Bonum Certa Men Certa

Leftover Links 05/08/2023: Rust Holes and More Layoffs



  • Leftovers

    • Education

      • Parents accuse Bellevue School District of favoring rich kids in school closures

        When the Bellevue School District (BSD) opened its newest, state of the art elementary school on pristine wetlands and powered by geothermal energy in 2018, at a cost of $49 million, its principal did a welcoming dance in a video to show off the school.

        As she led the camera through the Microsoft Showcase school, showing classrooms that could be converted to learning pods for smaller or larger groups, she also pointed to teachers in a large group, waiting to teach kids.

        Today, however, issues of equity are dampening the shining reputation of the school—and raising questions about the district’s commitment to fairness.

    • Hardware

    • Proprietary/Artificial Intelligence (AI)

      • Bruce SchneierPolitical Milestones for AI

        ChatGPT was released just nine months ago, and we are still learning how it will affect our daily lives, our careers, and even our systems of self-governance.

        But when it comes to how AI may threaten our democracy, much of the public conversation lacks imagination. People talk about the danger of campaigns that attack opponents with fake images (or fake audio or video) because we already have decades of experience dealing with doctored images.

    • Security

      • InfoSecurity MagazineThreat Actors Use AWS SSM Agent as a Remote Access Trojan

        Threat actors have been observed using Amazon Web Services ( AWS ) 's System Manager (SSM) agent as a Remote Access Trojan (RAT) on Linux and Windows machines.

      • Rust BlogThe Rust Programming Language Blog: Security advisory for Cargo (CVE-2023-38497)

        This is a cross-post of the official security advisory. The official advisory contains a signed version with our PGP key, as well.

        The Rust Security Response WG was notified that Cargo did not respect the umask when extracting crate archives on UNIX-like systems. If the user downloaded a crate containing files writeable by any local user, another local user could exploit this to change the source code compiled and executed by the current user.

      • SUSE's Corporate BlogSUSE and IBM: Enhancing Data Security (a Technical Reference Documentation Getting Started guide) [Ed: "confidential computing" is a sham that encourages companies and governments to outsource their operations and data based on false premises of confidentiality]

        The Essence of Confidential Computing At its core, confidential computing addresses the vital need of safeguarding data while it is in use. SUSE and IBM work together to deliver advanced technical capabilities, like confidential computing. IBM Z€® and LinuxONE systems provide key hardware capabilities for the trusted execution environment.

      • Bleeping ComputerHackers can abuse Microsoft Office executables to download malware

        The list of LOLBAS files – legitimate binaries and scripts present in Windows that can be abused for malicious purposes...

      • SANSFrom small LNK to large malicious BAT file with zero VT score, (Thu, Aug 3rd)

        Last week, my spam trap caught an e-mail with LNK attachment, which turned out to be quite interesting.

      • IT WireTenable chief says no way to verify Microsoft claims about fixing Azure flaw

        Microsoft claims it has completely fixed a critical security issue in its Azure cloud platform, found in March by researchers from security firm Tenable, who then told Microsoft about it. Tenable chief executive and chairman Amit Yoran had claimed in a blog post on Wednesday that it took more than 90 days for Microsoft to effect a partial fix.

      • SANSAre Leaked Credentials Dumps Used by Attackers, (Fri, Aug 4th)

        This is a classic problem: One day, you create an account on a website (ex: an online shop), and later, this website is compromised. All credentials are collected and shared by the attacker. To reduce this risk, a best practice is to avoid password re-use (as well as to not use your corporate email address for non-business-related stuff).

      • Security WeekExploitation of Ivanti EPMM Flaw Picking Up as New Vulnerability Is Disclosed

        Exploitation of the Ivanti EPMM flaw CVE-2023-35078 is picking up as a new critical vulnerability tracked as CVE-2023-35082 is disclosed.

      • Security WeekFive Eyes Agencies Call Attention to Most Frequently Exploited Vulnerabilities

        Five Eyes government agencies have published a list of the software vulnerabilities that were most frequently exploited in malicious attacks in 2022.

      • Security Week670 ICS Vulnerabilities Disclosed by CISA in First Half of 2023: Analysis

        CISA disclosed 670 ICS vulnerabilities in the first half of 2023, but roughly one-third have no patches or mitigations from the vendor.

