Blogger since 2002, political activist since 2003, geek since birth. Opinions informed by mixed-race, multi-ethnic, cis-female condition, further shaped by kind friends of all persuasions. Sci-tech frenemy, wannabe artist, decent cook, determined author, successful troublemaker. Mother of invention and two excessively smart-assed young adult kids. Attended School of Hard Knocks; Rather Unfortunate Smallish Private Business School in Midwest; Affordable Mid-State Community College w/evening classes. Self-employed at Tiny Consulting Business; previously at Large-ish Chemical Company with HQ in Midwest in multiple marginalizing corporate drone roles, and at Rather Big IT Service Provider as a project manager, preceded by a motley assortment of gigs before the gig economy was a thing. Blogging experience includes a personal blog at the original blogs.salon.com, managing editor for a state-based news site, and a stint at Firedoglake before landing here at emptywheel as technology’s less-virginal-but-still-accursed Cassandra.
Analysis by industrial control team SANS determined hacking of Ukrainian electrical power utilities reported on 23-DEC-2015 was a coordinated attack. It required multiple phases to achieve a sustained loss of electricity to roughly 80,000 customers. SANS reported they “are confident” the following events occurred: The adversary initiated an intrusion into production SCADA systems Infected workstations […]
Monday: the bad penny we never escape, turning up once again beneath our cart’s wheels just as we set in motion. Just give a hard shove, push on, and don’t look back. Volkswagen’s bad news, good news as Detroit’s auto show opens Bad news first: In news dump zone on Friday afternoon, we heard Volkswagen […]
Most unsportsy member of the Emptywheel team here, throwing up a placeholder post to catch the sports stuff. Commenter Lefty665 “seeds the kitty”: How about them Redskins? Gonna kick some Cheesehead butt. Rogers has all the history, but since the bye Cousins has been the better QB. GM Scott McCloughan has turned the ‘Skins around, […]
Looks like we survived the first business week of the year, made it through floods and fire and other apocalyptic events. Can’t imagine what next week will bring at this rate. Saudi Arabia may sell shares in oil producer Aramco Listing Aramco could create the most valuable company in the world, worth over a trillion in […]
If I was still a practicing Catholic, I’d be tempted to pray to St. Angela of Foligno today, her saint’s day. She was known for walking away from wealth and practicing charity. Given the Chinese stock market’s plummet overnight, St. Angela might be the right guide for this leg of the journey. China halts stock […]
My condolences to the poor Mikes among us who have suffered every Hump Day since Geico’s TV commercial became so popular. North Korean nuclear test detected by ‘earthquake’ About 10:00 a.m. North Korean local time Wednesday, an event measured at 5.1 on Richter scale occurred near the site of recent underground nuclear testing. South Korea […]
The post-holiday season debris field continues to thin out, making its way by the truckful to the landfill. I wonder how much oil the season’s plastic wrappings consumed. Here’s what the trash man left behind this morning. Hackers caused power outage — the first of its kind? Marcy’s already posted about the electrical power disruption […]
Hear that sound? Like so many sighs of resignation? Yup, it’s the first Monday of the new year, and with it, a plethora of shiny resolutions slowly breached and broken like WiFi-enabled toys. One of my 2016 resolutions (which I hope will last more than a week) is a morning update here at emptywheel. Won’t […]
The Internet of Things (IoT) already includes refrigerators, televisions, slow cookers, automobiles, you name it. Most of these items have already experienced security problems, whether personal information leaks, or manipulative hacking. Now the IoT includes toys — and wow, what a surprise! They’re riddled with privacy and security problems, too. Like VTech’s privacy breach, exposing […]
[Note: You can join Professor Stephen Emmott for a @reddit AMA TODAY Friday 04-DEC-2015 at 4:00 pm (UK) / 11:00 am EST.] If we learned a cataclysmic, extinction-level event was hurtling toward our planet, how would we respond? How should we respond if we know we can minimize the threat? This is in essence the […]