ps:

Take a full backup before anything else unexpected happens and then use that to compare against any further changes?

(A backup first/beforehand is always a good idea ;-) )


Good luck!
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Mmmm...
Not sure what you're trying to mix...
Note that a "!" in a filename can have a special meaning or be specially 'interpreted' by some systems...
Are you trying to run multiple different versions of Kodi on the same one collection?
Or is this where you are trying to run Kodi on the same set of folders that are also accessed by a 'smart' tv/dvr?
Have you got one of the shared systems running an automatic purge to delete files/folders that have gone past an expire date? Or are there automated deletions to maintain free disk space??

Sorry Martin, should have been clearer.
Not trying to mix anything (in a way un-mixing).
Understood on special characters, not in a filename but on the folder name.
Same collection? Yes, Win 10 with 18.6, Win 7 with 16.1.
No problems on either machine. Just issues with "ghosts", my fault for not checking after copying over to bigger drives (hence the un-mixing of both Films & TV on the same drives, to their own drives).
No shared systems, just drives.
Only setting on Kodi is allowing file removing from the library not deletion from the drive. Any deletions from media collections is done manually.
All resolved on both systems with the exception of 2.
Family of Spies not picked up on either, regardless of how I name the file/folder
The Rhinemann Exchange was picked up by 18.6 but it hangs updating library on 16.1, so removed out of the media folders.
Edit, no problem with backups.

Big OUCH
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-55240408

US cybersecurity firm FireEye says it has recently been attacked by a "highly sophisticated threat actor", believing the hacking was state-sponsored.

In a blog, FireEye CEO Kevin Mandia said company tools used for testing customers' security had been stolen.

"The attacker primarily sought information related to certain government customers," he wrote.

The blog did not say who might have carried out the attack. The firm and the FBI are investigating the hack.

... been attacked by a "highly sophisticated threat actor", believing the hacking was state-sponsored...

Really?...

In the world of IT security, there really is no excuse for not being secured. Anything less is sloppiness. There are no excuses.

Note that even if there is some 'must-do' reason to run sloppy insecure applications, those applications can be isolated and/or partitioned off and run securely.

... So, totally no excuse other than for sloppiness, laziness, or for going untrained insecure cheap.


Unless there really is this scenario: XKCD Security

And even then, that can be mitigated for...


Behind the (embarrassed Marketing) excuses, the real story is?...


IT is what we allow it to be...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Behind the (embarrassed Marketing) excuses, the real story is?...

There are a pile of zero day exploits in the wild in use by state actors waiting for security researchers to find. Hopefully out of this some of the pile will be found. Also lessons learned outside of top secret SCF's as to how to exploit and cover the tracks so there is no trace in log files.

Now we know where the stolen tools were used, by whom, and what they protected.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/12/13/us/politics/russian-hackers-us-government-treasury-commerce.html

At the time, the N.S.A. refused to give further details of what prompted the urgent warning. Shortly afterward, FireEye, a leading cybersecurity firm, announced that hackers working for a state had stolen some of its prized tools for finding vulnerabilities in its clients’ systems, including the federal government’s. That investigation also pointed toward S.V.R., one of Russia’s leading intelligence agencies.

Most hacks involve stealing user names and passwords, but this was far more sophisticated. It involved the creation of counterfeit tokens, essentially electronic indicators that provide an assurance to Microsoft or Google about the identity of the computer system its email systems are talking to. By using a flaw that is extraordinarily difficult to detect, the hackers were able to trick the system and gain access.

Suggest it is time to have a think before buying all those devices that rely on the web.
Google outage: YouTube, Docs and Gmail knocked offline

I’m sitting here in the dark in my toddler’s room because the light is controlled by @Google Home. Rethinking... a lot right now.
— Joe Brown (@joemfbrown) December 14, 2020

AWS: Amazon web outage breaks vacuums and doorbells

Suggest it is time to have a think before buying all those devices that rely on the web.

Reminds me of when numerous people's homes were ruined when their Nest thermostats automatically downloaded a bad update which bricked the devices while the owners were away. The furnace no longer came on, so the water froze in the pipes which burst, flooded the house and the resulting mess then froze.

Unfortunately the current fad is to connect everything to the internet. sometimes unnecessarily and in disregard of failsafe and security risks, so we can expect plenty more occurrences.

