Old Fucking Punk @lwriemen@librem.one

One extra thing to highlight - Microsoft’s blog doesn’t mention it, but they demo’d the technique of using a signing key to access email from a different account using M365 on stage at BlackHat 3 years ago and made various recommendations to stop it happening again... which weren’t implemented. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN6e1mqcB9s

http://www.gocomics.com/offthemark/2023/09/06

#BookBans

I hate it when you follow a link to a really great blog post and you're two paragraphs in thinking oh my god this is really good but then a modal popup window from substack asks you to subscribe to this newsletter and you have to hit "continue reading" to finish and then you wonder if this great blog entry will last on someone else's service that may not be around in a few years

#NYT content to let Bret Stephens spout utter shite about US withdrawal from #Afghanistan and how #Biden must bear ultimate responsibility for making the world a more dangerous place. Basic fact-check would have underscored that #Trump admin negotiated the withdrawal terms as well as the fact that troop levels had been reduced from 13K to 2.5K before the Nov 2020 election. #media #journalism #democracy

https://www.factcheck.org/2021/08/timeline-of-u-s-withdrawal-from-afghanistan/

Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, ByteDance, Meta, Microsoft

These are the first 6 companies designated as ‘gatekeepers' under the Digital Markets Act.

They have 6 months to ensure their core platform services comply with our rules, including:

✔ Allowing users to unsubscribe and remove pre-installed services
✔ Allowing the download of alternative app stores

❌ Banning tracking outside of their services without consent
❌ Stopping ranking their products more favourably

➡ https://europa.eu/!NbfBbn

#DMA

It would have been much less embarrassing for #Toyota to claim it had been hacked - but, no, it was just bad IT Operations management

But to be fair, even though systems #monitoring was invented decades ago, i still hear of far too many organisations not managing disk capacity or certificate expirys
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2023/09/insufficient-disk-space-caused-2-day-shutdown-of-toyotas-japanese-factories/

"While Microsoft said when it disclosed the incident in July that only Exchange Online and Outlook were impacted, Wiz security researcher Shir Tamari later said that the compromised Microsoft consumer signing key provided Storm-0558 widespread access to Microsoft cloud services.

As Tamari said, the key could be used to impersonate any account within any impacted customer or cloud-based Microsoft application."

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/hackers-stole-microsoft-signing-key-from-windows-crash-dump/

dear @mozilla,

it's a good article! but the solution isn't to "ask[] car companies to stop their huge data collection programs" or have readers sign a petition.

the solution is called *regulation* and you should ask people to call their congresspersons, not sign a petition you made up.

there is no "voluntary" step that will durably prevent profit-maximizing firms from doing profit-generating things, no matter how creepy.

https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/

EPA delays new air quality standards for ozone pollution until after 2024 election - https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/sep/06/epa-ozone-pollution-smog-air-quality-standards-delay stupid, cowardly move...

Happy to see @josh joining the team at @matrix as managing director to strengthen the work on an open network for secure, decentralised communication.

https://matrix.org/blog/2023/09/introducing-josh-simmons-mnaging-director/#continue-reading #FreeSoftware #decentralization #OpenSource

We have shipped through the entire Librem 5 queue, and as a result the Librem 5 lead-time is now two-weeks for new orders.
https://puri.sm/posts/thank-you-librem-5-supporters/?mtm_campaign=status_update&mtm_source=organic&mtm_medium=librem_social&mtm_content=ls-thank-you-librem-5-supporters

"The earth is not dying, it is being killed, and those who are killing it have names and addresses." –Utah Phillips

Explore the Burning Planet Reading List and get 40% off these books and more with coupon code LIST until 10/1. See them all at https://blog.pmpress.org/2023/09/04/starting-fires-reading-list-titles-for-troublemakers-40-off/

The name of the website is "Big Think." The article is about people being locked up for missing court dates for parking tickets. This causes problems not only for the unfortunate people who get jailed, but also for the municipalities that have to pay for their incarceration. The Big Thinkers say the easy fix is to send reminders to people. What the Big Thinkers don't think to suggest is that maybe we STOP LOCKING PEOPLE UP for missing court dates for parking tickets. 🤦‍♂️

https://bigthink.com/the-present/nudges-failure-to-appear/

with our latest regular contribution from a #CooperativeComputer user member, we've now reached an awesome milestone, where we're covering our hardware costs 🎉

That means our next signups will start going towards the routine maintenance to keep the #OpenSource services running, and from there we'll start being able to afford further work to expand the technology stack, and the democratic processes of the #Cooperative project.

–3wc

Let us never forget how successful our humanitarian interventions have been. Truly, there is no problem in some other country that a little bombing can't fix...humanitarian bombing, mind you.

https://responsiblestatecraft.org/africa-niger-coup/

Interesting, according to the Nat'l tax calculator, I'd get about $45/week back from what I currently pay. Under the Green's I'd get $3/wk. But my family'd also get free dental & we'd take tangible action to improve sustainability, protect the environment, honour te Tiriti, improve equity, raise the most desperate, prioritise active travel, invest in rail & renewable energy, & maybe stop prioritising corporations over people. Seems worth $42/week.

In my experience, gov't wants to minimise (what they perceive, myopically, as) risk and always insist on 'COTS' (Commercial Off The Shelf) systems... so vendors like SAP, Oracle, et al. sell "COTS" which requires substantial 'customisation', which is really just code. Lots of it. From a small selection of 'authorized' configurers, who cost a bomb... so it's bespoke, but gov't thinks it's bought COTS. Ugh.

The car industry is even worse for your privacy than the worst tech company -- and that's because the worst behavior of the tech industry is embedded in every car. This report from @mozilla is what Consumer Reports should have done years ago -- and it is infuriating. https://foundation.mozilla.org/en/privacynotincluded/articles/its-official-cars-are-the-worst-product-category-we-have-ever-reviewed-for-privacy/

@dragestil @lightweight I have never seen local or state governments not get completely fleeced by the SAPs and Oracles of the world.

I assume all the elected officials who sign off have been bribed because there is no other explanation for those contracts getting approved.

But I don’t think I’ve ever seen any in-depth reporting about these situations.