Ashley Madison hack is not only real, it’s worse than we thought

Found on Ars Technica on Wednesday, 19 August 2015
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Researchers are still poring over the unusually large dump, but already they say it includes user names, first and last names, and hashed passwords for 33 million accounts, partial credit card data, street names, and phone numbers for huge numbers of users, records documenting 9.6 million transactions, and 36 million e-mail addresses.

Already, websites are popping up that allow anyone to enter an e-mail address and find out if it was included in the dump. It wouldn't be surprising for the same thing to be done for phone numbers and other data fields. This massive leak isn't likely to end well for huge numbers of people.

That makes you wonder how in the days before the Internet people had affairs. Maybe it was not as easy, but it sure was more secret.

Donald Trump dumps on Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg

Found on The Register on Tuesday, 18 August 2015
Browse Politics

Trump singled out Zuckerberg with the release of his immigration reform policy that, among other things, details a plan to build a wall between the United States and Mexico.

The Trump believes the US should instead adopt a “Requirement to hire American workers first” because “Too many visas, like the H-1B, have no such requirement.”

With Trump as candidate, there will be need for a lot of popcorn.

Windows 10 PC sales boost? Don't hold your breath, say analysts

Found on The Register on Monday, 17 August 2015
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Many had hoped Windows 10 would fix the complaints around Windows 8 and, for ailing PC vendors, spur a wave of users buying new hardware to accompany the latest OS.

Since its launch, however, complaints have risen over the way Windows 10 handles the personal data of users. Reviewers have noted numerous privacy concerns about the amount of information Windows 10 sends back to Microsoft by default.

It's not only the privacy concerns. Rumours say that MS keeps the option to reject uncertified hardware, and disable pirated games. Along with the reboot bug which outlined the problem of forced updates this does not make consumers happy.

Spanish woman fined for posting picture of police parked in disabled bay

Found on The Guardian on Sunday, 16 August 2015
Browse Legal-Issues

The unnamed woman, a resident of Petrer in Alicante, south-east Spain, posted the photo on her Facebook page with the comment “Park where you bloody well please and you won’t even be fined”.

Asked how the photo had put the police at risk, he said the officers felt the woman had impugned their honour by posting the picture and referred the incident to the town hall authorities. “We would have preferred a different solution but they have the legal right to impose the fine,” Portillo said.

Why did she complain at all? Looks like the police parked exactly where they are supposed to park before enforcing such laws.

Web users at risk as 600,000 machines continue to run Windows Server 2003

Found on The Inquirer on Saturday, 15 August 2015
Browse Internet

Netcraft, which collated the figures, reckons that 175 million websites are directly served from a Server 2003 computer.

Microsoft's out-of-range support costs a rumoured $600 a machine, so the potential cost for those who ignored the opportunity to get on a migration path in good time is getting huge, whatever they decide to do. µ

The biggest issue is to actually get people to migrate. Many run decade-old quick&dirty scripts, fiddled together by aspiring webmasters back then who started with ASP, or even compiled their own binaries.

Despite transparency claims, Etsy ups secrecy and shifts profits overseas

Found on Ars Technica on Friday, 14 August 2015
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In a little-noticed change to the company’s Terms of Use that took effect last month, the online craft retailer has now restructured itself such that it now has an Irish subsidiary, Etsy Ireland, an unlimited liability corporation.

"Translation: We figured out a technically legal way to cut our tax bill, and it doesn't bother us that doing so reduces the ability of our government to fund programs that we otherwise claim to support," he wrote. "We'll get back to you when we've figured out any other 'operational efficiencies' that we might exploit."

That's what people are pushing for though. More and more people are looking at the stock market, and every dollar saved has a positive influence on the shares.

Milk prices row: Asda pledges to pay supplier 28p a litre

Found on BBC News on Thursday, 13 August 2015
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Asda's announcement comes after protests by dairy farmers at branches of Asda, Morrisons, Lidl and Aldi over the price they are paid for their milk.

"Asda's origins are in dairy farming which is why we are acting in the best interests of our farmers and our customers by increasing the price we pay, introducing the Farmer's Marque label and not passing on any of the costs to customers - our retail price stays the same," he said.

A few cents more won't hurt the consumer, but it makes quite a difference for the farmers, and their animals. More should follow this example.

Windows 10 bulk patch produces INFINITE CRASH LOOP

Found on The Register on Wednesday, 12 August 2015
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The cumulative update is rebooting after getting part way through the installation process on x64-based systems without completing set up. The update is KB3081424.

“Downloads, reboot to install. Gets to 30% and reboots. Gets yo [sic] 59% and reboots. Gets to 59% again and then states something went wrong so uninstalling the update. Wait a few minutes and reboot. Back to login screen This happens without fail, every single time.”

It’s the second update glitch to hit Window 10: update KB3074681 came days before the big launch and crashed file explorer while there were also problems with Nvidia drivers.

Forced updates are one of the key reasons to avoid this OS. Aside from privacy issues, like being too chatty even if security and privacy settings are strict; and not to forget that it uploads your Bitlocker key to Microsoft for "recovery".

Connected home device security only gets worse

Found on CNet News on Tuesday, 11 August 2015
Browse Technology

IoT devices can make our daily lives more efficient, but manufacturers are yet to get up to speed when it comes to security -- and a constant stream of research concerning smart systems has revealed just how easy it can be to exploit vulnerabilities and manipulate these kinds of devices.

"The rapid growth of the Internet of Things now includes thousands of connected products, yet it's shocking how little planning there has been for these devices becoming part of everyday life," said Craig Spiezle, Executive Director and President of OTA.

The problem is that developing devices gets easier and easier. Simpler develboards and an increasing number of enthusiasts result in the creation of more IoT devices. For the majority, the focus is to get the device working only; when it comes to security, that focus starts to blur. This also points out how important it is to open-source the IoT devices: if the original developer drops the project, the community can still carry on and keep it updated.

Windows 10 climbs to 3.55 per cent market share, Win 8.1 dips

Found on The Register on Monday, 10 August 2015
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Windows 10's good week saw it jump from 1.36 per cent of the market in the week commencing July 27th. The biggest loser looks to be Windows 8.1, which dipped from 16.45 per cent share to 14.93 per cent. Windows 7 went from 54.41per cent to 53.8 per cent and Windows 8 dropped from 3.6 percent to 3.46 percent.

It's easy to push up an OS after you installed nagware on the user's computer and annoy him to upgrade.