Ransom Attack. Microsoft Blames Everybody But Themselves.

Belief in the NHS is just one of those national characteristics the rest of us have to accept without quite understanding... sort of like warm beer. :)

I think its one of those statistical things, the UK spends is it 9% of GDP on health compared to 17% in the US but people live a year or two longer so it must be the warm beer that keeps them alive. Actually Australia does better I think its 3.5 years longer according to Donald Trump and again 9% of GDP but I think they drink their beer chilled.

Cheerio John
 
It doesn't help that there are 100% clueless PC users in these organizations.

To quote myself again:

Now for a real world example of what should not be done, which my brother told me about and got my hackles up as I think about it. My dad was at a local hospital for a CT-scan. The software for the equipment ran on a Windows-based computer, most likely Windows XP or Windows 2000. Instead of this machine being isolated from the internet, meaning no browser allowed, or locked down only to allow intranet access, the operator and other staff were on Facebook browsing images that were sent to one of them. Seriously! How to infect the medical-device. It's cases such as this which most likely brought the systems down at the NHS in the UK, as well as in other organizations!

This is typical of the 1,000s upon 1,000s of users which plague many organizations today. Just because they use PCs at home, it doesn't mean they know how to use them in a proper and safe manner, or use common sense about what and where they access information. Using an imaging system controller to access Facebook or some other public-facing and accessible, hackable, environment is not the safest thing to do, and it's a good way to destroy the system, if not infect the rest of their infrastructure. I again blame this on the user-education, or lack thereof. This kind of behavior needs to be more than discourage, if not forcefully banned.

The other problem today is many organizations also no longer have on-site technicians or an on-site IT staff in general. This job, like many these days, has either been off-shored or made into a part-time contractor, or sub-contractor occupation where the support staff no longer cares about the places they work, and are not there to educate and inform the users.
 
The other problem today is many organizations also no longer have on-site technicians or an on-site IT staff in general. This job, like many these days, has either been off-shored or made into a part-time contractor, or sub-contractor occupation where the support staff no longer cares about the places they work, and are not there to educate and inform the users.

Which is interesting as as the tools get better India is extremely concerned about its IT off shore work. The major players are laying off staff as tasks get automated. They expect to lose some 80% of their IT workers jobs.

It's automation rather than off shore work that is causing the employment problems across the world at the moment and things like the google operating system don't help. Very centralised with few support workers needed.

Cheerio John
 
Hi everybody.
In regard to those who state that organisations both large and and small should keep their systems continuously updated or upgraded, I would draw their attention to the following list. The list contains Microsoft Windows version changes and updates since the launch of windows 95. The list does not include security and bug fixes as that undoubtedly would make the number far to lengthy to layout here.

I have included windows mobile launches and upgrades as many organisations bought into the Microsoft hype that Windows mobile would make their systems sync to one complete unit across the platform. The foregoing is some joke as Windows mobile has been consistently a complete failure through all version launches, that being just one of the many of Microsoft's abject failures in the list. Windows CE is not included.

I would then ask those who feel that it is those businesses and organisations first responsibility to keep abreast of all the 42 major changes in 22 years, do they feel that those organisations personnel have nothing else to do but month after month chase down these upgrades. For it could be that those personnel have many other tasks to fulfill such as keeping their customer base satisfied, making a profit, and in that keep their employment and businesses alive.

The above is the first and major function especially in small and medium size organisations. Is it then any wonder that so many are now looking towards alternative platforms to relieve themselves of Microsoft's continuous rolling failure with its windows platform.


Release date Title
24 August 1995, Windows 95
24 August 1996,Windows NT 4.0
25 June 1998, Windows 98
5 May 1999 Windows 98 NT
17 February 2000 Windows 2000
14 September 2000 Windows ME
25 October 2001 Windows XP
25 October 2001[1] Windows XP 64-Bit Edition (v2002)Itanium
31 October 2002 Windows XP Media Center Edition

