Blog/May 2018/May 4th

May 4th

We had another busy week, what with working, and planning trips, and medical appointments, and taking care of incidentals. I managed to make my clients happy this week, so that’s a plus.

Early in the week my cousins visited us; they’re on a planned trip visiting the Land. At the same time, my nephew and his family visited. So we had a nice family get-together. My nephew’s mother-in-law was with them, and she brought me an incredibly thoughtful gift: bannetons and a scoring knife.

So I immediately ran to make a loaf of sourdough, but this time I was going to prove the dough in the banneton! Well… it turns out I’ve a bit to learn about using one. First of all, you need to use a lot more flour on it than I did, to keep the dough from sticking. When I turned the dough out, it stuck and basically tore apart. So my resultant bread was more like a failed ciabatta than the gorgeous loaf it was shaping into. Better luck next time… however, the crumb and flavor and crust of the failed loaf were really good; I’ll turn the loaf into crostini.

Can we talk about digital security? I’ll preface by saying that computer security (and cryptographic security in particular) is really difficult to get right. As Bruce Schneier is fond of saying, “Attacks only get better, they don’t get worse”. And therefore you the computer user need to make sure your system(s) are up to date.

Some “Bitcoin” wallets running in web-browsers generated weak keys, allowing Bitcoin to be stolen from them. In this case, the fault was the software using the ironically named “SecureRandom()” JavaScript function.

This week, some Dutch researchers discovered that it was possible to execute a “Rowhammer” attack on some Android phones, using JavaScript in the phone’s web-browser. This is a potentially devastating attack, though it mainly affects older versions of the web-browsers (newer versions have fixes to avoid the issue). As the article points out, there are plenty of other attacks available which work on a wider variety of phones…

The extremely widely-used “WhatsApp” secure communications application is apparently being subverted by Facebook, which wants to weaken the security in order to fish user data. This is a truly egregious breach of trust with WhatsApp’s users. Solution: use “Signal” instead. Facebook ruins everything they touch (including Facebook).

Not to be outdone in screwing the pooch, Twitter announced that they exposed user’s passwords in plain-text. They’re now requesting all their users change their passwords; presumably so they can expose them some other way.

And the IDF’s vaunted technological prowess was challenged by a sergeant who hacked the IDF network in order to prove to his superiors that it was vulnerable. His reward: “just” a 1,500₪ fine. I’d assume that if he could do it, the Iranians could as well; he should have been given a promotion and an actual reward.

Finally, this week Netanyahu gave a presentation in English about the 100,000 documents the Mossad spirited out of Iran. The documents prove what everyone with half a brain already knew, e.g. that the Iranians have been lying through their teeth about their nuclear ambitions. But I’m not sure just what Bibi was hoping to accomplish with his dog-and-pony show. Certainly, he didn’t convince everyone. Unlike Menachem Begin, who struck the Osirak reactor without uttering a word of warning first, and unlike Ehud Olmert, who struck the Syrian reactor in his day, Bibi likes to blab. In contrast to those men of action, we’ve got a leader who likes to pose and prattle, but to the best of my knowledge hasn’t actually done much but kowtow to American pressure. It’s just embarrassing.

The weather has been unseasonably hot, and it’s supposed to stay that way until about Monday, when it will become unseasonably cold and wet; just so nobody’s happy.

This shabbat we’ve got guests. Besides hot weather, we’ll have:
ḥalla, roasted chicken, chicken wings, meaty cholent, smoked fish, roasted beets, braised bok-choy, tabbouleh, roasted eggplant, orzo, fruit, and brownies.

Until next time,
shabbat shalom!

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