cybersafety – Page 4 – Stilgherrian

28 June 201128 June 2011

Patch Monday: ISP filtering goes ‘voluntary’, plus updates

Australia’s mandatory internet filter is at least two years away, but Telstra and Optus are only weeks from implementing their “voluntary” equivalents. Where are we up to with this controversial issue?

That’s what I covered in yesterday’s Patch Monday podcast for ZDNet Australia. And as I explained on the weekend, I’m returning to my habit of doing a blog post here for each episode.

For this internet filtering update, I spoke with Peter Black, who teaches internet and media law at the Queensland University of Technology; network engineer Mark Newton; and Lyle Shelton, chief of staff for the Australian Christian Lobby.

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

Since this podcast was recorded, we’ve discovered that Primus isn’t so sure about voluntary filtering any more. They were the third ISP to commit to the plan last year. However the Internet Industry Association (IIA) has said most Australian ISPs will filter via the Interpol list this year.

Previous podcast on this issue covered the meaning of the Refused Classification content category, Senator Conroy’s announcement of the strategy in July 2010, and the apparent fact that parents don’t act on their cybersafety fears.

Please let me know what you think. Comments below. We accept audio comments too. Either Skype to stilgherrian or phone Sydney +61 2 8011 3733.

13 June 201113 June 2011

Weekly Wrap 53

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. We’re late this week, posted on Monday rather than Sunday, because I forgot. That and, well, it’s a holiday anyway so the new week doesn’t start until Tuesday.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 91, “Tackling cybersecurity: it’s a start”, being a continuation of my thoughts emerging from National Cyber Security Awareness Week last week.

Articles

Santorum’s presidential hopes face a sticky problem, for Crikey. Santorum may be running for president in the US, but thanks to Dan Savage he’s got a problem.
Less pep talks, more stick on cybersecurity, for ZDNet Australia. I’m quite happy with this op-ed calling for a little bit more aggression from the government against slack corporate security.
Hywood on Fairfaxâ€¦ expectation, hoping, wishingâ€¦, for Crikey. Based on my encounter with the CEO of the Fairfax media empire, Greg Hywood.
The Weiner show: we have no prick of conscience, for Crikey. As editor Sophie Black put it, I’m working blue this week.

Media Appearances

On Friday I spoke with Kate O’Toole on ABC 105.7 Darwin about cloud computing. And here’s the audio.

Corporate Largesse

On Tuesday I attended the Mumbrella360 conference on media and marketing, which involved the usual level of food and drink for such things — first at the Hilton Hotel and then at the Arthouse Hotel.
On Thursday I went to the welcome reception for X|Media|Lab’s current Sydney event, which again involved food and drink, this time at Customs House. I didn’t actually go to the conference itself, for various reasons.
On Monday and Thursday I was taken to lunch by two different people who are interested in having me work on forthcoming projects. I can’t talk about either of them yet — they may not even happen — but this was really just the usual introductions over lunch thing.

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 random photograph of Broadway, Sydney, taken on Saturday.]

05 June 201113 June 2011

Weekly Wrap 52

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. This week featured a trip to Canberra for the Microsoft Politics and Technology Forum.

Podcasts

Patch Monday episode 90, “Real issues for cybersecurity awareness”, mostly being an interview with Paul Ducklin, Sophos’ head of technology for Asia-Pacific.
Iain Dale on politics, Twitter, radio and authenticity, the first “real” edition of my Conversations series. As I asked in that post, should I do more like this?

Articles

Political tweets eclipse blogs, but parties still don’t get it, for Crikey, based on my interview with Iain Dale.
Conroy’s blueprint for a digital economy â€¦ that doesn’t need an NBN, for Crikey, being my cranky commentary on the National Digital Economy Strategy. Also published at Technology Spectator as Forget strategy, Conroy needs a reason.
I spy 100Mbps, for Technology Spectator, in which I try to destroy the anti-NBN myth that no-one can think of any uses for 100Mbps broadband speeds.

Media Appearances

The Microsoft Politics & Technology Forum probably counts as one of these, but I’ll post links when there are links to link to.

Corporate Largesse

This doesn’t really count as largesse, because I was actually working on the discussion panel as the Microsoft Politics & Technology Forum, but Microsoft paid for my transport to Canberra, accommodation at the Hyatt Canberra Hotel, and a lovely dinner at Mezzalira Ristorante.

Elsewhere

[Photo: Bombardier Q400 aircraft at Sydney airport, the one I took to Canberra on Tuesday.]

31 May 2011

Early flight to Canberra

A brief reminder: I’m about to head to Canberra for a couple of days. This morning I’ll be at the University of Canberra for the seminar Privacy and security in a connected world: anonymity, data loss, tracking and the social web, being organised by their new Centre for Internet Safety. And then tomorrow morning I’ll be at Parliament House for the Microsoft Politics & Technology Forum. I do have some free time in the afternoons if you want to catch up.

30 June 2010

Labor’s Plan for Cyber Safety, November 2007

The Labor Party has removed their pre-election policy on internet censorship from the ALP website, so here it is. Labor’s Plan for Cyber Safety (November 2007) [61kB PDF].

This policy, with Senator Stephen Conroy listed as the author, was a last-minute addition to the ALP’s policies in the final weeks before the 2007 federal election.

(You can also still find it via this Internet Archive snapshot taken the day before the election, but it’s always good to have a spare, right?)

I’m posting this because I’ll be referring to it in various articles over the next few weeks. Stand by.

22 March 201022 March 2010

Patch Monday: Parents don’t act on cyber-safety fears

Most Australian parents are concerned about the safety of their children online. But new research shows that parents don’t back up their concerns with meaningful actions, and that in any event they might well be concerned about the wrong risks.

Last week Microsoft Australia released their “For Safety’s Sake” research [PDF] which, while giving them a chance to pimp the parental controls in Windows 7, also produced some interesting figures.

While 64% of parents were concerned about cyber-safety, 65% don’t use any parental control software and 62% allow their kids to access the internet unsupervised.

Parents perceive their kids to be more at risk accessing the internet from friends’ homes than their own, and rate the risk from online predators as being more dangerous than exposure to pornography. In turn that’s seen as more dangerous than bullying, which is seen as more dangerous than identity theft.

In this week’s Patch Monday podcast I speak with Microsoft’s chief security advisor in Australia, Stuart Strathdee, as well as with child protection expert Karen Flanagan from Save the Children Australia. The risks are not what they seem.

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 — especially if you’re a parent. We accept audio comments too. Either Skype to stilgherrian or phone Sydney +61 2 8011 3733.