To be continued
 
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Continued from above post

28 March 2003[2] Windows XP 64-Bit Edition (v2003)Itanium
24 April 2003 Windows Server 2003 IA-32, x64, Itanium
23 June 2003 Windows Mobile 2003
30 September 2003 Windows XP Media Center Edition 2004
24 March 2004 Windows Mobile 2003 SE
12 October 2004 Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
25 April 2005 Windows XP Professional x64 Edition
9 May 2005 Windows Mobile 5.0
6 December 2005 Windows Server 2003 R2
8 July 2006 Windows Fundamentals for Legacy PCs
8 November 2006 Windows Vista for Business use
30 January 2007 Windows Vista for Home use; released in fifty countries12 February 2007 Windows Mobile 6.0
7 November 2007 Windows Home Server
27 February 2008 Windows Server 20081
April 2008 Windows Mobile 6.111
May 2009 Windows Mobile 6.5
22 October 2009 Windows 7
22 October 2009 Windows Server 2008 R28
November 2010 Windows Phone 7
6 April 2011 Windows Home Server 2011
1 July 2011 Windows Thin PC
4 September 2012 Windows Server 2012
26 October 2012 Windows 8
29 October 2012 Windows Phone 8
26 October 2012 Windows RTARM
18 October 2013 Windows 8. update
18 October 2013 Windows RT 8.1 ARM
18 October 2013 Windows Server 2012 R214
14 April 2014 Windows Phone 8.1
29 July 2015 Windows 10 launch
27 September 2016 Windows Server 2016

i believe that several more updates could be added in regard to windows 10. However, the most prominent was on the 20 November 2015, Windows 10 Mobile launch. The goal of Windows 10 is to unify the Windows PC, Windows Phone, Windows Embedded product families states Microsoft (What a joke).

Bill
 
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Belief in the NHS is just one of those national characteristics the rest of us have to accept without quite understanding... sort of like warm beer. :)

Tongue in cheek of course! But what is this so called 'warm beer' myth? I drink my beer at cellar temperature which usually isn't very warm at all!
 
By unification Bill, they are taking a single codebase meaning Windows 10, and using in multiple versions just as Google using their Android and working that into Chrome OS. It's no different than N3V taking what the have now with T:ANE and using that for future versions of Trainz.

The reason for this is to make development and patching easier. If they have multiple disparate versions, it's difficult to patch and update and to develop for since different versions of an OS, that are not related but similar, require software developers to write multiple versions of programs such as a 32-bit version of a program and a 64-bit version, for example, which increases development costs because the code cannot be always shared. In non-software development, it's the same as Ford using the same underlying chassis for the Focus as they do the Fiesta or similar model.

Regarding your list, Windows 9x was not at all related to Windows XP, and is closer aligned with Windows 3.1 and MSDOS. It's still more or less a shell running on top of MSDOS or IBM DOS.

Windows NT, 2000, XP, Windows 7, 8.x, and Windows 10, however, have the same origins. The same with the server versions. Windows NT server 3.51 was the original and Windows NT 4.0 became the forward base. The Server versions share the underlying code, and in some cases are the code that the workstation (personal computer) versions are based upon. Again it makes patching easier for the developers and for Microsoft alike.

In general I find your thread here to be we have to bash Microsoft, but it's not Microsoft's fault. If the organizations had upgraded, and patched when patches were and are available, with a caveat here which I will discuss below, then much of this would not of happened. Just because the hack was aimed at old crappy Windows XP computers, doesn't mean there aren't other hacks available for other operating systems including Apple OSx and Linux versions. The reason they went for the Microsoft Windows is because it's used most commonly.

If you are truly interested in OS vulnerabilities, you might want to look at the CERT website here:

https://www.us-cert.gov/

They track the vulnerabilities and release bulletins to those that subscribe to them. If you look, you will find plenty here for Apple, Oracle Java, Google, and various other operating systems such as the Linux flavors.

Here's one list of bulletins, picked randomly from the list of available ones:

https://www.us-cert.gov/ncas/bulletins/SB16-088

Now remember, as I've said above, even though these vulnerabilities are known it's still up to individual organizations to install any patches should they be available from their vendors. In the IT world when a patch is available, the update may not be installed immediately if the software is running in a critical environment. The reason is the patch has to be verified on multiple systems, usually in a test environment first, then released to the user population. This may mean an organization is behind the patching curve. In some cases not all patches are installed, due to conflicts with proprietary software, or no need. But staying diligent on all fronts including protecting the network and educating the users helps mitigate situations such as this.