      • LWNSecurity updates for Friday

        Security updates have been issued by CentOS (bind and kernel), Debian (cjose, firefox-esr, ntpsec, and python-django), Fedora (chromium, firefox, librsvg2, and webkitgtk), Red Hat (firefox), Scientific Linux (firefox and openssh), SUSE (go1.20, ImageMagick, javapackages-tools, javassist, mysql-connector-java, protobuf, python-python-gflags, kernel, openssl-1_1, pipewire, python-pip, and xtrans), and Ubuntu (cargo, rust-cargo, cpio, poppler, and xmltooling).

      • USDOJNigerian National Pleads Guilty to $1.25 Million Business Email Compromise Scam Impacting U.S. Company

        Onwuchekwa Nnanna Kalu, 39, a Nigerian National from Rivers State, Nigeria, pleaded guilty today to stealing $1.25 million from an investment firm located in Boston, through a business email compromise (“BEC”) scam. The plea was announced by U.S. Attorney Matthew M. Graves and Acting Special Agent in Charge David Geist, of the FBI Washington Field Office's Criminal and Cyber Division.

        Nnanna Kalu pleaded guilty in the District of Columbia to one count of wire fraud. U.S. District Court Judge Randolph D. Moss scheduled a sentencing hearing for November 29, 2023. Kalu was arrested in 2022 and has been detained by the Court as a risk of flight.

      • Gray Media GroupMassive data breach could impact many who attended or worked for public schools in Colorado

        A news release issued by the Colorado Department of Higher Education is notifying the public of a “data incident.”

        KKTV 11 News is working to learn more about the situation, but the release reads as follows:

        The Colorado Department of Higher Education (“CDHE”) is providing notice of a cybersecurity incident that may involve the personal information of certain individuals. CDHE is providing information about the measures it has taken in response to the incident, and steps impacted individuals may take to protect themselves against possible misuse of information.

    • Defence/Aggression

      • JURISTSingapore executes second prisoner in one week despite international outcry

        Singaporean authorities executed Mohamed Shalleh Bin Abdul Latiff, a 39-year-old former delivery driver, Thursday for trafficking 54.04 grams of diamorphine, a controlled drug, which is four times the amount required to trigger the mandatory death penalty under Singapore’s Misuse of Drugs Act. Shalleh is the second person executed by the country in the last week.

      • Federal News NetworkUS military may put armed troops on commercial ships in Strait of Hormuz to stop Iran seizures

        The U.S. military is considering putting armed personnel on commercial ships traveling through the Strait of Hormuz, in what would be an unheard of action aimed at stopping Iran from seizing and harassing civilian vessels. That's what five American officials told The Associated Press on Thursday. If implemented, it would be an extraordinary step by the Pentagon as it grapples with a renewed effort by Iran to harass and seize ships traveling in the strait, through which 20% of all the world’s crude oil passes. Iran’s mission to the United Nations did not immediately respond to a request for comment from the AP about the U.S. proposal.

      • War in Ukraine

    • Environment

    • Finance

      • AxiosHackerOne lays off 12% of workforce

        Popular bug bounty program HackerOne is laying off 12% of its workforce, CEO MÃ¥rten Mickos told employees earlier this week.

      • Daniel PocockDaniel Pocock: Conflicts of Interest: Extinction Rebellion & Rishi Sunak, Greenpeace & Donald Trump

        There have been many rumors about conflicts of interest in the Debian Google Summer of Code and Outreachy internships. The only case where evidence has appeared is the former leader himself, the very person who started rumors about other mentors and I included.

        Yet conflicts of interest can come in many forms. One of the most bizarre cases I've seen was a pensions industry meeting in the UK.

        Representatives of pension administrators and government officials gathered in the town of Swindon. Rishi Sunak, who has recently become Prime Minister, attended the meeting in his former role as local authorities minister.

      • AxiosThe lesson for the Fed in "early hiker" monetary policy

        One reason to be optimistic that U.S. inflation can fall without a recession: Many smaller nations that did move earlier than the Federal Reserve to hike interest rates have done exactly that.

