Warnings about software piracy rate

BELGRADE -- A Belgrade daily writes that losses incurred by software piracy run into hundreds of millions of dollars, while police are "planning internet surveillance". B92

What a stupidity!

So each one of the small Pirates have money to buy that software- otherwise. Hundreds of millions? On the base of what?! Can you imagine a student buying CS5 Suite of a 3.507.99 euros (possible a bit better- student price). Even the 379.01 Microsoft Office is untouchable for many of the Western kids, don't tell Serbian. And the kids are hungry for knowledge! The knowledge now days is not the knowledge of 50 years ago.

Software can provide you ability to earn some money and start legal business on your own.. I know advertising company started from the plastic table and a wooden box as a chair for it's "owner".. Now they're buying generator truck of 200.000 euros, they have 12-core Mac's "in line" and they spend decades of thousands for a various applications and effects every year and 35 permanent employees (+many partial and external). They're legal and healthy agency started from the STOLEN- cracked, .dll killed, KG-ened, and shared password software.

If you bring a "joke" laptop with a stolen software there, they'll throw you out. When you reach legal - you always try to stay there. Software industry is living supported by that agency, also.

Every software "calls home" and that's enough, to the 95% of the people you can popup warning screen about recorded IP, give a warning to buy or block the software, simply.

Surveillance of Pirated software is just a new Police (government) excuse.. The reasons are all but not Software.

The Pirates are actually representing the best advertising Software industry can have.

If it's "not written" for you to succeed than you'll broke and software will gone with you.. But if you grow in a wealthy - anything then you'll buy it 100% sure. Don't take the chance from the poor 15-yr old - future famous graphic designer, be it Serb or Albanian. Just tell the truth, that you're afraid of internet yourself! Politicians, governments and power.., CONTROL!!

Starting a Windows computer will be like entering a minefield. Your computer can be taken over by viruses/botnets or the police can come knocking on your door because you are not compatible with this or that license.

The solution is simple. Just install GNU/Linux and you will be safe. As a bonus YOU will be in control of your own computer, not Microsoft, Apple or Skynet.

The solution is simple. Just install GNU/Linux and you will be safe. As a bonus YOU will be in control of your own computer, not Microsoft, Apple or Skynet.
(Albert, 22 November 2010 14:13)

Even NASA is using Linux but that's not an it should't be sign that everyone go there. The functional wideness of the Linux now days represents 3% of those of Windows. There's no Photographer, Film Director or Architect would change his Snow Leopard for any Ubuntu. You can try to pay them as much you want- they'll refuse. Remove the Windows and you'll face the Stone Age in a week.

Ubuntu? Linux is Email, Twitter, Facebook or editing small scale home photos, designing a garden, medium scale architectonic, automatization, some SEO and server capabilities (I have one at The Planet) light offices or light anything else.., it's not a real world.

Ubuntu is for real men but it's still VERY far from the real world.

NASA is just nothing, when the guys from small Alienware start to assemble computers running Linux- that would be a sign you can power up yourself with it- for real life. Do not underestimate gaming- that's the high-end computing, actually.

Linux free of viruses?! Who said that?! In no time you can have zilions of malware, spyware, hack tools or various bots if the interest knock on the door. Mac OS is heavily hacked and heavily infected and immunity of Apple is just the myth.. Personally I run all those operating systems normally or virtually + few others based on BSD for specific needs.., and if I would have to choose one and destroy all the others- I'd keep Windows- all the way as the safest one. Of course I use antivirus + cloud antivirus, antispyware, antimalware and so on.. At least I know from where "it" coming and I have support that I PAY. I never used Linux to pay my bills just because the Linux itself is a blind super weapon and a perfect hacking tool... It needs fermentation long long time and a strong connection with money. Then you will call it- Windows.

Please,

don't let politicians say a single word about computers.

They f-ed up Yugoslavia, f-ed up Soviet Union, f-ed up USA, f-ed up EU... I have impression, they had more, than a healthy share of sex, at least if it's about how to f up things. Losers, they don't even know how to govern a tiny island. What they do know about computers?