IT management is more than just supplying software and patches along with computer hardware for users. It takes a c-level management that is will to invest in making their organization work well and a support the IT infrastructure. If they properly staff their IT departments, allow for upgrades and patches, and work with training the users, a lot of this can be avoided By multiple attack points, meaning multiple users, there's only so much the IT support team can do to mitigate a situation. All the best firewalls and servers can only do so much, so having everyone on board, including an educated workforce, then there's less of a chance of a situation to occur.

Having everything, including the OS in the cloud is no panacea either. Sure it reduces the number of individual attack points, but it's like putting all the eggs in one basket. If the cloud-based computer system is hacked and taken offline, this can impact more than just a single organization, or a small number of users. We have seen this ourselves with our DRM server or DLS going offline, and what we have is small peanuts. Imagine if Google's data servers go offline. Have you wondered how many users are impacted? Sure there are image backups, which can restore this situation, but it's a matter of the server issue being discovered first and rectified. In some cases it maybe worthless to restore data immediately, because the restored data can be attacked anyway. The downtime can run into billions of dollars, pounds, and Euros, lost as organizations are stuck without their data.

http://mashable.com/2015/10/09/google-docs-sheets-down/#RSQIcnNVeZqy

What about when there was a glitch with Amazon's servers more recently because someone entered in a wrong code. Oops! All the servers went offline due to a mixed up key sequence.

These are only a couple of incidents, and both were down due to technical difficulties and not a hack. What would happen if this was a hack, a denial of service attack (DOS)? The problem could be much worse as was the case with Estonia back in 2005 when their complete internet service was brought down by someone attacking their routers.
 
Having waded through wholbr's somewhat lengthy and diatribe postings against Microsoft, one gets the distinct impression that wholbr's out of his depth with this topic. Just as I am!

Rob.
 
Tongue in cheek of course! But what is this so called 'warm beer' myth? I drink my beer at cellar temperature which usually isn't very warm at all!

North Americans seem to like drinking their beer ice cold so cellar temp is still warmer. I think it chills the taste buds so you can't taste it. I think it dates back to when to show how rich you were you'd serve ice water when it was 30 plus outside or 90 f which in many parts of the states it is quite often. The other thing is the cost of transport since they don't brew locally much of the time, so their beer is typically 5% proof rather than the 3% that UK beer often is well apart from Starlight which I seem to recall was under 2%. I keep my sanity by brewing my own from UK beer kits in the basement or cellar. Since the foundations have to be below the frost line its pretty cheap to dig out the bit in the middle which gives you as much space in the basement as the ground floor.

Cheerio John
 
North Americans seem to like drinking their beer ice cold so cellar temp is still warmer. I think it chills the taste buds so you can't taste it. I think it dates back to when to show how rich you were you'd serve ice water when it was 30 plus outside or 90 f which in many parts of the states it is quite often. The other thing is the cost of transport since they don't brew locally much of the time, so their beer is typically 5% proof rather than the 3% that UK beer often is well apart from Starlight which I seem to recall was under 2%. I keep my sanity by brewing my own from UK beer kits in the basement or cellar. Since the foundations have to be below the frost line its pretty cheap to dig out the bit in the middle which gives you as much space in the basement as the ground floor.

Cheerio John

Oh, I was under the impression that chilling beer is a method of hiding the poor taste of the ersatz gnats piss lager type brews of North America? Perhaps I'm wrong!

Rob.
 
Hi everybody.
John Citron, in regard to your posting at #47 of this thread, this thread was in was in no way setup to “bash” Microsoft or any other organisation. However, as it was the windows platform that succumbed to the worldwide ransomware attack then they and others must expect questions and opinions to be voiced.

Also in regard to the same posting john, Microsoft Windows no longer has the largest user base of all platforms on a daily bases. That accolade has now been taken by Android as the numbers using that platform exceeded Windows for the first time in Q3 of 2016. I believe we can all agree that the foregoing is an exceptional performance especially as the platform did not even exist eight years ago.

As there are those on this forum who obviously feel that IT in any organisation has to be the the top priority and all other sections must be subservient to that, can I give my own experience which I am sure would be the experience of many small and medium size companies in regard to IT.

I setup my own company in 2003 after a large section of the American company I had worked for over many years was taken over by a multinational German based company and i was soon declared​ “surplus to requirements”. I immediately was offered work by my former American employers, setup the company to carry that out, got lucky with further work and soon had two others working in the business with me.

