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A day after a ransomware worm infected 75,000 machines in 100 countries, Microsoft is taking the highly unusual step of issuing patches that immunize Windows XP, 8, and Server 2003. These are operating systems the company stopped supporting as many as three years ago. 
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What about windows 3.11?!?
What about my ZX81?!?
Bloody useless, MS!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Well,
There are some intelligence agencies and DoJ teams spraying the world with their high-technology penetration tools. I imagine that you could even bait these guys and wait for the latest tool drop. Just because the non-persistent toolsets remain in RAM and are sometimes encrypted does not mean those tools are safe.
I have a very pro-surveillance philosophy and I believe that complete visibility will help build a better world. However we need to re-think how that is implemented. The backdoor/hacking/subterfuge approach is probably not maintainable. We need to consider implementing built-in open access for law enforcement and world governments.
I think the Out-of-band management[^] approach is a great framework to build upon.
The onus belongs to the CPU manufactures such as AMD, Intel, Qualcomm, NVIDIA... to get this right. The same framework for built-in access/management can also be used to mitigate digital emergencies world-wide. This is especially important for our interconnected future with IoT devices[^].
I see no valid argument against implementing this.
Best Wishes,
-David Delaune
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Randor wrote: We need to consider implementing built-in open access for law enforcement and world governments.
How about we don't?
You may trust your government, I'm not that much of a fool. Even if you could somehow prove that this government can be trusted, there is no guarantee that a government is (democratically) elected can always be trusted.
The idea that privacy is not applicable is dangerous, as one cannot have freedom without it. That danger is not limited to persecution over your personal beliefs or religion, it may very well be based on politics.
Imagine, your in Syria at this moment. Left of you Turks, right of you Kurds. According to the Americans, both are allies. You're not allowed to shoot at either party, but they will shoot at each other. Do you trust your governement, or do you duck and cover?
We'll see a lot more of these attacks as the calls for investment in cyberwarfare grows. And those calls are growing louder after each incident. We certainly live in interesting times 
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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Randor wrote: We need to consider implementing built-in open access for law enforcement and world governments.
Hey, that's almost a direct translation of what Saddam Hussein said in Arabic!
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Randor wrote: I have a very pro-surveillance philosophy and I believe that complete visibility will help build a better world.
"Peeping Tom" comes to mind. 
Marc
Latest Article - Create a Dockerized Python Fiddle Web App
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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The book Beyond Earth says we’re looking too close to home for our space colonies. Because we've got this place in tippy-top shape
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Hmmmmm,
We don't even have large human cities under the Earth oceans yet... I highly doubt you will see a human on the surface or subsurface of Titan within your lifetime. Hope I am wrong.
Best Wishes,
-David Delaune
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Despite the massive scale of the attack, stopping new infections from the attack seems to have been as simple as registering a single web address. Bad news for the company wanting to register iuqerfsodp9ifjaposdfjhgosurijfaewrwergwea (.com)
I guess the .net site is still available?
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Its creators have abandoned licenses to the format, signing its death sentence. Hasn't everyone moved on to Ogg?
And by 'everyone', I mean 'anyone'?
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"The Fraunhofer Institute for Integrated Circuits announced that since it "isn't making squat" from MP3, it is dead!"
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We’re delighted to announce that our rich Python toolchain is fully available in Visual Studio 2017. One more thing to 'never expect'
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Kent Sharkey wrote: We’re delighted to announce that our rich Python toolchain is fully available in Visual Studio 2017.
Yay! About time!
Marc
Latest Article - Create a Dockerized Python Fiddle Web App
Learning to code with python is like learning to swim with those little arm floaties. It gives you undeserved confidence and will eventually drown you. - DangerBunny
Artificial intelligence is the only remedy for natural stupidity. - CDP1802
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A well-known computational problem seeks to find the most efficient route for a traveling salesman to visit clients in a number of cities. Seemingly simple, it's actually surprisingly complex and much studied, with implications in fields as wide-ranging as manufacturing and air-traffic control. Physicists to the rescue! (again)
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obXKCD[^]
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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That's the one I was looking for, thank you! 
TTFN - Kent
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It wasn't hard to find, I just had to remember seeing it in the near past and then click back a half dozen times. 
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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The tool was leaked by a group calling itself the Shadow Brokers, which has been dumping stolen N.S.A. hacking tools online since last year. Microsoft rolled out a patch for the vulnerability in March, but hackers apparently took advantage of the fact that vulnerable targets — particularly hospitals — had yet to update their systems. Aw.
Bastard Programmer from Hell 
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
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So I've been poking around trying to identify the specific security patch Microsoft released in March of this year to fix this problem. So far, I have been unable to do so. Does anyone know how to look at your Windows 7 and Xp machines to verify said patch is in place?
A direct link is more than sufficient.
thx
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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Given that both XP and W7 are no longer actively supported, there's a good chance that there is no such update.
--edit;
Microsoft Security Bulletin MS17-010 - Critical[^]; looks like it's for Vista and upwards.
Bastard Programmer from Hell
If you can't read my code, try converting it here[^]
modified 13-May-17 9:10am.
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Well - this is what I read:
Microsoft had released a fix for that exploit a month before, in March, in security bulletin MS17-010. That security bulletin only included fixes for Windows Vista, Windows 7, Windows 8.1, Windows 10, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2012, and Windows Server 2016.
But in true Microsoft form, they provide the exactly correct information in an unusable form. I've also read that Windows 10 machines were unaffected by WannaCry but the title above would imply otherwise. I admit it's vague.
Time to update all of my VMs.
Okay - more info - a bit more specific, might be useful to some:
Quote: Windows 7:
KB4019264: May Security Monthly Rollup for Windows 7
KB4015552: April Preview of Monthly Rollup for Windows 7
WE RECOMMEND: Click to free scan your PC for malware & improve performance
KB4015549: April Security Monthly Rollup for Windows 7
KB4012215: March Security Monthly Rollup for Windows 7
KB4012212: March Security Only Quality Update for Windows 7
Windows 8.1:
KB4019215: Security Monthly Rollup for Windows 8.1
KB4015553: April Preview of Monthly Rollup for Windows 8.1
KB4015550: April Security Monthly Rollup for Windows 8.1
KB4012216: March Security Monthly Rollup for Windows 8.1
KB4012213: March Security Update for Windows 8.1
Charlie Gilley
<italic>Stuck in a dysfunctional matrix from which I must escape...
"Where liberty dwells, there is my country." B. Franklin, 1783
“They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety.” BF, 1759
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As long as you've installed the service pack*, W7 is still in support for a bit more than two and a half more years (till Jan 2020[^]).
*and didn't go "LALALALALAICANTHEARGYOULALALALALA" when MS said they'd be dropping support for W7/8.x on processors released after W10 came out; a threat they carried through on a month or two back unless you registry hack around it.
Did you ever see history portrayed as an old man with a wise brow and pulseless heart, waging all things in the balance of reason?
Is not rather the genius of history like an eternal, imploring maiden, full of fire, with a burning heart and flaming soul, humanly warm and humanly beautiful?
--Zachris Topelius
Training a telescope on one’s own belly button will only reveal lint. You like that? You go right on staring at it. I prefer looking at galaxies.
-- Sarah Hoyt
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The hospitals had ample warning since the Ransom attack on a hospital in Los Angeles many moons ago, but apparently had no strategy in place in case of a similar attack. Time to get out the long knife and start firing incompetent administrators and IT professionals.
Get me coffee and no one gets hurt!
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Well, if you keep guns in your house and you're burgled...
How lovely that the worst ever cyber attack is the fault of the NSA.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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