What's new

In the news...

@Cactaur Gotta wonder. If the guy has to steal a bike that cost no more than 10,000 yen, how did he pay for his food for the journey?
 
So it looks like garmin paid up....


The thing that amazed me in the Garmin outage was the breadth of the attack. From online services to call centers to production lines - they hit pretty much everything.

They must have gotten access to some executive's PC that in turn had easy access to just about any other part of their infrastructure, so once they were in they basically owned the whole place and could lock it up with ransomware. Convenience usually trumps security. I wonder how many companies out there operate like that, with no security concept to speak of and no plan B if they get hit.
 
Last edited:
The thing that amazed me in the Garmin outage was the breath of the attack. From online services to call centers to production lines - they hit pretty much everything.

They must have gotten access to some executive's PC that in turn had easy access to just about any other part of their infrastructure, so once they were in they basically owned the whole place and could lock it up with ransomware. Convenience usually trumps security. I wonder how many companies out there operate like that, with no security concept to speak of and no plan B if they get hit.

Strava is offline again. They say for 'scheduled' maintenance, but I didn't see any schedule posted. Wonder if they're having a similar problem.
 
I wonder how many companies out there operate like that, with no security concept to speak of and no plan B if they get hit.
A lot. My brother works in IT. His previous employer was a big middle-sized companies with about 5,000 employees. They got hit bad by ransomware perhaps two years ago where 1,000 of their PCs were infected. Their only choice was to roll back the state of the computers 24 hours (fortunately, they had good backups, one of the things my brother was in charge of), but the employees could not work for a day. That's a €€€,€€€ loss in productivity right there — and they got lucky. And a stressful day for my brother and his colleagues.

The not-so-funny thing is that our policing system hasn't caught up to this at all. Just imagine if I held a factory hostage by physically blocking access or sabotaging it. The company would call the police and the police would investigate. If the crime is "virtual", then companies don't even report it. Many think it is bad publicity to even admit they were hacked, so they say nothing.
 
The not-so-funny thing is that our policing system hasn't caught up to this at all. Just imagine if I held a factory hostage by physically blocking access or sabotaging it. The company would call the police and the police would investigate. If the crime is "virtual", then companies don't even report it. Many think it is bad publicity to even admit they were hacked, so they say nothing.

Yes, many of the crimes go unreported, partly because of US laws prohibiting payoffs. But cybercrime is being tracked and investigated, with well-coordinated takedowns by private-public partnerships of law enforcement and security industry teams in multiple countries. Any crime crossing jurisdictional boundaries is inherently more difficult to track.

The FBI, RCMP, BKA, etc are after these guys and eventually they'll get them. Every now and then there's a big takedown of phishing/malware/botnet gangs, such as this raid in Ukraine against Gennady Kapkanov of the GozNym cybercrime ring. He fired an AK47 at the police arresting him, was released by an Ukrainian judge but rearrested two years later.

The fact that many companies now have their employees and executives working from home makes this kind of cyber attack easier, as many are now not protected by corporate firewalls or are using home PCs that are not controlled by corporate IT departments or may even be shared with family members.
 
Yes, many of the crimes go unreported, partly because of US laws prohibiting payoffs. But cybercrime is being tracked and investigated, with well-coordinated takedowns by private-public partnerships of law enforcement and security industry teams in multiple countries. Any crime crossing jurisdictional boundaries is inherently more difficult to track.
Is the effort really that serious once you factor in that our entire economy depends on IT? I understand that chasing them is very difficult as the same technologies that protect us from them protect them from us. And you are right that the inherent international nature of these crimes will make it more difficult, too.

States should take this much more seriously. A lot of offenses that happen online are often treated as if they don't exist (think also of stalking or slander). Plus, what drives me up the wall is that most states focus on offense, i. e. on creating exploits for themselves. Very little is done defensively and preventively to e. g. protect the infrastructure we rely on. I mean, look at the state of email: no cryptographic security of the content, no encryption, no cryptographic integrity protection, mail address spoofing, the list goes on. It's 2020, we should not be using email the way it was envisioned in the 1970s when very few people were on the various "proto-internets".
The FBI, RCMP, BKA, etc are after these guys and eventually they'll get them. Every now and then there's a big takedown of phishing/malware/botnet gangs, such as this raid in Ukraine against Gennady Kapkanov of the GozNym cybercrime ring. He fired an AK47 at the police arresting him, was released by an Ukrainian judge but rearrested two years later.
I do hear that sometimes botnets are taken down, but that is just one form of cyber criminality. And probably you have to be pretty big to get on their radar. I imagine that it is exceptionally hard for states to hire talent. If you are a good security researcher/white hat hacker, you'll make a lot more in the industry. There are some exceptions, though, the security group at the Leibniz Rechenzentrum (LRZ) comes to mind. The LRZ not only operates some serious supercomputers, but they protect quite a bit of the universities's IT infrastructure. (Universities are a big target, because they tend to have a boat load of bandwidth and some serious servers.)
The fact that many companies now have their employees and executives working from home makes this kind of cyber attack easier, as many are now not protected by corporate firewalls or are using home PCs that are not controlled by corporate IT departments or may even be shared with family members.
IMHO that's rather an indication of how poor companies's IT departments are funded and what level of technology they deploy. Many companies operate their IT on a shoestring budget and seem to consider them a mere cost rather than an essential part of doing business. Hopefully the pandemic will change that a bit, and show companies that they need to get with the times.

