February 2020 - wlug - list.wlug.org.nz

South Korea's Government Explores Move From Windows To Linux Desktop
by Peter Reutemann 11 Feb '20

11 Feb '20

'In May 2019, South Korea's Interior Ministry announced plans to look into switching to the Linux desktop from Windows. It must have liked what it saw. According to the Korean news site Newsis, the South Korean Ministry of Strategy and Planning has announced the government is exploring moving most of its approximately 3.3 million Windows computers to Linux. The reason for this is simple. It's to reduce software licensing costs and the government's reliance on Windows. As Choi Jang-hyuk, the head of the Ministry of Strategy and Finance, said, "We will resolve our dependency on a single company while reducing the budget by introducing an open-source operating system." How much? South Korean officials said it would cost 780 billion won (about $655 million) to move government PCs from Windows 7 to Windows 10. [...] Windows will still have a role to play for now on South Korean government computers. As the Aju Business Daily, a South Korean business news site, explained: Government officials currently use two physical, air-gapped PCs. One is external for internet use, and the other is internal for intranet tasks. Only the external one will use a Linux-based distro. Eventually, by 2026, most civil servants will use a single Windows-powered laptop. On that system, Windows will continue to be used for internal work, while Linux will be used as a virtual desktop via a Linux-powered cloud server. This looks to eventually end up as a Desktop-as-a-Service (DaaS) model. The report notes that the Ministry of National Defense and National Police Agency are already using the Ubuntu Linux 18.04 LTS-based Harmonica OS 3.0. "Meanwhile, the Korean Postal Service division is moving to TMaxOS," reports ZDNet. "The Debian Linux-based South Korean Gooroom Cloud OS is also being used by Defense and the Ministry of Public Administration and Security."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/02/10/2133246 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Companies That Buy Data Derived From Scraping the Contents of Your Email Inbox
by Peter Reutemann 11 Feb '20

11 Feb '20

'The popular Edison email app, which is in the top 100 productivity apps on the Apple app store, scrapes users' email inboxes and sells products based off that information to clients in the finance, travel, and e-Commerce sectors. The contents of Edison users' inboxes are of particular interest to companies who can buy the data to make better investment decisions, according to a J.P. Morgan document obtained by Motherboard. On its website Edison says that it does "process" users' emails, but some users did not know that when using the Edison app the company scrapes their inbox for profit. Motherboard has also obtained documentation that provides more specifics about how two other popular apps -- Cleanfox and Slice -- sell products based on users' emails to corporate clients. Some of the companies listed in the J.P. Morgan document sell data sourced from "personal inboxes," the document adds. A spokesperson for J.P. Morgan Research, the part of the company that created the document, told Motherboard that the research "is intended for institutional clients." That document describes Edison as providing "consumer purchase metrics including brand loyalty, wallet share, purchase preferences, etc." The document adds that the "source" of the data is the "Edison Email App." On the product section of its website, Edison offers "Edison Trends" and "Trends Direct." The company says it can provide "Detailed behavior patterns to improve your customers' experience and business results." Edison is just one of several companies that offer free email apps which then sell anonymized or pseudonymized data derived from users' inboxes. Another company that mines inboxes called Foxintelligence has data that comes from users of the Cleanfox app, which tidies up users' inboxes. Some of the "examples of clients" mentioned in a confidential Foxintelligence presentation include PayPal, consulting giants Bain & Company, and McKinsey & Company. "A spreadsheet containing data from Rakuten's Slice, an app that scrapes a user's inbox so they can better track packages or get their money back once a product goes down in price, contains the item that an app user bought from a specific brand, what they paid, and an unique identification code for each buyer," adds Motherboard. "An email obtained by Motherboard appeared to show the price for access to Rakuten data for one product category as over $100,000."' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/02/10/2158242 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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The Windows 10 Start Menu Now Harasses Firefox Users
by Peter Reutemann 11 Feb '20

11 Feb '20

'The "Suggested" section on the Windows 10 Start Menu used to just promote its own apps, reports MSPowerUser. But for some users (who haven't disable Microsoft's "Suggestions"), that menu is now showing a new kind of ad listing: The listing displays "Still using Firefox? Microsoft Edge is here", to all users of the former -- even with the latter already installed. The ad provides a link to download the chromium-based browser. Undoubtedly, the suggestions won't end here. Microsoft is reportedly planning to sprawl similar ads out to Wordpad, to encourage users to download official Office apps. The Windows Latest blog points out that Microsoft's "Suggestions" can be "permanently disabled with a few tweaks unlike the Chrome ads in Google search results."' -- source: https://news.slashdot.org/story/20/02/10/0014245 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Suspicion and Anger Towards Microsoft Rises After Windows 10 Search Failure
by Peter Reutemann 10 Feb '20

