Stilgherrian – Page 152

05 December 2015

Talking the VTech hack on Kinderling Radio

While I’d heard of Kinderling, I hadn’t really known what it was about — until this Wednesday, when I did a spot on this new digital radio station in Sydney.

Kinderling grew from the Australian independent music and arts community with a vision to create contemporary children’s radio that is grounded in Australian culture, society and natural habitat.

With over a decade of radio experience (and ten kids!) between them, the Kinderling team has developed a program schedule that soundtracks your day with kids.

The trigger for this conversation was of course this week’s news of the VTech hack and data breach. Here’s my 10-minute conversation with Kinderling Conversation presenter Shevonne Hunt.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 9:52 — 5.7MB)

You can check to see if you were caught up in this data breach at Troy Hunt’s Have I Been Pwned.

01 December 201510 December 2015

Talking the VTech hack on ABC 612 Brisbane

ABC logo Following last week’s news of the security issues relating to Wi-Fi Hello Barbie, the weekend saw the disclosure of a data breach at toymaker VTech which revealed the details of children and their parents.

I’ve just spoken about this with Emma Griffiths on ABC 612 Brisbane.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:15 — 3.9MB)

If you think you might have been affected, search for your email addresses at Have I Been Pwned.

29 November 201504 December 2015

Weekly Wrap 286: Rain, radio, and relative progress

My week of Monday 23 to Sunday 29 November 2015 was remarkably productive, a sharp comparison with last week. This pleases me.

Apart from the stuff listed below, I’ve also started a fresh program to tackle my on-again off-again “friendship” with the black dog of depression. I haven’t yet decided whether to write about this highly personal topic or not. Maybe when the timeline takes clearer shape.

I also got quite a bit of planning done for December, including locking in a couple geek-for-money projects that won’t be detailed here.

Podcasts

ABC Radio National’s Future Tense, Bug bounties and pentesting: the Wild West of online security. Not just a podcast, of course, but a “proper” broadcast radio program. It fits well here as an audio-based media object, however.
Corrupted Nerds Conversations 14: Joe Franzi, Australian Signals Directorate, in which the head of the ASD’s cyber security outfit gives his first on-record media interview in his five years in that role.

Articles

We don’t need an amateur small-business infosec army, ZDNet Australia, 27 November 2015. This column met immediate opposition from certain key people in the infosec community, so I’ll probably present their opposing views on Monday.

Media Appearances

On Friday, I spoke about the security risks of Wi-Fi Hello Barbie on ABC Radio’s PM.

5at5

Should 5at5 eventually reappear, you’ll know about it if you subscribe.

Corporate Largesse

On Thursday morning, I went to the launch of Deloitte’s Cyber Intelligence Centre in Sydney, and was given a very nice cup of coffee.
Also on Thursday, I went to AVG Technologies’ media lunch at the Park Hyatt Hotel at Circular Quay. The food and wine was excellent. I had the snow crab and avocado with green apple and finger lime and sumac spice; and the lamb rump, hummus and smoked eggplant with coriander and lemon jus, pomegranate and dukkah. We we also given an AVG Ultimate VIP Gift Card, which includes unlimited licenses to many of AVG’s products; a copy of AVG’s book One Parent to Another: Managing technology and your teen; and AVG-branded stationery, including sticky notes, and a pen.

The Week Ahead

On Monday, I’ll be writing for ZDNet, as well as heading to Parramatta and Petersham to choose a venue for the next Public House Forum. Various loose ends will be sorted out while on the trains.

On Tuesday, I’ll finish the ZDNet column, make some progress on certain geek-for-money projects, and do some shopping and other errands in Katoomba.

I’ll sleep in on Wednesday, and then head to Sydney to record a SEKRIT podcast episode. Then in the evening I’ll go to VMware’s end-of-year drinks, and then speak at the launch of a Sydney chapter of Electronic Frontiers Australia. It looks like I’ll be getting home quite late.

On Thursday, I’ll write for ZDNet, ~~and then the rest of the week is flexible. I do have some geek projects to weave into the schedule, however~~.

On ~~Tuesday~~ Friday, I’ll be producing an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast, tentatively titled “The 9pm Garden of Hate”, in which I’ll finish off all of the sponsored content that I owe my supporters. I plan to stream that recording session live at 2100 AEDT. This episode will now be made on Monday night 7 December.

Further Ahead

I’ll record a “2015 Wrap” episode of the Corrupted Nerds podcast some time in the week beginning Monday 14 December.

The next episode of The 9pm Public House Forum, similar to the first one, will be recorded on the afternoon of Saturday 19 December, somewhere in or near Parramatta. The venue will be confirmed in a few days.

I’ll also produce “2015 Wrap” episode of the Edict some time between Christmas and New Year.

[Update 1 December 2015: Edited to reflect schedule changes. Update 4 December 2015: Edited again to reflect further schedule changes.]

[Photo: Departing Mt Victoria. The #purpletrain (also known as a V-Set) pulls away from Platform 1 of Mt Victoria railway station on a wet Saturday afternoon, 28 November 2015.]

