Microsoft Promises To Defend World Chess Champion From Russian Hackers (telegraph.co.uk) 131
"World chess champion Magnus Carlsen has asked Microsoft to protect him against Russian hackers, as he expects to become the target of cyber attacks launched before the match with grandmaster Sergey Karjakin next week," reports Softpedia. An anonymous reader shares more details from The Telegraph:
The man dubbed the 'Mozart of chess' has spent months using high-powered chess computers to meticulously prepare moves for his grueling 12-game match against challenger Sergey Karjakin. But any leak of his analysis would hand a significant advantage to Crimean-born Karjakin, the fiercely-patriotic darling of Russian president Vladimir Putin... "The element of surprise is vitally important in chess," explained the Vibeke Hansen, from Microsoft Norway... She said Microsoft Norway will "ensure that he has a safe training environment and secure communication and collaboration tools".
He asked Microsoft for help? (Score:5, Funny)
HAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAHAAAHAHA!!!
Re: He asked Microsoft for help? (Score:1)
Can't the DNC ask MSFT for help as well?
Re:He asked Microsoft for help? (Score:5, Insightful)
Isn't it as simple as "unplug the cable"?
chess competitions: f2f or online? (Score:2)
Are chess competitions nowadays still face to face at a given venue, or are they now online? If they are online, unplug the cable doesn't sound like a plan
Also, how does a cyber attack help anyone here? In chess, both the players would have to think out their moves and then play, and everybody will see their move at the same time
Enough with the boogeyman stories (Score:3, Insightful)
We're sick of it. We didn't believe it when the corrupt clinton campaign used it, and we don't buy it now. Repeatedly beating this dead horse is only going to turn more people against you.
Re: Enough with the boogeyman stories (Score:1, Insightful)
Sure buddy. How many rubbles are you getting paid? Pathetic Russian hackers went after WADA because they were exposed as cheaters.
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Says the AC...
They're an enemy and you're a traitor (Score:1, Interesting)
Russia ARE a boogeyman, they just hacked the Democratic party using fake servers and man in the middle attacks, sent emails though Kremlin propaganda office, and then handed over to Assange for release just prior to an election. It doesn't get anymore boogier than that. CIA has confirmed this.
You ARE being annexed, just the same way other countries have been annexed by Putin.
You really COULD wake up with a Viktor Yanokovych figure in power, who'll stuff his cabinet with pro Russia stooges.
You really COULD l
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Hey! If it wasn't for MS security I wouldn't have a job!
Quite bluntly, the whole IT security owes MS big time. If they didn't get people used to crappy security, people would actually be outraged now about all the security holes in various hard- and software. But since people are used to it, companies get away with it and I get paid well to plug those holes.
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Wrong and ignorant. It's not some non-management guy working in IT who decides what OS and software to use at a corporation. He's just taking advantage of the situation. The upper management makes decisions like that, based on input from vendor salespeople; the IT department's job is to support the products that upper management decides on.
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Nah, I just tell him where to put the band aid, putting it on costs extra.
Seriously, if people knew what kind of crap they're using I'd be a lot poorer.
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Security is the minimum of what the system can do and what the admin can do. Not the average. The minimum.
And good Linux admins know that they're worth money. Now add the willingness of the average manager to pay someone who does some actual work and you know why.
Re: The blue screen of death company... (Score:2, Funny)
Not quite true. One of our main investors is a former Microsoft EVP so we have to use their garbage. Servers crashing has protected us several times against hackers. If you Windows server crashes, no one can hack into it.
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You joke, but probably a dozen times in the past decade a server crashing has saved us from an intrusion. Our servers usually don't even run a week without crashing, but several of the more popular exploits make Windows crash more often than not.
what is this (Score:5, Insightful)
This just disgusting marketing propaganda. Poor the fool who signed up for this. And fsck the brain that conjured up this steaming pile of bulldroppings!
Re: what is this (Score:3)
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Low blow from Magnus (Score:2)
It is well known that chess players try to unsettle their opponents before important matches, and a world championship match is as big as it gets.
However, capitalizing on the fact that the opponent is Russian, the match is played in New York, the fact that it starts immediately after the presidential elections, and that there was a lot of noise about Russia hacking US servers, is quite low.
Well below what is expected from a reigning Chess World Champion.
Disgusting stuff.
