Daily Archives: March 16, 2016

Windows 10 May Delete Your Programs Without Asking

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Windows may remove programs during an update for compatibility reasons. If a program is known to cause crashes, bugs, or otherwise conflict with Windows, Windows may remove it to keep your system stable. If this happens, the “All of your files are exactly where you left them” screen will appear like normal–this screen always appears during major updates–but Windows will actually have removed some of your program files.

It looks like this feature is designed to help protect the average Windows user, who might have outdated programs installed. Windows can clean them up and make sure they don’t cause problems. However, Windows doesn’t provide any notice that it’s removed a program–the program will just appear to vanish from your system.

When Windows 10’s first big update arrived, many people on Reddit noticed a variety of programs were being silently removed–most of which were hardware-related utilities. People have reported that it removed the popular Speccy, CPU-Z, HWMonitor, and CCleaner programs from many people’s systems. Many people claim it removed hardware drivers like Intel Rapid Storage Technology and AMD Catalyst Control Center, too. In some cases, people even reported that it removed PDF viewers and antivirus programs (perhaps outdated ones). Confusingly, it seems like the Windows update removed these programs from some computers but not others. Reports are not completely consistent.

Source: Windows 10 May Delete Your Programs Without Asking

You an get them back, apparently, but wow! Balls! I don’t want my OS deleting stuff from my PC!

McGill University models a biological computer chip using proteins instead of electric charges

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But in the case of the biocomputer, the city is a chip measuring about 1.5 cm square in which channels have been etched. Instead of the electrons that are propelled by an electrical charge and move around within a traditional microchip, short strings of proteins (which the researchers call biological agents) travel around the circuit in a controlled way, their movements powered by ATP, the chemical that is, in some ways, the juice of life for everything from plants to politicians.Because it is run by biological agents, and as a result hardly heats up at all, the model bio-supercomputer that the researchers have developed uses far less energy than standard electronic supercomputers do, making it more sustainable. Traditional supercomputers use so much electricity that they heat up a lot and then need to be cooled down, often requiring their own power plant to function.

Source: Building living, breathing supercomputers | Newsroom – McGill University

3D printed items can be reversed engineered using a smartphone to listen to the sound of the printing proces

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The team, led by Mohammad Al Faruque, director of UCI’s Advanced Integrated Cyber-Physical Systems Lab, showed that a device as ordinary and ubiquitous as a smartphone can be placed next to a machine and capture acoustic signals that carry information about the precise movements of the printer’s nozzle. The recording can then be used to reverse engineer the object being printed and re-create it elsewhere. Detailed processes may be deciphered through this new kind of cyberattack, presenting significant security risks.

Source: Bad vibrations: UCI researchers find security breach in 3-D printing process

Borgbackup, Deduplicating Archiver v1.0.0 released

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BorgBackup (short: Borg) is a deduplicating backup program. Optionally, it supports compression and authenticated encryption.The main goal of Borg is to provide an efficient and secure way to backup data. The data deduplication technique used makes Borg suitable for daily backups since only changes are stored. The authenticated encryption technique makes it suitable for backups to not fully trusted targets.

Source: Borg Documentation — Borg – Deduplicating Archiver 1.0.0 documentation

Pwn all cars by using the car mechanic PC as an attack vector

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“These (mechanics) tool have the codes to read and write firmware and if it is compromised by a malicious car it can modify the firmware of other cars that come in afterwards,” Smith told Vulture South at the Nullcon security conference in Goa, India.

Smith’s mechanic malware compromises of learning, simulation, and attack modes. Learning mode monitors network communications between the mechanic’s computer and a car, and identifies potential modules. Those modules that diagnosis tools successfully contact are lit up in blue, and the findings are saved to an .ini configuration file along with captured packets.

Source: Mechanic computers used to pwn cars in new model-agnostic attack

The Trouble With the TPP, Day 50: The Case Against Ratifying the Trans Pacific Partnership – Michael Geist

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Nearly two-and-a-half months ago, I started a daily examination of the Trans Pacific Partnership focused on the intellectual property and digital policy issues raised by the agreement. My initial plan for the Trouble with the TPP series was to write for one month leading up to the planned signing in New Zealand on February 4th. However, the more I dug into the TPP, the more trouble I found. With this final post in the series, I wrap up the key IP and digital policy concerns with links to all the original posts. Canadians interested in the TPP now have an opportunity to have their voices heard. The Standing Committee on International Trade has been conducting hearings on the agreement for several weeks and has announced plans for cross-country consultations. Canadians can provide written submissions by April 30th. Alternatively, they can ask the committee to appear as a witness. Details on the committee opportunities can be found here. In addition, Canadians can send their comments directly to Global Affairs Canada, which is managing the government’s consultation. The email address is TPP-PTP.Consultations@international.gc.ca. Why should Canadians speak out on the TPP?  The former co-CEO of Research in Motion Jim Balsillie, Shopify CEO Tobi Lutke, Ford Canada CEO Dianne Craig, the Sierra Club, Doctors Without Borders, Canadian library groups, innovation expert Dan Breznitz, former deputy chief economist at Global Affairs Canada Dan Ciuriak, Canadian publisher Don LePan of Broadview Press, political science professor Blayne Haggart, investment dispute settlement expert professor Gus Van Harten, my colleague Professor Jeremy de Beer, and the Canadian Labour Congress are among those that have voiced concern with the agreement. My assessment of the IP and digital issues in the Trouble with the TPP series identified at least 49 reasons:

Source: The Trouble With the TPP, Day 50: The Case Against Ratifying the Trans Pacific Partnership – Michael Geist