PSA

This is unixronin’s knees, mate.  We wishes to register a protest, on account of walkin’ a mile and an’alf up hill an’ down dale two days in a row wivout notice was a bit bloody much.  Pushin’ it, know wot I mean, mate?  The union bruvvers won’t stand for this ’ere kind o’ be’avior day in, day out.  We demands a day of rest between each o’these expeditions, or else an ’igher pay scale an’ ’ot tub benefits.  An’ don’t give us none o’that “The management is considerin’ yer request” guff, neither, mate.  Roight?

[FILE RESOLUTION:  The knee union’s petition will be taken under advisement.  No action is planned at this time.]

"Conficker Post-mortem"? I don't think so

“Conficker postmortem: Hype distracted but threat is real”, says C|Net.

I think it’s a little early to be talking about postmortems of a worm that’s still alive, well, and actively seeking its next update.  Dan Kaminsky agrees:

“It’s not like it’s gone,” said Kaminsky, who worked with The Honeynet Project on a way to detect infected computers using a flaw in Conficker’s code.  “We’re looking at a massive, amorphous network with a command and control that we don’t have the means to block anymore.  Things got worse on April 1 for the remaining infected nodes.”

And now there is no signal for researchers to watch for with Conficker. This actually makes sense for a botnet because their creators usually tend to operate under the radar so they are not thwarted.

“We believe they decided to do nothing to tip their hand,” said Paul Ferguson, an advanced threats researcher at Trend Micro. “But the functionality can be updated at any given point in time. All it takes is a button click on a mouse from the people pulling the strings.”

The three Arapaho scouts

Pretty much everyone who pays attention to military history has heard of the story of the Navajo “code talkers” in World War II, thanks to whom the US Army had a code that the Japanese were totally unable to break.  But this is not the first time the US Army has had valued assistance from the native American tribes.

Indeed, once upon a time, during some of the Indian wars in the Southwest, when the US Cavalry was fighting the Comanche, the US came to the Arapaho to ask for their help because the Army was having trouble even just finding the elusive Comanche.  In response, the Arapaho chief offered the loan of three of his warriors as scouts.

“These are my three fiercest warriors,” he told the Army Major who had come to seek his help.  “They will serve the Great White Father well.  Let me introduce them to you.”

He called forward the first warrior, who wore a necklace of bear claws.

“This is Snarling Bear,” the chief said.  “He fights the Comanche as fiercely and fearlessly as the great bear.”

The warrior stared at the Major, then inclined his head just the slightest fraction.  The Major nodded, and the chief called forward the second warrior, who wore a headdress of horsehair.

“This is Leaping Horse,” the chief continued.  “He pursues the Comanche as swiftly and tirelessly as our finest stallion.”

This warrior too stared at the Major, then inclined his head just slightly.  The Major nodded, and the chief called forth the third warrior.  This warrior wore no decoration, but had the steely gaze of a hawk and the muscles of a tiger, and walked as softly as a shadow.

“This is Running Water,” the chief said proudly.  “He is the best of all my braves.”  The warrior glanced in the Major’s direction, stared through him, dismissed him as though he were an insect, and returned his gaze to the horizon.  The Major blinked.

“How did he get his name?” asked the Major, curiously.  “Does he sweep the Comanche away like a river in flood?”

( ... )