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Russia, Muslims & the West (Score:3)
While corruption is an issue in Russia, it does need a strongman. 8 years of Boris Yeltsin exposed what would happen if Moscow tried to be truly democratic, and allow anyone to do anything. You had the Chechens revolt, and carry out unspeakable terrorist attacks in Moscow, Beslan and anywhere they liked.
Also, people look at the territory covered by the Russians - from the Bering Strait to the Baltic Sea - and conclude that they are one big bully. But the historic reason that Russia got so big was that
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Russia is a wonderful country, but its leaders are corrupt. I don't like the Russian authorities and I hope Russia will one day have a peaceful revolution that implements a working and free democracy. But that will probably never work as long as Russia remains an empire. Without a strong and corrupt leadership Russia will crumble apart in hundreds of little states.
You could say much the same about the US - or the UK come to that (and probably most others)
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And what is this and what are you. Show your colours, coward, and begone1
It's like asking Hannibal Lecter for cooking tips (Score:5, Insightful)
It's like asking Hannibal Lecter for cooking tips. Just use OSX or Linux. Problem solved.
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You'll have a computer that doesn't open any ports to the world by default.
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You'll have a computer that doesn't open any ports to the world by default.
So a useless computer? I mean if you're not going to open any ports then just disconnect it from the internet and then your Windows system is just as secure as Linux by default.
You're missing the fact that very very few attacks come in via some "open ports" typically because those "open ports" are behind some firewall or NAT and aren't actually "open". If they are open then there's likely a reason for it and they will be just as "open" on Linux as Windows.
Security is a process not a thing.
Re:It's like asking Hannibal Lecter for cooking ti (Score:4, Informative)
From when I ran a honeypot server in a dmz for a while, I detected a pattern in where the attackers were from, and how flexible and smart they were.
Disregarding script kiddies and botnets, visitors from Russian and German IP addresses were at the top of the list, snooping around manually and looking at configuration files and kernel parameters, and sometimes recognizing that they were in a honeypot. Visitors from Indian and American IP addresses were at the bottom, doing brain dead stuff like uploading and trying to run x86 programs on a mips computer, and when it failed, trying it again as if it would magically work the second or third time...
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It doesn't surprise me at all, because I read the pathetic long logs that Brazilians create trying to crack ssh passwords.
The same IP will try for *years*. I don't even use allow ssh passwords, people. Crack a private key, or go home, jeeze.
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...doing brain dead stuff like uploading and trying to run x86 programs on a mips computer, and when it failed, trying it again as if it would magically work the second or third time...
Well, it's an x86 program. It often *does* magically work the second time.
Not so sure (Score:2)
It's like asking Hannibal Lecter for cooking tips.
I'm not so sure: Hannibal Lecter at least seemed to know something about cooking.
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Um, no. The professional level software is Windows only. Carlsen is locked in.
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I'm sure if Carlsen asked, they would port whatever software he needed even to Commodore 64 for an endorsement.
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You're right, but there is also some subtle psychology and gamesmanship going on here.
Magnus Carlsen is much, much stronger than his opponent. He's the highest rated in history, and there is a huge gap between him and everybody else. And of the top 20 or so players right now, he's really the most able to play for a win from an equal position. Or for non-chess-players, that means he relies less on preparation than his opponent! Simply discovering his preparation would be less of an advantage than it would be
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Magnus Carlsen is much, much stronger than his opponent. He's the highest rated in history, and there is a huge gap between him and everybody else.
Highest rating achieved normalized to an equivalent (ELO) rating system:
2893 - Fischer
2882 - Kasparov
2880 - Botvinnik
2878 - Carlsen
2870 - Capablanca
So if by "highest rated in history" you mean 4th highest... sure.
source, with a very nice historical graph animation system [youtube.com]
He is significantly higher rated than his opponent, but his opponent isnt even in the current active top-5 rated at the moment (he is in 9th):
2853 - Carlsen
2823 - Caruana
2811 - MVL
2810 - Kramnik
2795 - Aronian
There is no
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That's the most braindead thing I've probably ever seen posted on an IT security article on Slashdot.
The idea that changing OS can magically give you absolute security is an astoundingly dangerous myth to peddle.
Please, step away from the keyboard before you cause someone some kind of data or financial loss.
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It's like asking Hannibal Lecter for cooking tips. Just use OSX or Linux. Problem solved.
This comment works very well but it's incomplete, doesn't take into account what end result is trying to be achieved, and may actually work against you.
