Bonum Certa Men Certa

Computing Security is Being Redefined as 'Controlled by NSA' (and Microsoft)

Video download link | md5sum cc6696c7257be46a08bd20b1ef1e58c4 Faking Security Again, Promoting Remote Control Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 4.0



Summary: The ascent of fake security or the concept that outsourcing trust to Pentagon-connected monopolies is the same as "security" [1, 2, 3] is a real problem because the mindset creeps into new legislation, in effect cementing monopolies and centralisation

THE Microsoft-connected shills, partly funded by Bill Gates himself, are having a go at Free software again, slandering or spreading FUD, as noted here. The talking points are based on old myths and stereotypes, so people from Red Hat (IBM) along with SJVN are rushing to respond.



"They're planning to mandate "secure" boot like browsers do with centralised/monopolised CAs."But to make matters much worse, it's part of a broader trend; they refer to Free software as "supply chain" and demonise it even when it's controlled by Microsoft and the NSA (shipping actual malware to GNU/Linux machines) and seems like fake security is being "mainstreamed" or "normalised". They want us to think that "self-signed" is inherently bad or dodgy, whereas Microsoft-controlled means safe. As Psydroid put it, in reference to this new article about "secure" boot in electric car chargers, "Microsoft controlling your car's security looks like a suicide mission to me. I don't mind them pushing this agenda; what is worse is that the alternatives are getting shoved aside; I mean, you can do whatever you want in your sandbox, but don't force it on everyone..."

They're planning to mandate "secure" boot like browsers do with centralised/monopolised CAs. While the article speaks specifically about the UK, "if these policies are broadly imposed even internationally," Psydroid notes, "we are in for some big problems."

It's part of an ongoing trend and it's also connected to the "smart" car series we recently did.

Here's what The Register says:

Electric car chargers will have to include secure boot and automatic network disconnection if unsigned software runs on the smart devices – but only from 2023, the British government has said.

New security requirements for smart chargers won't be enforced until the last day of this year, according to government papers reviewed by The Register.

While those changes are positive, and help protect against a deliberate cyber attack or a drive-by malware infection, the Electric Vehicles (Smart Charge Points) Regulations 2021, passed in December, gives industry a whole year before it has to meet the standards.

Schedule 1 of the regulations sets out the cybersecurity requirements new car chargers will have to meet and there's little to complain about there: secure boot; only running signed firmware; automatic checks for software updates; and a ban on "hard-coded security credentials."


Notice terms like "Smart Charge Points"; What's so smart about them? Who does this serve anyway? As noted in the video above, CIA tampering inside vehicles is a real thing, not just hearsay, based on leaks [1, 2] which motivated/urged the CIA to torture and then assassinate Julian Assange. These people don't care about security; it's all about domination over people.

Recent Techrights' Posts

Speed of GNU/Linux
The media seldom speaks of the dangers of "proprietary software"
Proprietary Windows Versus "Linux" News (Trying to Keep People on Windows, Never Exploring GNU/Linux)
Good editors know better how to recognise threats and not give them lip service
Ensuring That Every Computer User Anywhere in the World Can Take Control of All His or Her Computers
We must fight the people who attack general-purpose computing, in particular those who push this agenda very aggressively inside Linux
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: Autism and Structural Navigation
Links for the day
What Happened to the Open Source Initiative (OSI) Elections: The Purge, the Cover-up, and the Witch-hunts
OSI has gone "full Microsoft"
 
Central African Republic (CAR): Vista 11 is Only ~0.2% Market Share
99.8% to go!
BSD and GNU/Linux Replaced Microsoft in Secure Servers, All Microsoft Has Left is LLM Slop for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt (FUD)
the FUD machine never rests
Gemini Links 28/04/2025: A Simple Task Tracking and Auto-Prioritization Tool and Other Programs
Links for the day
Links 28/04/2025: Canada's Election, Pakistan-India Conflict
Links for the day
Glue Inside Your Pizza (or Why People Will Get Fed Up With Slop)
People are given "answers" from non-intelligence word dumpsters
Links 28/04/2025: Cyberattacks Happening, Chatbots Disappointing, and "Free Speech Under Fire"
Links for the day
Phone Adoption Very Low in Vatican, Windows Usage Fell Nonetheless
Even in places where people still use desktops/laptops most of the time (and have access to these) Windows is gradually losing ground
GNU/Linux 9% in Cuba, Vista 11 Waning, Android Dominant
Microsoft has pretty much lost Cuba
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Sunday, April 27, 2025
IRC logs for Sunday, April 27, 2025
In 24 Countries Observed by statCounter Vista 11 is Still Less Than a Quarter of Windows Users Despite All Other Versions Being 'Expired'
They ought to move to GNU/Linux
Links 27/04/2025: Pope Goodbyes, "Politics of Fear", Slop Redux and More Google Shutdowns (Google Debt Had Grown This Year)
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Serenity Dialectics, Hockey Jersey Ethics, and More
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Death of Nest Thermostats, Death of Metaverse
Links for the day
Links 27/04/2025: Projects Workflow and Discovering Technology
Links for the day
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Saturday, April 26, 2025
IRC logs for Saturday, April 26, 2025
Microsoft Isn't on the Map in USSR
To them, it's either Google or Yandex
In Central America Windows Became a Small Force
These are countries where Windows used to have well over 95% of the "market"
What's Very Vexing to GAFAM, EPO and Others Is That It's Incredibly Hard to Censor Us (and Nobody Ever Successfully Did That Before)
resist, do not capitulate
Site May be Even Faster Now
It basically takes less than a tenth of a second to serve the page
Receiving SLAPPs and Collecting Them Like Trophies (the SLAPPs Always Fail)
People who file lawsuits bring even more attention to themselves (or to embarrassing statements about them)
Year of GNU/Linux on the Laptop?
It's not happening only in Lenovo
What People Must Understand About the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
some facts about the Open Source Initiative (OSI)
Many of the Scandals Are Interconnected (Overlapping People and Corporations)
We're only getting started
More Copyright Lawsuits Against LLM Slop Providers and Suppliers of LLM Slopfarms Would Benefit Society
It's not just bad for the Web and for society; it's also legally dangerous
Links 26/04/2025: General Assassinated in the Town of Balashikha, US Promoting Seafloor Mining
Links for the day
Links 26/04/2025: Facebook Layoffs Again, Remembering What's Real, and Say No to Mass Surveillance
Links for the day
Links 26/04/2025: NOAA Budget Cuts and "Dog Days Ahead"
Links for the day
In defence of JD Vance, death of Pope Francis
Reprinted with permission from Daniel Pocock
Three Years in Prison for Disney Employee’s ‘Menu Hacking’: The Economic Fallout of Digital Menus
Reprinted with permission from Ryan Farmer
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, April 25, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, April 25, 2025