From the looks of it, my wife's company is doing a lot right, for example: she has not one, but two company laptops. One connects to the VPN in Japan, the other to the VPN at the company HQ in Germany. They are quite strict with database access, too (which leads to problems since she sometimes has to wait on co-workers to enter things into their SAP database).
 
Saw a cyclist v. cyclist accident, albeit a minor one, in my ward last week as a mamachari came zooming out of a side alley failing to obey the Tomare physically painted on their exit and a metal sign as well. Apparently my anecdotal observations as a driver and pedestrian confirm what seems to be a distributing, rising trend:

 
Good to know that there is data to supplement anecdotal evidence. A large share of close calls in my last few years of riding were due to other cyclists.

It's kinda weird, Japanese drivers (of cars) are amongst the most considerate internationally (at least in my experience). But Japanese cyclists can be maniacs, not caring about basic traffic laws. It seems this is like the theft of umbrellas, which is also somewhat socially accepted in a country where I can leave my iPhone on the table in a café to indicate my seat is taken.

Although I have to say, one contributing factor is the abysmal bike path network. One day, I swear I will take a video of the bike path I take every morning when I drop off my daughter at day care, it is a bike path from a Kafka novel. Pedestrians don't seem to care about bike paths either and move in random directions.
 
It's kinda weird, Japanese drivers (of cars) are amongst the most considerate internationally (at least in my experience). But Japanese cyclists can be maniacs, not caring about basic traffic laws. It seems this is like the theft of umbrellas, which is also somewhat socially accepted in a country where I can leave my iPhone on the table in a café to indicate my seat is taken.

Although I have to say, one contributing factor is the abysmal bike path network. One day, I swear I will take a video of the bike path I take every morning when I drop off my daughter at day care, it is a bike path from a Kafka novel. Pedestrians don't seem to care about bike paths either and move in random directions.

I think it is because as a car driver (which I am), you must be hyper sensitive and aware because Japanese cyclists (not the pros/club riders, just the causal ones) and pedestrians are almost universally not paying attention, and the cyclists I've seen are almost always committing one or more law violations.
 
I had a funny one the other day. Was riding along Komazadori home when a cyclist rode off the foot path onto the road just in front of me without looking. I'm usually looking for this kind of stuff actively as I ride but just didn't expect it from that particular cyclist as he was a cop. I did manage to shout abanai at him in a reflex action and carried on smiling to myself.
 
I think it is because as a car driver (which I am), you must be hyper sensitive and aware because Japanese cyclists (not the pros/club riders, just the causal ones) and pedestrians are almost universally not paying attention, and the cyclists I've seen are almost always committing one or more law violations.
Sounds plausible.
But it's funny that doesn't rub off when drivers step out of their cars and walk or ride a bike. ;)
 
The tire there is Continental--can anyone ID the specific 'model'?

(and rim brakes... ;) )
 
Giro ITT winner turning a 60X11. In recon rides he was going over 100kmph
View attachment 21047

It's all about chainline efficiency. Basically keeping the chain as straight as possible.

So it's more efficient to have the chain in a huge chain ring on the front and in the middle of the block on the back, than it is to have it in say 53x11.

However on a downhill TT he probably got her in 'the big dog' on several occasions.

Sounds like another nightmare course too. Will rider safety ever become a priority...

Andy
 
The tire there is Continental--can anyone ID the specific 'model'?

(and rim brakes... ;) )
It seems the lable says Grand Prix TT. But by the looks I'd say 5000. A mystery.

Btw, I don't know any TT bike with disc brakes. I guess riding on your own at a mostly flat course doesn't call for any more stopping power.
 

Attachments

  • Ineos-grenadier_PinarelloTT04_giro-ditalia_2020-1-of-1.jpg
    Ineos-grenadier_PinarelloTT04_giro-ditalia_2020-1-of-1.jpg
    179.1 KB · Views: 2
The tire there is Continental--can anyone ID the specific 'model'?

(and rim brakes... ;) )

Conti 5000s I think as latex tubed clinchers have lower rolling resistance then tubs.
Rims still appear to be more aero and lighter than discs,.
 
It's all about chainline efficiency. Basically keeping the chain as straight as possible.

So it's more efficient to have the chain in a huge chain ring on the front and in the middle of the block on the back, than it is to have it in say 53x11.

However on a downhill TT he probably got her in 'the big dog' on several occasions.

Sounds like another nightmare course too. Will rider safety ever become a priority...

Andy
Lopez's crash looked nasty. Apparently, Campenaerts was complaining about the state of the roads. I only watched a bit as the Binck Bank was hotting up on the other side (great last 40km or so) but what I saw looked really fast!
 
Lopez's crash looked nasty. Apparently, Campenaerts was complaining about the state of the roads. I only watched a bit as the Binck Bank was hotting up on the other side (great last 40km or so) but what I saw looked really fast!

He's the man eh! Whether you approve or not, look how he took the best line through the corner at 2:30. Power, technique and passion!

Andy

 
Back
Top Bottom