CIRCLE WITH A DOT

@zackwhittaker
Forensic investigators should look very carefully at whoever recommended that management pay the ransom. Anyone who recommends paying the ransom is a prime suspect, and may have caused the attack.

@kottke
I just thought of it as remote work, self-employed, working from home, etc. I've done it for years, and didn't realize it had a name. But it's good to have a name for it, because it's not those other things. Someone doing remote work for an employer may have rigid in-the-seat hours, so micro-shifting really is it's own thing.

One of the subsets of Those Of Us Who Have No Life is, Those Of Us Who Frequently Read Email Headers.

I found this email header today, in a message with a subject line that ended with “Via AdobeReade.” It was already in my spam folder, but since it came from AdobeReade, I thought I should just check it out in case it was misfiled. You know, it might be legit. And sure enough, look what I found in the X-Spam-Category...

(Change of subject, but if you’re a member of the superset, Those Of Us Who Have No Life, what is your subset?)

@bash The profound and important truth hidden in this great joke is:
Don't state the [assumed] solution as part of the problem definition.
Example: the defined problem is how to force a system-wide DHCP event.
IRL we stymie ourselves by narrow problem definitions that unnecessarily limit our response options.

@paco I'm sorry your mother experienced that, and I'm glad she's got you to help her through this.

As a cybersecurity person, I’ve spent hours and hours tracking down malware and malware loaders. It’s great experience, I’ve enjoyed doing it, and I’ve learned a lot.
BUT...

Professionally, it’s not cost effective.
Reformat the drive and reinstall the OS and all apps.

For relatives, loved ones, or friends, it’s not safe.
Reformat the drive and reinstall the OS and all apps.

Last thought: professionally, when payment for services is involved, I give them an estimate of the cost to have me wipe and reload, so they can compare that against the cost of a new computer, including the cost of me installing their apps and transferring their data. Especially if the infected computer is an older one, you have to wonder how long before the drive stops or something on the motherboard fries. Maybe you fixed the malware problem with a wipe and reload, only to have the older computer develop an electronic failure that makes it economically beyond repair shortly thereafter.

Oftentimes, the best course is to replace the computer with a new one instead of cleaning it.

@catmisgivings @Thumper1964
I'm an Android person, so my knowledge of iPhone's messaging is limited. But... do iPhones have a setting to clear the messaging cache? Export any messages you want to keep first, but clearing the cache might help. Other than that, I like the suggestion by @nomdeb to recreate the group, or at least remove and re-add your entry.

Soon - but not soon enough - orgs will figure out that in the age of AI, their sensitive data should be stored and processed in private networks that aren't connected to the public Internet.