Skype’s Shit Is Not A Security Breach

A little something different today that’s getting and probably going to be on the news in some fashion, but probably won’t get as large as it needs to be.

The jist of the news is that Skype has installed malware on your computer called “EasyBits Go”, claiming to be a games application of whatever sort. However, it appears that regardless of your response – whether you click the red X, click the Yes, or click the Maybe Later – the shit installs, runs, and places crap all over your computer anyways. There’s been lots of discussion on it for the timespan it’s been around (and a contrasting lack of official response from skype), so there several good explanations of ways to get rid of what seems to be all traces of the program: end the process, manual deletion of hidden files and registry, AV scanners, etc. enxk used the winhammer known as Eraser in its removal of EasyBits and recommends you to do the same, but this won’t be a tech-focused post, because this is not a tech-focused blog.

I’m interested to see whether or not, in their official statement, they’re going to say it was the result of some security failure and some hacker, or if they’re going to terminate relations with this Easy Bits thing. I don’t know much history of Skype but from what I’ve been able to glean off of google and various threads on this current incident at 4AM on a Sunday morning, it is at least the 3rd or 4th time Skype has had an Easy Bits security-related incident (one was dated november 2007, another dated june 2010). Which suggests that it is systematic and due to some kind of business relationship.

Which in turn means lulz will ensue (read: “*beep*storm”) if they say it’s a security failure.

– “rezzealaux”

This poster took the same position enxk will take (though of course, without the redundant sentence structure and incorrect dating). When enxk was looking up the problem yesterday, the writers found a post claiming to link to solutions, and then a response telling the aforementioned poster off because he clearly didn’t see that the advice was two years old. That’s interesting, isn’t it? Generally if you look up a specific combination for a problem, in this case “Skype EasyBits”, you’d expect to only find one problem and one solution from one short range of dates – unless of course, you’re talking about the government, but we all know the government isn’t from the business of fixing problems. We do not blame the former, nor the latter poster. Their banter notified us to what the quoted poster “rezzealaux” noted: this is not an isolated incident.

(In other words, Microsoft, whatever influence it may or may not have had on this incident, is definitely not a sole cause.)

Since at least 2007, (though the partnership started in 2006) “EasyBits”, “Skype”, and “Security Breach” have come together multiple times. Perhaps once, or twice, the incidents were true accidents, but at least once, or twice, they just came out and told us: “We’re in your BIOS and that’s normal”. To non tech-savvy readers, that’s more or less equivalent to saying “We’re raping you and that’s normal”. If Skype has an official press release stating that this was a security breach, we called it, and enxk advises you to uninstall Skype and wipe your hard drive in the same manner you did with EasyBits Go, and never go near Skype again at least until they have ended their partnership. If they admit that it is systematic, end their relations with this malware company, then god’s in his heaven and all’s right with the world.

In the meantime, nuke everything related to the malware with Eraser and do not touch Skype.

Update: An admin called “VoltNincs” has stated that

This latest update from EasyBits included elements of their desktop games organizer in error, but it neither installs nor un-installs correctly.

Had this been a government excuse this would’ve simply dismissed it as another part of the pack. Companies which are more subject to market forces however, well, enxk will hold them to those standards. Seeing this happen is almost like watching Star Trek where the Enterprise almost blows up every other episode. If you’re building an energy reactor which utilizes stuff that can blow up, the first thing you do is to make sure it doesn’t blow up. If you’re giving out a program for free and you’re trying to get customers to buy from you (which, as we can see from the micro-transaction model of many MMORPGs, is at least a working business method), the first thing you do is to make sure that they’re actually getting it for free. If you’re coding a password security system, it has to work so that only the password unlocks the system. If you’re coding a menu, it has to actually show up and link to all the correct places. If you’re making an installer, it has to install only if the user says yes.

People said no, they had crap put in hidden folders around their computer, their registries modified, the uninstaller in the control panel being fake, and this is an “error”? Not that it isn’t an error. Mistakes of any level of magnitude can always be called errors. It’s just that normally, “errors” refer to something in the opposite direction of “catastrophic failure”. But that’s fine. If Skype intends to use words in different ways, people will respond in different ways. If Skype wants to talk like the government, people will respond to it like it’s the government.

Except the government can tax you regardless and Skype can’t force their stuff on you without the whole tech world coming down on them. Herp derp.

We stand by our recommendation from before this press release: Go and nuke Skype out of your computer.