The above was when IT first reared its ugly head. With three of us constantly traveling all over the country and needing to transfer and file documents between us, an IT system quickly became imperative and windows XP entered the equation complete with server. We also at that time employed our first legal secretary but soon found that to much of her highly skilled hours where being devoted to maintaining the IT database at the office, so we contracted a local computer guy to maintain everything, our first real company “on cost” to the businesses.

The company grew rapidly through the years 2003-2013 and on advice we migrated our IT system through vista and onto windows seven as we had fourteen workstations by that later year just in the main open office alone. The computer contractor seemed to live in the office as the server was forever causing problems, so we decided to backup our computer files onto Google drive that had launched the year previously.

Shortly after that the above the server “gave up the ghost” for the umpteeth time one week and one of the secretaries produced her son's Chromebook, logged it on to Google drive and recommenced working while many others sat there. Within days we then had several Chromebooks in the office as backups but they soon became more favoured by the secretary's and others than the Windows PCs and the rest is IT history within our company. In truth Google OS has never failed us in the intervening years since 2013.

In all the above, to many companies it would seem that IT is a function which demands resources from the organisation it is operating within. However, Google has proven with its cloud OS that IT can be a resource that places extremely low cost benefits into any organisation releasing saved resources to the benefit and development of that organisation.

Organisations both large and small want their personal involved in customer care and not have numbers involved in subsidiary activities such as IT. By example, The British NHS wants its staff involved in patient care and not have thousands of them tied up in maintaining the computer system when that can now can be carried out fully by those who provide the system at no cost.

I would not expect much support from an interest/hobby based on the Windows platform, but that's the way IT is developing and why Microsoft are about to launch their own full cloud Operating System.

That's the way it is, like it or not. :D
Bill
 
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Also in regard to the same posting john, Microsoft Windows no longer has the largest user base of all platforms on a daily bases. That accolade has now been taken by Android as the numbers using that platform exceeded Windows for the first time in Q3 of 2016. I believe we can all agree that the foregoing is an exceptional performance especially as the platform did not even exist eight years ago.

We've had this discussion before and you're missing one vital step out. What are the requirements? You have to start there. Only then can you come up with an optimal solution. In your small company the requirements seem to be minimal with being easy to use being the most important one. Fine Google operating system may well meet your requirements but for more complex requirements it may not meet these. I assume you have no partially sighted people at your company? If you have then supporting them adds complexity and Windows offers the best support these days. Of course as a commercial company you don't have to worry about accommodating handicapped people. Most levels of government do.

Larger organisations often have departments with special needs databases etc integrating these with email and word processing systems, connecting one database to another. Creating bilingual documents. I accept that there are more people in the world with a smartphone than have a windows desktop but don't try and write war and peace on a smartphone or run TANE with the sliders set to max.

It's easy to think things are simple. Donald is doing that at the moment and he's finding life is more complex than he thought. Microsoft bashing is easy but they do an awful lot right even if you don't understand what it is they do. Take a look at MOM sometime there is nothing like it in the Google world.

Cheerio John
 
Also in regard to the same posting john, Microsoft Windows no longer has the largest user base of all platforms on a daily bases. That accolade has now been taken by Android as the numbers using that platform exceeded Windows for the first time in Q3 of 2016. I believe we can all agree that the foregoing is an exceptional performance especially as the platform did not even exist eight years ago.

This says different, dated January 2017

http://www.zdnet.com/article/todays-most-popular-operating-systems/

This is based on usage not fiddled sales figures.

Windows = 49.2%
iOS = 22.9%
Android = 16.9%
Mac = 9.2
ChromeOS = 1.1%
Other = 0.9%
 
Hi Everybody.
This says different, dated January 2017

http://www.zdnet.com/article/todays-most-popular-operating-systems/

This is based on usage not fiddled sales figures.

Windows = 49.2%
iOS = 22.9%
Android = 16.9%
Mac = 9.2
ChromeOS = 1.1%
Other = 0.9%

Malc, with every respect, but the above figures only account for visitors to US federal government websites which I would imaging would in the main government employees. I do not believe that any figures for total web use in regard to operating system use is available as of yet for Q4 of 2016.

