• OscarCP

    OscarCP

    @oscarcp

    Viewing 15 replies - 7,741 through 7,755 (of 7,803 total)
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    • in reply to: Putting Meltdown/Spectre in perspective #162520

      Those seem to me are real concerns that you seem to have some practical experience dealing with.

      I suspect that the problem will be less one caused by violent bullies trying to make life harder for their estranged mates, because that would be geeky stuff they’ll probably see as beneath themselves, and more by outright criminals and maybe some tech-savvy perverts. How computer sophisticated their attempts could be? Are those people trying to remake their lives away from their abusers more in “cyber danger” than anyone else? Could you elaborate a bit more on that?

      There are two ways the use of computers is made safer in work places and, to same extent, at home, besides keeping antivirus up to date and installing security patches: teaching people safe practices when using the Internet, as well as (but this may not be cheap) having good System Administrators taking care of the running of the local area networks in, for example, schools.

      Maybe some one else here can offer some better ideas that might be of help in this regard?

       

      Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

      MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
      Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
      macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

      1 user thanked author for this post.
    • in reply to: Putting Meltdown/Spectre in perspective #162512

      Indeed, what happened to all that.

      To quote from that wonderful show, so poorly treated by those running things at the TV Channel:

      Welcome to the world of Tomorrow!

       

       

      Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

      MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
      Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
      macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

    • in reply to: Putting Meltdown/Spectre in perspective #162449

      And the same CEO, selling off his company shares by the tens of millions the day before Intel came out and admitted, in public, that there was a problem, and they were it, must have done a lot to significantly solidify those savvy shareholders, stakeholders and analysts’ confidence in whatever he chooses to tell them.

       

      Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

      MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
      Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
      macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

      1 user thanked author for this post.
    • in reply to: Putting Meltdown/Spectre in perspective #162396

      What, GossiTheDog has a problem with PhDs? Really?

      On a related note, that might be of interest to those dual Win/Mac users I believe also frequent Woody’s: I have been waiting for my Mac to get the Spectre/Meltdown patch from Apple for my version of their OS, which was put out three days ago, but I had not received yet. So I asked Apple and was told “Apple is not patching Sierra (my still supported OS version) anymore! Upgrade to High Sierra!” Since I do a  lot of work for NASA these days, and NASA has not vetted High Sierra, yet, for use by its contractors, I thanked my interlocutor graciously for his (non) help and ended the conversation. Then asked around and was told by a colleague that the way to get it was to look for it by clicking the “Updates” button in the Apple Store page, rather than, as usual, waiting for it to be sent first, as I had been doing until then. I tried that; it worked!

      Bottom line: Apple, that lately has been pushing High Sierra like crazy, might be following now the path blazed by MS with Win 10, only it is not going all out Cloud. At least not yet.

       

       

      Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

      MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
      Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
      macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

      2 users thanked author for this post.
    • in reply to: January Patch Tuesday overview #162077

      Thanking MrBrian for yesterday’s update (#162022) on his comprehensive posting on the current .NET situation.

      And hoping that is the last word ever on this most disappointing issue, although who can say that for sure anymore?

      Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

      MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
      Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
      macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

      1 user thanked author for this post.
    • in reply to: Intel says STOP installing firmware updates #161494

      Thank you so very much, BillC for posting those links to the “techarp” site, and to those at “techarp” for going to all the trouble of creating such a comprehensive and easy to use list of potentially afflicted Intel CPUs (where I can see that my very own, by now ancient “Sandy Bridge” is included).

      Making that list, with a promise to keep it up to date (the one in the links is from several days ago) , is no trivial endeavor, considering that Intel has created, by now, about one Gillion Zillion Googolplex variants of the multi-core processor!

       

      Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

      MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
      Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
      macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

    • in reply to: More problems with this month’s patches #161041

      A question about the PIC and APIC interrupt controllers: are both enabled by default in the BIOS with the relatively more recent x64 Windows’ versions, e.g. 7 and up? Because, if they are, the solution to some real incompatibility between those settings (with some updates, such as the monthly S+Q rollout, as reported elsewhere in Woody’s) should be for MS to fix the patch, not for the user to tweak the BIOS, or shouldn’t it?.

      Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

      MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
      Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
      macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

      1 user thanked author for this post.
    • Thank you so much, Kristy. My PC runs Windows 7; forgot to mention that, sorry.

