crispin harris – Stilgherrian

15 December 201007 July 2011

Weekly Wrap 27

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets — very late this week because I just couldn’t be arsed doing blog posts while I was in San Francisco. But here’s the summary of last week. On Wednesday. So I’ll refund your goddam subscription fees.

Articles

WikiLeaks in the clouds: why attempts to shut down Assange will fail, for Crikey.
Wikileaks could gag sources: Clinton, for ZDNet.com.au. That’s Bill Clinton, who apparently used to be “president” of some place called “America”.
Letter from: San Francisco, and Bill Clinton on instability, sustainability … and WikiLeaks, for Crikey. Well, this is what happens when you end up in a room with 15,000 people.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 68, “Wikileaks: the survival lessons”. A panel discussion with network engineer Mark Newton — he described WikiLeaks as “a bespoke cloud-based CDN [content distribution network] that is enabled by the Streisand Effect” — information security specialist Crispin Harris, and platform architect Benno Rice.

Media Appearances

None. What wrong with you people?

Corporate Largesse

Where do you start? This week was all about me travelling to San Francisco as a guest of Salesforce.com. So they paid my airfares, accommodation, food and drink throughout the event, and “networking functions” at the W Hotel and the Palace Hotel. Plus they gave me a Flip HD video camera, a scarf, a t-shirt, a universal power plug thingy and a can of whipped cream. Don’t ask.

Elsewhere

Most of my day-to-day observations are on my high-volume Twitter stream, and random photos and other observations turn up on my Posterous stream. The photos also appear on Flickr, where I eventually add geolocation data and tags.

[Photo: A comparison of real American men with the idealised version portrayed in advertising in a storefront on Market St, San Francisco.]

28 November 201007 July 2011

Weekly Wrap 25

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets and in the media and so on and so forth — and this week it seems like I’ve been consuming more food and drink than producing media.

Articles

NBN Co business case — truly a curiously inadequate document, for Crikey. The “curiously inadequate” line is a quote from opposition spokesperson Malcolm Turnbull’s blog post about the rather odd NBN Co Business Case Summary [3MB PDF], which contains neither business nor case. This article will sit behind the Crikey paywall for two weeks, but you can register for a free trial. Or you can comment over here.
“Gadgets: a geek’s Christmas”, part of the Crikey Weekender Christmas Guide 2010 [2.9MB PDF]. This was actually published on 19 November but I forgot to mention it last week. So sue me.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 66, “Inside the internet’s China syndrome”. A conversation with infosec specialist Crispin Harris about that story of China supposedly hijacking 15% of the world’s internet traffic for 18 minutes back in April. Needless to say, the story is somewhat of an exaggeration. I’m pleased with the opening montage on the program.

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

With six bullet points in this section — four of them from the one day! — and it still being November, there’s clear evidence that my liver may not survive until the actual day of Christmas. Wish me luck.

The Australian Communication Consumer Action Network (ACCAN) fed me lunch while I gave them a briefing on the National Broadband Network on Tuesday. My largess to them is probably worth more than theirs to me.
I had cakes and other sweet items while attending the eCrime Symposium on Thursday. The organisers also gave me a bottle of Yering Station pinot noir.
AARNet paid for lunch at Est Restaurant while their CEO Chris Hancock gave us a briefing on their plans on Thursday.
Nate Cochrane, editor in chief for some of Haymarket Mediaâ€™s mastheads in Australia including iTnews.com.au, bought me a couple of beers while we discussed the media industry in Australia and the future of journalism.
I popped into a drinks session being staged by Securis Global, and they bought me a couple of beers.
Continuing the busy Thursday, I went to the CBS Interactive Christmas Party at The Italian Village in The Rocks. ZDNet.com.au is one of their mastheads and I file stories for them, so I’m not sure if this actually counts. But someone from one of Microsoft’s PR firms bought me a double scotch, so that definitely counts.

Elsewhere

[Photo: A platform sign at Erskineville station, Sydney. I have no idea why I took this photograph, so obviously you need to see it too.]

16 February 201010 November 2010

Patch Monday: Tough titties: Govt sites stormed

A scoop in the Patch Monday podcast this week: an interview with c0ld blood, one of the organisers of the denial-of-service attack on the Parliament House website by Anonymous.

While Anonymous is better known for its masked protests against the Church of Scientology, some people operating under the Anonymous brand have branched out into protests against the Rudd government’s mandatory internet “filtering” program. Their attack in September 2009 brought down the Prime Minister’s website for about 10 minutes.

This time they were a lot more effective, with the target site being with with up to 7.5 million requests per second.

As well as c0ld blood, we hear from security consultant Crispin Harris, the vice-chair of Electronic Frontiers Australia Colin Jacobs, and a statement from AnonSA who distance themselves from the attacks.

You can listen below. But it’s probably better for my stats if you listen at ZDNet Australia or subscribe to the RSS feed or subscribe in iTunes.

Please, let me know what you think. We now accept audio comments too. Either Skype to “stilgherrian” or phone Sydney 02 8011 3733.

02 February 201010 November 2010

Patch Monday: CCTV surveillance and Rudd laptops

A double-headed Patch Monday podcast this week. Are multitudes of video surveillance cameras value for money? And do teenagers with free Rudd government laptops represent a security risk?

Security consultant Crispin Harris is co-author of the ~~soon-to-be-published~~ paper Information overload: CCTV, your networks, communities and crime [PDF], and he’s been digging into the numbers.

Meanwhile, a 15-year-old Sydney lad reckons he’s broken out of the security restrictions on the Lenovo netbook he got as part of the Digital Education Revolution and could install games and browse the school’s file server.

You can listen below. But it’s probably better for my stats if you listen at ZDNet Australia or subscribe to the RSS feed or subscribe in iTunes.

Please, let me know what you think. We now accept audio comments too. Either Skype to “stilgherrian” or phone Sydney 02 8011 3733.

[Update 11 February 2010: The paper Information overload: CCTV, your networks, communities and crime [PDF] is now online.]

04 January 201010 November 2010

Patch Monday: Smart Grids a critical infrastructure risk?

In the first Patch Monday for 2010, a look at the potential security risks of Smart Grids.

In theory, Smart Meters that monitor your energy usage and Smart Grids that manage your electricity consumption should save money and reduce carbon emissions. But do we really want to have cheap wireless-enabled devices connected to our home networks and the electricity grid?

A good mate of mine, security consultant Crispin Harris, is a tad concerned and, as he explains in this week’s feature interview, he’s not alone.

You can listen below. But it’s probably better for my stats if you listen at ZDNet Australia or subscribe to the RSS feed or subscribe in iTunes.

Please, let me know what you think. Feedback very, very welcome. And do let me know if there’s any topics I should cover, or guests we should interview.