Hacker News Reader

kpetermenion What's the best AWS S3 protocol alternative?

Please do. Backblaze lists x-amz-sdk-checksum-algorithm as unsupported [1]. Would be great to have it supported to be able to use it with Mattermost and other tools that use min.io for S3.

[1] https://www.backblaze.com/b2/docs/s3_compatible_api.html

kpetermenion The teens behind the Mirai botnet

> and taking down all of Liberia’s Internet—to name a few examples.

This did not happen [1] as was documented here[2], here and here[3]. It spices up the story but in truth, one of local telcos was affected but they accounted for less than a third of Liberia's Internet traffic. The weekend-like Internet traffic seen on that day was because of a national holiday.

Additional source: I lived in Liberia during that time managing the local IXP.

[1] https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/11/did-the-mirai-botnet-rea... [2] https://thehackernews.com/2016/11/ddos-attack-mirai-liberia.... [3] https://twitter.com/DougMadory/status/794592487159529472

kpetermenion Egypt builds worlds largest man-made river

Libya's Great Man-Made River (1,750mi, 2,820km) [0] would like to have a few more words :-). [0] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Man-Made_River

kpetermenion A man who invented lithium-ion battery at 57 has an idea for a new one at 92 (2015)

This is likely the solid-state glass battery that he filed a patent for last year [0].

Oh, and he did win the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2019[1].

[0] https://thedriven.io/2020/04/06/li-ion-co-inventor-patents-g... [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_B._Goodenough

kpetermenion What is AT&T doing at 1111340002?

Besides operators, individuals can also send OTA settings like APNs, proxies, etc. from a SIM card to SIM cards on another network. To the recipient, the message looks just like the settings you get from local MNOs when you first get connected when roaming in another country.

kpetermenion Benin Bronzes Were Looted 123 Years Ago. Will They Ever Be Returned?

What is unclear/complicated here? This is between 2 countries, Britain and Nigeria. Not between Britain and a person. The oba is Nigerian. These artifacts are part of an entire country's heritage.

kpetermenion Benin Bronzes Were Looted 123 Years Ago. Will They Ever Be Returned?

What makes you think that returning artifacts to the rightful owners will make them disappear?

kpetermenion Benin Bronzes Were Looted 123 Years Ago. Will They Ever Be Returned?

I don't know where you get the idea from that corruption in Nigeria affects the safety of their very own artifacts. How is allowing the looters to keep the loot safer?

It is like saying that robbers can keep whatever they stole for as long as they can keep it safe.

Nigeria can choose to do whatever they want with their artifacts.

kpetermenion ‘Spiderman’ Hacker Daniel Kaye Took Down Liberia’s Internet

Yes, this is an example of https://xkcd.com/386/ so I'm creating an account on HN for the first time.

> The attack against Liberia began in October 2016. More than a half-million security cameras around the world tried to connect to a handful of servers used by Lonestar Cell MTN, a local mobile phone operator, and Lonestar’s network was overwhelmed. Internet access for its 1.5 million customers slowed to a crawl, then stopped.

On a more serious note,this is seriously exaggerated. Internet penetration(mostly mobile broadband) was 21% during this period and was split between LoneStarCell, Cellcom, the govt carrier - Libtelco and smaller ISPs. For a population of 4.5m people, 21% meant each mobile operator had less than 500k Internet subscribers.

The post-apocalyptic description of the impact of the DDoS doesn't fit the feeling in that period ( Nov '16). Friends from outside Liberia reached out (ironically over WhatsApp) to ask whether Liberia's Internet was cut off. I checked and saw international media reporting an Internet shutdown which was even more confusing. After emailing a couple of friends at various ISPs and the regulator, I finally got confirmation that LoneStar was under attack. Apparently, they were keeping it a secret. It did not make national news for another 2 months until the formal complaint and lawsuits were filed. Mobile broadband was very patchy back then so perhaps people just assumed it was the usual state of affairs. Now, we have LTE on both operators and an upcoming pre-5G operator.

Source: I'm from and have been based in Liberia (2015-present) and used to manage services at the national Internet exchange during that period.

National Regulator: http://www.emansion.gov.lr/doc/CONSULTATION-DOCUMENT.pdf Export.Gov: https://www.export.gov/article?id=Liberia-Telecommunications... Twitter Thread: https://mobile.twitter.com/tksiakor/status/79486360223055872...