Posts by rodgerd

  • Hard News: Special Sources, in reply to Hebe,

    I would add that Ira Bailey -- and possibly Keith Ng -- knows the names of those who viewed his Linked In profile. That would be interesting. It would not prove anything, but....

    Not necessarily. If you don't have someone in your web of contacts, you don't get to see "Someone at JOBNAME looked at your profile" as a message. I think if you upgrade to a paid account you can also get more information.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report Reply

  • OnPoint: MSD's Leaky Servers, in reply to duke,

    Thanks for your valuable, not to mention insightful, contribution.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report Reply

  • OnPoint: MSD's Leaky Servers, in reply to Matthew Poole,

    As far as cross-domain trusts go... the moves to consolidate all IT for the government into one, centrally-managed "internal cloud" would likely only make it more likely that people will have credentials with God mode across many departments.

    As an aside on the whole fraud bit: I work in banking IT, and the general wisdom in the banking sector is that internal fraud is a large proportion of the fraud we have to worry about (e.g. the National Australia Bank branch member who nicked $5 million by making up a bunch of phony clients and signing off on their mortgages for non-existant properties as a classic one that made the Aussie papers). Most banks have a policy of requiring staff to take blocks of leave (1 - 2 weeks); the thinking is that most frauds require enough manual intervention that time spent away from work makes it likely your stand-in will notice something funny (as happened in the aforementioned NAB case - the fraudster went on leave and their replacement noticed a lot of letters going to the same PO Box every month for dozens of different customers, bit odd that...).

    The other thing that goes hand-in-hand with that is to have several people doing that same job, so that you would have to have multiple corrupt people, not just one.

    Of course, this requires you have enough "spare" staff that you have people able to take 2 weeks of leave in one block and do one anothers' jobs. If you've got hung up over "efficiency" and fired all the "dead wood" to save a bit of money, well...

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report Reply

  • OnPoint: MSD's Leaky Servers, in reply to Rich of Observationz,

    To amplify Rich's point about government pay scales: I applied for a job in 2008 with a government department that do actually take IT very seriously, and are well-funded, and they were paying about 20% below market rates for the position. I have no idea what the landscape looks like in departments that don't take it as seriously and after several years of austerity treatment for staff, but I'm guessing something about peanuts and monkeys applies.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report Reply

  • OnPoint: MSD's Leaky Servers, in reply to Mark Hansen,

    Mark, if you can access the VM images, then you have the Windows SAM files within those images, which mean you will be able to get domain admin logins as quickly as you can crack them.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report Reply

  • OnPoint: Because Statistical Rigour,

    Worth noting the latest school newsletter from my daughter's primary school notes that they, like all the central Wellington primary schools have, in fact, submitted their NCEA details to MinEd (as they're required to), and the DomPost's accusation they are covering up their numbers is an outright lie.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys, in reply to Russell Brown,

    Could everyone presently whining,

    OK, ok I can see I'm not welcome. I'll leave you to the soothing noises of Neil Morrison comparing Assange to Capill, or an assortment of people calling someone who has yet to have a day in court a rapist, which obviously makes you a lot happier.

    Forgive me for disturbing your bliss.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys,

    Seems like there's a movement that thinks WikiLeaks is just too closely linked with Mr Assange.

    Don't worry, I'm sure the minute they procure anything of significance there'll be a long line of character assassins lining up to discredit them.

    Oh, and endangering lives.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report Reply

  • OnPoint: Pay Attention,

    The issue that most people miss is that none of these documents are likely to be "news" to many foreign governments.

    It seemed to be news to the German government that an aide was spying for the Americans. I wouldn't be surprised if it's news to quite a few in the Australian Labor party that one of their Senators appears to see his first loyalty to the United States rather than, well, Australia.

    I would hope it's news to us that our US allies in Afghanistan knew that one of their mercenary companys, DynCorp, was using government money to run a child prostitution ring. Because I'd rather not think that Auntie Helen was OK with it then, or John Key is "comfortable" with that now.

    1) Are they doing this just to suck up to the US government, or is this a more specific and self-interested response to the promise of up-coming leaks on the US financial industry?

    One of the cables reveals the US State Department lobbying against Russian financial laws on behalf of Visa and Mastercard. A little from column a, a little from column b.

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: Wikileaks: The Cable Guys,

    Not to mention the rabid conservatives who have suddenly realised what ‘consent’ is. At least for the five minutes it takes to make Assange go away.

    The concern trolling is so thick on the ground I find it near-impossible to assume good faith with a lot of the questions about Assange - having listened to too many American self-styled liberals throw a hissy fit about the notion that someone, somewhere may be endangered by the leaks, while showing a complete disregard for the real and well-documented murders exposed by them.

    Oops, I forgot there's been nothing remarkable come out of the leaks, it's just stuff everybody knows (don't click if you don't like reading about child prostitution).

    Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 512 posts Report Reply

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