41–50 of 87 posts
Sadly, the real lesson we need to learn from Battlestar Galactica is not this. They weren't saved by old software, they were saved by not having critical systems on the network unnecessarily. Our water and power utilities need to re-watch the pilot.
From a efficiency perspective centralized anything seems better at first glance, however decentralized anything just seems more resilient in the long run like nature and/or our universe.
That said, as a strategy it will only protect you from bots going after low-hanging fruit, not someone targeting you specifically.
It's incredible how far back the surveillance state goes - GSM mobile phones have an IMEI number that's tied to the handset - and the SIM is tied to the subscriber, and your phone broadcasts imei to neighboring towers constantly. I haven't really gotten really into this, but from what I can tell, anything that has to do with mobile phones is strictly worse in terms of anonimity than Wifi. At least anything that ties…
> surveillance state How do you suppose mobile phones are meant to work without subscriber info? > I haven't really gotten really into this Clearly.
The problem is that most of these older devices are about to be replaced and many manufacturers have switched to Linux for their operating system. It's cheaper and requires no licensing, but far more insecure. It needs almost constant patching to stay secure because the attack surface is so large.
MS-DOS: Over 45 years, and STILL NO remote holes in the default install!
Well, there is no protection against compromised floppy disk sent by snail mail. I have also seen virus source code published in books and magazines. We don't have such threats anymore.
virus source code published in books and magazines. We don't have such threats anymore.
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No, we do not need this anymore - today you have CAPTCHAs, convincing people to copy & paste PowerShell code on their machine and execute it with Admin privileges! :-D
Earlier quoted context omitted.
which reasons?
Remote monitoring is one of them presumably
Stupid example like the equipment itself is not networked, but you could watch via a webcam and/or get metrics via image recognition.
Maybe it's safer just to have somebody work the night shift.
Makes it harder to catch you in a general sweep, but it probably makes it much easier if anyone decides to target you specifically. How good a tradeoff that is varies from person to person. And the difficulty of targeting a specific person is changing in an AI world. I wouldn't try to characterize it any farther than that, just to observe that it is changing. "Hey AI go individually research and target county clerks…
The thing is: police actually have data on swords and bows, and the fact it is so unusual to commit crimes with these limit the search space and tend to make the investigation easier.
Sadly, the real lesson we need to learn from Battlestar Galactica is not this. They weren't saved by old software, they were saved by not having critical systems on the network unnecessarily. Our water and power utilities need to re-watch the pilot.
Why are our water and power utilities connected to the internet? Is it so that the employees controlling them can work from home? If so they are accepting too much risk relative to the benefit.
Remote management has clear benefits, don’t be obtuse. I totally agree on the security risks, but the benefits are obvious.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Remote monitoring is one of them presumably
But is it completely impossible to separate the monitoring and equipment/management? Stupid example like the equipment itself is not networked, but you could watch via a webcam and/or get metrics via image recognition. Maybe it's safer just to have somebody work the night shift.
A lot of problems are easy conceptually, but we can't manage to tackle them.