29 November 201505 December 2015

Talking infosec and bug bounties on ABC’s Future Tense

Recording Future Tense narration in ABC Radio studio E46

ABC logo It has been my very great pleasure this week to produce an entire episode of ABC Radio National’s Future Tense, titled Bug bounties and pentesting: the Wild West of online security.

Here’s how the ABC has introduced this documentary:

Online information security is estimated to be worth more than $75 billion annually. And that figure is certain to grow as more and more of our everyday devices are given internet connectivity.

So why are our cyber-networks still being hacked on an industrial scale? Despite all that we’ve learnt about online fraud and malicious attacks, why is the digital world still so fragile?

In this edition of Future Tense, technology writer and commentator Stilgherrian talks ‘bug bounties’ and ‘pentesting’ as he introduces us to those at the coal-face of the security challenge.

Here’s the full half-hour documentary, featuring Alastair MacGibbon, Children’s eSafety Commissioner for the Australian Government; Casey Ellis, founder and CEO of Bugcrowd; Associate Professor Asha Rao, information security expert from RMIT University; Fatemah Beydoun, Chief Awesome at Security Code Warrior and a former IT security auditor; Joe Franzi, Assistant Secretary, Cyber Security, Australian Signals Directorate; John McCormack, CEO of Raytheon|Websense; Nathaniel Wakelam, professional penetration tester/hacker; and a snippet from Alan Dupont, Professor of International Security at the University of New South Wales.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 29:20 — 13.5MB)

Both the ABC and I are pleased with how this went, and I’ve been invited to pitch further story ideas in the new year.

[Photo: Recording my Future Tense narration in ABC Radio studio E46 in Sydney, on Monday 23 November 2015. This environment was overkill. I wasn’t using any of the studio gear, just my own Sennheiser e835 microphone, Zoom H6, and MacBook Pro — so basically the three items in the foreground — but I needed a proper quiet room.]

29 November 2015

Talking Wi-Fi Hello Barbie on ABC Radio’s PM

ABC logo The news that a Wi-Fi enabled Hello Barbie doll had been released got plenty of media interest at the end of the working week, especially since the security and privacy risks weren’t just theoretical.

Hello Barbie was soon hacked.

I was interviewed by journalist Penny Timms about these security risks by ABC Radio’s national current affairs program PM.

The makers of one of the world’s most famous dolls are due to roll out their latest edition. Forget Malibu Barbie, because wifi Barbie could be on shelves by Christmas. The technology means the doll can hold conversations with her owner. But security experts warn there are serious flaws, with suggestions the technology has already been hacked.

Somehow I managed to include some paranoid ideas for using Hello Barbie for psychological warfare.

ABC News also posted a written story, which uses some different quotes. But here’s the radio story.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:24 — 2.0MB)

22 November 201525 November 2015

Weekly Wrap 285: The millipede of progress marches on

My week of Monday 16 to Sunday 22 November 2015 was a complete and utter write-off. Very little productive was done.

Just like last week, there’s no new media objects for you to consume — though that will change fairly quickly over the coming days. I’m hoping my photograph of a rather determined millipede will be an omen of some sort. Or at the very least, a nice photograph of a millipede.

Podcasts

None, but I finished the rough cut and script for my ABC Radio National Future Tense documentary. This episode is now scheduled to be broadcast on Sunday 29 November.

Articles

None this week either. That’s very poor.

Media Appearances

On Monday, I spoke about Facebook’s Safety Check tool on ABC 105.7 Darwin. I won’t post that recording, because I don’t think I said anything that amazing.

5at5

Should 5at5 eventually reappear, you’ll know about it if you subscribe.

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

Monday is a long-commute day, and potentially quite busy. My trip to Sydney includes a medical appointment at 1130, and a recording session at the ABC at 1500, where I’ll be laying down the narration for my Future Tense episode. That program will be edited on Tuesday. And then on Wednesday, I’ll be finalising an episode of the Corrupted Nerds podcast, as well as making any final changes to Future Tense that might be needed.

Thursday is another long-commute, with briefings by Deloitte ~~(maybe)~~ (definitely) and AVG (definitely), followed by another medical appointment, though I don’t expect it to be too intense a day.

Some time this week I’ll also be writing for ZDNet, ~~and perhaps even producing an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast, but I won’t be making those decisions until Tuesday or Wednesday~~. That’s because I also have to commit some geekery for money.

Update: Further Ahead

The next episode of The 9pm Edict podcast will be recorded live next Tuesday 1 December, with the tentative title “The 9pm Garden of Hate”.

I’m planning another episode of The 9pm Public House Forum, similar to the first one, tentatively scheduled to be recorded on the afternoon of Saturday 19 December — or should it be a week earlier?

I’ll also produce “2015 Wrap” episode of the Edict some time between Christmas and New Year.

There will also be a “2015 Wrap” episode of Corrupted Nerds, to be recorded some time in the week beginning Monday 14 December.

Update 15 November 2015: Edited to reflect a change of schedule, and to add the “Further Ahead” section.

[Photo: Millipede. A Sunday morning visitor visiblly cringes, if that’s not too anthropomorphic a word, as I block its path to take its photo on 22 November 2015.]