Slovakia finds Russian backdoor in traffic speed cameras

Well the interior ministry didn't really demand one (yes really) but the opposition people have read the documentation for the cameras and the hash of the supplied software was exactly the same as the hash for the russian simicon camera.

This wasn't some oversight of the proverbial Nina in any way. They just did sloppy job from both sides covering tracks, not uncommon with current government. They are loud (and racist, xenophobic, and often dumb), not competent smart people.

That's exactly the sort of thing that James Bond would do.

While you raise good arguments against wide deployment, politics will not backtrack. Despite the loopholes, despite the vulnerabilities, despite real life precedents, the juggernaut will keep moving. Much like blackouts or internet outages (Canada) that make payments, digital communication impossible, people will not rely any less on cashless payments etc. That's the blackpill.

The Navy drones article is terrifying. The easier solution is to not have wars at all (lol) then the problem is reduced to only corporate espionage.

"similar price to closed source" -> Good argument. But what if the _lower price_ is only lower thanks to a vendor lock-in? Thus, over a long period of time, you don't get a better deal? Furthermore, here an expensive reverse-engineering project had to discover the backdoors? What was its cost? Why can't the government have this work done (new cameras) on a contract basis?

First step: "we want this and that, you may choose the hardware freely, but the project source code will be perpetually licensed to the government to use and extend upon." Second step: "we have this source code from the last contract, we want another 1000 of these traffic cameras with improved specs/features."

The belief, that the market will do anything right, perpetuates this system of outsourcing everything to the market. Though I don't think it can work any other way, because nobody among the government workers wants to bear responsibility and liability. It's much easier to give party B the money and then argue with them based on the paper trails. This is what they've been trained to do after all.

Tell me how it’s not advantageous for Russia to enable trade with them.

I know plenty of Slovaks, and you can divide them into 2 groups:

First group are disgusted that their government is pro-Russia.

Second group claims the Ukrainian government was "bombing the Donbas", and finds it normal that "Russia went to defend the Russian speaking population".

But sure, the second group probably consider themselves "neutral" and not "pro-Russia". That doesn't mean we all have to consider them as neutral, since they are deep into the Russian disinfo.

The majority of school teachers grew up under the Soviet side of cold war propaganda.

And in history education in particular, we are told that "we" have always looked towards Russia as a role model, to fight Hungarian nationalism (since the country was just part of Hungary for most of its history).

Sometimes those people are a plurality that organically endorses that decision and votes some representative in. Sometimes those people are a plurality that has been brainwashed by compromised media to do it. Sometimes those people are just a small ruling elite that get voted in by people who didn't think very hard about those particular geopolitical decisions and just want, I don't know, their political and cultural enemies brutalized and $1.99 gas.

Goes to show that 1984-style conditioning really does work, decades later.

Remarkably, it can even be passed through generations, as it gets ingrained into the mentality of how parents raise children: "The nail that sticks out gets hammered down. Don't rock the boat."

Which was a survival trait in those times.

The current incarnation of Russian propaganda is different, but is even more virally poisonous:

> I'm not political. Politics is dirty. There's nothing you can change anyway. "Two sides" is an illusion. Everybody is lying and has an ulterior motive. Only naive fools believe otherwise, only naive fools ever trust. You can't know anything for sure. What you think is true is actually a lie. The only thing that's real is who you're with. That's the only truth. That's the only thing to look for in anything anyone says, that's the only thing one really says. That's what makes something true or false. The words uttered don't matter at all.

You might have seen this kind of mentality spouted by your friends on either side of the political spectrum.

Remarkably, whatever the political persuasion of people who have it is, the end result is the likes of Orban/Fico coming to power.

Sadly, this thing not only spreads, it also sticks.

If you know of an antidote, please tell me what it is.

That's why they're doomed to repeat it. Again and again.

As far as Hungary goes, I asked my friend who studied Hungarian history. He explained to me that while the Soviet invasion was very traumatic, the subsequent Kádár "goulash socialism" was a lot more lenient on the people than all the other Soviet Bloc regimes, and that the Hungarians made an incorrectly confident conclusion that losing a small war to the Russians is not catastrophic.

Of course, this is NOT the experience of basically anyone else who happened to be in a similar situation. A potential puppet regime of Russia in Ukraine wouldn't look like Kádárs by any means, it would rather look like the Kadyrovian microstate in Chechnya, minus the Islam of course.

I don't think you understand how bad globalization fucked up these countries, people live with their parents until they're 30+, young people can't find decent jobs, etc.

Also in these countries there's a lot of old people who have never been able to adapt to living in a free, capitalist society, so for them, there's some nostalgia for communism.

Everyone knows who the attacker is - just some people root for Russia for their own reasons. Usually tied to the internal politics of their countries - like hating for unrelated reasons the political actors from their states that happen to support Ukraine.

How are any of those false flag? They're state sponsored, by different state actors.

Given the level of incompetence that Russia has demonstrated on both the political and military front, I highly doubt it could've turned anything around in Ukraine even if knew everything about 2014.

But maybe rapidly switching residential solar on and off in a coordinated way can also do funny things to grid equipment

If that goal sounds stupid to you, that's because it is. I would expect some countries that are not China to act with such a capricious lack of foresight.

same issue with large loads like boilers, this stuff should never be connected to the internet, but it is

if you can control enough load on the grid you can do real damage

Hopefully mutually assured annoyance keeps everyone at bay.

Also, you're sure its only home energy generation that's affected?

In the end it's all about trust. Right now I don't see why China would like to burn down their market.