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Thursday 14th May 2021

Here's some of what you missed at The Thirsty Robot:

Technical Musings

Technology Topic - The 5 Stages of Hacking

Discussion turned immediately to Security this time. The fifth stage of Hacking was mentioned, in the context of digital forensics. Hang on, you might be thinking, the fifth stage of Hacking isn't Forensics!

Photo of one of the 5 Stages by Antoine Julien on Unsplash

Let's refresh our memories about those 5 stages first. No, not that sort of stage!


Now, if you are talking about Ethical Hacking, then that fifth stage is often changed - to Forensics. And some people insist on calling it 'digital forensics', to differentiate it from dusting for fingerprints, looking at blood splatter patterns and all those other 'Witless Silence' tropes. (The long-used incorrect spoonerism of a famous BBC crime drama was first given a mass audience in the 1999 Easter Special episode of French and Saunders... From the days when TV programmes had 'Easter Specials', of course...)

And forensics is very significant in terms of security activities. Whilst a Hacker might well be concerned with 'Covering their Tracks', an Ethical Hacker needs to know about the topic so that they can use Digital Forensics to try and uncover those tracks and find out more about the Hacker. So some people call the 5th Stage of Ethical Hacking: Digital Forensics, and they mean the process of trying to uncover 'covered tracks'...

SANS offer a free toolkit for Digital Forensics... Not content with that, they also have another download as part of their 'Digital Forensics and Incident Response' area. SANS are, of course, famous for their training courses, so maybe the free downloads are intended to get you to explore their web-site...

Forensics is detective stuff. Not Sherlock Holmes or even Johnny Lee Miller (Elementary, the TV series) stuff, but Wilent Sitless stuff: gathering clues and evidence that the bad'uns have left behind. On TV (and in the movies), then you may get some strange bits of tech-gabble from under-informed script-writers - like using Visual Basic to make a GUI for something which already seems to have a GUI...but really, this is serious stuff. 

So serious that the UK Government even has a Policy on the topic. And there is a UK National Cyber Security Centre...

Distractions...

Mention of Johny Lee Miller led to Trainspotting, the film, not the hobby. Was it really released in 1996? No-one defended the more recent sequel: T2 Trainspotting. But everyone was amazed by the huge choice of Trainspotting-oriented duvet covers. Yes, you read that correctly: Trainspotting-themed covers for duvets!

Somehow, Yahtzee also got mentioned, and before we knew it, we were in a vintage game bubble!

Non-Visual Media: Radio (because the pictures are better!)

'Cabin Pressure' is one of those famous bits of radio media that deserves a better listenership, which may be why the list of available episodes from the BBC is just a little short... The series home-page is just as tantalising, especially the empty 'Similar Programmes' section. But, if you have recently received an inheritance, or just have too much spare cash, then you could buy the CD!

Some stand-up comedy is pretty much ideal for radio as well. One liners are perfect, and the current leader is probably Milton Jones...

Visual Media: Height Restrictions (because the pictures are funnier!)

Trucks wrecking themselves under low bridges have been a feature of the internet for many years. But if signs, painted beams, red traffic lights and sirens don't work, what does? In Australia, they have been forced to use signs projected onto waterfalls (Seriously)! Whoah! Projecting onto waterfalls just has to have other uses...

Unusual Hotels

Citizen M  - Exactly what you would expect us to talk about. Almost totally automated hotels...

Recommended Movies/Films:

- What David Finscher did after making 'Seven'. A cult classic. Did you notice that Netflix uses 'GB' rather than 'UK'?

We reckon it is better to not know anything about a film beforehand, so don't click on the links above if you have any intention of watching them!

Recommended Media:

[ YouTube - Martian Mushrooms? ] Are there mushrooms (or just fungi) on Mars? 

Holiday Planning:

Okay, so foreign travel has been off the agenda for some time, and who knows what will happen next? But anyway, it was noted that the Falkland Islands were on the approved 'Green List' of possible destination for the brave, foolhardy, desperate, etc. But how do you get there? Score the maximum of 10 totally worthless, pointless, no-prize, no monetary-value points if you knew.


Quotable News Headline Of The Week:



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A lot of discussion happens at The Thirsty Robot. This blog is an edited, biased summary of just a small fraction of the conversation, links/URLs and references that were mentioned. It is an imperfect record and is definitely not complete - for that you should visit The Thirsty Robot!

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The next online meeting at The Thirsty Robot is on Thursday 27th May 2021 at 7:30pm GMT.




 








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