Mac OS is heavily hacked and heavily infected and immunity of Apple is just the myth..
(ZMAJ, 22 November 2010 15:45)

Writing full-blown self-modifying, self-replicating and debugger-"proof" code under MacOS/Darwin in all it's now three (PowerPC, IA-32, x86-64) and in the future who knows - maybe ARM flavors is much.........................

That's right or almost right (generally) here and there you "missed (virus) in the wild"..

Once virus and if you return to my post you'll see "heavily infected" (MAC). I really don't understand why virus terminology is so misused in everyday's conversations about computers..

There's thousands infections Mac can be affected and a few VERY nasty trojans.

Attention!

Secret download/upload, complete data access and theft, keystroke logging, denial of service attack, real time watching your screen, spamming or implantation of your system in botnet, frying your CPU and complete destroying your loved OSX are just a basic danger one Mac (and you) can face every day- any time. Your passwords, credit card numbers, any personal information and (this is even worst) somebody's else information can fly like the peace of cake trough the Mac AirPort.. Years of work.. Can you imagine the chef architect losing the unique plan of the 15.000 sqm building three days before timeline or being blackmailed.. This is about today and I'll not disturb people around with tomorrow's "hacks" (neither I think you would believe what's actually coming)

Virus?

That's a kids game an "innocent anarchist" who loudly start to brake your plates, windows or furniture. You can stop him with a single shot in a head and renovate your house again.

Hackintosh, jailbrake and that stuff are the result of the human tensions to "drill trough" and solve unsolved. I bought an IPad for my wife and when "he" send me an email asking about jailbrake I order him to do it., i didn't even wanted to touch this Quasimodo thing but finally I must once i bought Zagg Shield also and she cannot put it. This is not computing, this is not the real world I'm talking about.

Visual Basic., when I'm not around here I'm probably on it or many other software. I love software and I love to pay it. (not always)

There's no salary difference or there's no significant salary difference to Serif or Adobe development team if they sell 15000 or 150000 licences.. The resellers are taking more, many times. Think about that, also. That's why 80% of the big Pirates are actually coming from the software development teams..

(Albert, 22 November 2010 20:44)

There is alternative..

There is no alternative Albert if you're in the business where good is not good enough and where best is behind survivor- the best.

Again,(and the first) i was testing Audacity (before cross-platform and Audacity's Lame) in the first days of it and it's brilliant free peace of software downloaded by 100.000.000 people by now..

Ups!!

Can you imagine 100.000.000 Ferrari cars worldwide- for free?? Big mess- he? Chaos! It would cost like Volvo from that point and the profile of the driver would considerably change (he would shop in a Lidl supermarket), the part production would cease to exist due to lost balance and this car would go to history from that point like many others. Same as diamonds- we steal them but if it's happen we finish trough the barrier and become wealthy, we buy them.

Here around was a clever guy saying that "There's no free lunch in this world"..

Be it Audacity or Ardour (it's 32bit!) it's the same- it's below the barrier and below the point our dreams would become truth. We all dream, aren't we?

I do not say you're wrong! You're very- very right and this would be most legal solution to survive and earn (and learn) something.

BUT, just yesterday I was criticizing a web site. Optical and functional value was about 5000 euros (guy asked 3500). Light- small and discreet flash on fabulous interface, tinny shadows, crystal clear photos and low font contrasts (like my way), online shop (visa, master, paypal..), perfect FAQ and web form, fast server, completed SEO promotion and so on... Unfortunately I estimated it 500 euros making the favor to both sides.. The template was Joomla- full of Joomla cool but vulnerable and sometimes dangerous free stuff. That was the only reason beside online shop which I proposed to be thrown away and be a re-make by Shop Factory (+700 euros non recurring). If I think about the cool stuff i didn't criticize.., it was probably rendered on "pure" Photoshop.

You cannot go far from reality.

I salute Linux, I love Linux, I respect Linux, I use Linux but I work for money and that's a "real world issue". But- hey! It's not everything about sex, it's about love, also.

(Je¿ jab³kowy, 23 November 2010 08:44)

Jab³kowy!! Ha, ha- don't do this to me., I'll die here..