Let's go for taste
It's like asking Hannibal Lecter for cooking tips. Just use McDonalds or KFC. The last two will get food into your mouth with limited effort or knowledge of cooking required. The former is likely delicious (working against you, lots of meat is delicious and I don't see humans being any different), but will actually require effort to cook.
Se
Reverse AI (Score:2)
Usually, AI is when computers imitate human intelligence.
With chess now, it is the opposite : humans imitate computers.
Even more striking is the way they do it : they pick a subset of the solution, hoping that they can make the best use of it, hence the secrecy. In most practical AIs (ex: self-driving cars), this is the opposite : the AI is only able to do a subset of the task, using a human for the edge cases.
Re: Reverse AI (Score:2)
Microsoft promises to defend him (Score:2)
He's screwed.
Solution (Score:1)
Unplug computer from the internet.
If it needs internet access for CHESS of all things, you're doing it wrong.
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If it needs internet access for CHESS of all things, you're doing it wrong.
You don't know much about chess, I take it. Research is a huge part of chess, including looking up past games of your opponent, even if not noteworthy enough to make it into a book. And past games of people who have played against your opponent and lost or won, to determine patterns in where your opponents strengths and weaknesses are.
These days, most of the research is best done through Internet.
Re: Solution (Score:1)
So just download a huge corpus, then review it offline. You do not have to keep downloading everything in small chunks, leaving a log of exactly what you have read.
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No. Most SMP machines with more than 128 core CPU can only be accessed through the internet.
Already mentioned in TFA 'Mozart of chess' has spent months using high-powered chess computers to meticulously prepare moves
ibm watson (Score:2)
ibm watson was no line for the jeopardy games.
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Chessbase is traditionally software that you install from a DVD.
They do now have a networked version of it, but that is for amateurs, not pros.
Pros run a local version with local data that their team of "seconds" curates, mostly that is all the same material as it is just all the new games of grandmasters. But, pros need better computer analysis than you can get with a computer small enough to carry with you when you travel; they need either giant data-center type clusters, or at least some sort of Big Iron
I don't know much about boxing... (Score:1)
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In chess, on the other hand, the odds favor betting on the white guy.
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In chess, they are probably both white guys. Bet on the guy from the colder country.
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In chess they used to say, don't bet against the Russian. Then Magnus Carlsen came along.
In boxing... I recommend not betting against Wladimir Klitschko, or Vitali Klitschko for that matter. But you obviously heard differently.
That will probably work (Score:2)
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Woosh!
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It's not just Microsoft (Score:5, Funny)
He's reached out to a number of companies for help in various areas besides Microsoft. He's asked Yahoo to help him put together a profitable long-term business strategy, along with Twitter in case the Yahoo deal falls through. He's also asking Exxon to help with a clean-energy plan. And he's reached out to the DNC for help securing his email server.
With all his corporate partners he's set up for success!
Microsoft Promises (Score:1)
Microsoft Promises
Microsoft Promises
Microsoft Promises
I'm crying tears of joy
Don't have the computer networked. (Score:2)
It's easy to keep hackers out by not connecting that computer to a network.
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It's easy to keep hackers out by not connecting that computer to a network.
The hackers aren't after the machine, but what the human is doing. A spy camera or key logger works just fine even if the computer isn't on a network.
Question (Score:1)
Why is this guy's computer networked if all he is doing is studying chess moves? Wouldn't the safest thing be to keep the program(s) on a laptop which is always in your possession or locked away?
Why must, based solely on this person's claim of being hacked, this machine be networked?
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I'm guessing that Sergey Karjaki might be looking to seek asylum in another country if he doesn't win this competition.
Linux would be a lot more secure! (Score:2)
Linux is obviously a lot more secure - however, get someone competent to set up security.
Using Microsoft, is essentially saying that you don't take security really seriously.
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Microsoft can provide a perfectly secure platform for this guy's research cluster. Just keep it isolated from the world. I don't doubt that they can do this.
Then again, so can pretty much any other large service provider.
He just has to travel by train (Score:1)
Won't matter (Score:2)
The match is just after the election, so chances are about 50/50 that the rules will be changed to Parcheesi just so the new president can fool himself into thinking he's the best ever at understanding chess.
Airgap? (Score:2)
Airgap the PCs used for chess. Don't communicate online about your strategies (OTOH, if you're the best chess player, you can talk about your success strategy and others still won't beat you. Skill is not about having an unique secret.)