The Portable Document Format (PDF) is a great example of how an originally brilliant concept for displaying print documents has been ruined over decades. Initially conceived as successor to PostScript, it has degenerated into a universal container format. Text, images, vectors, scripts, fonts, form data, even complete 3D models there’s hardly anything, that can’t end up in a PDF, including Doom. …Read more

Not only since my seven security tips have I been getting questions about why I prefer to keep Windows and an Active Directory offline. That may sound inflexible, and in an era of AI-generated cybersecurity slop I may look like an outsider. So in today’s blog post I provide more context, explain the technical background, and lay out how ransomware works. Finally, I show how an AD operated offline …Read more

A typical day in a mid-sized company. The already overworked developer, deep in crunch mode gets a quick note: “Would you please make the open invoices visible in the overview of all customers for this project?” Dutifully, he nods. He knows it’s an important project, the task isn’t technically difficult and the boss likes quick and simple solutions. So somehow “in between” …Read more

A typical crisis meeting scenario: The Management and myself as an external consultant or information security officer sitting in a conference room: Our processes are being slowed down by too many security requirements. Employees are complaining. ‘Your’ IT security is becoming a risk to our business. Such statements mark an important turning point for IT in small and medium-sized …Read more

It was the early 2000s and I was sitting there with a massive brick from Microsoft Press. The proud price back then: 129 Deutsche Mark. I flipped through it and felt a déjà vu: I knew these pages! Not in terms of content, but the layout, the structure, the examples, even the icons in the side notes: These were the lost manuals of the 1990s! Okay, for the younger generation, I’ll have to explain: …Read more

A few years ago, I introduced Enroute and was immediately excited. For the first time, there is an ‘uncluttered’ app for both (Linux) desktop and mobile devices for VFR navigation and planning. And it’s free and open source and covers all of Europe. A lot of progress has been made since then and I have been able to thoroughly test the operational capability of Enroute on various trips. I …Read more

I recently discovered an all-in-one magic goodie for PCs from the eighties from the USA: The PicoMem board by FreddyV. This ISA bus plug-in card provides RAM, hard disc, floppy disc, sound card, USB, Bluetooth and even a network for old PCs. Just the idea that I would be able to connect my Schneider Euro-PC to the Internet or its predecessor left me excited. At a price of just under 60 USD, I …Read more

Why is the ransomware business model so successful? How do criminals manage to steal data, encrypt it and often also destroy data backups? According to a representative survey conducted by BITKOM over the past 12 months, 60% of companies in Germany have been affected. A brief excursion into this topic, my work and how I was able to help a company save EUR 17,000. As always, no claim to …Read more

Crashed services of a business software are inconvenient. If they occur more than once, it becomes annoying. If there is also a software supplier who is unwilling or unable to solve the problem, it gets complicated. A quick and pragmatic solution was needed shortly before the Easter holidays. If only there was not another obstacle in the way: It is all about Windows services. No progress with …Read more

Journalist Carole Cadwalladr said it in her TED Talk, and she meant Facebook. It has been proven since the Cambridge Analytica scandal that so-called “social” media are anything but social. They are a catalyst for hate and racism, give more reach to radical and extremist positions, do not comply with laws, and prevent public discourse. They are diametrically opposed to our societal …Read more