rate we're going , that old clunker is going to be the only computer you got running. I recommend some version of Ubuntu , since it's easy to use. 
 


 

Wednesday, February 10, 2016

NATO, EU sign agreement on cyberdefense co-operation

 BRUSSELS - NATO and the European Union have signed an agreement to improve co-operation in cyberdefense, which NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg called a concrete example of the two Brussels-based organizations joining forces to counter modern forms of hybrid warfare.

 

 Yes , yes. Instead of just america crippling everyone encryption and laying us open to chinese and russian hackers, we'll have all of the west crippling our encryption and laying us open to hackers. 

Oh , and to make us feel good , they're going to call it "cyber defense" or "improved security" , as if crippling what you already have is some kind of improvement.

 

 

Tuesday, February 09, 2016

U.S. Regulators Says Google Computer Can Be Considered Car's Driver

U.S. Regulators Says Google Computer Can Be Considered Car's Driver

 

 So  , if the car gets in an accident , do you give the demerits to just this copy of the software if it's guilty of causing it ? Or do all copies ? Because if you give it to just one copy , but it's identical to all the copies, then that's kind of pointless. But if you give the demerits to all copies it won't be long before that particular piece of software is legislated off the road. 

 

 Google told NHTSA that the real danger is having auto safety features that could tempt humans to try to take control

 And you want to trap people in a car with no controls , and software that needs constant upgrades and hackers from china can get at , but the passengers cannot. Hmmm......have you read the news lately  ? Especially considering frequent hacks on everything connected ? 

Typical American Business Move. Get somethign to market quick , worry about security later. IoT is rife with such things. (I suppose an automated car is a piece of IoT). Problem is, the car not only can be made to crash by chinese hackers, it can be made to run down pedestrians and speed along the sidewalk doing maximum carnage , and how are you going to extradite hackers from Russia who are boasting about how many pedestrians they hit ? 

 

On a planet with a world wide internet that's being hacked on a daily basis by people in another nation who cannot be extradited for their crimes,  this is a VERY bad idea.  

 

 

 

 

Tuesday, February 02, 2016

Google feels free with your credit card

article = none , personal experience

So I downloaded a "bejeweled" game of some kind from Google Play , the online store  on your android phone, and I played it a while. 
And after playing six levels on it , it told me I was out of power and needed to buy 20 bars of some kind. 
What bars ? 
Until this point , bars had not been mentioned in the game. There was no way to earn them , and no counter to say how many you had. Just a button that said "ok" or "Cancel".

Now , having heard of "pay to win" games that stop every now and then and demand money I was suspicious. But it didn't say anything about charging me money.  But there was no game value , just press yes and keep on playing. And when you play you earn points ,not these bars ? 

That's when I realized Google Play keeps demanding my credit card information every time i try to download anything (there's usually a tiny , hard to see "skip" button, it takes a few minutes to hunt around and find it , it's not at all obvious). And this game has access to my credit card (assuming I ever entered the information. ) 

This is unbelievable. These games are racking up your credit card, and there is NOTHING on the screen that says you're incurring any kind of extra charge. No wonder we keep seeing stories of some kid racking up 8000$ on his dad's credit card.  Why aren't these people being thrown in jail for fraud ! This is outragous ! 

I didn't just uninstall the game. I unintalled google play , as well , and Google services. 
If they're going to act like the classic "Den of theives" , I'm gonna treat them as such. Get that crap off my phone.