Escapist Podcast - Science and Tech: 035: Did Life Come from Mars?

[The Escapist Staff]

035: Did Life Come from Mars?

In this episode of The Escapist's Science and Tech podcast, host CJ Miozzi and Escapist writers discuss recent headlines in the world of science and technology, including the alleged North Korean Sony hack and updates to the net neutrality issue, and explore the possibility of extraterrestrial life in the universe based on potential fossil findings on Mars and habitable exoplanets.

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[Sanunes]

I just listened to this week's podcast and request if you are going to talk about the Sony hack in the future maybe have someone who has a deeper knowledge network infrastructure part of the podcast itself. For to me the entire segment sounded like a group people using personal experience to try and debunk what was being done and some of it seems inaccurate. For recently NetFlix started to ban VPN traffic so it doesn't seem to be as secure as people think it might be, there just has to be the financial motivations to make the effort worthwhile.

 

[vgmaster831]

I just listened to this week's podcast and request if you are going to talk about the Sony hack in the future maybe have someone who has a deeper knowledge network infrastructure part of the podcast itself. For to me the entire segment sounded like a group people using personal experience to try and debunk what was being done and some of it seems inaccurate. For recently NetFlix started to ban VPN traffic so it doesn't seem to be as secure as people think it might be, there just has to be the financial motivations to make the effort worthwhile.

About which effort are you talking?

 

[Sanunes]

About which effort are you talking?

NetFlix has started to ban IP addresses from popular VPN sites and preventing people from using programs to block DNS lookups. Going back and rereading what I posted I can see where I made it sound like they could track through VPN traffic which is incorrect, but I would think there would also be other ways if a person isn't 100% careful and a small mistake could lead to being tracked as well.

 

[Kamurai]

Thanks guys for another great podcast.

I'm really looking forward to the day we can apply nano-tech to doing scouting on Mars, etc. for us. That way it can build all the things we need to do this analysis on site, amongst other things like terra forming.

 

[wolfy098]

About which effort are you talking?

NetFlix has started to ban IP addresses from popular VPN sites and preventing people from using programs to block DNS lookups. Going back and rereading what I posted I can see where I made it sound like they could track through VPN traffic which is incorrect, but I would think there would also be other ways if a person isn't 100% careful and a small mistake could lead to being tracked as well.

The important word here is popular VPN's, therefore they are known and easy to block.

Finding rarer VPN's is much harder, while sometimes mistakes can be made that make tracking easier, generally it is difficult to work out if someones a good hacker using another IP or a bad hacker making mistakes.

Finally very VERY few people would have a reason to know North Korean IP's or similarly VPN codes which makes this even harder.

I hope this helps answer some peoples questions.

 

[Sanunes]

The important word here is popular VPN's, therefore they are known and easy to block.

Finding rarer VPN's is much harder, while sometimes mistakes can be made that make tracking easier, generally it is difficult to work out if someones a good hacker using another IP or a bad hacker making mistakes.

Finally very VERY few people would have a reason to know North Korean IP's or similarly VPN codes which makes this even harder.

I hope this helps answer some peoples questions.

Fair enough, but can't they also track the data itself? My level of knowledge when it comes to routing information across the internet is at the "so little it can be dangerous" level, but if I understand an article I read they can track the information itself provided they have enough information about when it traveled through the a router itself.

 

[wolfy098]

The important word here is popular VPN's, therefore they are known and easy to block.

Finding rarer VPN's is much harder, while sometimes mistakes can be made that make tracking easier, generally it is difficult to work out if someones a good hacker using another IP or a bad hacker making mistakes.

Finally very VERY few people would have a reason to know North Korean IP's or similarly VPN codes which makes this even harder.

I hope this helps answer some peoples questions.

Fair enough, but can't they also track the data itself? My level of knowledge when it comes to routing information across the internet is at the "so little it can be dangerous" level, but if I understand an article I read they can track the information itself provided they have enough information about when it traveled through the a router itself.

I don't see how 'When' the information was passed through is relevant so I'll assume you meant where, the problem is VPN's can be deleted from a computer thus destroying the evidence. On top of that if the hack was done with a laptop (which would be likely) then the computer itself can be moved across countries easily to make tracking the user difficult.

Overall seeing that someone attempted a hack is easy(ish) finding them though is Hard!

 

[Spyre2k]

Did I miss it? I don't recall them talking about Fermi Paradox or Drake equation. They said they would at the beginning but I don't recall it actually being brought up.


On the topic of the Sony Hack I feel kind of meh. Even if it was North Korea it's like so what, some media company with shitty security got hacked. I recall a few years back Sony being in the IT news a lot for getting hacked because they had security measures even a trained monkey could navigate around. They were a laughing stalk on various IT blogs/podcast that I frequented. It was mostly on the Video game side of things because they made the mistake of pissing off a bunch of knowledgeable tech people with their policy change on the PS3.

So Sony getting hacked again is like a minor blip to me. Lots of companies have horrible IT security in place and then act surprised when they get hacked. It's like storing stuff in an unlocked car that has the keys in the ignition and then being surprised when either the stuff or the car is stolen.

People hear "hack" and they think some big technically complicated stuff but the majority of the hacks I hear about in those IT blogs are because of something extremely simple. Like some super admin password that was easy to find, some hard coded backdoor meant for "service" personal, or idiotic users who shared their password. The vast majority of "hacks" involve that more than some super technical wizardry.

 

[Rhykker]

Did I miss it? I don't recall them talking about Fermi Paradox or Drake equation. They said they would at the beginning but I don't recall it actually being brought up.

We briefly mentioned the Drake Equation toward the end; we ultimately ran out of time. Would have loved to talk more about that; maybe in the future!