Operation Cupcake

Too funny, the British go about fighting terrorism with attempted humor.

MI6 attacks al-Qaeda in ‘Operation Cupcake’

The cyber-warfare operation was launched by MI6 and GCHQ in an attempt to disrupt efforts by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular to recruit “lone-wolf” terrorists with a new English-language magazine, the Daily Telegraph understands.

When followers tried to download the 67-page colour magazine, instead of instructions about how to “Make a bomb in the Kitchen of your Mom” by “The AQ Chef” they were greeted with garbled computer code.

The code, which had been inserted into the original magazine by the British intelligence hackers, was actually a web page of recipes for “The Best Cupcakes in America” published by the Ellen DeGeneres chat show.

See also:
British intelligence used cupcake recipes to ruin al-Qaida websiteMI6 hacks Qaida site, swaps bomb info with cake recipes
MI6 swapped pipe-bomb guide for cupcake recipes
MI6 scores al Qaeda hit, with cupcakes
British MI6 replace bomb website with cupcake recipe
MI6 hacks al-Qaeda website, leaves garbled recipe for cupcakes
UK spies cooked up problem for al Qaeda: media
Cupcake shop enlisted in war on terror?
MI6 Hackers Replaced Bombs with Cakes
Make Pastries, Not Bombs
SIS (MI6)
Secret Intelligence Service
GCHQ – Government Communications Headquarters
Government Communications Headquarters

Of course, it would have been better if the cupcake recipes hadn’t been garbled but, nonetheless, well played!

/and hey, as long as MI6 has rooted themselves this deep into al Qaeda servers, why not a massive Hello Kitty campaign?

It’s Another New Record And For All The Wrong Reasons

It’s Tuesday, and we all know what fun event happens on Tuesdays.

Patch Tuesday brings record harvest of security fixes

Run Windows? Notice a little icon toward the bottom right of the screen that wasn’t there last night? Please don’t ignore it. That icon is your cue to take part in the monthly Microsoft ritual called Patch Tuesday.

For this month, Microsoft shipped a set of 16 patches that close a record 49 vulnerabilities in such software as Internet Explorer, Word and Windows Media Player.

Many of these holes allow a remote takeover of your computer, in some cases after you do nothing wrong beside visit the wrong Web page. One such opening has frequently been exploited by the Stuxnet worm that’s been running around the world.

Your computer should at least download, if not download and install, these updates for you. But if not, don’t reject Windows’ attempt to help you out. Click that icon, look over the resulting list of security updates, and install them.

See also:
Microsoft security updates for October 2010
Microsoft Plugs a Record 49 Security Holes
It’s Microsoft Patch Tuesday: October 2010
Microsoft Unleashes Massive Security Patch
Microsoft fixes record 49 holes, including Stuxnet flaw
Microsoft Releases Biggest-ever Security Update
Patch Tuesday: Critical flaws haunt Microsoft Office, IE browser
Microsoft Patches Stuxnet Vulnerability in Massive Security Update
Microsoft releases fixes for record number of vulns
Microsoft aims barrage of fixes at Stuxnet and more

So, you know what to do, clean up after Microsoft’s crappy software before someone remotely takes over your computer with a worm and you become part of the problem.

/unless you’re Iranian, in which case there’s a special set of patches coming out for your computers and they download and install themselves so you don’t even need to worry about this latest bulletin