Geek Stuff category archive

The lottery is a mug’s game. Meet some mugs.

Six people have been charged with exploiting a bug in lottery terminals to print off winning tickets on demand.

Connecticut prosecutors say the group conspired to manipulate automated ticket dispensers to run off “5 Card Cash” tickets that granted on-the-spot payouts in the US state.

Research says, “Don’t go there.“

For all that it’s been throwing its weight around since the earliest days of the browser wars, Microsoft has never really gotten a handle on how this internet thingy works.

A syntax error in your ~/.procmailrc can just ruin your whole day.

Ads gone wild.

Via Bruce Schneier.

James McWillians recounts the experience of one person who ditched his smartphone for a year. It was not pretty. Here’s a bit:

But if Miller became more present-minded, nobody else around him did. “People felt uncomfortable talking to me because they knew I wasn’t doing anything else,” he said. Communication without gadgets proved to be a foreign concept in his peer world. Friends and colleagues—some of whom thought he might have died—misunderstood or failed to appreciate Miller’s experiment. Plus, given that he had effectively consigned himself to offline communications, all they had to do to avoid him was to stay online. None of this behavior was overtly hostile, all of it was passive, but it was still a social burden reminding Miller that his identity didn’t thrive in a vacuum. His quality of life eventually suffered.

Are you desperate for “likes”?

Spelling is important, regardless of your career choice.

A spelling mistake in an online bank transfer instruction helped prevent a nearly $1bn heist last month involving the Bangladesh central bank and the New York Fed, banking officials said.

Unknown hackers still managed to get away with about $80m, one of the largest known bank thefts in history.

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El Reg reports that ransomeware has surpassed botnets as the primary threat to computing in the enterprise for the simple fact that persons pay the ransom.

Paying up is always a surefire way to mitigate threats, now, is it not?

Healthcare is the most affected sector when it comes to cyber-attacks more generally, according to other findings from the 2015 edition of Trend Micro’s Annual Security Roundup Report. Throughout 2015, almost 30 per cent of all data breaches happened in the healthcare sector, followed by education and government sectors (17 per cent and 16 per cent, respectively).

No surprise there. Network and device security tends to be an afterthought in the enterprise, and healthcare is one of the worst, if not the worst offender.

Depressing frolics.

Going viral.

Learn about the wonderful world of free and open source. Use computers to do what you want, not what someone else wants you to do.

It’s not hard; it’s just different.

What: Monthly TWUUG Meeting.

Who: Everyone in TideWater/Hampton Roads with interest in any/all flavors of Unix/Linux. There are no dues or signup requirements. All are welcome.

Where: Lake Taylor Transitional Care Hospital in Norfolk Training Room. See directions below. (Wireless and wired internet connection available.) Turn right upon entering, then left at the last corridor and look for the open meeting room.

When: 7:30 PM till whenever (usually 9:30ish) on Thursday, March 3.

Directions:
Lake Taylor Hospital
1309 Kempsville Road
Norfolk, Va. 23502 (Map)

Pre-Meeting Dinner at 6:00 PM (separate checks)
Uno Chicago Grill
Virginia Beach Blvd. & Military Highway (JANAF Shopping Center). (Map)

Join the forums.

In the Silk Road case, the defendant’s lawyer has taken a creative approach to the portion of the charges related to money-laundering. He’s arguing that, since Bitcoins aren’t legally recognized as money, they can’t be laundered, regardless of how dirty they are.

In the filing, Dratel referred to recent guidance [PDF] from the US Internal Revenue Service, which stated that virtual currency like Bitcoin “does not have legal tender status in any jurisdiction,” and that for tax purposes it should be treated as property, rather than currency.

If the government doesn’t consider Bitcoin to be money, Dratel argued, then transactions conducted solely in Bitcoin don’t fall under 18 U.S.C. §1956, the US money laundering statute, which includes specific language referring to “funds,” “monetary instruments,” and “financial institutions.” For this reason, he said, the money-laundering charge against Ulbricht should be dismissed.

Follow the link for much, much more.