In the news

This is unbelievably depressing:

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/21/german-jewish-leaders-fear-rise-of-antisemitic-conspiracy-theories-linked-to-covid-19

My recent experience

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Oh soz. Too subtle for my attention span.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/jul/21/hostage-siege-ends-after-ukrainian-president-endorses-joaquin-phoenix-film

A gunman in Ukraine armed with an automatic rifle and grenades has surrendered to police and released 13 hostages after the country’s president consented to his demand to recommend the 2005 film Earthlings starring Joaquin Phoenix.

One of the benefits of electing a comedian to run your country. Concessions to a terrorist isn't necessarily such a bad thing, it's all part of the act.

A piece from the Guardian archives of Nov 2012

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2012/nov/30/activities-of-conservative-friends-of-russia

And from the FT 2014 on Lords with directorships etc. with Russian companies

https://www.ft.com/content/0b254e3e-b4fe-11e3-af92-00144feabdc0

So, Garmin being down may be due to a new strain of ransomware according to ZDNet https://www.zdnet.com/article/garmin-services-and-production-go-down-after-ransomware-attack/

brewing

braying

It's really quite a bad fuck up. Can't even access the settings on my Edge via the desktop app. Had to update a course by putting it on the SD card, and - I'm not sure about this - I think plugging it in may have desycned all of my old saved courses. Only the new one is on there now.

It can't be a simple "outage" that effects every aspect of their business, from call centres, to web pages, to settings on the desktop app.

Ransomware is increasingly complex in terms of targeted attacks, it's no longer just someone encrypting your file server. Also you need to work out HOW they got in, not just fix the actual ransomware otherwise they come back tomorrow.

I know large companies that effectively closed for almost a week trying to figure out what happened and how to fix it. They could have restored from backups in a matter of hours.

Yeah. Definitely. Looks like there's been a breach and they've locked down (or been locked down).

The joy of ransomware.

If most of your infrastructure is built on Windows (e.g. Azure, SQL Server, Exchange for email, Domain Controllers, AD Servers, etc) then ransomware that targets Windows is going to rip through it all very quickly and render huge swathes of a business unworkable.

Website being down? Windows based web servers.
Phones being down? Windows based VOIP system.
Email being down? Windows based Exchange server.
Trouble restoring things? Windows based AD system down and so no authentication.
...etc..

(This is all supposition.)

Garmin's mobile and desktop apps need to phone home before they work. If nothing is answering then they're effectively useless.

My phone can sync with my Garmin 945 but fails to do anything with the data it downloads because it's all processed within Garmin and not on the phone. Phone gets it off the watch and sends it to Garmin, they process it, phone then downloads processed summary. So without the Garmin servers the mobile app is useless.

Also large parts of the IT dept WFH with limited physical access to data centres will also make it fun.

Worth mentioning that sports and wearables is actually the smallest part of Garmin's business in terms of $$$ and there are lot of pilots who can't download navigational charts or log flight plans today!

there are lot of pilots who can't download navigational charts or log flight plans today!

Yeah that is wild.

are lot of pilots who can't download navigational charts or log flight plans today!

Nuts - I'm guessing these are more hobbyists and maybe small chartered planes?

I don't know. I know Garmin is pretty popular in the small private jet world. Embraer offer Garmin as an option on their smaller planes. No idea what the split is between hobbyists and small jets in their customer base.

I'd be really interested to see if this has a knock-on effect in terms of people getting out for runs/rides. An opportunity to measure the reality of "if it's not on strava..."

I'm following a Garmin training plan at the moment. I can't find out what workouts I'm supposed to be doing and when while they are down. I have feeling that this will be quite a motivational blocker to some people!

I know that I have a 7 mile steady state run tomorrow and roughly what pace to run it at...but no idea what my 4 runs next week are supposed to be!

I'm putting off going for a run but that's because I'm feeling lazy.

(GC being down doesn't really affect me as I archive off the FIT files and upload them to various other sites as required anyway.)

Wouldn't any activities be stored locally on the device and then be uploaded when they're back up and the device next syncs?

In totally shocking new it looks like the govt track and trace program doesn't lawfully collect or store data
https://www.wired.co.uk/article/nhs-test-and-trace-unlawful-data

Sports, wearables and hiking GPS (and associated stuff) is about half of their business.

AS well as aviation there's a lof of stuff in marine as well.

Their MX record (the servers that people will contact to send them email) point just to straight up O365/EOP, which is dogshit for protection. Their other DNS records for email authentication are also quite telling. The one which says which IPs are allowed to send email on their behalf, is fuckoed. The one that is designed to gather information about who is sending on their behalf and (the way it is currently configured) send unauthorised email to the junk/spam folder, shows that they are trying to implement domain spoofing protection by themselves (which always ends in tears). And anyway, send that stuff to junk is pointless, as users can still access it.

Tl;dr - this could very easily have been an email compromise. But of course this is conjecture.

How about the safety of the data stored on their servers? A little over a year ago I was asking in the 'Encrypt' thread as I was in the market for a smart scale to track my flab. But I then had second thoughts as I wouldn't want to jeopardise future health insurance payouts by there being sensitive data about my health floating around.
Bossman @velocio recommended Garmin as the most closed off eco-system and I was actively shopping around for Garmin smart scales for a while. ( I eventually gave up when up when I found that they had terrible user reviews).

Will there now be a bunch of hackers dowloading your Garmin data, revealing that you are a fat fuck who regularly drops by to shag your missus' sister on your Sunday rides?