The Telecom Digest
Friday, April 14, 2023
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The Telecom Digest |
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| Copyright © 2023 E. William Horne. All Rights Reserved. | ||
| Message-ID: <u16f8n$32blh$1@dont-email.me> Date: 12 Apr 2023 16:29:43 +0200 From: "Marco Moock" <mo01@posteo.de> Subject: Re: Push to ban ransomware payments following Australia’s biggest cyberattack Am 12.04.2023 um 13:47:35 Uhr schrieb The Telecom Digest: > The Australian government is being pushed to ban the payment of cyber > ransoms, usually demanded in cryptocurrency, following a local > business suffering a mass data breach and subsequent ransom demand. I think this is a good idea. Paying the attackers [just] makes this attacking method lucrative. |
| Message-ID: <20230412155514.GA8996@telecomdigest.us> Date: 12 Apr 2023 15:55:14 +0000 From: "Bill Horne" <tdmoderator@telecomdigest.net> Subject: Re: Push to ban ransomware payments following Australia’s biggest cyberattack On Wed, Apr 12, 2023 at 04:29:43PM +0200, Marco Moock wrote: > Am 12.04.2023 um 13:47:35 Uhr schrieb The Telecom Digest: > >> The Australian government is being pushed to ban the payment of cyber >> ransoms, usually demanded in cryptocurrency, following a local >> business suffering a mass data breach and subsequent ransom demand. > > I think this is a good idea. Paying the attackers [just] makes this > attacking method lucrative. In the early days of the PC revolution, when the machines were being introduced into schools, I met an "IT" guy who complained about the "unbelieveable" number of viruses that the PC's were picking up. I offered to solve the problem, and I changed all the PC's in the "Computer Lab" over to BOOtP operaton, so that they would download their operating system from the lab's server instead of their own hard drives. I removed the OS from the hard drives to prevent any attempt to bypass the BOOTP startup, and set each BIOS to require a password in order to change the boot options. After that, I told the teachers whom were using the computer lab that when a student complained of a virus or other mysterious problems, to "Just tell the student to stop doing whatever he was doing before," and to confiscate whatever floppy disk was in the PC, and then turn that student's PC off and back on again, so that it would reload the OS from the server. After I cashed the check, I got the teachers together again, and told them that their students had been deliberately bringing infected disks into their lab to avoid the hard work of learning how to use the programs they were being asked to study. The teachers decided that, from then on, they would destroy any floppy disks that were in the PC's where an infection was found. One of them suggested using scissors to cut open the flppy disks and discarding the pieces while the entire class watched (this was when 5¼ inch floppy disks were being used). A few parents complained, the teachers told me later, but they would always back off when they were told that the floppy disks were evidence of a crime, and that the teachers were destroying them to save their students from getting a criminal record. Remove the reward, obviate the risk. Bill Horne |
| Message-ID: <9d991022-a9b8-ea83-aa6a-9ed71e2a7cb4@panix.com> Date: 12 Apr 2023 20:32:37 -0400 From: "David" <wb8foz@panix.com> Subject: Re: OR: Grants Pass clinic operates without phone lines for almost a week > "We understand that a line was cut in the ground but we don't know who > cut it. But it seems to be due to some construction in the area," One thing to consider is 811 works *only* if the telco sends out a locator when requested. In a WA state job last year, I found that the PoCo and Comcast did do their locates, but we never heard from CenturyLink. The excavator located their cable and avoided it but it's the utility's job to do their half. |
| Message-ID: <u18ef0$b0bi$1@dont-email.me> Date: 13 Apr 2023 10:28:15 +0200 From: "Marco Moock" <mo01@posteo.de> Subject: Germany: Telekom and Vodafone switched off SMS to landline in March 2023 Deutsche Telekom and Vodafone switched off their service to send SMS from their landline telephone network to other landline phones or to mobile phones or vice-versa. This happened at the 1st March 2023. Telekom said they informed their customers, but the German telecommunication news website "teltarif.de" cannot confirm this. One of the users posted a comment where he asked the Telekom support and the support wasn't informed that the service had been discontinued. To send a message, a special phone was needed. The phone then called a modem on 0193-010. That number is currently off-hook all the time. If the recipient's phone wasn't capable of receiving SMS, a robot read the message aloud. https://www.telekom.de/hilfe/sms-festnetz-abschaltung?samChecked=true https://www.teltarif.de/sms-festnetz-telekom-eingestellt/news/91149.html O2 still operates their SMS gateway from mobile network to landline. -- kind regards Marco Moock |
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