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Dutch journalist gatecrashes EU defence video conference

bbc.co.uk

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Re: Dutch journalist gatecrashes EU defence video conference

#41

Post by rscho »

Moodles wrote: post #38
rscho wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point of GP is that Zoom is american software, regardless of any particular issue related to the app itself. Which IMO, is a very crucial point. A EU security conference should use EU software, and as little foreign stuff as possible. Otherwise, it's just theater (and it currently really is just that!).

All of Zoom’s security team is based in the US to be fair. I don’t really agree in general that the X-conference should use X-software.

Well, if you are using foreign software for sensitive stuff, then you should at least be able to fully review the source and build the app yourself.

> All of Zoom’s security team is based in the US

That's the point. Thinking that the US are truthful and honest allies of the EU is plain laughable.

Re: Dutch journalist gatecrashes EU defence video conference

#42

Post by pjc50 »

fakedang wrote: post #23
kyriakos wrote: post #2

Its amazing how well they took it, laughing and all

Probably because they secretly knew that if word gets out real fast (which it won't because it'll controlled by them), they'll all be booted from office. Sure word got out, but it need not reach most of the populace.

Nobody cares about trivia like this when it comes to elections.

Re: Dutch journalist gatecrashes EU defence video conference

#43

Post by jakub_g »

j0057 wrote: post #11
praptak wrote: post #7

Not sure how confidential that conference was but I'd imagine these use at least a 2FA dongle to authenticate. This is surprising.

You'd imagine, but this conference software apparently only requires a pin that's visible as a GET parameter in the URL. I don't think you can blame the users for posting a screen shot.

Zoom introduced meeting passwords a few months ago after similar issues to prevent randos joining meetings by guessing short meeting IDs. But there's a tradeoff between security and usability so they accept passwords as a param in URL, which for 95% cases is a good tradeoff (for example Outlook Zoom plugin generates the URL with password directly in meeting invites). Most people don't live-share their super secret in-progress meeting IDs and passwords on Twitter. Probably more people share their CC number or boarding passes on instagram each day.

However what Zoom and other conf tools could do is that they could read the password from the URL and then use `history.pushState()` DOM API to replace the URL and erase the password once the meeting is launched.

Downside would be though users wouldn't be able anymore to just copy the URL from browser's URL bar and send to other people to join.

Re: Dutch journalist gatecrashes EU defence video conference

#44

Post by [deleted] »

rgblambda wrote: post #29
fakedang wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

EU militaries are a joke tbf. Apart from France and (formerly) the UK, most of them can't do shit except sell firearms to Arab despots. I think someone from Romania here mentioned that they trust the US to protect them more than they trust France or Germany.

If the EU is to become independent from the US as Macron wants it to, then that's going to have to change.

[deleted]

Re: Dutch journalist gatecrashes EU defence video conference

#46

Post by xuhu »

curiousllama wrote: post #26
0dmethz wrote: post #19

Of course they respond with the obligatory "we'll report this to the authorities", rather than "thank you for pointing this out in a harmless way we'll do better".

It was humor... The "threatener" was laughing, the audience was laughing, and the journalist laughed too. Probably the best response you can hope for in the moment.

The journalist was laughing, but the foreign policy chief just got painted as an emperor without clothes.

And the foreign policy chief was laughing, but I bet he was asking himself "who do I send over there to stop them" while trying to maintain the laughing face.

Re: Dutch journalist gatecrashes EU defence video conference

#47

Post by fakedang »

rebuilder wrote: post #27
fakedang wrote: post #23

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Probably because they secretly knew that if word gets out real fast (which it won't because it'll controlled by them), they'll all be booted from office. Sure word got out, but it need not reach most of the populace.

This is on BBC.com's frontpage.

Yeah, and how many mainlander Europeans read the BBC in English?

Re: Dutch journalist gatecrashes EU defence video conference

#48

Post by jankotek »

Moodles wrote: post #32
andrepd wrote: post #31

This is profoundly depressing. The fact that an EU defence conference is being held... on Zoom, is truly a microcosm of what has been the strategic policy of the EU for the past 20-30 years. We have sold off our independence, out advantages economic and otherwise, for pennies . For minuscule short-term gains, we have sold off our industry, our tech, to a hostile and totalitarian government. Well when I say "we" I mea…

The Zoom security debate has been hashed to death on HN lately, but Webex for example patched some RCEs only a couple weeks ago. I’m not fully convinced Zoom is objectively less secure than all the other alternatives these days. They just get a lot more attention for it. Besides, if the EU defence conference had an open URL or weak password that issue would apply regardless of Zoom, Webex, etc.

But it should not matter how secure chatting software is. This sort of stuff should be on offline VPM, separated from normal internet. If officials are using their personal devices for this....

Re: Dutch journalist gatecrashes EU defence video conference

#49

Post by vagrantJin »

fakedang wrote: post #20
rosmax_1337 wrote: post #4

They're laughing right now, but really these kinds of mistakes are telling how weak the security of various agencies are.

EU militaries are a joke tbf. Apart from France and (formerly) the UK, most of them can't do shit except sell firearms to Arab despots. I think someone from Romania here mentioned that they trust the US to protect them more than they trust France or Germany.

As a bloc, I don't think EU had much of a choice. US had them on tight leash until DJT came through and force thenm to consider protecting themselves.

To think DJT has woken up the EU from their decades long slumber is incredible.

Re: Dutch journalist gatecrashes EU defence video conference

#50

Post by mschuster91 »

fakedang wrote: post #20
rosmax_1337 wrote: post #4

They're laughing right now, but really these kinds of mistakes are telling how weak the security of various agencies are.

EU militaries are a joke tbf. Apart from France and (formerly) the UK, most of them can't do shit except sell firearms to Arab despots. I think someone from Romania here mentioned that they trust the US to protect them more than they trust France or Germany.

German here, you're right. The biggest part of the problem is that historically there are only three superpowers in the EU - France, UK and Germany. The UK is gone off the rails, the French can't pick up the slack for everyone else alone and us Germans are (out of very valid historical concern) extremely wary of pulling our weight on the international stage.

Add to this that the EU is corrosively fractured, nowhere near as coherent as the US. We're no match, hell (thanks to the Brits) the EU doesn't even have a Foreign Minister, and the effective veto power of even a super tiny nation doesn't make it any easier.

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