        Why it matters: The unusual dynamics of a post-pandemic global economy appear to be making a so-called "immaculate disinflation" — one with minimal pain — more plausible than it once seemed based on the historical record.


        What they're saying: "There are other economies we can also look to to get some sense of what's likely to happen in the U.S. — other economies that were actually a lot faster in tightening monetary policy," Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs, said on a call with reporters last month.

      • BloombergTech Giants Slash Marketing Budgets, Bruising Major Ad Firms

        After massive layoffs earlier this year, technology giants have found one more item to slash: marketing budgets.

        Several large advertising companies reported a sharp cutback in spending from US tech and telecom companies, which had recently become some of the largest marketers in the world.

      • Telus slashing 6,000 jobs in order to remain competitive

        According to news outlets, including CBC News, the company plans to cut approximately 6,000 jobs. 4,000 roles will be eliminated at Telus’ main business, with the remaining 2,000 affecting Telus International.

        President and CEO Darren Entwistle claimed that the reduction is being made with “a very heavy heart” and was prompted by the “evolving regulatory, competitive and macroeconomic environment.”

        “Against the backdrop of rapid transformation in our industry and the ways in which our customers want to engage with us, today we are announcing a significant investment in an extensive efficiency and effectiveness initiative across Telus,” Entwistle said in a news release obtained by CBC News.

      • Study after study shows that working from home leads to more efficiency and higher quality work — so why do companies want people back in the office? Here are 3 possible reasons

        Employees overwhelmingly love the option to work from home. More than nine in 10 prefer it exclusively or as a hybrid arrangement, a Gallup study shows.

        Employers, on the other hand, don't appear fully on board, as many are calling employees back into the office.

        In some ways, employers' resistance to remote work is a mystery. After all, eliminating commutes gives the average U.S. employee almost one extra hour to work each day, according to research from the University of Chicago’s Becker Friedman Institute. Plus, staff forced to work in-office are more likely to experience burnout and low engagement, per Gallup.

    • AstroTurf/Lobbying/Politics

    • Censorship/Free Speech

    • Freedom of Information / Freedom of the Press

    • Monopolies



Recent Techrights' Posts

Hate Mail From Anonymous Cowards
if this persists, we'll need to escalate
Informal Open Letter to the Lawyer of the Microsofters (on Who's Funding the SLAPPs Against Techrights)
Whenever I ask about the funding they try to change the subject and act all aggressive
Microsoft Lunduke is Just Provoking People for Provocation's Sake
Be forewarned and remember where this guy came from: Microsoft
 
