Source: MemeGenerator

Summary: Another security blunder leaves Microsoft red-faced, but Red Hat carries on following Microsoft's UEFI

To Microsoft, "security" does not mean what it means to most of us. It means control. According to this, Microsoft has again proven its inability to reuse simple FOSS packages to secure passwords. The result:

Software used by Microsoft's New Zealand outpost to register attendees for next week's TechEd conference has exposed delegates' passwords to unwelcome scrutiny.

Cross Kiwis have contacted The Reg to point out that emails from a third-party events management company offered a URL which they can click to print a barcode that will offer swift entry to the event.

But the URLs being distributed include passwords that delegates used to create accounts to register for the event. The emails also include a value called "ID" that a sharp-eyed Reg reader messed with and discovered, as said reader told us, "The id=673 appears to be the event (TechED NZ) a quick change of the &key= part of the URL to 'password', 'passw0rd', etc gave access to other people's registration details!"

Torvalds said that UEFI would not really aid security, so given that its main function is interfering with Linux, why should Red Hat staff give it a hand? This is not new.

"Security" as pretext for control (domination over a user, not the user's over a machine) is a subject that fits much of what we cover here, including the portrayal of copying as "piracy" and patents as "defence". Too much disinformation can make lies a truth (in people's mind/perception), so we prioritise particular topics. Next up: patents. ⬆