This article says that the Furby communicates in the same way. It would be interesting if the Furby was a vector for spreading messages via this virus. Very, very interesting.
I doubt this (Furbys are kiddy toys, after all); but this article proves that audio is indeed a viable data communication channel for bypassing air-gaps.
If anything, data over audio would be easier in an anechoic chamber since you don't have to worry about reverb or background noise.
US Military guidelines do require acoustic isolation of all SCIFs (Secure Compartmentalized Information Facilities). You just need isolation, though; deadening the rooms is not really necessary.
Yeah, the one that got me is "branch on variable declaration", which I believe is actually a special case of the fact that assignment is actually an expression which returns the assigned value; `a = b = c = 42;` works for the same reason.
Keep in mind - this is a PR move. None of these companies did anything before their backdoors were revealed. They are only writing this extremely-public press notice because they are getting called on their shenanigans.
Yahoo received special commendations from the EFF for it's fights to secure your privacy. I wonder if it a business strategy. "We seem to be losing market share so lets fight strongly for our users privacy and when it comes out we're doing it it will convince people to switch." Or is it just a company morality. And why aren't other companies acting in our interests in a similar manner?
And I'm not actually sure about their market share since their stock is remarkably steady over 5 years and has been steadily climbing since the middle of 2012.
I know look at the max length of Yahoo's stock and yes, it seems they have dropped quite a bit at points. Dec 1999 being their highest at 108 and change (dot com bust I'd imagine came shortly after), and as high as 39 in 2006 up from a low of 4.45 in Sep 2001. Currently 29 though so they've been putting in work since they dropped to 11.51 in Nov 2008.
What "backdoors" were revealed, may I ask? It's been known for years that Google makes user data available to law enforcement agencies when there's a warrant. They've been up front about this with their transparency reports. The only revelation here is that there are additional secret FISA requests they can't include in the reports. That sucks and shouldn't be happening, but users privacy isn't being compromised any more than it already was.
I think this is an excellent example of a meme outside the scope of Internet pop culture jokes. The idea that back doors exist has such wide appeal, and is so easy to believe, that few people ask for evidence beyond allegations. Skeptical remarks are disregarded. The confidence people have in their own extrapolations from a few words in a single deck of PowerPoint slides[1] is astonishing.
If you were the EFF would you refrain from signing when the outcome aligns to an acceptable result? I believe that this is a PR move, but I also believe this is not the moment to dismiss the effort.
Uh, MySql was acquired by Oracle, and Oracle has a big money-maker in their DB system. They have no reason to provide anything beyond the absolute minimum support for MySql.