Anyway just looked in following a Saturday morning at the office and I am about to watch ManU play in premiere league. Will post later on very good points John Whellan made.

Bill
 
...Anyway just looked in following a Saturday morning at the office and I am about to watch ManU play in premiere league...

You'll have a long wait, United not playing today, next premiere league game Man United v Crystal Palace, 21st May KO 3.00pm - tomorrow (Sunday)!
 
You'll have a long wait, United not playing today, next premiere league game Man United v Crystal Palace, 21st May KO 3.00pm - tomorrow (Sunday)!

Yes, nobody told us that until we got into the pub. Last we heard it had been brought forward for today. Still we had a very nice if rather liquid lunch overlooking the Bristol Channel. Don't think I will be doing much moor posting today LOL


BILL :mop:
 
Hi everybody.
In response to John Whellans posting at #52 of this thread, then Chromebooks and Chromebase desktops are similarly equipped to PC laptops and desktops in regard to users with disabilities finding enhanced features for their use incorporated into those devices.

In regard to my own company and others having somewhat “simplistic” requirements and therefore Google Chrome OS is easily found suitable to our needs, I can visualise how that perception can come about. However, all business requirements are different and in my company's circumstances we are what I would class at present as a medium size operation with 26 employees (both full and part-time​) based around fourteen workstations in the main open office and four workstations based in individual offices.

The above I would suggest would be pro-typical of many medium size company office setups along with the need for those workstations to share files and work collaboratively on documents. In the foregoing many of those documents are internally and externally security sensitive and therefore not open to view by all members of staff and no one outside the company with the exception of the company's clients on a need to know basis.

The operational requirements of the above office setup would be no different whether the IT operating system where based on the Microsoft Windows Platform or the Google Chrome OS platform. However the servicing and maintenance needs of the two above systems are very different with the second (it can be argued) being highly beneficial to any organisation.

The problems of the Windows based OS in terms of security are well known and have been well demonstrated in the last week with the Wanna-Cry ransomware​ attack. Each individual workstation is vulnerable and has to be protected along with the office server(s) etc. The foregoing brings the need for keeping antivirus programmes constantly up to date along with the requirements of patching and all too often the dreaded full upgrade of the entire system. All the foregoing requires heavy expenditure and skilled human resources to carry out as John Citron so elegantly points out in his posting at #51 of this thread.

However, with the launch in July 2011 of the Google Chrome operating system there came about a different way that IT could be handled. The new Chromebooks which accompanied the launch brought forward the concept of all applications and data required for operating the device would be held in the cloud behind Google servers which would run all the virus protection etc for that device and all others logged on to the system. All patching and upgrades could be carried out in the cloud servers without the need for those using the system having to do anything themselves to protect their devices.

The Chromebooks devices were conceived as being minimal in their hardware requirements without even the need for a hard drive as all operation would be carried out online through the above servers. Following the launch of the Chromebooks along with their Operating system they quickly gained sales traction in the education market replacing the expensive Apple iPads with their device stored applications and data that little Jimmy often failed to backup.

Google OS has now developed into a well recognised and respected system by the business community and gaining sales in many organisations where good broadband connection is available. However, with the mobile network providers now offering unrestricted data access by way of LTE connectivity Google OS and the soon to be launched Microsoft full cloud based operating system may well become available in areas without fibre broadband in the near future.

Microsoft by way of their superb Azure cloud storage system have the basis for an operating system with combined storage to rival Google OS for the first time. The CEO of Samsung In an address to the Google IO conference last week, advised that new devices should be developed with the ability to log on to ether system quickly and easily. In the foregoing, organisations could store their data in both storage systems. Therefore if there was then an attack on the Google servers which brought the system down (or visa versa) users would be quickly able to switch to the other.

The above may well mean that for the first time in several years the IT pendulum may swing back in favour of users and against the criminal hackers.
Bill
 
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Just in case Google OS misled you, Man U 2, Crystal Palace 0. Do you know what time of day it is? Hey, if you answer this please be brief and to the point without your usual waffle.

Rob.
 
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Robd
Yes I seen the match before posting. In regard to length of posting I was responding to other lengthy postings in this Thread.
With respect to you yourself and your posting, is it possible for you to state something positive in any thread at some point which would perhaps draw more respect in what you say.
Bill
 
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