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2021-02-28 20:05:19 | We are living in 1984 (ETERNALBLUE) (lien direct) | In the book 1984, the protagonist questions his sanity, because his memory differs from what appears to be everybody else's memory.The Party said that Oceania had never been in alliance with Eurasia. He, Winston Smith, knew that Oceania had been in alliance with Eurasia as short a time as four years ago. But where did that knowledge exist? Only in his own consciousness, which in any case must soon be annihilated. And if all others accepted the lie which the Party imposed-if all records told the same tale-then the lie passed into history and became truth. 'Who controls the past,' ran the Party slogan, 'controls the future: who controls the present controls the past.' And yet the past, though of its nature alterable, never had been altered. Whatever was true now was true from everlasting to everlasting. It was quite simple. All that was needed was an unending series of victories over your own memory. 'Reality control', they called it: in Newspeak, 'doublethink'.I know that EternalBlue didn't cause the Baltimore ransomware attack. When the attack happened, the entire cybersecurity community agreed that EternalBlue wasn't responsible.But this New York Times article said otherwise, blaming the Baltimore attack on EternalBlue. And there are hundreds of other news articles [eg] that agree, citing the New York Times. There are no news articles that dispute this.In a recent book, the author of that article admits it's not true, that EternalBlue didn't cause the ransomware to spread. But they defend themselves as it being essentially true, that EternalBlue is responsible for a lot of bad things, even if technically, not in this case. Such errors are justified, on the grounds they are generalizations and simplifications needed for the mass audience.So we are left with the situation Orwell describes: all records tell the same tale -- when the lie passes into history, it becomes the truth.Orwell continues:He wondered, as he had many times wondered before, whether he himself was a lunatic. Perhaps a lunatic was simply a minority of one. At one time it had been a sign of madness to believe that the earth goes round the sun; today, to believe that the past is inalterable. He might be ALONE in holding that belief, and if alone, then a lunatic. But the thought of being a lunatic did not greatly trouble him: the horror was that he might also be wrong.I'm definitely a lunatic, alone in my beliefs. I sure hope I'm not wrong. Update: Other lunatics document their struggles with Minitrue: When I was investigating the TJX breach, there were NYT articles citing unnamed sources that were made up & then outlets would publish citing the NYT. The TJX lawyers would require us to disprove the articles. Each time we would. It was maddening fighting lies for 8 months.— Nicholas J. Percoco (@c7five) March 1, 2021 |
Ransomware | NotPetya Wannacry APT 32 | |
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2019-12-30 14:30:20 | So that tweet was misunderstood (lien direct) | I'm currently experiencing the toxic hell that is a misunderstood tweet going viral. It's a property of the social media. The more they can deliberately misunderstand you, the more they can justify the toxicity of their response. Unfortunately, I had to delete it in order to stop all the toxic crud and threats of violence.The context is how politicians distort everything. It's like whenever they talk about sea level rise, it's always about some city like Miami or New Orleans that is sinking into the ocean already, even without global warming's help. Pointing this out isn't a denial of global warming, it's pointing out how we can't talk about the issue without exaggeration. Mankind's carbon emissions are indeed causing sea level to rise, but we should be talking about how this affects average cities, not dramatizing the issue with the worst cases.The same it true of health care. It's a flawed system that needs change. But we don't discuss the people making the best of all bad choices. Instead, we cherry pick those who made the worst possible choice, and then blame the entire bad outcome on the system.My tweet is in response to this Elizabeth Warren reference to a story were somebody chose the worst of several bad choices:No one should have to choose between medication or housing. No one should be forced to ration insulin and risk dangerous complications. We need #MedicareForAll-and we need to tackle corruption and price gouging in drug manufacturing head on. https://t.co/yNxo7yUDri- Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) September 23, 2019My tweet is widely misunderstood as saying "here's a good alternative", when I meant "here's a less bad alternative". Maybe I was wrong and it's not "less bad", but nobody has responded that way. All the toxic spew on Twitter has been based on their interpretation that I was asserting it was "good".And the reason I chose