10 Feb '20

'Earlier this week, searching in Windows 10 was broken, "with a black bar showing where search results should be, even for those who tried to perform a local search of their files." Microsoft issued a fix and blamed the issue on a "third-party networking fiber provider". But unfortunately, Microsoft's fix isn't working for everyone -- and that's just the beginning. Long-time Slashdot reader Futurepower(R) shares Forbes' report: Second, and more worryingly, Microsoft's explanation doesn't add up and it has prompted serious questions to be asked about how the operating system works and what personal data it is sharing. Popular Microsoft pundit Woody Leonard led the charge, writing: "If you believe that yesterday's worldwide crash of Windows 10 Search was caused by a bad third-party fiber provider, I have a bridge to sell you." In an open letter to new Windows head Panos Panay, Susan 'Patch Lady' Bradley was similarly sceptical, noting that today "we all found out that our local search boxes are somehow dependent on some service working at Microsoft." She attacked the company for a lack of transparency and gave it a maximum 'Pinocchio score' for a lack of trust... Similarly, Engadget writer Richard Lawler revealed that users were now trying to hack the Windows 10 registry to disconnect their local file searches from Microsoft servers "and I can't say I blame them after this episode. Microsoft owes users a better explanation than this and should make sure it's impossible for offline features to get taken out when the cloud is having an issue." In fact, Forbes writes that "the aforementioned Windows 10 registry hack appears to be the only 100% fix for this issue and it also disconnects Bing and Cortana online services from Windows 10 search." And then on Saturday the Windows Latest blog also noticed that Microsoft's release notes for Windows 10 20H1 Build 19035 reveal that Microsoft is apparently now delaying the roll-out of a widely-anticipated "Optional Updates" option. "It appears that the new Optional updates experience will come out in October/November 2020, not this spring as previously planned."' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/02/09/2241212 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Intel's 'Clear Linux' Distro Beats Ubuntu and Windows 10 -- on an AMD Laptop
by Peter Reutemann 10 Feb '20

10 Feb '20

'Intel's Clear Linux distribution looks like it could be the best operating system to run on cheap AMD hardware, with benchmarks showing it outperforms Windows 10 and Ubuntu on a $199 laptop with a budget AMD Ryzen 3200U processor. The Phoronix website ran a series of benchmarks on a super-cheap AMD laptop from Walmart, and found that Intel Clear Linux beat popular Linux distros Fedora and Ubuntu for 78% of the tests. Not only is it remarkable that a relatively unknown Linux distro is so easily outperforming established operating systems, the fact that Intel is the company behind the distro is particularly ironic. As you can imagine, Clear Linux is optimized for Intel processors, but it seems like it works brilliantly on AMD hardware as well.' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/02/08/1849207 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Almost Every Website You Visit Records Exactly How Your Mouse Moves
by Peter Reutemann 09 Feb '20

09 Feb '20

'Medium's technology blog OneZero reports that many websites today use a service that collects all of your mouse movements, enabling "replays" of every move. "What surprised me was that the software even recorded when I shook my mouse around while deciding what to click on. It felt like observing digital body language." Session replay services have been around for over a decade and are widely used. One service, called FullStory, lists popular sites like Zillow, TeeSpring, and Jane as clients on its website. Another, called LogRocket, boasts Airbnb, Reddit, and CarFax, and a third called Inspectlet lists Shopify, ABC, and eBay among its users. They bill themselves as tools for designing sites that are easy to use and increase desired user behavior, such as buying an item. If many users add items to their cart, but then abandon the purchase at a certain rough part of the checkout process, for instance, the service helps site owners figure out how to change the site's design to nudge users over the checkout line... FullStory even has a feature that tracks what it calls "rage clicks." This is when a user gets frustrated with a site and starts angrily clicking over and over. In a semi-related story, a reporter for The Markup also recently discovered Amazon had apparently collected 90,000 rows of timestamped data about every tap they'd made on their Kindle.' -- source: https://yro.slashdot.org/story/20/02/08/002242 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Elementary OS Wants to Crowdfund a Better Distro-Independent 'AppCenter for Everyone'
by Peter Reutemann 09 Feb '20

