Whatsapp hack

[Rand]

How does this even happen.. just.. wow.
https://www.businessinsider.com/whatsapp-hack-what-is-pegasus-2019-5

highlights
Quote

WhatsApp, a Facebook-owned messaging app used by more than 1.5 billion people around the world, recently found a major security flaw, the Financial Times reported.

The hack is reportedly as simple as receiving a WhatsApp phone call, even if you don't pick up the call. A record of the call can even be remotely erased, the report says.

The WhatsApp exploit enables the installation of software from the NSO Group, a secretive firm from Israel that bills itself as a leader in cyber warfare and is behind a notoriously invasive software tool called Pegasus.

Pegasus enables users to remotely access everything in an infected smartphone, from text messages to location data — and it's next to impossible to know if your phone was infected.

 

[ZeeOSix]

I think there's already been an update to the App to prevent this hack.

 

[JerryBob]

The 60 Minutes interview with the company founder that's linked in the article is pretty interesting

 

[Hall]

I'm more impressed by the people/groups that figure these exploits out. They just seem so out of left field.

 

[OnTheRocks]

Originally Posted by hallstevenson
I'm more impressed by the people/groups that figure these exploits out. They just seem so out of left field.


I suppose there will always be someone who wants to challenge someone else's progress.

The hard part was building the app. Now someone will try to take it apart, crack the code, exploit the weakness, or try to make it better. Some think of themselves as "white hat" hackers. Some are malicious. But a lot of it is the feeling that "I'm smarter than you, and I'll show you where you messed up." Or "you did that wrong, see?"

Same way the engineers build a car, that's the hard part. Now everyone looks for a way to make it better, and show the engineers that they left something on the table. LED lights. Bolt on mods. Weathertech floor mats. Fuzzy dice. Custom tuning. Wheels. Tires. Some people even think that they know better than the engineers who built this car, when it comes to which oil & filter to use.

 

[Shannow]

Originally Posted by OnTheRocks
Some people even think that they know better than the engineers who built this car, when it comes to which oil & filter to use.

Yes, the lawyers, beancounters and actuaries within the car companies certainly do, don't they ?

 

[AuthorEditor]

Quote
Some people even think that they know better than the engineers

I've seen so many ridiculous things on cars that indicate to me a) if an engineer designed it, he/she wasn't a very good engineer. b) I bet it is often a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth c) the beancounters rule the roost! It's the same with software design. I know someone who was a software engineer at the highest level with one of the biggest names in the business. It was a constant struggle trying to get your little piece of software to mesh with thousands of other pieces. The testing stuff was old and out of date, causing huge delays. And then a command would come down from on high that something was shipping by such-and-such a date no matter what, and out the door would go a piece of crap.

 

[bullwinkle]

Originally Posted by Shannow
Originally Posted by OnTheRocks
Some people even think that they know better than the engineers who built this car, when it comes to which oil & filter to use.

Yes, the lawyers, beancounters and actuaries within the car companies certainly do, don't they ?
They definitely run the show at the Big 3, and at the dealerships.

 

[talest]

Originally Posted by OnTheRocks
Some people even think that they know better than the engineers who built this car, when it comes to which oil & filter to use.


Don't insinuate that all the self-proclaimed experts on here don't know better than who made the car. That would just be wrong. Everyone knows the folks that built the car made the wrong choice.

Let us make more funny comments.

 

[CKN]

Originally Posted by talest
Originally Posted by OnTheRocks
Some people even think that they know better than the engineers who built this car, when it comes to which oil & filter to use.


Don't insinuate that all the self-proclaimed experts on here don't know better than who made the car. That would just be wrong. Everyone knows the folks that built the car made the wrong choice.

Let us make more funny comments.



I recommend "insert brand/weight oil here" and use with confidence. After all-it's not my car.....right?

 

[emg]

Originally Posted by talest
Don't insinuate that all the self-proclaimed experts on here don't know better than who made the car. That would just be wrong. Everyone knows the folks that built the car made the wrong choice.


The people who designed the car generally made the right choice within the constraints they were given (cost, economy, size, cost, performance, cost, design time, cost, etc).

Those constraints are rarely the same ones that an individual owner would have put on the design.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted by OnTheRocks
Same way the engineers build a car, that's the hard part. Now everyone looks for a way to make it better, and show the engineers that they left something on the table. LED lights. Bolt on mods. Weathertech floor mats. Fuzzy dice. Custom tuning. Wheels. Tires. Some people even think that they know better than the engineers who built this car, when it comes to which oil & filter to use.

In the computer world, there is a legitimate precedent where I can do such things if I think I know more than the engineers. It's called free and open software. If I don't like how such a package is doing things, I can change it and redistribute it at will. That doesn't apply to proprietary software.

 

[JeepWJ19]

Originally Posted by AuthorEditor
Quote
Some people even think that they know better than the engineers

I've seen so many ridiculous things on cars that indicate to me a) if an engineer designed it, he/she wasn't a very good engineer. b) I bet it is often a case of too many cooks spoiling the broth c) the beancounters rule the roost! It's the same with software design. I know someone who was a software engineer at the highest level with one of the biggest names in the business. It was a constant struggle trying to get your little piece of software to mesh with thousands of other pieces. The testing stuff was old and out of date, causing huge delays. And then a command would come down from on high that something was shipping by such-and-such a date no matter what, and out the door would go a piece of crap.


Dealing with that right now

.

I don't want to reveal what I work on or where I work but there is a lot of cool technology coming forward in my industry, specifically with electrification and the bean counters / business units that say it's too expensive slow that progress. Part of it is our industry is often two decades behind the automobile industry so the market isn't in high demand but it gives me aches.

Things include:
- True electric 4 wheel drive - we have it in some models but not all. One that I'm working on is only 2wd electric (yet it's rough terrain branded *sigh*). True 4wd electric is stupid simple from our end. It's just 4 wheel control motors. You set a speed and then the wheel control motors do the rest. Absolute billy goats offroad. And all I'd have to do is handle just 2 more modules in the software, virtually the same exact way I'm handling the other two.
- Ethernet communication between modules
- point to point automated driving
- start-stop for our engine powered products (which is stupidly simple to implement but bigger alternators are expensive )
- true collision avoidance ( I implemented a partial collision avoidance because we had to use cheaper sensors. The super awesome sensors are too expensive

)

We in engineering are always asked if we can do X, and we pretty much always can. But when it comes down to the numbers and market demand it drives those super cool stuff away or we are hog tied to implement X but with far cheaper components that either limit how much X is implemented or sacrifice reliability. And that is where, I'm sure, 75% of the people are getting the thoughts they can design something better than the engineer that did it.

Oh well

 

[BMWTurboDzl]

Originally Posted by hallstevenson
I'm more impressed by the people/groups that figure these exploits out. They just seem so out of left field.


The biggest customers for products like this are governments.