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Had a travel insurance do this and when I was in hospital in Asia I couldn't start a claim and the hospital nearly kicked me out. I'm sure the sysadmins thought

by mmsc 2y ago

Had a travel insurance do this and when I was in hospital in Asia I couldn't start a claim and the hospital nearly kicked me out. I'm sure the sysadmins thought it was a great way to reduce hacking attempts by blocking Asia.

boredtofears 2y ago
That’s awful but why is the onus on random sys admins around the world to deal with this correctly and not the government hosting the problem entities?
- belk 2y ago
  That's like asking why don't we expect burglars to not burgle, they won't, but that doesn't mean walling off a whole neighborhood is the solution either.
  - tracker1 2y ago
    You haven't seen new construction in many upper end places then... High exterior walls and gated entry. Not that it adds much practically.
- AJayWalker 2y ago
  I would say because it’s their job to serve their customers, even if they’re abroad? Especially for a travel insurance company.
- kjkjadksj 2y ago
  Government needs lobbying to act
- krsdcbl 2y ago
  if the government in question is supportive of said problem entities, they won't "deal" with it If the government in question has free reign on regulating said traffic, it's an avenue for repressions and censorship Otherwise it's a legal matter to seek action against such entities, which is already how it works (... but I'm afraid we're actually mostly talking about "scenario 1 entities" here, which makes it futile to seek action from the very offices that already play a role in making it harder to use existing legal means)
  - bobthepanda 2y ago
    And it’s not like we will invade countries to stop spam calls, although China is probably the closest to getting to that stage given that the scam centers in Myanmar seem to be a deciding factor in who they throw their support behind: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/31/myanmar-hands-over-junta-backed-warlords-china-telecoms-scam-case-fraud-trafficking https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/31/myanmar-hands-...
- Thorrez 2y ago
  It's not a random sysadmin. It's a sysadmin of a travel insurance company.
- account42 2y ago
  You don't think a travel agency selling policies covering china should have their sysadmins ensure that their customers can actually make use of those policies? They can always explicitly exclude china if they don't want to deal with this but then they wouldn't have gotten GP's money.
O5vYtytb 2y ago
That's so remarkably stupid for travel insurance, it's unbelievable.
- mmsc 2y ago
  I wrote a cynical take on "how it happened" at the time: https://joshua.hu/losing-sight-vision-mission-of-your-role https://joshua.hu/losing-sight-vision-mission-of-your-role I think it comes from the divorce of what people are hired to do versus what their work actually contributes to. I also remember the countless cloudflare turnstiles that I've had to get through one way or another on airlines' websites which reset every minute (looking at you, airserbia, for being the worst).
dahart 2y ago
If there’s one single business that I might expect to honor traffic from foreign countries, it would be the travel industry. I can suddenly envision using a VPN to route through Asia and check a travel agent’s site access before purchasing.
lopkeny12ko 2y ago
Ironic that GP commenter said "I do not care about the whining" about regional IP blocks and the first reply is just someone whining about it.
steelframe 2y ago
Why couldn't they fix this with a phone call? So much suckage. Mental note 1: Verify whether I can file a claim over the phone before I give a travel insurance company my money. Mental note 2: Don't travel without being able to VPN through a U.S. endpoint. Preferably something sitting in my house.
- mmsc 2y ago
  Mental note 3: Verify you can call international numbers?
egorfine 2y ago
GP said he does "not care about the whining".

by mmsc 2y ago

boredtofears 2y ago

That’s awful but why is the onus on random sys admins around the world to deal with this correctly and not the government hosting the problem entities?

belk 2y ago
That's like asking why don't we expect burglars to not burgle, they won't, but that doesn't mean walling off a whole neighborhood is the solution either.
- tracker1 2y ago
  You haven't seen new construction in many upper end places then... High exterior walls and gated entry. Not that it adds much practically.
AJayWalker 2y ago
I would say because it’s their job to serve their customers, even if they’re abroad? Especially for a travel insurance company.
kjkjadksj 2y ago
Government needs lobbying to act
krsdcbl 2y ago
if the government in question is supportive of said problem entities, they won't "deal" with it If the government in question has free reign on regulating said traffic, it's an avenue for repressions and censorship Otherwise it's a legal matter to seek action against such entities, which is already how it works (... but I'm afraid we're actually mostly talking about "scenario 1 entities" here, which makes it futile to seek action from the very offices that already play a role in making it harder to use existing legal means)
- bobthepanda 2y ago
  And it’s not like we will invade countries to stop spam calls, although China is probably the closest to getting to that stage given that the scam centers in Myanmar seem to be a deciding factor in who they throw their support behind: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/31/myanmar-hands-over-junta-backed-warlords-china-telecoms-scam-case-fraud-trafficking https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/jan/31/myanmar-hands-...
Thorrez 2y ago
It's not a random sysadmin. It's a sysadmin of a travel insurance company.
account42 2y ago
You don't think a travel agency selling policies covering china should have their sysadmins ensure that their customers can actually make use of those policies? They can always explicitly exclude china if they don't want to deal with this but then they wouldn't have gotten GP's money.

O5vYtytb 2y ago

That's so remarkably stupid for travel insurance, it's unbelievable.

mmsc 2y ago
I wrote a cynical take on "how it happened" at the time: https://joshua.hu/losing-sight-vision-mission-of-your-role https://joshua.hu/losing-sight-vision-mission-of-your-role I think it comes from the divorce of what people are hired to do versus what their work actually contributes to. I also remember the countless cloudflare turnstiles that I've had to get through one way or another on airlines' websites which reset every minute (looking at you, airserbia, for being the worst).

dahart 2y ago

If there’s one single business that I might expect to honor traffic from foreign countries, it would be the travel industry. I can suddenly envision using a VPN to route through Asia and check a travel agent’s site access before purchasing.

lopkeny12ko 2y ago

Ironic that GP commenter said "I do not care about the whining" about regional IP blocks and the first reply is just someone whining about it.

steelframe 2y ago

Why couldn't they fix this with a phone call? So much suckage. Mental note 1: Verify whether I can file a claim over the phone before I give a travel insurance company my money. Mental note 2: Don't travel without being able to VPN through a U.S. endpoint. Preferably something sitting in my house.

mmsc 2y ago
Mental note 3: Verify you can call international numbers?

egorfine 2y ago

GP said he does "not care about the whining".