09 Feb '20

'In 2017 Elementary OS built a pay-what-you-want app store -- funded with $10,000 raised on IndieGogo. Now they're trying to raise another $10,000 for a one-week, in-person sprint in Denver, Colorado, Forbes reports, to upgrade the store while bringing an even grander concept to reality: That concept comprises 4 main goals: - Enable open source developers to monetize their apps on every other Linux distribution - Empower developers to ship apps with cutting-edge technologies - Improve privacy, security, and stability - Streamline the payments process On the technical side of things, the team plans to rebuild AppCenter's backend from the ground up to enable newer technologies developers are asking for, and they're rallying behind the Flatpak packaging format to get it done. They've already been collaborating with the FlatHub team, and plan to bring in developers from Endless and GNOME to ensure that "our solution can be reused and improved by other Flatpak stores and the greater open source desktop ecosystem." For a donation of $10, "you'll have your name immortalized in the AppCenter code on GitHub," explains a promotional video. (There's already 70 backers who have claimed this perk.) In fact, "Less than 8 hours ago we launched #AppCenterForEveryone, and we're 50% funded," announced an update Friday on Twitter. The campaign's web page shared this note of appreciation. "With your support, we'll be able to accelerate the timeline on adopting cutting edge technology and making an even more competitive Open Source operating system and a compelling foundation for all Flatpak stores."' -- source: https://linux.slashdot.org/story/20/02/08/1813251 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Security In 2020: Revisited
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 08 Feb '20

08 Feb '20

Security guru Bruce Schneier revisits <https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2020/02/security_in_202_1.html> an essay he wrote 10 years ago, looking ahead in security-related computing trends. If you can stomach the neologisms: Trend over the decade up to 2010: * deperimeterization -- the realization that securing the boundary isn’t enough, you have to have defence in depth. Also known as “submarine warfare”. Trends already becoming apparent in 2010: * consumerization -- the idea that computing needs in workplaces will be following the trends in consumer devices, not leading them * decentralization -- or rather, recentralization in the cloud Trends he forecast in 2010: * deconcentration -- the replacement of general-purpose computers with special-purpose devices. But he also includes special-purpose apps installed on more general-purpose devices like smartphones. * decustomerization -- the idea that we get more of our IT functionality without any business relationship. But beware the maxim: “if you’re not paying for the product, then you are the product”. Also this has been tried with hardware before without success, but he thinks it’s something that will be tried again. * depersonization -- software agents taking decisions on your behalf. Gadgets in your house (and your car) won’t even need you to manage them.

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Google Fixes No-User-Interaction Bug In Android's Bluetooth Component
by Peter Reutemann 08 Feb '20

08 Feb '20

'Google has patched this week a critical security flaw in Android's Bluetooth component. If left unpatched, the vulnerability can be exploited without any user interaction and can even be used to create self-spreading Bluetooth worms. Researchers said that exploiting the bug requires no user interaction. All that is required is that the user has Bluetooth enabled on his device. However, while this requirement would have limited the attack surface in past years, it does not today since modern Android OS versions ship with Bluetooth enabled by default and many Android users use Bluetooth-based headphones meaning the Bluetooth service is likely to be enabled on many handsets. The bug can lead to remote code execution and the hijacking of a device. Fixes for the bug are available via the Android February 2020 Security Bulletin, which has been available for download starting this week. Android 9 and earlier are impacted.' -- source: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/20/02/07/0220203 Cheers, Peter -- Peter Reutemann Dept. of Computer Science University of Waikato, NZ +64 (7) 858-5174 http://www.cms.waikato.ac.nz/~fracpete/ http://www.data-mining.co.nz/

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Testing Disk Performance With fio
by Lawrence D'Oliveiro 07 Feb '20

07 Feb '20

Intro to a tool I hadn’t heard of before <https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2020/02/how-fast-are-your-disks-find-out-th…>, but for which standard packages are available for Debian and derivatives. Lets you do all kinds of performance tests on your persistent storage (disks, SSDs), including hammering them with multiple concurrent I/O requests. Also I see Debian has “gfio”, which is a GUI front end based on GTK. (Just a quick *sigh* to see someone else use the old cliché of referring to magnetic media as “rust”. FYI, rust isn’t magnetic.)

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