Rebirth and Death

Think about it. What are the chances that a person allegedly suffering from kidney disease and requiring dialysis and, in addition, afflicted with diabetes and low blood pressure, survived in mountain hideaways for a decade? If bin Laden was able to acquire dialysis equipment and medical care that his condition required, would not the shipment of dialysis equipment point to his location? Why did it take ten years to find him?

– Paul Craig Roberts

“Today’s achievement is a testament to the greatness of our country.”

– Barack Obama

Assuming he died due to the US/”International” “effort”, Bin Laden’s death will simply bolster Al Qaeda recruitment to avenge the fallen hero. Would that end the wars or bring back all the innocent people slaughtered in them? Nope. Now if he didn’t die because of “the troops”, or if the suspicion is true that the figure “Osama Bin Laden” was a fabrication in any way to begin with, then the joke’s on the West.

Of what relevance is this?

Up until several hours ago, nobody had really given a flying rat’s ass  about Bin Laden since about 9 years ago. There were and will always be those kooks who believe everything the government says, and there were and always will be the hardcore anti-government conspiracy theorists, but even the average political joe was beginning to doubt the reasons that “we” were over “there”. At the very least, the frame of reasoning had changed so that the US was now “helping protect and rebuild Iraq” while the war in Afghanistan was to get rid of Mafia-esque drug dealing warlords (we will not discuss the truth value of such beliefs in this post). It wasn’t about getting “revenge” or “justice” or anything to do with defending America’s pride anymore – it was about helping others.

Now, the dialogue can go back in the other direction.

In addition to the fact that these wars will no longer be a guaranteed stain on the United States*, it also means that means that Obama will almost certainly win reelection. He’ll be able to hint at and almost say things like, “Remember when I killed Bin Laden?”, as though he was personally responsible for it and we should all bend at the knee to give homage to Our Dear Leader. The best part though is that most voters will believe it. Honestly, we at enxk believed only in theory that such people existed. Now, we have evidence to confirm our theory**. Here are a few, but if you can find an idiot here, you can find the same idiotic idea repeated elsewhere:

“Two full terms of the Bush regime and we didn’t even come close to finding Osama bin Laden. Obama doesn’t even finish his first term and Osama’s already dead. Ain’t that a bitch, Bush?”

– A facebook status

“No doubt, the Republicans will say that President Bush laid the groundwork for the capture and death of Bin Laden. However, it will largely be perceived as an empty argument. Sunday’s success is because Obama gave laser focus to the mission, rather engaging in a tangential war in Iraq. He invested in deep intelligence, rather than from-the-hip militarism.”

– Meredith Bagby, Huffpost World

“Rather than”?

Oh yeah huh.

“10 years, 2 wars, 919,967 deaths, and $1,188,263,000,000 later, we managed to kill one person.”

It began as a crusade with high fanfare, it was shadily continued in various seemingly random directions to some discomfort, and now that the direction has come back to [one of] the beginning[s], closure is felt at last and high fanfare has begun for a final time. Is that just how it’s going to be? Should it just be fine and dandy, and thus because all seems well the presidency for the past 3 years should seem fine too?

Do you think anything has really changed, when it’s a given that their command structure is not anything like the traditional hierarchical military system the rest of the world has?

enxk’s overall position is the following:

“OHSHIT BIN LADEN DIED! *hops on facebook*”

The other perspective we could go is Alex Jones style, but enxk doesn’t feel that it’s a reasonable use of time to search for ways we’re already being fucked over. Useful indeed, is the information found – but worth our time, energy, and focus? Not really. Nothing wrong with people disagreeing with us, of course: that’s why there is division of labor and a market. We appreciate those who inform us that sodium fluoride, the stuff they pour in the public water, is actually poison – but we’ll take care of other things. Mass original research isn’t our strong point. We’re good at modeling the evidence that is already in existence.

There’s also the other possibility that Bin Laden’s death and the “obviously imminent” “blowback” will get you more cops and feels if you’re a TSA agent, or give more cops and feels if you’re not, and of course any other “regulation” the government attempts to pass which we all know is just more involuntary control and monitoring over everyone. Nothing special really, it’s not like 99% of all laws are for that purpose – it’s just that a big one might be coming sometime soon.

In related news, the United States is in the market for a new boogeyman. Preferably brown, and with a foreign-yet-not-exotic sounding name.

