Month: February 2013

Posted on

Talking geek stuff on Purser Explores the World

Angry Beanie logoA curious article claiming that We are in the final years of our internet — I disagree — led to a conversation on Twitter which led, in turn, to me appearing on a podcast.

The podcast in question was in James Purser’s series Purser Explores the World, and the episode was entitled Tomorrow’s Geek.

I ended up talking about my path into geekery via an interest in the space program, railways, and the Angle Park Computing Centre; old-school programming styles; my thoughts on how the internet is changing power relationships; my opinion of consumer pseudo-geeks; how future geeks will be hacking DNA and drones, and other stuff.

Also appearing in this episode are network engineer Mark Newton and notable geek Liz Quilty.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 46:12 — 31.7MB)

That audio is precisely as posted by Mr Purser, i.e. I haven’t turned it into my usual Conversations format.

Posted on

Talking cybersecurity bollocks on ABC Radio’s “AM”

ABC logoFollowing the announcement of a new Australian Cyber Security Centre, to be built by the end of 2013, I ended up being interviewed by ABC Radio’s AM program on 24 January — but it didn’t turn out so flash.

Journalist Peter Lloyd asked me about cybersecurity threats. I think I mentioned that at one end of the spectrum there’s serious nation-state espionage and sabotage, but at the other there’s all manner of low-end crime that probably doesn’t warrant a national centre — and I used ransomware as an example of that.

But in the finished story, somehow that example became the defining crime. Oops.

PETER LLOYD: So far cyber crime in Australia has largely been a new form of stand-over tactic. The online commentator and writer, Stilgherrian:

STILGHERRIAN: We’ve got the low level cyber crime operatives who are just trying to hack into small businesses, encrypt all their data, hold them to ransom. We’ve seen cases of that with victims in Alice Springs and the Gold Coast and elsewhere in Australia, that a business finds that all the data on their computer is unavailable until they send money of some thousands of dollars to have it unlocked for them.

Anyway, for posterity, here’s the audio of the piece.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (2.1MB)

The audio is ©2013 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.