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Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

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421–430 of 456 posts

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#421
post #396
post #362

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If it were we'd all destroy our computers, never write anything down, and simply accept the collapse of society. No, this is the same sort of defeatism that prevents us from making progress on security. We could engineer usable systems where actual security is a priority, and not just security theater. We don't because nobody in a position to change anything actually gives a shit.

> We could engineer usable systems where actual security is a priority, Security is a priority. But it's not the only priority. It would be difficult engineering even if it was the only priority, but given that there's little point to security for a system you never deploy, it's not likely to ever completely monopolize focus, either for users or implementers.

At this point i don't think security is a priority at all for companies like MS. Marketing themselves has having security is a priority. Doing the bare minimum to avoid lawsuits is their priority.

Ultimately though, they know that no matter how many times their failure to invest in security results in their customer's data being compromised or destroyed they'll keep making money.

Their customers are corporations who have insurance to cover their expenses when Microsoft's failure to make security a priority inevitably leads to a breech and those corporations are able to avoid all accountability for their decision to use Microsoft products no matter who else gets hurt as a result.

Dealing with yet another security issue caused by Microsoft is just another cost of doing business. It's still cheaper and/or easier for the corporations to keep MS and deal with the endless vulnerability/patch cycle than it is to move to something else and pay people who know what they're doing to manage those new systems so nothing changes.

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#422
post #415

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> When people say Linux would be more secure in these environments, maybe. But if Linux or Red Hat took over everywhere, you can bet it would become the juiciest target immediately. I do not think that is the only difference between Windows and Linux though. For one thing Linux has multiple distros, some very varied. Its less of a monoculture. If Linux was more widely used it would also get grater usage for BSDs beca…

Look at Android. It is more of a leaky sive than Windows now.

Android was designed from day one specifically to be a leaky sieve that funnels as much of your personal and private data to Google and their partners as possible. They're left with the impossible task of making it harder for third parties to gain access to the data they're collecting without making it too hard for them to collect it for themselves.

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#423
post #286

Earlier quoted context omitted.

log4j is a once in a decade event, while vulnerable Microsoft software is more like once a month.

Log4j is a Java thing divorced from the operating system running it.

SharePoint isn't an operating system either

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#424

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If every car in your neighborhood that gets broken into is manufactured by a single manufacturer, it is in your interest in asking why that is, and perhaps considering that fact when shopping for a new car.

That does happen though. Cars worth more are stolen while cards worth less are not. The common factor there isn’t that 40 year old hatchbacks have better security. It’s that the risk vs reward isn’t there compared to the brand new luxury cars with higher resale value on the black market. This isn’t something I’ve just made up either. This is what the police told us when my neighbours Merc was stolen while my Skoda, w…

> Thieves target the expensive cars because they’re worth more. It’s really that simple.

They don't target the expensive cars. The most stolen cars in the US are cheap Hyundais And Kias. Before they claimed the top spot on the list of cars taken most often the winner was pick up trucks and old Toyotas.

Thieves target what's easy to take and easy to chop up and sell, not luxury cars with high resale value.

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#425
post #226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Think machine certs (stored in a TPM). Plus perimeter-enforced username/password/2FA. Plus additional policy checks, like making sure your machine is up to date on security patches. It doesn’t matter what network you are connecting from, but it does matter that you’re connecting from a company-issued laptop that’s in a trustworthy state.

VPN products do all of that.

They absolutely do, that’s fair.

The big difference is once you’re in, with a VPN you have direct access to the whole network.

With a zero trust setup, access has to be granted to you (or your ACL group) on a per-application basis. It makes it much harder for an attacker to move laterally when everything is default-deny.

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#426

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the private sector, there's a slightly more direct link between job underperformance and being fired.

And if your strategy fails, you (usually) can't raise taxes to make up for lost revenue. So there is an even more direct link between underperformance and losing money.

If your strategy fails the government bails you out, or you float away from the burning wreckage on your golden parachute until you land in a new job at another company which you can then ruin without meaningful consequences or you just retire with the millions you got in your severance package and live the rest of your life carefree.

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#427

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Rust is very popular and quickly getting adopted. The number of Debian packages that use Rust libraries more then doubled and is now at 8% https://www.phoronix.com/news/Rust-Debian-2025

Rust has never been successfully used to develop large-scale software of the size of SharePoint, Exchange, or anything of that order of magnitude: gigabytes of compiled code with the main executable being 10s of megabytes in size. An observation I've made about Rust is that because it eschews OOP, it tends not to "scale" to large development teams for single applications. It's great for CLI tools, small web apps, etc…

> An observation I've made about Rust is that because it eschews OOP, it tends not to "scale" to large development teams for single applications.

Linux is written in C and "scales" to large teams. If folks were willing, I think most of Linux could be written in Rust.

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#428

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seems like generally it ended up being a surveillance play, in practice if not original intent. For example, Dog coin has been reported to be passing data taken from other agencies directly to ICE^[1] for law enforcement applications, and there was that other matter of logins apparently from Russia using accounts the Dog coin personnel demanded agencies create on their internal systems with (auditable) logging disabl…

I see your refusal to acquiesce to Musk's appropriation of an innocent meme, and raise you a, "Keep calling it 'doge', but pronounce it phonetically to piss him off."

I can respect that but I honestly have no concept of how it's "supposed" to be pronounced. At least with Dog coin I know where I stand.

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#429

Earlier quoted context omitted.

None of those companies have a logistics chain which would at all be suitable for the US federal government. Even in corporate, there's basically two vendors - Dell, and a distant second Lenovo, with Apple having a foothold in niche usecases.

You used to be able to buy Dells with Linux pre-installed, quite a while ago. Did they stop?

No, but it's not universal across their range.

Re: Global hack on Microsoft Sharepoint hits U.S., state agencies, researchers say

#430
post #425

Earlier quoted context omitted.

VPN products do all of that.

They absolutely do, that’s fair. The big difference is once you’re in, with a VPN you have direct access to the whole network. With a zero trust setup, access has to be granted to you (or your ACL group) on a per-application basis. It makes it much harder for an attacker to move laterally when everything is default-deny.

But you can combine VPNs with SSO and limited permissions. Real networks all work that way these days. Logging into the VPN doesn't get you very far, you'll need to be provisioned with specific apps and permissions too.
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