I see! I see that you're Jab³kowy and once you are you're stronger then any power of the Universe!! You're unbeatable and I'll respect that, that keeps Jab³kowy alive- the power of their funs. If you take (total) care of your privileges and .dmg-s and continue to be Jab³kowy expert possibly you'll keep this power long long time.. Otherwise you'll come across this "house plan" once again..

EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING is already done, this wireless is just an open wound without possibility to be cured.. As long as you know to take care of wounds that long you'll live.

(Je¿ jab³kowy, 23 November 2010 08:44)

..and, if the elite of the Verysign tells me that this is "impossible" I'll conclude that's impossible- in next 24 hours knowing that deep in their brain they are not sure at all.

"Not very likely"- as you say and they tell me will make me very insecure.

I propose this seminar to stay "light" as it would be very impolite to the host B92 to move this seminar (posting links) to a specialized seminar for this subject.

(Je¿ (I/O)kitowy., 23 November 2010 11:50)

Whenever anyone mention security by obscurity Claude Shannon fell on my mind., not the Kerckhoffs- I don't know why. The good combination would be to have them (time machine) both + Tsutomu Shimomura in a dream team on how to protect the now days world. Nooot. They're just humans.

Once I had to get drunk to find out my master password and when I decrypted I was too drunk to find out on which account I wanted to go and why.. Security by obscurity!!

Losers, they don't even know how to govern a tiny island.
(Je¿ i sex, 22 November 2010 15:16)

Tuvalu?

Mac OS is heavily hacked and heavily infected and immunity of Apple is just the myth..
(ZMAJ, 22 November 2010 15:45)

Writing full-blown self-modifying, self-replicating and debugger-"proof" code under MacOS/Darwin in all it's now three (PowerPC, IA-32, x86-64) and in the future who knows - maybe ARM flavors is much bigger challenge than to do the same for Windows. The old argument ("less Mac OS users") is not even correct, see all the iPhones and such, they are all based on the Darwin kernel. Still, not that much of virus threat.

Most hacking done for iPhone is about "jailbreaking" it and most hacking around the desktop version of MacOS is about installing it on the "regular" PC-s.

Both activities actually not against the law, at least not in the E.U. and presumably not in Serbia either.

Heavy hacking of the MacOS is de-facto a work done by a handful of Russian/Ukrainian hackers who do the work because many PC motherboards do have different resources than Apple's hardware. The rest of the "Hackintosh" scene are just fanboys.

Not that a really skillful person with malicious intent wouldn't be able to write a nasty "real" virus - it's technically possible. But one more thing is missing (also from other UNIX-es): the very vulnerable Visual Basic-based runtime system of the MS Office and other Microsoft offerings. Let put it this way: if all you need is to learn some Visual Basic loopholes and you can count that most people are using some e-mail client based on that crap - you don't need to learn way to much and besides, you can copy-paste existing virus designs widely available.

Now for Mac there is no "virus skeleton" you can download from some underground source, neither a "how-to-do" guide. You have to do everything by yourself to make a virus work - and even more, at one point you will land up paying $100 to Apple Developer Technical Support to answer some non-trivial stuff. Imagine a typical virus "author" working his butt for many months. Not typical. These guys want minimize the work for maximum damage. These UNIX flavors aren't very good for that, so that's why they simply skip them.

Sorry, the music program I ment is called Ardour: http://www.ardour.org/

Audacity is just a sample editor while Ardour is a piece of free software that turns your computer into a potent Digital Audio Workstation.

EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING is already done, this wireless is just an open wound without possibility to be cured.. As long as you know to take care of wounds that long you'll live.
(ZMAJ, 23 November 2010 10:21)

Of course it is or can be done and everything has own price. The backside of "security by obscurity" is the (VERY) limited choice of hardware, community's dependence on very few people who can develop things and possibly less money they earn, too. But sometimes obscurity could be a good thing, even in business. :-P

Hello ZMAJ,

There are some good alternatives for GNU/Linux to the type of programs you mention.

