Talking the ACSC cyber threat report on 1395 FIVEaa

FIVEaa logoThe (relatively) new Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) released its first-ever unclassified threat report yesterday, but as I wrote at ZDNet, I was disappointed.

The report (PDF) has dropped, and indeed it contains few surprises. It tells the now-familiar story of serious and organised criminals, foreign state-sponsored actors, and other “cyber adversaries”, all of whom are getting better at what they do.

“The cyber threat to Australian organisations is undeniable, unrelenting and continues to grow. If an organisation is connected to the internet, it is vulnerable. The incidents in the public eye are just the tip of the iceberg,” begins the report’s foreword.

“Cyber adversaries are aggressive and persistent in their efforts to compromise Australian networks and information. They are constantly improving their tradecraft in an attempt to defeat our network defences and exploit new technologies,” it says later.

“Australia is an innovative country with a globally important resources sector. We are a regional leader with global interests and important partnerships. This makes Australia a target-rich environment for cyber adversaries.”

All of which is true, of course, but all of which has been said so many times before.

I spoke about the report today with Will Goodings on 1395 FIVEaa Adelaide — with somewhat less disappointment in my voice.

The audio is ©2015 Nova Entertainment.

Launching “The 9pm Urgent Hardware Refresh”

I’ve finally launched the Pozible crowdfunding campaign to get myself a replacement computer, The 9pm Urgent Hardware Refresh. This chart shows the progress so far.

The 9pm Urgent Hardware Refresh final status image: click for Pozible project page

There’s plenty of information on the Pozible page. But if you want the full back story, check out the original announcement, and the follow-up post. An episode of The 9pm Edict podcast is in pieces on the dining room table, and will be assembled on Wednesday.

[Update 9 August 2015: As the graphic indicates, the campaign was successful, reaching 144% of its initial funding target. For further details, see the Updates on the Pozible page.]

Weekly Wrap 268: Changing perspectives

Rosella Cottage and its solar panels: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 20 to Sunday 26 July 2015 was ruined by health problems. I won’t go into the details. If you saw some facts, you saw them. Otherwise you missed them.

There were no articles or podcasts or editions of 5at5 produced, so I’ll make this Weekly Wrap look slightly better by omitting the sub-heads. I’ll skip the Corporate Largesse section too, because there wasn’t any, and stick to what did happen.

Media Appearances

  • On Tuesday, I spoke about the Ashley Madison data breach on ABC 936 Hobart.
  • On Wednesday, I spoke about the Ashley Madison data breach on Sydney radio 2UE, but I won’t be posting a recording because it adds nothing to the Hobart one. I’m thinking about being a lot more selective about what I post here — or at least what I go to the effort of writing a whole blog post about — and maybe even automating most of the Weekly Wrap. I mean, do you even read this?

The Week Ahead

I’m not going to match specific tasks to specific days at this stage, for various reasons. But I will say that my Pozible crowdfunding campaign for The 9pm Urgent Hardware Refresh has been given the green light, so I’ll press the “Go” button on that relatively early in the week, and I’ll produce an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast to coincide with that, more or less.

I’ll also write some stuff for people. Is that vague enough?

I’ll be in the Mountains for most of the week, I think. I can’t see much that’d draw me into Sydney, not when I apply a strict cost benefit analysis to it all. You people are terrible.

[Photo: Rosella Cottage and its solar panels, photographed on 30 January 2012. This week I returned to being based in Rosella Cottage, rather than the Bunjaree Cottages outbuilding called “The Studio”. It’s not only far more pleasant, it gives me morning views like this, and this, and this. I think this will help.]

Talking the Ashley Madison data breach on ABC 936 Hobart

ABC logoThe information security news story of the week was, of course, the data breach at “affairs” and “cheaters” website Ashley Madison, something first reported by journalist Brian Krebs.

I spoke about this data breach in a couple of radio spots — I’m reluctant to call it a
“hack” until we have some evidence that a hack was involved, as opposed to some internal problem — but I reckon the first was the best.

Here’s that conversation, a 13-minute chat from Tuesday morning with ABC 936 Hobart morning presenter Leon Compton. Enjoy.

The audio is of course ©2015 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Weekly Wrap 267: Chaos, then embracing the change

To boldly go...: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 13 to Sunday 19 July 2015 continued the lack-of-productivity theme, alas. Mostly because my dying computer decided to die far more rapidly than it had been until now.

My sincere thanks go to Justin Clacherty for lending me a spare MacBook Pro until I can organise my own new machine. I’m pleased that the set-up and transfer of data to this “new” machine only took nine hours — well, plus the six hours it took to take a proper backup of the old machine, because it kept throwing errors.

That said, in the latter part of the week I did get quite a bit done on the Pozible crowdfunding campaign to pay for that replacement machine. That campaign should launch in the next few days.

And because I had to archive some data off the old computer — because it had a 750GB hard drive, whereas the loaner has a 500GB SSD — I was browsing through old photos and videos. This put me into a particularly reflective mood again on the weekend. I hope that some good will come of this, because having a properly-working computer again — and a fast one! — should provide another boost to my optimism.

Articles

Podcasts

None.

5at5

5at5 was still on hiatus this week.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • On Monday evening, I caught up with Leslie Nassar to discuss a SEKRIT project, and he bought me dinner.

The Week Ahead

I’m back in Wentworth Falls this coming week, and most of it hasn’t been mapped out yet. Still, I have a broad outline.

On Monday Tuesday, I’ll be submitting that Pozible project for approval, doing some shopping in Katoomba, and mapping out my writing commitments for the next few weeks. Now that I have a working computer again, I’ve got heaps of work to catch up with.

On Tuesday Wednesday, I’ll be completing a video to go with that Pozible project, which should launch that day. I’ll also be producing an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast. I’ll delay the posting of both until Wednesday Thursday if the Pozible campaign doesn’t launch.

The rest of the week is a bit vague, but I know there’ll be a ZDNet column in there somewhere. And I’m guessing I’d better organise some other work as well.

Update 20 July 2015: Edited to slide nearly everything in the plan back a day, to reflect a Monday sickie.

[Photo: To boldly go…, being a small boat heading out into the fog of San Francisco Bay on 10 December 2010.]