Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Sunday November 17 2019, @11:48PM   Printer-friendly
from the acting-before-the-problem-arises? dept.

Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1337

LA warns of 'juice-jacking' malware, but admits it has no cases – TechCrunch

Los Angeles’ district attorney is warning travelers to avoid public USB charging points because “they may contain dangerous malware.”

Reading the advisory, you might be forgiven for thinking that every USB outlet you see is just waiting for you to plug in your phone so it can steal your data. This so-called “juice-jacking” attack involves criminals loading malware “on charging stations or cables they leave plugged in at the stations so they may infect the phones and other electronic devices of unsuspecting users,” it reads. “The malware may lock the device or export data and passwords directly to the scammer.”

But the county’s chief prosecutor’s office told TechCrunch that it has “no cases” of juice-jacking on its books, though it said there are known cases on the east coast. When asked where those cases were, the spokesperson did not know. And when asked what prompted the alert to begin with, the spokesperson said it was part of “an ongoing fraud education campaign.”

Which begs the question — why?

[...] Security researcher Kevin Beaumont tweeted that he hasn’t seen “any evidence of malware being used in the wild on these things.” In fact, ask around and you’ll find very little out there. Several security researchers have dropped me messages saying they’ve seen proof-of-concepts, but nothing actively malicious.

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @12:10AM (8 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @12:10AM (#921339)

    ^ Old man yells at evolving language.

    Starting Score:    0  points
    Moderation   +1  
       Funny=2, Overrated=1, Total=3
    Extra 'Funny' Modifier   0  

    Total Score:   1  
  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by aristarchus on Monday November 18 2019, @12:22AM (7 children)

    by aristarchus (2645) on Monday November 18 2019, @12:22AM (#921346) Journal

    To be pacific, I would prefer an escape goat, but this is something of a damp squid. [thesun.co.uk]

    Dumbing down is not evolution, it is devolution, leading strait to Fuddruckery.

    So I'll just bite my time, curled up in the feeble position, remaining something of a social leopard, curving my enthusiasm in a last stitch effort to rectificate the lingus.

    You know, you put women on them when you admire them. [youtube.com]
    "And the whole case is a damp squid."

    • (Score: 0, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @12:30AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @12:30AM (#921350)

      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZxCfb4Z_Ks [youtube.com]

      Fuck you, got mine.

    • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Monday November 18 2019, @04:05AM

      by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 18 2019, @04:05AM (#921417) Journal

      So I'll just bite my time, curled up in the feeble position, remaining something of a social leopard, curving my enthusiasm in a last stitch effort to rectificate the lingus

      Come on, magister, a feeble position doesn't do much.

      I'm not saying you should gander up and jump in the mist of things, with a flair in your nosedrills and a bulligerent deposition. I'm the first to conceive that a bear-handed fight with those who reneckated granma may sound like an admiral job, but it does post somehow unique risks in this dogie-dog world.

      But, for all intensive purposes, taking the medium strip is better. Continue to comment like this and you'll keep me happy like a clown.

      --
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @05:28AM (4 children)

      by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @05:28AM (#921435)

      It's not dumbing down. A dumbing down would be e.g. "I could care less" to mean you could not care less. That frequently misstated reference makes no sense whatsoever.

      "Begs the question" meaning it "begs a given question to be asked" is completely logical.

      It's more of an evolution of words. For instance pathetic is little more than an adjective version of pathos. And so it initially would have been little more than "of emotion." It's only over time, and undoubtedly of observation of those prone to emotional motive, that such a word came to imply something of the sort being, well, pathetic.

      • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Monday November 18 2019, @06:36AM (3 children)

        by aristarchus (2645) on Monday November 18 2019, @06:36AM (#921443) Journal

        Irregardless of the passion you feel for the pathetic pathos of Modern American English, I must beg to differ.

        If these boffins were saying "it begs for the question (to be asked)" or some variant thereof, there would be no issue, but people are plugging into strange USB ports because they do not understand their own native tongue! No, this is a dumbing down because it is based on lexical poverty, and the mistaking of usage for something it is not.

        For example, slang can get away with all kinds of violence to the language, because it is completely self-aware. When "cool" became "hot", and that became "rad" or "phat", there was no confusion about what was going on. But if someone talks about "setting a president", they are not saying ex cathedra, they just do not know that "precedent" is a different word, or how it is spelled. Functional (barely) illiteracy is becoming the norm, for all intensive porpoises.

        Do a search for "eggcorns", that name for such mistakes. (Someone's eggcorn for "acorn" was "eggcorn", which probably should have been Oakcorn, or Oakegg because what would be sassy and not just stupid.) A member of Congress in the US just recently said that certain proceedings were "a Captain Kangaroo Court", referring, one can only infer, to a children's TV program that has nothing to do with the origin of the term "kangaroo court". Ignorance is not bliss, it makes you look stupid, and embarrasses your mother.

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @08:55AM (2 children)

          by Anonymous Coward on Monday November 18 2019, @08:55AM (#921457)

          Compare "it begs the question - [question]", which you are trying to argue is not an obviously clear phrasing of "it begs for the question to be asked - [question]", to "It begs for money." Obviously the meaning there is that "it begs for money [to be given to it from other people]." Your extended version doesn't add any new insight or information to the phrase, it simply makes it longer to no end other than to point out the fallaciousness of your own argument.

          In this particular case, I think the modern usage is rather even more appropriate than the archaic usage. In particular circular logic, assuming your conclusion, etc tend to all be much more clear, meaningful, and illustrative descriptions of what one means when using "begging the question" in the archaic fashion.

          • (Score: 1, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Monday November 18 2019, @04:24PM (1 child)

            by aristarchus (2645) on Monday November 18 2019, @04:24PM (#921560) Journal

            In this particular case, I think the modern usage is rather even more appropriate than the archaic usage.

            You may be entitled to your opinion, but your opinion is incorrect.

            No one would say, "It begs THE money." "Begs money", alright, means "begging for money", but I must beg your pardon and insist that anyone who would "beg the money" would either be illiterate, or relying heavily on context, or challenging the legitimacy of fiat currency.

            You may also be correct that logicians may be reduced to having to say silly things, like, "Don't make an ASS out of U and ME", or "your reasoning is circular", but that in no way vitiates the misuse of the phrase "begs THE question", or preferably, petitio principii.

             

            • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19 2019, @09:00PM

              by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday November 19 2019, @09:00PM (#922080)

              There's also the minor detail that absolutely NOBODY uses it that way. Indeed, if they did, NOBODY would understand the meaning. Personally, I prefer to be understood. So get over your pedantium ad dysfunctium and join the human race.