Trouble at th'mill

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
NMR got hacked, wouldn't pay the ransom, fair play to them for that, but it took months before they were back to 'normal'. As reliance on computerised systems grow, this will become more common. For every person developing a secure system, there's another trying to break it. We had some hand written envelopes from NWF, with the bills !
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
Better going round the hackers house with the shovel and pointing out you don’t like what they’re doing…
trouble is, no one yet knows the limit of technology, it is the 'ski's the limit', so whatever any incredibly gifted imputer/designer (nerd) does, it is very soon overtaken, and broken into, by another clever nerd, and, unfortunately that will never cease, we have come a vast way, since the enigma machine, was broken by the worlds first computer, and the germans never had a clue, their unbreakable code, was hacked. That fact, is as true today, as then, only computers are somewhat smaller.
 
It doesn't necessarily take a highly skilled boffin to break into a computer system. In fact, if the system is designed right, even a hacking genius can't get in. We saw an example of that in the FBI vs. Apple case where the combined might of the FBI apparently couldn't get into a terrorist's iPhone.

All that's needed for someone to get into the system is a weak link. Just one internet router with "Password1" as its admin password and almost anyone could mess up your network. Or, as is often the case, you've got that one ancient computer somewhere that runs the weighbridge software, or the accounts program or some such that no one dares throw out but it's actuallly a security vulnerability. "If it ain't broke don't fix it" is a very dangerous phrase to apply to cyber security.
 

DrWazzock

Member
Arable Farmer
Location
Lincolnshire
Its a fact the Engima machines would have been useless if a Royal Navy destroyer hadn't depth charged a U Boat (U559). The U Boat surfaced damaged and surrendered. The RN commander went on board and stumbled across a copy of the enigma code book which he took back to Bletchley so they had something to get them started. The Germans weren't bright enough to realise the code book had been discovered and didn't bother changing the wheels on their coding machines for months so all of their messages were read by Bletchley.
Computers speeded up the decoding process but without the Navy action and discovery they would have had an extremely difficult if not impossibly slow job.
 
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som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
Its a fact the Engima machines would have been useless if a Royal Navy destroyer hadn't depth charged a U Boat (U559). The U Boat surfaced damaged and surrendered. The RN commander went on board and stumbled across a copy of the enigma code book which he took back to Bletchley so they had something to get them started. The Germans weren't bright enough to realise the code book had been discovered and didn't bother changing the wheels on their coding machines for months so all of their messages were read by Bletchley.
Computers speeded up the decoding process but without the Navy action and discovery they would have had an extremely difficult if not impossibly slow job.
that early computer, solved the problem, by the speed that it decoded enigma, once those wheels had been altered. The germans thought it was impossible to break, which in a 'worthwhile' timescale, which it was manually, the computer did that.
The point being, the enigma was regarded as cutting edge technology, and unbreakable, by whatever reason, it wasn't, it was the developing technology, that outdated it.
It's sobering to think that war, produces so much new technology, as true now, as then.
 

glasshouse

Member
Location
lothians
that early computer, solved the problem, by the speed that it decoded enigma, once those wheels had been altered. The germans thought it was impossible to break, which in a 'worthwhile' timescale, which it was manually, the computer did that.
The point being, the enigma was regarded as cutting edge technology, and unbreakable, by whatever reason, it wasn't, it was the developing technology, that outdated it.
It's sobering to think that war, produces so much new technology, as true now, as then.
The enigma code was unbreakable, without that captured sub with a working machine and code books, it couldnt have been done.
Credit where credit is due
 

som farmer

Member
Livestock Farmer
Location
somerset
The enigma code was unbreakable, without that captured sub with a working machine and code books, it couldnt have been done.
Credit where credit is due
for 6 mnths, then it had to be 'broken' on a daily basis, or not, and much information, when broken, was to late for effective use. It was the development of collasis, that speeded up the work of solving the code, by computing the figures nearly instantly. The enigma machine/code book, was for a 3 rota enigma, which was rendered useless, when a, the germans changed the settings, which they regularly did, and when the machine was updated to a four rota. The basic working 'method' of the machine, was known from 39, as the polish brought the design over here. You are correct, it was unbreakable, without the code book, when that changed, it was virtually unbreakable, unless someone got very lucky, in the manual system, until the computer made it possible to 'check' the random letters, by the thousands per minute.
Credit is definitely due to those that worked, and succeeded in solving the enigma.
There was another form of code breaking, which in it's own right, was nearly as important as the enigma, which was much simpler, monitoring all the radio 'chatter', which built up a record of where each and every german unit was, it's state of readiness, it's equipment, the number of troops, and where and when, it was moved, ordinary day to day, simple orders, were not sent by enigma.
Interestingly, both systems are still in use today, although the equipment is rather 'newer'.
 

SFI - What % were you taking out of production?

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Red Tractor drops launch of green farming scheme amid anger from farmers

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As reported in Independent


quote: “Red Tractor has confirmed it is dropping plans to launch its green farming assurance standard in April“

read the TFF thread here: https://thefarmingforum.co.uk/index.php?threads/gfc-was-to-go-ahead-now-not-going-ahead.405234/
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