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USB worm unleashed by Russian state hackers spreads worldwide
(arstechnica.com)
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this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2023
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Meanwhile if you load Baofeng software from a few years ago antivirus software today will ping out. It never used to ping out, such is the nature of zero days.
Meanwhile Israel has been selling weapons grade hacking technology for decades, they've been directly linked to the assassination of Jamal Khashoggi as well as the Mexican cartels.
Meanwhile Argentina happens to be the hub for zero day exploits, with a bunch of hackers inventing their own shit and selling directly to state actors or whoever will pay.
The only way you can remain secure is to regularly install a fresh OS. Change my mind.
The only way to be truly secure is to throw your computer into the sea and return, naked and fearless, into the forest from whence we came.
But what about the bears?!?
What part of 'fearless' dont you understand?
I've got naked down pat.
I got that nickname because I used to wear No Fear shirts in High School.
They can come too.
Are they moon bears or saturn bears?
This is just return to monke but more poetic... ... I'm here for it.
... Except for the bugs. I'd rather deal with software bugs than jungle bugs...
Sure. Even regularly installing a new OS doesn't necessarily keep you secure if someone wanted to discreetly install malware on your device. In addition to firmware-level rootkits that re-install themselves on fresh OSs (even platform-agnostic ones), it's possible that someone might interdict whatever hardware is bought and implant it with additional small hardware that compromises it in some way.
They don't even need to work that hard, just compromise the ME/PSP and do whatever.
In the end, if you are not of interest to a nation state hacker (or a member of a drug cartel) you have nothing to fear from the things you listed.
But that won;t change your mind.
Your incorrect assumption is that only cartels and nation states are using said software. Weaponized versions of this stuff are making their way to consumer levels where you just need to piss off the wrong person online. I don’t worry about the US government targeting me beyond normal levels; I worry about employers deploying spyware.
If you are using their equipment, it is not spyware and you should expect to be under surveillance when using it.
If you are allowing them to install shit on your devices, the fault is all yours.
Once again, you’re making incorrect assumptions. My concern is employers using the spyware we’re talking about without consent on devices they don’t control. Take a minute to think through before responding. Why would I be worried about either of the two things you mentioned?
Unless you’re rotating accounts and not posting anything on the internet ever, going so far as to use an in-memory OS like Tails won’t protect you.