Latest news with #Unix
Fast Company
17-06-2025
- Fast Company
Fight against ransomware with data recovery technologies
Nowadays, ransomware attacks are becoming more and more frequent. In many cases, the hacker utilizes ransomware to encrypt your important data, and then asks for some money in exchange for decrypting that data. But there is no guarantee that the hacker will decrypt the data after receiving your money. Instead, we can utilize advanced data recovery technologies to fight against the ransomware attacks. WHY DATA RECOVERY WORKS There are several reasons why data recovery works, as below: 1. Original Data May Still Exist When ransomware encrypts an important file and deletes the original one, the data of the original file may still exist on the hard drive. In such a case, we can use a raw level data recovery tool to scan the whole hard drive to recover these unencrypted data. This is called file carving technology. Some tools can even target a specific file type and size, which improves the accuracy and reduces the time. 2. Parts Of The Data May Not Be Encrypted The purpose of ransomware is to make a file unusable so that you feel compelled to pay the hacker. In modern computer systems, there are many huge files. For example, SQL Server MDF files are normally several GBs, and some can even reach hundreds of GBs. In such a case, ransomware may not encrypt the whole file, but only the file header, because: Encrypting a huge file will consume a lot of time and a lot of system resources, which will increase the chances of being detected. The long encryption process may be aborted due to various reasons, making the encryption fail. Just like a human head, a file header normally contains the most important metadata of the whole file, so encrypting the file header can easily render the entire file unusable. Moreover, even if the ransomware chooses to encrypt the whole huge file, the encryption is performed block by block and may be aborted in the half-way, leaving some blocks of the file unencrypted. In such a case, we can also utilize file-level recovery tools to recover data from these blocks. There may be other copies or versions of the original file that still exist, such as: The offline or cloud backup Windows Volume Shadow Copy MacOS Time Machine Linux/Unix ZFS/Btrfs/LVM snapshots Temporary files generated when operating on the original file. Log file In some cases, we can restore the original file directly, such as from a cloud backup. For other cases, we need to use specialized tools to recover the data. For example, if there is a temporary file for an encrypted PST file, then we can use the Outlook file recovery tool to recover data from the temporary file. If there is a log file for an encrypted SQL Server database file, we can use it to reconstruct the data. 4. Key May Be Available In many cases, we can get the key to decrypt the encrypted data not from the hacker, but from other sources. If an active ransomware process is detected, then we can perform a memory dump and utilize the memory forensics technology to exact the key. Some ransomware may not erase the key in the memory after the encryption. In such a case, if the corresponding memory block is not overwritten, we can also utilize the memory forensics technology to obtain the key. Some ransomware will not remove the temporary file containing the key. Therefore, we can recover it from the file. Some ransomware will hardcode the keys in their own executable files. Some will put the keys in system registry. The system log files or snapshots may also contain the keys. For all these cases, the keys may be stored in plain text or encrypted with some algorithms. For the latter case, normally we can utilize the reverse engineering technology to decode them. As we can see in this article, there are many data recovery technologies that can deal with the ransomware. Therefore, ransomware attacks may not necessarily be disastrous. When they do occur, you can consult a data recovery specialist to get the best strategy.
The Guardian
21-02-2025
- Politics
- The Guardian
Caps unlock: a short history of writing in lower case
This is a welcome development, but far from new (The death of capital letters: why gen Z loves lowercase, 18 February). The case for lower case has been made for over 200 years, at least here in germany, where its most vocal proponents were the brothers grimm of fairytale fame: 'Whoever uses capitals at the beginning of nouns is a pedant!' (I paraphrase). At the beginning of the 20th century, aesthetes and modernists like stefan george did it almost religiously. In the 60s and 70s, leftist iconoclasts again used the kleinschreibung (small-letter writing) to signal non‑conformity and progressiveness, and some of my friends are doing it to this day. As these trends have a habit of catching on internationally, I'm hoping for some cool grandpa vibes any day Andreas LorenczukDirector of studies, Logos Sprachinstitut, Nuremberg, Germany So capital letters are seen by some gen Z users as authoritarian, abrupt or rigid, whereas lower case is inclusive and suits their 'broader love of simplicity'. Let's just turn that on its head. Its prescription may chafe in formats such as song lyrics, packaging or text messages, but upper case is a navigation tool; without it, users have to work harder to decode the message. One party's simplicity may become another's tangled complexity. Sometimes 'the constraints of past generations' are there for a good reason, not solely and purely for FraserTwickenham, London I don't capitalise trump's name, or the name of anyone in his administration. I don't capitalise them because I don't respect them. I'm old, 73, and a proofreader. I am a retired teacher who focused on language. I support people doing what they want with capital letters, much as it sometimes pains BarthFresno, California, US Not using capitals in the conventional way is not in the least some sort of new trend. Last century, in the 80s and 90s, it was an affectation used by trendy users of Unix (a computer operating system). I deliberately call it an 'affectation' as I had a boss who used to write emails to me using capitals, and then send emails to the Unix team that omitted them. Like incorrect spelling, omitting capitals can make text harder to read properly and with precision, and it can make it hard to understand the writer's CarterSunbury, Victoria, Australia Surely a lot of it just stems from the fact that it's a pain inserting capitals when typing on a phone. I often don't bother, when it's an informal message to a friend. And I'm a copy editor. Once the majority of people opt for lower case it will become accepted ButlerSteeple Claydon, Buckinghamshire I stopped capitalising the names of religions once I realised that I had never done so for ideologies. If I write 'humanism' or 'liberalism', why would I write 'Christianity'? It became important to eschew privileging one type of ideology over another. It doesn't matter to me if the ideology is named for a person. I then chose to eschew capitalising the names of times, such as days and months. It's not done for decades or centuries; the only reason that 'Nineteenth century' (or Century) is written is that it's often a heading. 'October', say, often appears at the top of a page of a calendar, chart, or table. If I write 'noon' or 'midnight', why would I capitalise the names of days or months? I continue to privilege people's names and place names by capitalising PullmanMedia, Pennsylvania, US Have an opinion on anything you've read in the Guardian today? Please email us your letter and it will be considered for publication in our letters section.