      Good to know the IE 11 Security update KB number has not changed since I downloaded the executables from the MS Catalogue some days ago.

      It has been a bit overwhelming keeping up with the offers and retractions and additions to previous additions for each and every item in the list of January patches. Except, maybe, for Office 2010 – 16 and the MS Malware Removal Tool (MSMRT), that have remain stalwartly in the Windows Updates list offered to me by MS since the beginning, without any retractions (yet) that I’ve seen. (Yesterday, I installed the MS Office January updates in the Mac, and it is still in one piece, or seems to be.)

      Maybe, once the dust (might) have finally settled, Woody could put up where we can’t miss it a list of the finalist numbers for: Office, the MSMRT, Windows 7 – 10 Security Only, E 11 Cumulative Security Only. And the last, last, last — and no kidding! — standing NET Security Only ? Just a suggestion.

      Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

      MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
      Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
      macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

      1 user thanked author for this post.
    • Maybe someone here can help me with this question:

      What is, at present, the IE 11 cumulative security only update KB number?

      Thanks.

      Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

      MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
      Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
      macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

    • in reply to: Windows patches are rolling out NOW #160664

      Further to my previous posting answering to Kristy:

      I just run “check for updates” and found two new ones: this month’s “security and quality rollout” and the .Net rollout. I won’t install the quality and security rollout, but it’s showing up now probably means I could, if I so choose, download and install the security only update from the MS Catalogue. Although first I’ll wait for clearer signs that it is safe to do.

      Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

      MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
      Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
      macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

    • in reply to: Windows patches are rolling out NOW #160657

      Kristy,

      Thanks!

      After I submitted that posting, I did email a similar question to Webroot, and was answered that:

      (1) A new version will be released shortly that will install and set the QualityCompt key automatically.

      (2) If I wanted to get the key installed now, by using the instructions in the link:  https://download.webroot.com/MSJan18RegFlag.zip (provided by Webroot in the same email), I could download the compressed file ” MSJan28RegFlag ” and then click on it and continue clicking through multiple warnings, until the message “Key installed” (or words to that effect) finally appeared. I did all that and then checked myself to see if the, until then absent key, was in fact installed and properly set, and yes, it was and it was.

      At the moment, the only updates offered in my PC’s “Windows Update” box are still those that have been there since soon after Patch Tuesday: for MS Office plus the latest MS Malware Removal Tool. So now it might be a matter of time before the rest appear, I suppose. After which I’ll have to wait until what to do about them becomes a little clear.

       

      Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

      MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
      Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
      macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

    • in reply to: Windows patches are rolling out NOW #160652

      Does anyone else here already know that the following also applies to them?

      If so, I’ll be grateful if someone could let me know how this was resolved, assuming it already has been resolved:

      I have the Windows SecureAnywhere anti malware installed in my Win 7 Pro, SP1, x64 PC.

      The new updates that are contingent to the anti malware manufacturer setting up the “QualityCompat” key in the Registry are not yet being offered to me by MS (my PC is set to “Inform me, but do not install new updates”). Checking for the existence of the new “QualityCompat” Key, I find it is not in the Registry yet.

      Looking around, I have then found that a new version of Webroot SecureAnywhere (9.0.19.36) was distributed on 9 January, but the one in my PC is an older one, from well before the news of Spectre and Meltdown broke out. As installed in my PC, Webroot is set to update my version automatically.

      Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

      MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
      Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
      macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

    • AJNorth wrote: “With respect, my “shiny new processor” will be running Linux.”

      Well, anything that runs on most Intel chips, for example: PCs with LINUX OS…is fair game for the Bond-themed bugs, it would seem.

      Hmmm… Should I, must I, want I, really, truly, definitely, know about any of this?

      Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

      MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
      Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
      macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

      1 user thanked author for this post.
    • Waterfox latest version (56.0.2) also has the timing granularity increased to foil attacks with Spectre, same as Firefox and, as I learn here, Pale Moon. I do not know if the second feature, it seems already available in Pale Moon and for some time now, that does not allow buffer memory to be shared between threads, has been implemented already in Waterfox as well. It would be there, almost certainly, if it has been put also in Firefox.

      I have installed recently Waterfox in both the Mac Sierra and the Windows 7 PC. But not Pale Moon, which is only for Windows, in the PC, yet. So far, quite happy with Waterfox.

      Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

      MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
      Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
      macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

    • in reply to: Okiru: Mirai Botnet – Possible Widespread IoT Exposure #159977

      This is my answer to Sessh’s opinion. But FIRST:

      I think this topic deserves getting a separate ‘Lounge” thread all by itself, because I feel it is THAT important.

      SECOND:

      I have educated myself on this problem, and this is a good description I have found of it:

      “Pop quiz! What’s the second-most-popular CPU core in the world? First place goes to ARM, of course, but who’s the runner-up?

      If you guessed MIPS, PowerPC, x86, Tensilica, 8051, or XMOS, you’re wrong. (In good company, but still wrong.) The correct answer is: ARC.

      According to Synopsys, 1.3 billion ARC processors were embedded into chips last year, and that number is growing by about 300 million per year. That puts ARC second only to the mighty ARM. Must be something about the name. Maybe all those designers thought they were getting ARM but licensed ARC by accident.

      Not likely. ARC and ARM are vastly different beasts, even though both occupy the same phylum (or is that genus?) of the microprocessor taxonomic tree. They’re both 32-bit RISC processors; both are offered as licensed IP; both are used in SoC development; and both have a number of variations and configuration options. One runs practically every cellphone and tablet in the world, while the other one appears in… uh… where do all those billions of ARC processors go?

      “In just about anything that’s not a cellphone or a tablet, really. ARC-based chips are in cameras, utility meters, televisions, flash drives, cars, and on and on. Think “embedded system” or “system on chip” and you run a good chance of identifying a product harboring at least one ARC processor. (Extra credit for knowing that ARC has more licensees than ARM does, too.)”

      More, here: https://www.eejournal.com/article/20131106-archs/

      FINALLY, Sessh:

      I cannot be in more agreement with your opinion, which has been mine too since the early days of the open, commercial use of the Internet by way of the WWW — and the appearance of the first worms, etc. crawling through it. I remember having a conversation, nearly a generation ago, while taking some fresh air in the little porch at the back of a train taking me to Oslo, with a younger man who happened to be working, already that early in the game, on self-driving cars and was gushing enthusiastically about his project. I did not make a friend, that time, by explaining to him that, in my opinion and based on my own, hands-on experience with the critical technology: GPS, the idea was, at least at that point, bound to be dangerously unreliable and likely to become better the way trains (as the one we were traveling on) eventually did: through a series of hair-rising b***** catastrophes that pushed the use of new and of better security measures to eliminate the new problems each new catastrophe had revealed. Nothing I have seen or heard since then has made me any less skeptical about this whole idea of self-driving cars (and pickup trucks, and 18-wheelers…)

      Now we also have the coming, seemingly unstoppable, of something much vaunted and loved by prestige- and  money-hungry Silicon Valley entrepreneurs and such: the Great Internet of Things, so we will be able to still do, but with considerably more danger, things that, in many cases, people have been doing for tens of thousands of years without the benefit of the IoT, and with no major complaints.

      But what a wonderful opportunity for those keen early adopters of newfangled gadgetry to do themselves in and thus give fair warning to the rest of humanity at their own cost!

      And, to top it all, we also have coming, among other much promised wonders: flying cars and a drone-in-every-pot, so to speak, to make life so much interesting and exiting to one and all… with every day a new adventure in survival against the odds!

      OK: this has nothing much to do with dodgy NET. updates and such, but it feels good to have it off my chest. Still not quite “rave” material, I would think.

      Ex-Windows user (Win. 98, XP, 7); since mid-2017 using also macOS. Presently on Monterey 12.15 & sometimes running also Linux (Mint).

      MacBook Pro circa mid-2015, 15" display, with 16GB 1600 GHz DDR3 RAM, 1 TB SSD, a Haswell architecture Intel CPU with 4 Cores and 8 Threads model i7-4870HQ @ 2.50GHz.
      Intel Iris Pro GPU with Built-in Bus, VRAM 1.5 GB, Display 2880 x 1800 Retina, 24-Bit color.
      macOS Monterey; browsers: Waterfox "Current", Vivaldi and (now and then) Chrome; security apps. Intego AV

      4 users thanked author for this post.
    Viewing 15 replies - 7,741 through 7,755 (of 7,803 total)