A lot of musicians use the program Logic on OSX for creating music. There is a good alternative for GNU/Linux called Audacity that is quiet powerful.

For creating movies many pros use Final Cut Pro. For GNU/Linux there are a number of alternatives, for instance cinelerra. It is not quiet as powerful or easy to use as FCP, but at least it is somewhere between iMovie and FCP.

For office applications Open Office is a good alternative that works just as good as MS Office.

The only music program I really miss on GNU/Linux is the propellerhead application "Reason". Then there are a lot of games that don't run on GNU/Linux. But you can say the same for Mac OSX. Some of the games are possible to run in GNU/Linux under the WINE emulator (which is not really an emulator but a compatibility layer to run Windows programs on *nix).

For 3D modeling you have the Blender application and so on. There are good alternatives for GNU/Linux to cover most peoples needs. The only time you really need Windows is for some games, which are becoming more rare anyway. Most people use a TV-console like WII or Playstation 3 for gaming nowadays.

Your passwords, credit card numbers, any personal information and (this is even worst) somebody's else information can fly like the peace of cake trough the Mac AirPort.. Years of work..
(ZMAJ, 22 November 2010 22:05)

Yes, certainly - this is why one has to be very careful with any wireless. "Wireless security" is an oxymoron, but that has not much to do with the platform.

----

Can you imagine the chef architect losing the unique plan of the 15.000 sqm building three days before timeline or being blackmailed..
(ZMAJ, 22 November 2010 22:05)

Not very likely. The reason for that is simple: there is no SCSI or ATA pass-through command possibility on the MacOS. It's the only OS where this path is not open. You just can't send low-level reads or writes to the controller "easy" way if the drive is on SCSI-flavor thing and no way if the drive is on the ATA/SATA bus.

Hence - you can't write a "userland" application which would take over someone's drive. That does not give many options open. The options do exist, it's just way to much work for very little result.

In general, touching any piece of hardware is possible only by writing an "I/O Kit" driver. "I/O Kit" has very steep learning curve, is very platform-specific and has own obscurities. I would say, MacOS is secure by being obscure ;-)

Please,

don't let politicians say a single word about computers.

They f-ed up Yugoslavia, f-ed up Soviet Union, f-ed up USA, f-ed up EU... I have impression, they had more, than a healthy share of sex, at least if it's about how to f up things. Losers, they don't even know how to govern a tiny island. What they do know about computers?

BELGRADE -- A Belgrade daily writes that losses incurred by software piracy run into hundreds of millions of dollars, while police are "planning internet surveillance". B92

What a stupidity!

So each one of the small Pirates have money to buy that software- otherwise. Hundreds of millions? On the base of what?! Can you imagine a student buying CS5 Suite of a 3.507.99 euros (possible a bit better- student price). Even the 379.01 Microsoft Office is untouchable for many of the Western kids, don't tell Serbian. And the kids are hungry for knowledge! The knowledge now days is not the knowledge of 50 years ago.

Software can provide you ability to earn some money and start legal business on your own.. I know advertising company started from the plastic table and a wooden box as a chair for it's "owner".. Now they're buying generator truck of 200.000 euros, they have 12-core Mac's "in line" and they spend decades of thousands for a various applications and effects every year and 35 permanent employees (+many partial and external). They're legal and healthy agency started from the STOLEN- cracked, .dll killed, KG-ened, and shared password software.

If you bring a "joke" laptop with a stolen software there, they'll throw you out. When you reach legal - you always try to stay there. Software industry is living supported by that agency, also.

Every software "calls home" and that's enough, to the 95% of the people you can popup warning screen about recorded IP, give a warning to buy or block the software, simply.

Surveillance of Pirated software is just a new Police (government) excuse.. The reasons are all but not Software.

The Pirates are actually representing the best advertising Software industry can have.

If it's "not written" for you to succeed than you'll broke and software will gone with you.. But if you grow in a wealthy - anything then you'll buy it 100% sure. Don't take the chance from the poor 15-yr old - future famous graphic designer, be it Serb or Albanian. Just tell the truth, that you're afraid of internet yourself! Politicians, governments and power.., CONTROL!!

