Security and Cautionary Tale About Microsoft Spyware
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New Book: A Hacker’s Mind - Schneier on Security
I have a new book coming out in February. It’s about hacking.
A Hacker’s Mind: How the Powerful Bend Society’s Rules, and How to Bend them Back isn’t about hacking computer systems; it’s about hacking more general economic, political, and social systems. It generalizes the term hack as a means of subverting a system’s rules in unintended ways.
What sorts of system? Any system of rules, really. Take the tax code, for example. It’s not computer code, but it’s a series of algorithms—supposedly deterministic—that take a bunch of inputs about your income and produce an output that’s the amount of money you owe. This code has vulnerabilities; we call them loopholes. It has exploits; those are tax avoidance strategies. And there is an entire industry of black-hat hackers who exploit vulnerabilities in the tax code: we call them accountants and tax attorneys.
In my conception, a “hack” is something a system permits, but is unanticipated and unwanted by its designers. It’s unplanned: a mistake in the system’s design or coding. It’s subversion, or an exploitation. It’s a cheat—but only sort of. Just as a computer vulnerability can be exploited over the Internet because the code permits it, a tax loophole is “allowed” by the system because it follows the rules, even though it might subvert the intent of those rules.
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What Is the VENOM Vulnerability and How Can You Protect Yourself From It?
The VENOM vulnerability affects all major CPU vendors, including Intel, AMD, and ARM. VENOM allows malicious actors to read the content of your computer’s memory and potentially execute code remotely.
If you have a vulnerable CPU, your computer may be at risk, so it’s crucial to know how to protect yourself against this exploit!
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Microsoft is phoning home the content of your PowerPoint slides. | Roger Mexico’s Oscillator
Were you aware of it: Microsoft is phoning home the content of your PowerPoint slides.
Don't just take my word for it: open up the network monitor of your choice. Close all of your other applications or perform a fresh restart.
Fire up PowerPoint. Turn off all the cloud options. Make a new slide with a title of your choice. Choose "Designer." Look at your network traffic as you do.
It makes sense: the tool is reading your text and suggesting designs/delivering stock photography. But this means that any data that you might want to keep private is being sent to Microsoft.
Did we consent to this?