this particular response is because I thought it was a Democrat talking point. As Bernie Sanders (a 2020 presidential candidate) puts it:“The original insulin patent expired 75 years ago. Instead of falling prices, as one might expect after decades of competition, three drugmakers who make different versions of insulin have continuously raised prices on this life-saving medication.”This is called "evergreening", as described in articles like this one that claim insulin makers have been making needless small improvements to keep their products patent-protected, so that they don't have to compete against generics whose patents have expired.It's Democrats like Bernie who claim expensive insulin is little different than cheaper insulin, not me. If you disagree, go complain to him, not me.Bernie is wrong, by the way. The more expensive "insulin analogs" result in dramatically improved blood sugar control for Type 1 diabetics. The results are life changing, especially when combined with glucose monitors and insulin pumps. Drug companies deserve to recoup the billions spent on these advances. My original point is still true that "cheap insulin" is better than "no insulin", but it's also true that it's far worse than modern, more expensive insulin.Anyway, I wasn't really focused on that part of the argument but the other part, how list prices are an exaggeration. They are a fiction that nobody needs to pay, even those without insurance. They aren't the result of price gouging by drug manufacturers, as Elizabeth Warren claims. Bu | APT 32 | ||
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2018-08-20 16:06:46 | DeGrasse Tyson: Make Truth Great Again (lien direct) | Neil deGrasse Tyson tweets the following:I'm okay with a US Space Force. But what we need most is a Truth Force - one that defends against all enemies of accurate information, both foreign & domestic.- Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) August 20, 2018When people make comparisons with Orwell's "Ministry of Truth", he obtusely persists:A good start: The National Academy of Sciences, which “…provides objective, science-based advice on critical issues affecting the nation."- Neil deGrasse Tyson (@neiltyson) August 20, 2018Given that Orwellian dystopias were the theme of this summer's DEF CON hacker conference, let's explore what's wrong with this idea.Truth vs. "Truth"I work in a corrupted industry, variously known as the "infosec" community or "cybersecurity" industry. It's a great example of how truth is corrupted into "Truth".At a recent government policy meeting, I pointed out how vendors often downplay the risk of bugs (vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers). When vendors are notified of these bugs and release a patch to fix them, they often give a risk rating. These ratings are often too low, in order to protect the corporate reputation. The representative from Oracle claimed that they didn't do that, and that indeed, they'll often overestimate the risk. Other vendors chimed in, also claiming they rated the risk higher than it really was.In a neutral world, deliberately overestimating the risk would be the same falsehood as deliberately underestimating it. But we live in a non-neutral world, where only one side is a lie, the middle is truth, and the other side is "Truth". Lying in the name of the "Truth" is somehow acceptable.Moreover, Oracle is famous for having downplayed the risk of significant bugs in the past, and is well-known in the industry as being the least trustworthy vendor as far as security of their products is concerned. Much of their policy efforts in Washington D.C. are focused on preventing their dirty laundry from being exposed. They aren't simply another vendor promoting "Truth", but a deliberately exploiting "Truth" to corrupt ends.That we should exaggerate the risks of cybersecurity, deliberately lie to people for their own good, is the uncontroversial consensus of our infosec/cybersec community. Most do it, few think this is wrong. Security is a moral imperative that justifies "Truth".The National Academy of ScientistsSo are we getting the truth or "Truth" from organizations like the National Academy of Scientists?The question here isn't global warming. That mankind's carbon emissions warms the climate is truth. We have a good understanding of how greenhouse gases work, as well as many measures of the climate showing that warming is occurring. The Arctic is steadily losing ice each summer.Instead, the question is "Global Warming", the claims made by politicians on the subject. Do politicians on the left fairly represent the truth, or are they the "Truth"?Which side is the National Academy of Sciences on? Are they committed to the truth, or (like the infosec/cybersec community) are they pursuing "Truth"? Is global warming a moral imperative that justifies playing loose with the facts?Googling "national academy of sciences climate chang | Guideline | APT 32 |
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