Warmer than average spring weather continued during my week of Monday 6 to Sunday 13 September 2020 — a week with some cybers and some fraud and a podcast about space.
The Quarantimes continue to throw up a few challenges too, but I may come back to them in a brief podcast some time this week. I think we’re all having a tough time, to a greater or lesser extent depending on where we are.
Podcasts
- “The 9pm Moon Magic Communism on Venus with Dr Space Junk”, being The 9pm Edict episode 116 recorded on Tuesday. This is the second of five episodes in The 9pm Spring Series 2020.
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Media Appearances
- On Friday I spoke about the so-called “seed brushing scam” on ABC Radio’s RN Breakfast.
- Apparently my 2018 article Blaming Russia for NotPetya was coordinated diplomatic action was cited in the paper Beyond Naming and Shaming: Accusations and International Law in Cybersecurity in the European Journal of International Law, but I don’t have access yet.
- My Carnegie Endowment paper The Encryption Debate in Australia was cited in a feature story Weakened Encryption: The Threat to America’s National Security at Third Way.
Articles, Corporate Largesse
None. Next week will see the writing come back, but I have no idea when the corporate largesse will return.
Recommendations
- America, If You’re Listening. This is series four of the brilliant podcast formerly known as “Russia, If You’re Listening”. It’s always been excellent, but now it has a new focus: A podcast about how Donald Trump changed the United States and the world. Listen. Seriously.
- Peter Thiel Met With The Racist Fringe As He Went All In On Trump, an excellent pofile of an odd billionaire from BuzzFeed.
- On a lighter note, Nick Mohammed’s UK comedy series Intelligence is a bit of fun. The premise is that a tone-deaf dickhead of an NSA guy is assigned as liaison to the UK’s GCHQ cybercrime unit, resulting in an amusing clash of cultures. It’s currently on ABC iView.
The Week Ahead
It’s week 26 of the Quarantimes at Bunjaree Cottages at Wentworth Falls, making it a full six months since the COVID-19 precautions started affecting me personally.
Monday and Tuesday are writing days. On Tuesday morning I’ll also catch the panel discussion When America stopped being great: a conversation with author Nick Bryant, from the US Studies Centre.
On Wednesday I’m recording a podcast with science communicator Upulie Divisekera, who was previously on Public House Forum 4 four years ago. If you have TRIGGER WORDS or CONVERSATION TOPICS you’ll need to get them to me by midday AEST. The finished podcast will be posted on Saturday.
On Thursday and Friday I’m covering the AusCERT 2020 Cyber Security Conference. I’m also on the Speed Debate panel again this year, as I was in 2018, 2016, and 2015 (but there’s no recording of that earliest one).
I’m also down in Sydney for the weekend, cat-sitting a certain grumpy cat in Ashfield for the first time in six months. Will he continue to hiss at me? We shall see.
Further Ahead
The spring conference season is under way, and it looks like some of the regulars are trying to do their thing online.
- The Space Age: Closer Than We Think?, Cicada Innovations, online, 24 September 2020.
- ASPI Presents: In conversation with Michael Outram APM, Commissioner of the Australian Border Force, online, 24 September 2020.
- NetThing, online, 1–2 October 2020. There are also physical sites for this conference.
- Australian Cyber Conference, Melbourne, 27-29 October 2020 (TBC).
- Linux.conf.au 2021, online, 23–25 January 2021.
- Australian Cyber Conference, Canberra, 14–16 March 2021 (TBC).
[Photo: Water drops on the metal surface of a garbage bin at Wentworth Falls station in the Blue Mountains, photographed 10 September 2020.]