EPISODE · Oct 9, 2020 · 1H 1M
Episode 27 - Normal Service is Resumed
from The Host Unknown Podcast · host Andrew Agnes, Thom Langford, Javvad Malik
Your regular features and even more, such as vegan sweets, Host Unknown imposters, Jav appears in the press with the same quote for different stories, and HMRC incompetence.Vegan sweetshttps://www.thejealouslife.com/products/tropical-wonderWill the real Host Unknown please stand up? This Week in Infosec5th October 1991: The Linux kernel was released by Linus Torvalds."This is a program for hackers by a hacker." -Linus Benedict TorvaldsFor those keeping score at home, he said "hacker[s]" 4 times in his post to the comp.os.minix newsgroup.https://twitter.com/todayininfosec/status/1313239418682179585?s=204th October 2005: The Samy worm, the first self-propagating cross-site scripting worm, was released onto the-then-mega-popular MySpace by Samy Kamkar.https://twitter.com/todayininfosec/status/1312752236712333312?s=204th October 2017: A week after he retired as the result of Equifax's data breach, former CEO Richard F. Smith told members of Congress one person in the IT department was at fault.https://twitter.com/todayininfosec/status/1312589059559170050?s=20 Tweet of the Week Billy Big balls of the Weekhttps://twitter.com/repshalala/status/1313187148540137474?s=21 Industry NewsFormer Australian PM Talks Importance of Cyber AwarenessHMRC Hit by Multiple Phishing and Spam EmailsEndpoint Security Primary Pain Point in 2020 Food Delivery Service Chowbus Experiences Data Breach Boards Increase Investment in Cybersecurity in Face of Threats and Regulatory Fines Rant of the Weekhttps://www.verdict.co.uk/excel-coronavirus-test-data/It has emerged that almost 16,000 cases were delayed in being transferred to the test-and-trace system because the government was using an Excel spreadsheet to store the data, with an individual column for each case.This reportedly caused problems because the maximum number of columns on an Excel spreadsheet is 16,384, meaning the sheet exceeded its maximum size and so failed to update, preventing the coronavirus test data from updating.Notably, if rows had been used instead, the problem would have been avoided, as Excel supports up to 1,048,576, although many experts are arguing that the software is wholly unsuited to the purpose at all.“If indeed the government was using Excel to track Covid cases, it is a wholly inappropriate use of the tool,” said Javvad Malik, security awareness advocate at KnowBe4.“Excel is a very good spreadsheet, but it has its limitations and in no way ever intended to be used as a database.” Come on! Like and bloody well subscribe!
What this episode covers
Stuff. Lots and lots of stuff strung out to fill an hour and meet the Host Unknown Podcast legal obligations. Who else thinks Andy should get a new computer?
NOW PLAYING
Episode 27 - Normal Service is Resumed
No transcript for this episode yet
Similar Episodes
Dec 5, 2025 ·50m
Oct 9, 2025 ·33m
Oct 3, 2025 ·40m
Sep 11, 2025 ·31m
Aug 27, 2025 ·39m
Aug 18, 2025 ·54m