*Assume that in an alternate timeline, Bin Laden was never found. What would happen? The war would eventually fizzle out due to lack of funding or manpower or materiel, and everyone would return home. Looking at it in a different way, it would mean that the great crusade came to naught, and no holy land was reclaimed. The United States of America, in culture known as the greatest country to ever come into existence and the one which everyone knows is imperialist and the strongest militarily (for now), could not after eternity find a single man. How shameful would that be? With all the power the USFG has, they would have made up a Bin Laden to kill to prevent that from happening. Which, in all likelihood, could have been what actually happened. After all, the USFG helped create Al Qaeda in Pakistan (i.e. they could have set up a deal), and they hurriedly buried Bin Laden at sea (Pakistan’s capital is not exactly close to sea)… well. It’s quite possible.

Oh yeah, where they found him is rather funny. Next to a hospital, a police station, and a military academy? enxk attempts to refrain from unintelligent babble, but: herp derp.

**Not that we needed confirmation. Theories are approximations, as long as the approximation itself is on the general right track – i.e. that the evidence is similar to some given degree – it can always be developed to be more and more accurate. “Confirmation” is simply the low low chance that a model turns out to be almost identical to a real-world example.

Have fun with your courage.

Yahoo News – “Teen’s Fake Pregnancy Fools School”

The event is described as some kind of harrowing experiment, taken by a scientist with the courage to give the finger to social norms by means of a visible experiment. When the reveal happens, everyone is surprised, because people realize that they have been acting upon false information. It’s almost like that one fable. Some people cry. Some people congratulate her.

The rest of us say things like “Now she knows who her true friends are.”

“The rest of us” are dumbasses.

She has “courage”, of course. To take any desire any significant length requires “courage” – that is, to bear all the costs associated with consistency. In this case, it’s also the costs of long term widespread deception.

You can always change your perspective so that nothing is wrong and everything is dandy. Did you lose a couple of important connections? That’s not a concern, the remainder are your “true friends”.  Did your boyfriend dump you? You two were clearly not meant to be. There is nothing inherently wrong with this kind of thinking. There’s nothing inherently wrong about anything. Here at enxk, we like to choose a couple of things to always see as a cost. Death would be one. Not having any food to eat would be another. Being kidnapped by The Man and thrown into a cage is also pretty bad. Again, nothing wrong with disagreeing. There’s no need for everybody to agree. Some will be smart, some will be dumb.

We believe that one of the bigger prices to pay is celibacy. Life is meant to make more life, so anything which prevents this is obviously a cost.

The girl who took on this challenge against society, and she will be called “the girl” because it is not relevant who she is, will be celibate for a long period of time after she loses her current boyfriend.

Everyone will say that she has “courage”, sure, but only because that’s the politically correct thing to do. Only chumps would ever speak out against such an obvious case of unjust difficulties overcome in person*. Thankfully, like most things, the sexual market does not ever have to voice its discontents. And it is indeed most things. Think about it: Do you ever complain to GM’s CEO about how their cars are crap compared to Hyundais? Did you ever b&m to that one retard special ed boy resource kid on-level classmate of yours because he couldn’t keep up with what you were saying? Of course not. You “let it be”, and move on until something satisfies what you seek.

Do you, as a man, want a woman who is able to deceive even the closest people to her for extended periods of time?

Of course not.

enxk supports audacity. enxk also supports intelligent analyses of the world’s reaction structures – that is, what is expected to happen by normal distribution, and not what “should” happen. A combination of the two forms the majority of a successful human being.

It was clear to begin with: Men do not like women who conduct social crusades against them. 

So, have fun with your courage, whoever you are. Whoever chooses to follow her example, you have fun too. Clearly your goal in life is to give the finger to life, so you’ll get real far in college.

*This is not to say that their opinions are wrong. It’s simply a dumb idea to say it. It’s like telling a woman she is fat, or telling a police officer he’s a fruitcake, or mailing death threats to the president of the most militaristic country of the world. Their theories may be able to save the world in more ways than one, but unless they’re willing to risk everything (sometimes more than everything), they won’t ever say what they want, or find out whether they’re right.

Corollary 1: “Getting involved” with politics, i.e. running for office or going out to protest because you’re “passionate”, is dumbifying. It unlearns you the fact of life that communication is not just about what you think you mean what you say. Have you noticed that? Political types are vocal, and whenever they’re wrong, they simply retreat to “they meant well”, the most annoying comeback ever (which is coincidentally the most annoying song on the planet). Nonpolitical types don’t bother as much to explain themselves, they just do. Don’t agree? Suck it.

Corollary 2: Anonymity allows experimentation and discussion of socially unacceptable ideas with vastly reduced cost.

Corollary 2a: The internet will save mankind.