Starting a Windows computer will be like entering a minefield. Your computer can be taken over by viruses/botnets or the police can come knocking on your door because you are not compatible with this or that license.

The solution is simple. Just install GNU/Linux and you will be safe. As a bonus YOU will be in control of your own computer, not Microsoft, Apple or Skynet.

The solution is simple. Just install GNU/Linux and you will be safe. As a bonus YOU will be in control of your own computer, not Microsoft, Apple or Skynet.
(Albert, 22 November 2010 14:13)

Even NASA is using Linux but that's not an it should't be sign that everyone go there. The functional wideness of the Linux now days represents 3% of those of Windows. There's no Photographer, Film Director or Architect would change his Snow Leopard for any Ubuntu. You can try to pay them as much you want- they'll refuse. Remove the Windows and you'll face the Stone Age in a week.

Ubuntu? Linux is Email, Twitter, Facebook or editing small scale home photos, designing a garden, medium scale architectonic, automatization, some SEO and server capabilities (I have one at The Planet) light offices or light anything else.., it's not a real world.

Ubuntu is for real men but it's still VERY far from the real world.

NASA is just nothing, when the guys from small Alienware start to assemble computers running Linux- that would be a sign you can power up yourself with it- for real life. Do not underestimate gaming- that's the high-end computing, actually.

Linux free of viruses?! Who said that?! In no time you can have zilions of malware, spyware, hack tools or various bots if the interest knock on the door. Mac OS is heavily hacked and heavily infected and immunity of Apple is just the myth.. Personally I run all those operating systems normally or virtually + few others based on BSD for specific needs.., and if I would have to choose one and destroy all the others- I'd keep Windows- all the way as the safest one. Of course I use antivirus + cloud antivirus, antispyware, antimalware and so on.. At least I know from where "it" coming and I have support that I PAY. I never used Linux to pay my bills just because the Linux itself is a blind super weapon and a perfect hacking tool... It needs fermentation long long time and a strong connection with money. Then you will call it- Windows.

Losers, they don't even know how to govern a tiny island.
(Je¿ i sex, 22 November 2010 15:16)

Tuvalu?

Mac OS is heavily hacked and heavily infected and immunity of Apple is just the myth..
(ZMAJ, 22 November 2010 15:45)

Writing full-blown self-modifying, self-replicating and debugger-"proof" code under MacOS/Darwin in all it's now three (PowerPC, IA-32, x86-64) and in the future who knows - maybe ARM flavors is much bigger challenge than to do the same for Windows. The old argument ("less Mac OS users") is not even correct, see all the iPhones and such, they are all based on the Darwin kernel. Still, not that much of virus threat.

Most hacking done for iPhone is about "jailbreaking" it and most hacking around the desktop version of MacOS is about installing it on the "regular" PC-s.

Both activities actually not against the law, at least not in the E.U. and presumably not in Serbia either.

Heavy hacking of the MacOS is de-facto a work done by a handful of Russian/Ukrainian hackers who do the work because many PC motherboards do have different resources than Apple's hardware. The rest of the "Hackintosh" scene are just fanboys.

Not that a really skillful person with malicious intent wouldn't be able to write a nasty "real" virus - it's technically possible. But one more thing is missing (also from other UNIX-es): the very vulnerable Visual Basic-based runtime system of the MS Office and other Microsoft offerings. Let put it this way: if all you need is to learn some Visual Basic loopholes and you can count that most people are using some e-mail client based on that crap - you don't need to learn way to much and besides, you can copy-paste existing virus designs widely available.

Now for Mac there is no "virus skeleton" you can download from some underground source, neither a "how-to-do" guide. You have to do everything by yourself to make a virus work - and even more, at one point you will land up paying $100 to Apple Developer Technical Support to answer some non-trivial stuff. Imagine a typical virus "author" working his butt for many months. Not typical. These guys want minimize the work for maximum damage. These UNIX flavors aren't very good for that, so that's why they simply skip them.

Hello ZMAJ,

There are some good alternatives for GNU/Linux to the type of programs you mention.

