hacking – Page 21 – Stilgherrian

31 October 201301 November 2013

Weekly Wrap 177: Fire, travel, hacking and alcohol

My week Monday 21 to Sunday 27 October 2013 was just insanely busy, including everything from bushfires to fine food to hacking, little sleep and far, far too much alcohol.

In the one week, I felt guilty for leaving the Blue Mountains when the locals were about to face what looked like a severe bushfire threat, especially when the very next day I enjoyed a luxury lunch, and spent four solid days absorbing deep, deep information security information and, in the evenings, alcohol.

I survived.

Articles

From CIO to CUXO: Chief user experience officer, ZDNet Australia, 21 October 2013.
Breakpoint Day 1: Smart TVs to the digital arms trade, Corrupted Nerds, 25 October 2013.
Smart TVs are dumb, and so are we, ZDNet Australia, 25 October 2013.

Podcasts

None.

Media Appearances

On Tuesday I spoke about backing up your home and personal data in case of disasters on ABC Radio 702 Sydney.
On Thursday I spoke about my Pozible crowdfunded journalism project on ABC Radio National’s Media Report.

Corporate Largesse

On Wednesday I went to a lunchtime media briefing by Amazon Web Services at the O-Bar, the restaurant at the top of Australia Square tower. The food and wine was delightful.
On Thursday I had dinner with Michael McKinnon from AVG Technologies AU and a chap from a government agency at Syracuse Restaurant and Wine Bar in Melbourne. AVG paid for that one.
On Sunday I had dinner with Michael McKinnon from AVG Technologies AU at Ishiya Japanese Stonegrill. I can thoroughly recommend the “sake degustation” options. But McKinnon again? I know. He even acted as my driver for an errand on Saturday afternoon. People are starting to talk…

The Week Ahead

Well, it’d almost over now. All I’ll say is that tonight is Thursday night and I’ll be returning to the Blue Mountains tomorrow. The weekend is unplanned, at least in detail, but I’ll be producing some media objects between now and the end of Sunday. Stay tuned.

[Map: The view from 29A, taken at Sydney Airport on 23 October 2013.

23 October 2013

Visiting Melbourne for Breakpoint and Ruxcon

As mentioned previously, my Pozible crowdfunding project was more that successful, and I’m heading to Melbourne this afternoon to cover Breakpoint and Ruxcon.

I’ve kicked off coverage over at Corrupted Nerds with a post entitled How will we cover Breakpoint and Ruxcon? I’ll leave you to struggle with the concept of what that might be about in your own time.

16 October 201316 October 2013

Is crowdfunded journalism a thing? My first experiment…

I’m getting sick of the “journalism is dying” meme. The old media factories are in trouble, sure, but I reckon journalism can do just fine without them. Stockholm Syndrome, people! So I’m going to put my money where my mouth is.

Well, your money.

I’ve just launched a Pozible crowdfunding campaign to send me to the Breakpoint and Ruxcon hacker conferences in Melbourne at the end of next week.

I won’t go into too much detail here. Just click through to the Pozible project page. All I’ll say for now is that there’s just seven days to raise $1800 more. Tight, but possible. More thoughts tonight.

[Update 2240 AEDT: Wow. Just, wow. It’s less that 17 hours since the Pozible project was launched, and it’s just passed 100% of the initial target. That means I’m definitely going to Breakpoint and Ruxcon, thanks to a raft of generous people. The project remains open until 1200 AEDT on Tuesday 22 October, though, with further funds going to the production of “Stream 2” items. See the Pozible project page for details of how that works. Thank you.]

13 October 2013

Sixth “Corrupted Nerds” posted, on SoundCloud too

Yes, I’m working through the backlog. Another Corrupted Nerds podcast has just been posted.

Distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are cheap and easy to do. It’s just a matter of overwhelming the target site with a flood of internet traffic. According to Michael Smith, head of Akamai Technologies’ computer security incident response team (CSIRT), such attacks will only get worse as we roll out faster broadband infrastructure.

“That increases the amount of bandwidth available to the home, but that also increases that amount of bandwidth that a bunch of computers at the home can throw at a target site,” Smith says.

That’s not the only reason that DDoS is becoming more challenging to defend against — but you’ll need to click through to the podcast to hear why.

Corrupted Nerds is also available via iTunes, and now also on SoundCloud. So you’ve really got no excuse not to listen. Well, unless you’re deaf. But that’s different.

29 September 2013

Fifth “Corrupted Nerds” podcast posted

After a gap that was altogether far too long, a new episode of the Corrupted Nerds podcast has just been posted.

“Networks are living and breathing things. They don’t sit still. Your vulnerabilities will change on a daily basis, for sure, and you need to be on top of that,” says Dick Bussiere, principal architect for Tenable Network Security in the Asia Pacific region.

That’s why Tenable is advocating what they see as a revolution in maintaining a data network’s security posture.

“We’re kind of advocating that people perform vulnerability assessment, and remediation of vulnerabilities, as a constant and continuous process, rather than something that you do on a periodic basis,” Bussiere says.

So that worldview, plus a few comments about advanced persistent threats (APTs), the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) and the revelations of Edward Snowden, are all part of Corrupted Nerds: Conversations episode 5. Enjoy.

01 September 201301 September 2013

Weekly Wrap 169: Explaining all the things, in various ways

My week Monday 26 August to Sunday 1 September 2013 was a full one, and I survived.

Part of me wants to write more than that, particularly after last week’s false start, the thoughts generated by my university lectures on Monday, and the idiocy of being banned by Microsoft — and in that account I really should have emphasised more the defamatory nature of that action.

But it’s already well into Sunday evening, I’ve already written my counterpoint to gripes about the Sunday Telegraph, and it’s a busy week ahead (see below). So on with the facts.

Articles

Gartner’s vision of infosec 2019: four scenarios, all bad, CSO Online, 28 August 2013.
Look, we told you about these droids, ZDNet Australia, 29 August 2013.
Assad’s army: the future of hacking is here, with a new target, Crikey, 30 August 2013.
Melbourne IT breach highlights need for security culture, ZDNet Australia, 30 August 2013.

Podcasts

None, though I did more background work on Corrupted Nerds, and things will appear in the coming few days.

Media Appearances

On Monday, I gave my guest lecture at the University of Sydney, Algorithms and the Filter Bubble, Take 2A in the morning, and Take 2B in the afternoon. They’re slightly different.

Corporate Largesse

Also on Monday, I met up with Kim Carter, the PR Manager of the Australian Direct Marketing Association. Oddly enough, they know all about data mining. She paid for the coffee.
Also on Monday, I went to the program launch for the Sydney Opera House’s Festival of Dangerous Ideas, which is on 2 to 4 November. There was food and drink.
On Thursday night, I went to Text100’s (in)famous Christmas in August event, where they previewed their clients’ goodies for the holiday buying season. There was food and much, much drink.

The Week Ahead

It’ll be another busy one. Monday is dedicated to a spring clean of various projects, something I’m looking forward to.

Tuesday is a trip to Sydney for a 1000 interview recording in the CBD, and to cover a lunch event by the Trans-Tasman Business Circle featuring Westpac’s chief information officer Clive Whincup. I’m reporting on the latter for Technology Spectator.

Wednesday is a day of interview recordings, research and writing back up in the Blue Mountains.

On Thursday it’s back to Sydney for more interview recordings and a lunch briefing by AVG Technologies, and I’ll probably stay in Sydney over night because on Friday I have an 0800 interview recording in the CBD — after which it’s all a bit unplanned.

[Photo: Sydney Harbour from Potts Point, taken from a room at the DeVere Hotel on Friday 30 August 2013.]