What I'm Reading 2/18/2020

Reuters - 'True Grit' author Charles Portis dies at 86 -

Charles Portis, the reclusive Arkansas writer known for the classic Western novel “True Grit” and the wry humor that filled his works, died on Monday at the age of 86 after battling a long illness, the New York Times reported. 

 Yahoo - Michael Bloomberg Is a Condescending Jerk . . . - 

Second, while the added context renders countless responses to the clip irrelevant, it doesn’t change the fact that Bloomberg comes across as a condescending jerk. His entire comment feels like an in-joke between him and the elite Oxford audience. At one point he talks of the need to provide the “dignity of a job” to the masses so they don’t “set[] up the guillotines someday.” And of course, even primitive farming hundreds of years ago was not just a matter of dig hole, plant seed, water, up comes corn.

 The Daily Beast - As Trump Gives Up on ‘Endless Wars,' Russia, China, and Iran Move In -

While that may fit the bill of a Trump administration that wants to spend less American treasure abroad and wants others to do more of the work, in the long term it means a fundamental change in the international role of the United States. 

It also means that in an attempt to shift resources to confronting major states, the U.S. will provide a vacuum for some of those states precisely–China, Russia and Iran–to play a greater role in Africa, the Middle East, and Asia.

 Reuters - EU industry chief warns of more onerous tech rules by year end -

The European Union will decide by the end of the year whether to impose rules reining in the market power of U.S. tech giants, the bloc’s industry chief said on Monday as he criticised Facebook’s proposals as insufficient to address EU concerns. 

CNN - Jeff Bezos commits $10 billion to fight climate change -

The initiative, called the Bezos Earth Fund, will begin giving out grants this summer. The $10 billion commitment constitutes less than 8% of the world's richest man's estimated $130 billion net worth. Even so, it is one of of the biggest charitable pledges ever, according to a ranking by the Chronicle of Philanthropy, behind a $36 billion commitment by billionaire Warren Buffett in 2006 and an estimated $16.4 billion pledge by Helen Walton, the late wife of Walmart (WMT) founder Sam Walton, in 2007. 

Reuters -  Bloomberg to seek tighter financial industry regulations: New York Times - 

U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg on Tuesday will unveil his plan to overhaul the U.S. financial industry by taxing financial transactions and strengthening consumer protections, the New York Times reported.  

Twitter - The Perils of Stack Overflow -

foone 

@Foone 

8hBut because they made an error in replying to someone in 2009... this flawed code caused bugs that still exist as recently as March of 2018.

CNN - Roger Stone judge to discuss case in court amid sentencing chaos -

Tuesday's hearing will take place by phone and both sides may discuss whether Stone can still be sentenced on Thursday as scheduled. Jackson may also may discuss with the lawyers a new request from Stone last week for a new trial, and the withdrawals of four prosecutors when the Justice Department eased its sentencing recommendation for Stone. More details about Stone's request for a new trial are under seal, until at least Tuesday.

Reuters - 20 years after dot-com peak, tech dominance keeps investors on edge -

With Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and other technology companies fueling much of Wall Street’s rally since the 2008-2009 financial crisis, some investors worry the market has become vulnerable to any downturn among those companies.

Shares of Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, Alphabet and Facebook alone make up about 18% of the benchmark S&P 500.

“While the levels of valuation are not as extreme, the conclusion is somewhat the same from the market standpoint. If for whatever reason these names falter, it’s going to be very hard for certainly the Nasdaq, which is even more heavily weighted, but even the broader market, the S&P ... to perform well,” said Walter Todd, chief investment officer at Greenwood Capital in South Carolina.  

Infosec Resources - Web server security: Web server hardening -

A quick look through the most common web-based cyberattacks lead back to web servers sharing too much device information, SQL injection, session management-based attacks and even a failure to install the latest patches. In other words, if left with their default configurations, your organization will quickly find some of your most important information exposed — or worse — with the forensic trail leading straight back to your web server. 

Computerworld - Mobile security: Worse than you thought -

(I)n the latest Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report — always a worthwhile read — Verizon eloquently argues that aside from wireless, the form factor of mobile in and of itself poses security risks.

...

In short, users dealing with email on a mobile device — an incredibly common happening in corporate campuses — are far more susceptible to a phishing attack then on a typical desktop device.

Lot's of other issues too revolving around SSL certs and bad GUI design that encourages users to skip checking origins of messages etc.  Worth the read.

CSO -  Lack of firmware validation for computer peripherals enables highly persistent attacks -

Security researchers have warned for many years that failure to digitally sign and validate the low-level firmware found in computers can lead to damaging compromises that are very hard to detect and fix. While the computer industry has made some progress in this area, especially when it comes to the Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) in modern computers, new research shows that many peripheral manufacturers have not adopted modern firmware validation principles.