A lot of musicians use the program Logic on OSX for creating music. There is a good alternative for GNU/Linux called Audacity that is quiet powerful.

For creating movies many pros use Final Cut Pro. For GNU/Linux there are a number of alternatives, for instance cinelerra. It is not quiet as powerful or easy to use as FCP, but at least it is somewhere between iMovie and FCP.

For office applications Open Office is a good alternative that works just as good as MS Office.

The only music program I really miss on GNU/Linux is the propellerhead application "Reason". Then there are a lot of games that don't run on GNU/Linux. But you can say the same for Mac OSX. Some of the games are possible to run in GNU/Linux under the WINE emulator (which is not really an emulator but a compatibility layer to run Windows programs on *nix).

For 3D modeling you have the Blender application and so on. There are good alternatives for GNU/Linux to cover most peoples needs. The only time you really need Windows is for some games, which are becoming more rare anyway. Most people use a TV-console like WII or Playstation 3 for gaming nowadays.

Sorry, the music program I ment is called Ardour: http://www.ardour.org/

Audacity is just a sample editor while Ardour is a piece of free software that turns your computer into a potent Digital Audio Workstation.

Mac OS is heavily hacked and heavily infected and immunity of Apple is just the myth..
(ZMAJ, 22 November 2010 15:45)

Writing full-blown self-modifying, self-replicating and debugger-"proof" code under MacOS/Darwin in all it's now three (PowerPC, IA-32, x86-64) and in the future who knows - maybe ARM flavors is much.........................

That's right or almost right (generally) here and there you "missed (virus) in the wild"..

Once virus and if you return to my post you'll see "heavily infected" (MAC). I really don't understand why virus terminology is so misused in everyday's conversations about computers..

There's thousands infections Mac can be affected and a few VERY nasty trojans.

Attention!

Secret download/upload, complete data access and theft, keystroke logging, denial of service attack, real time watching your screen, spamming or implantation of your system in botnet, frying your CPU and complete destroying your loved OSX are just a basic danger one Mac (and you) can face every day- any time. Your passwords, credit card numbers, any personal information and (this is even worst) somebody's else information can fly like the peace of cake trough the Mac AirPort.. Years of work.. Can you imagine the chef architect losing the unique plan of the 15.000 sqm building three days before timeline or being blackmailed.. This is about today and I'll not disturb people around with tomorrow's "hacks" (neither I think you would believe what's actually coming)

Virus?

That's a kids game an "innocent anarchist" who loudly start to brake your plates, windows or furniture. You can stop him with a single shot in a head and renovate your house again.

Hackintosh, jailbrake and that stuff are the result of the human tensions to "drill trough" and solve unsolved. I bought an IPad for my wife and when "he" send me an email asking about jailbrake I order him to do it., i didn't even wanted to touch this Quasimodo thing but finally I must once i bought Zagg Shield also and she cannot put it. This is not computing, this is not the real world I'm talking about.

Visual Basic., when I'm not around here I'm probably on it or many other software. I love software and I love to pay it. (not always)

There's no salary difference or there's no significant salary difference to Serif or Adobe development team if they sell 15000 or 150000 licences.. The resellers are taking more, many times. Think about that, also. That's why 80% of the big Pirates are actually coming from the software development teams..

(Albert, 22 November 2010 20:44)

There is alternative..

There is no alternative Albert if you're in the business where good is not good enough and where best is behind survivor- the best.

Again,(and the first) i was testing Audacity (before cross-platform and Audacity's Lame) in the first days of it and it's brilliant free peace of software downloaded by 100.000.000 people by now..

Ups!!

Can you imagine 100.000.000 Ferrari cars worldwide- for free?? Big mess- he? Chaos! It would cost like Volvo from that point and the profile of the driver would considerably change (he would shop in a Lidl supermarket), the part production would cease to exist due to lost balance and this car would go to history from that point like many others. Same as diamonds- we steal them but if it's happen we finish trough the barrier and become wealthy, we buy them.

Here around was a clever guy saying that "There's no free lunch in this world"..

Be it Audacity or Ardour (it's 32bit!) it's the same- it's below the barrier and below the point our dreams would become truth. We all dream, aren't we?

