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Researchers have detected a new worm that is spreading via SMB, but unlike the worm component of the WannaCry ransomware, this one is using seven NSA tools instead of two.
The worm's existence first came to light on Wednesday, after it infected the SMB honeypot of Miroslav Stampar, member of the Croatian Government CERT, and creator of the sqlmap tool used for detecting and exploiting SQL injection flaws.
The worm, which Stampar named EternalRocks based on worm executable properties found in one sample, works by using six SMB-centric NSA tools to infect a computer with SMB ports exposed online. These are ETERNALBLUE, ETERNALCHAMPION, ETERNALROMANCE, and ETERNALSYNERGY, which are SMB exploits used to compromise vulnerable computers, while SMBTOUCH and ARCHITOUCH are two NSA tools used for SMB reconnaissance operations.
Once the worm has obtained this initial foothold, it then uses another NSA tool, DOUBLEPULSAR, to propagate to new vulnerable machines.
Source: BleepingComputer
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @04:27PM (12 children)
It is certainly morally superior to China, Bangladesh, and ISIS.
It was never morally superior to all, nor is it likely to become morally inferior to all.
It has fallen in the ordering, but it is definitely still morally superior to plenty of countries.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @05:02PM (11 children)
The USA lays claim to 50%+ to the typical productive person's resources through direct taxation and fees, and up to 88% of that same person's production through taxes and "costs of compliance" which results in massively-increased prices for goods and services.
If it is assumed that 100% confiscation of production is slavery, what is 50-88% confiscation? Not a lot of room for any moral superiority there. "Hooray, we leave you with 12% of the resources you worked for! USA! USA! USA! USA!"
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @05:11PM
You'd expect that for that much money you could get at least one of healthcare and education :)
(Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @05:46PM (2 children)
No, that's theft. Slavery is ownership of humans.
If a citizen doesn't consent to their being governed, and democracy doesn't grant the government legitimacy to rule nonconsenting parties, then it's theft.
It's the same theft performed by all currently extant governments which I'm aware of, simply in a greater degree. But it's worth noting that most USAians do consent to be governed by the USG, and so in the majority of cases it isn't theft.
Now certainly the fact they only steal from a small number of people who don't consent to be governed doesn't make it more moral, nor does the fact that most other countries also steal, certainly not. But we're talking about morality _relative_ to other governments, so the fact that (almost, probably all) others do it _is_ relevant to the morality of the USG _relative_ to those other governments.
When countries like China murder their innocent citizens to harvest their organs for party members, and when countries like Mauritania, Sudan, Nigeria, Yemen, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Somalia, Iran, and ISIS kill gays for being gay, that does in fact leave a lot of room for moral superiority.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @09:39AM (1 child)
Well, if theft is permanent and non-optional then you could argue it is a slavery. However, if you can opt out, like in "renounce citizenship" then you are not a slave, but then again, it is a choice between being domesticated or being a game, or even more precisely, being a domesticated in household A vs. being a domesticated in household B.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @11:02AM
Slavery doesn't describe a lived experience, it describes a legal situation. One _cannot_ tell from direct experience whether a situation constitutes slavery because slavery doesn't describe an experience but a legal state.
If a person was kidnapped, and forced to work on a farm for life, but it was illegal then that wouldn't be slavery. It would be physically indistinguishable from slavery, but slavery does not describe a _physical_ thing, but rather a legal situation.
Slavery only exists within the concept of a legal system.
Perhaps we ought to have a word for forced labour, and another for such extreme theft, but presently I'm not aware of any English words fitting the bill. Perhaps you should coin some, or go find some in another language, but you ought not redefine extant and well-defined words.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @08:25PM (1 child)
Then why is the government budget not even half the GDP?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday May 21 2017, @09:03PM
I don't hold his position, but this argument is flawed.
One's contribution to the GDP can be increased without increasing one's income, and govt. revenue doesn't exclusively come from VAT.
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Sunday May 21 2017, @09:54PM (4 children)
Funny you mention that. I went to H&R block because I could afford to do my contractor's taxes "really" for the first time instead of mailing checks every year. After paying off what I apparently owed for realsies, I am now preparing to sell my house and have not been paid in 1+ months because I'm trying to do payroll "correctly". There's no way I can sustain that kind of thing as a freelancer. Apparently some of the tax penalty was because I don't have health insurance (also unsustainable). Kind of a loop, and I only got out of it by finally giving up on aspirations for independent business.
Murika. I blame the aliens [youtube.com].
Also this is offtopic in a manner of speaking, but if you guys can't see the connection in the wider scale and system when it comes to our government's hostility. Pls rerun your eval loop.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @04:26AM (3 children)
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Monday May 22 2017, @06:30AM (2 children)
Paperwork requirements, can't drive, the payroll company needing more information.
I generally expect for things like this to happen and they always do. You've never had that happen? I budget for that shit it's happened to me so many times. It's one reason I tried doing the contractor thing in the first place. Clearly I was naive in expecting the burden to be /less/ as a private contractor.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 22 2017, @04:38PM (1 child)
Sorry, I am still missing something. You are saying that you have so much paperwork to fill out after freelancing for a bit that it is basically a full time job for months?
(Score: 2) by Lagg on Monday May 22 2017, @10:10PM
No, sorry. Guess this is an issue of me not liking to discuss financial stuff on the internet too much out of safe precaution and not wanting to speak out of turn due to lack of education on the subject. But no, it's mostly just a matter of waiting for bureaucracy. It's a very common occurrence for me to send stuff in, wait for a response that decided additional information was required, repeat. I did have a lot of paperwork to settle what I owed, but that's why I went to H&R Block (and hope I can afford it next year).
The paperwork was indeed from freelancing for a bit though, unfortunately. I thought I could wing it. Turns out sending a check and 1040-V isn't even close to enough.
http://lagg.me [lagg.me] 🗿