Signal, Backups, 5G, Windows, SMB, Russia, Memory, ProtectEU

1. Signal (@ Wikipedia) finally implemented message / media backups with encryption. Nice. I personally don't need such feature. Ephemeral messaging platforms are MESSAGING platforms, not storage nor archival platforms. But it seems hard for many people to grasp that. That's one of the reasons why I personally prefer storage options, where the messages aren't even ever stored to permanent storage, even temporarily. Network - Decrypt - View... Disk storage itself is already problematic enough.

2. Backups - Lot's of tinkering, now everything is perfect, and everything is off-site mirrored daily and regularly also off-line backed up. Ransomware, encrypted the stuff that you got access to? - Ok? Do you know what backup is, and why people keep backups? Well wipe everything, harden security and restore. - Have a good day!

3. 5G location - Positioning Reference Signal (PRS), OTDOA (@ Wikipedia) - I didn't know such signal exists. Extra accuracy can be provided by E-SMLC. There has been lot of discussion about mobile location data, but it's seems to be much more fine grained and detailed than the cell id alone. As expected, they're not doing any magic, just using the data and technology available. It's possible to get quite accurate location completely passively by listening the PRS signals and comparing that to the local database for multilateration. This is quite nice alternate signal at low altitudes around dense areas where GNSS signal is not available for some strange reason. Earlier coarse location data was just technical by product. Not now the network features services especially designed to pinpoint the location, at times even with higher accuracy than GNSS. kw: 5G, ELS, OTDOA, AOTDOA, PRS, RSTD, E-SMLC, mobile network location data information, coordinates, GPS

4. Windows File Manager supports new types of archives. It seems that Windows file manager now supports .tar, .tar.zstd and .7z archives out of the box. This is wonderful development. No need to install pirated or cracked WinRAR anymore. Lol. No, I haven't been doing that, but I know many whom do it, and it's quite horrible to think about. Traditional random crack or cracked software download & installation -> security nightmare.

5. Updated basic tools, age, zstd, b3sum and others on Windows systems so modern tools are available when needed. Of course all of my Linux systems also have those installed.

6. SMBv# - I updated one system and applied normal sane configuration and security policy. But soon they hated me, my config doesn't allow SMBv2, I set minimum version requirement on the SMBv3 (@ Wikipedia). Why the hate? Well, all the Windows 7 users could no longer use the network shares over CIFS/SMB. That also means that encryption can't be required, because Windows 7 doesn't support it either. - Uuh, life is.

7. Russia is implementing mobile app allow list. We all know that deny / block lists do not work, the allow list is the stuff that actually does work. If wanting actual definitive control, that's the only way to do it.

8. AI Memory - Claude vs OpenAI, just as I posted in my previous posts about Open WebUI and different AI models and using own AI "profile" as agent method. OpenAI is currently creating user profile which contains lots of information about the user. Claude stores retrieves data in real-time from the chat history and only when asked to do it. Interestingly I didn't know about these options, but I thought about both when talking about upcoming WebUI features. Ie. create memories, create user profile, create agent memory, tag conversations, use RAG / index to search past discussions, maybe optimization using TAGs, etc. This can be done in so many different ways. And each option has pros and cons. For now I'm using my own "agent" which instructions are actually my "user profile" how I would like to interact and receive output, formatting, and providing my background information.

9. Windows SMB shares - Encountered again age old problem where several different servers have same network share name, and Windows nicely messes those up and connects to wrong one. What an legendary fault, which is so easy to forget. - Yes, this problem only exists for UI users, from CLI (net use) and it works, as expected. I've got twenty hosts, all with same share name, and boom, that's it.

10. ProtectEU - ChatControl is again being pushed with slightly different agenda and background story, but after all, it's the same stuff all over again. If proper encryption is made illegal, then only criminals will have proper encryption. And as mentioned before... There are ways which aren't technically encryption but still make the content totally inaccessible, like chaffing and winnowing. Funny thing is that with app level breakable encryption they don't even know that secondary encryption layer is being used. But when you're subject to investigation, they'll just find out that the chats are still encrypted.

2026-01-25