I do not say you're wrong! You're very- very right and this would be most legal solution to survive and earn (and learn) something.

BUT, just yesterday I was criticizing a web site. Optical and functional value was about 5000 euros (guy asked 3500). Light- small and discreet flash on fabulous interface, tinny shadows, crystal clear photos and low font contrasts (like my way), online shop (visa, master, paypal..), perfect FAQ and web form, fast server, completed SEO promotion and so on... Unfortunately I estimated it 500 euros making the favor to both sides.. The template was Joomla- full of Joomla cool but vulnerable and sometimes dangerous free stuff. That was the only reason beside online shop which I proposed to be thrown away and be a re-make by Shop Factory (+700 euros non recurring). If I think about the cool stuff i didn't criticize.., it was probably rendered on "pure" Photoshop.

You cannot go far from reality.

I salute Linux, I love Linux, I respect Linux, I use Linux but I work for money and that's a "real world issue". But- hey! It's not everything about sex, it's about love, also.

Your passwords, credit card numbers, any personal information and (this is even worst) somebody's else information can fly like the peace of cake trough the Mac AirPort.. Years of work..
(ZMAJ, 22 November 2010 22:05)

Yes, certainly - this is why one has to be very careful with any wireless. "Wireless security" is an oxymoron, but that has not much to do with the platform.

----

Can you imagine the chef architect losing the unique plan of the 15.000 sqm building three days before timeline or being blackmailed..
(ZMAJ, 22 November 2010 22:05)

Not very likely. The reason for that is simple: there is no SCSI or ATA pass-through command possibility on the MacOS. It's the only OS where this path is not open. You just can't send low-level reads or writes to the controller "easy" way if the drive is on SCSI-flavor thing and no way if the drive is on the ATA/SATA bus.

Hence - you can't write a "userland" application which would take over someone's drive. That does not give many options open. The options do exist, it's just way to much work for very little result.

In general, touching any piece of hardware is possible only by writing an "I/O Kit" driver. "I/O Kit" has very steep learning curve, is very platform-specific and has own obscurities. I would say, MacOS is secure by being obscure ;-)

(Je¿ jab³kowy, 23 November 2010 08:44)

Jab³kowy!! Ha, ha- don't do this to me., I'll die here..

I see! I see that you're Jab³kowy and once you are you're stronger then any power of the Universe!! You're unbeatable and I'll respect that, that keeps Jab³kowy alive- the power of their funs. If you take (total) care of your privileges and .dmg-s and continue to be Jab³kowy expert possibly you'll keep this power long long time.. Otherwise you'll come across this "house plan" once again..

EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING is already done, this wireless is just an open wound without possibility to be cured.. As long as you know to take care of wounds that long you'll live.

(Je¿ jab³kowy, 23 November 2010 08:44)

..and, if the elite of the Verysign tells me that this is "impossible" I'll conclude that's impossible- in next 24 hours knowing that deep in their brain they are not sure at all.

"Not very likely"- as you say and they tell me will make me very insecure.

I propose this seminar to stay "light" as it would be very impolite to the host B92 to move this seminar (posting links) to a specialized seminar for this subject.

EVERYTHING and I mean EVERYTHING is already done, this wireless is just an open wound without possibility to be cured.. As long as you know to take care of wounds that long you'll live.
(ZMAJ, 23 November 2010 10:21)

Of course it is or can be done and everything has own price. The backside of "security by obscurity" is the (VERY) limited choice of hardware, community's dependence on very few people who can develop things and possibly less money they earn, too. But sometimes obscurity could be a good thing, even in business. :-P

(Je¿ (I/O)kitowy., 23 November 2010 11:50)

Whenever anyone mention security by obscurity Claude Shannon fell on my mind., not the Kerckhoffs- I don't know why. The good combination would be to have them (time machine) both + Tsutomu Shimomura in a dream team on how to protect the now days world. Nooot. They're just humans.

Once I had to get drunk to find out my master password and when I decrypted I was too drunk to find out on which account I wanted to go and why.. Security by obscurity!!