---

The other fad of everything has to be battery powered is also a bad move.

Why when most of the time when inside you have a perfectly good, always the same source of energy in the wall plug. Batteries loose there capacity from day one. That vacuum cleaner that works for 40 minutes when new, will struggle to work for 20 minutes in a few years time even if the batteries are charged correctly.
And when the battery does fail any you think, lets change the battery. Can you open the device and change it or does it need specialist tools, is a suitable battery available, in a lot of cases it will be a discontinued model and batteries if still around will be almost a expensive as a new model with twice the battery power.

Of course mobile devices need to be powered by battery, but devices that never leave the home??

Is this another 'Naughty Intel' to anticompetitively perniciously artificially cripple AMD systems?...

See what you think!


Cyberpunk 2077 Bug Bulldozes AMD Ryzen: Here's a Fix, Tested
wrote:

Here's a fast fix to your AMD Ryzen performance woes

... resourceful redditors have discovered that the game code significantly harms performance on some AMD processors, because it apparently checks to see if your CPU uses Team Red's [(AMD)] 2011-era Bulldozer platform and, if not, limits the number of available threads.

Fortunately, the same folks have also crafted a simple fix that can lead to big performance gains...

So... Really...?! That software locks users to pre-Bulldozer for AMD?!!

Or have I got the game all wrong??


All just a game of performance?

All just my uneducated humble personal opinion as always...

IT is what we allow it to be...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

Or have I got the game all wrong??

No, you got it correct... it's a buggy mess to the point that CD Projekt Red is offering refunds and stated at least two major patches will be required.

I'd wager that the thread crippling you mentioned is testing code that was neglected to be removed for the release.

---

Its gone from bad to worse.
https://apnews.com/article/us-agencies-hacked-global-cyberspying-328b4936f2535418b27cb90afa858489

https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/12/solarwinds-hackers-have-a-clever-way-to-bypass-multi-factor-authentication/

https://www.solarwinds.com/securityadvisory

And you thought worse was bad.

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/12/17/nuclear-agency-hacked-officials-inform-congress-447855

Nuclear weapons agency breached amid massive cyber onslaught

Hackers accessed systems at the National Nuclear Security Administration, which maintains the U.S. nuclear weapons stockpile.

More Russian APT
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-global-cyber-usa/suspected-russian-hackers-used-microsoft-vendors-to-breach-customers-idUSKBN28Y1BF

My poor little Pi is getting the heck pinged out of it by Censys Inc.

Are your computers really safe?
Can you trust the people you work with?
$10m fine

It added in a statement that the misconduct had taken place in 2017 and involved two employees, both of whom had been sacked.
"Their actions violated our corporate policies and were inconsistent with our values," the company said.

Yet, further down, we see this:

Ticketmaster used stolen information to gain an advantage over its competition, and then promoted the employees who broke the law."

Yep, sacked because they got caught!

And then we have "The Cloud"...


And then the NHSx managers put out medical data into the Google cloud...

What happens next?...


IT is what we allow it to be...
Martin

---

See new freedom: Mageia Linux
Take a look for yourself: Linux Format
The Future is what We all make IT (GPLv3)

And then we have "The Cloud"...

Funny you should mention "The Cloud"
https://www.zdnet.com/article/cloud-provider-stopped-ransomware-attack-but-had-to-pay-ransom-demand-anyway/

https://healthitsecurity.com/news/ransomware-groups-team-up-as-hackers-shift-into-cloud-operations

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ransomware-attackers-use-your-cloud-backups-against-you/

https://venturebeat.com/2019/08/07/vectra-ransomware-attacks-are-spreading-to-cloud-data-center-and-enterprise-infrastructure/

Cloud, A stupid decision made by millions of people is still a stupid decision.

My cloud
Ordered a 3rd on 21st & Amazon surpassed themselves, here at 20:05 that night.
Sadly, that one is fully populated with backup drives only as Win 7 won't allow dynamic disks on USB.
They are much quieter than my old D-Link nas box which I found surprising.
Even more surprising is the 2 bay one I've been using since last Xmas. No fan but even with constant use (Kodi media drives), it is not that hot.
I consider relying on others for one's data as a big risk.