Follow the Money: The Register MS Gets Paid to Promote "Hey Hi" Ponzi Scheme/Hype, Some Fake 'Articles' Might Be Composed by LLMs Already
paid to promote slop
Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Rethinking Aliases and Posting on Gopher vs. the Web
Links for the day
Links 09/08/2025: Apollo 13 Astronaut Jim Lovell Dies, Slop Future Bleak
Links for the day
After Shutting Down Studios, Divisions, Applications (e.g. Skype) Microsoft is Also Shutting Down 'Apps'
Cuts all around as layoffs persist this month, Microsoft tries to get many people to resign, and debt skyrockets
Most of Geminispace Can Probably Fit on a CD-ROM or a DVD (the Textual Part)
If one excludes very large capsules and ones that contain non-textual contenty
Eventually UEFI 'Secure Boot' Will be Dropped (Users Will Demand Its Removal and Boycott Its Pushers)
we expect OEMs will just listen to users
The Register MS: We Know Slop is a Bubble and Mindless Hype, But We Get Paid to Participate
Call out the culprits
There Are Probably Over a Million Pages in Geminispace
there are two many limitations which merit a mention when it comes to assessing magnitude
Besieged by Plagiarists Who Play With LLMs and Image Fusions
We really need to exercise or use our collective voice to oppose Serial Sloppers
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Friday, August 08, 2025
IRC logs for Friday, August 08, 2025
Gemini Links 09/08/2025: Water Painting and Political Violence
Links for the day
Slopwatch: LLM Sloppers in Google News, LinuxSecurity, and More
they also perpetuate some falsehoods as the LLMs lack any comprehension
Links 08/08/2025: China King of Plastics and US Dictator Plans to Meet Russian Dictator
Links for the day
Gemini Links 08/08/2025: Cracking a Family Member's Password and Overdose of Slop
Links for the day
Red Hat's Latest Talent Hunt, Day Ahead of Mass Layoffs, is Yet Another Microsoft Executive
Red Hat will apparently commence mass layoffs early this coming Monday
Links 08/08/2025: "Quit Facebook" and High Cost of Microsoft/Windows Shown Again ("BlackSuit")
Links for the day
Good Morning, Readers of The Register MS
Things The Register MS could (but does not) cover this morning
Why Gemini Protocol Has a Bright Future
Maybe Gemini Protocol's promise becomes more appealing as the Web turns to slop and bloat
It's a Lot Easier to Participate in the Unethical System Than to Oppose Injustices in It
Going after powerful and high-budget interests is never easy
Microsofters Filed Two SLAPPs Against Us, Now They Cannot Keep Up With Judges' Orders
For over 4 months already their facilitator in London has been under investigation by British authorities because of what's being done to my wife and I
Censorship Regarding Red Hat Layoffs
Talk about this? They'd rather not.
Struggling to Cut Costs, Microsoft Continues Shutting Down and Cancelling Stuff This Month
There are August layoffs at Microsoft
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Thursday, August 07, 2025
IRC logs for Thursday, August 07, 2025
Fake 'Linux' Articles, Written by Bots to Take Traffic Away From Real Articles
LLM slop helps replace information with junk or misinformation
When Google's Googlebombing of "Gemini" Was Not Enough; They Now Also Googlebomb "Gemini Space"?
We know GAFAM not only worries about Gemini Protocol but also attempts to 'infiltrate' Geminispace
The Register MS Promotes Microsoft Slop, Assumes All Readers Use Microsoft Windows
Microsoft really dominates the site
Gemini Links 08/08/2025: KDE/Qt Development and What's Missing From "Retro"
Links for the day
Links 07/08/2025: US Punishes India Instead of Russia, Attacks Law Firms to Prevent Scrutiny
Links for the day
Read Us in Geminispace as Well
it's definitely a lot simpler than using a Web browser
Once a Site About BSD and GNU/Linux, and After Months of Silence, LinuxBSDos.com Comes Back Only as a Slopfarm
very frustrating
Links 07/08/2025: Hardware Wars, Mass Recall of Colgate Total Clean Mint, More Microsoft Holes Found
Links for the day
Gemini Links 07/08/2025: "Right To Manage" and LoRa Analysis
Links for the day
For the First Time in a Month OSI's "OpenSource.org" Blogs and It's Basically a Microsoft Blog Post (Microsoft Controls OSI)
For the first time in a month OSI writes something and it is Microsoft propaganda composed by a Microsoft-salaried operative
Microsoft, Already Borrowing 3 Billion Dollars a Month, is Trying to Cause Many People to Resign
MSN (i.e. Microsoft) and others openly admit it
GAFAM 'Says' is Front Page "News"
The point of journalism is to check and assess facts, not parrot what people and companies merely claim
Links 07/08/2025: Apple Makes False Promises, More Trouble for Microsoft
Links for the day
OSS Didn't Always Mean Open Source Software
"oligarchs all the way down"
The Register MS Does More Microsoft Sez or GitHub Sez (Says) Pieces
60 minutes ago
They Want Activists to Just Barely Walk and Eat, Not Do Activism Anymore
It's sort of like the ending of '1984'
Quit Perpetuating the Narrative of Gemini Protocol 'Dying' (It's False)
The "whisper campaign" against Gemini Protocol
Criticising Social Control Media in Social Control Media
Many people are quitting Social Control Media (fewer of them announce this in public)
Non-Free JavaScript Programs in Banks Aren't Even the Biggest Problem
Technology was supposed to make life easier; in practice, however, for most of us the opposite effect can be observed
Slopfarms Are Typically Fake News
Slopfarms typically relay falsehoods
Gemini Links 06/08/2025: Replacing a Pocket Watch and Buying in Bulk
Links for the day
IBM is Obliterating Fedora
"Fedora releases were shipping with an increasing number of bugs on launch day even while I was using it for a several year stretch."
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, August 06, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, August 06, 2025