Weekly Wrap 368: Plodding through winter, thoughtfully

Approaching the BridgeMy week of Monday 12 to Sunday 18 June 2017 was steadily more productive than the last, despite appearances.

I did foreshadow last week that I’d be recording the pilot episode of a new podcast. I’ve put that back a few weeks, for various reasons, but as you’ll see below there will be a podcast soon.

Articles

Podcasts

None.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • On Thursday morning, I met with some people from Bitdefender and their external PR firm, and they bought me a coffee.

The Week Ahead

I’ll be working on the SEKRIT editorial project and writing for ZDNet, with a break mid-week to celebrate the Winter Solstice. At some point I’ll probably pop down to Sydney, but I haven’t set a date yet.

Further Ahead

The next episode of The 9pm Edict podcast will be recorded and streamed live on Thursday 29 June 6 July from stilgherrian.com/edict/live/, starting at 2100 AEST. You still have time to support this podcast with a one-off contribution.

I’m covering the Data + Privacy Asia Pacific conference in Sydney on 12 July; the 5th International Conference on Cybercrime and Computer Forensics (ICCCF) on the Gold Coast from 16 to 18 July, I hope; the national conference of the Australian Information Security Association (AISA) in Sydney from 10 to 12 October; and Ruxcon in Melbourne on 21 to 22 October.

If there’s anything I should add in there, please let me know.

Update 26 June 2017: Edited to reflect schedule changes.

[Photo: Approaching the Bridge. The approaches to the Sydney Harbour Bridge, off-camera to the right, photographed on 30 October 2012.]

Weekly Wrap 367: Too much rain, too little evidence

Central Station in the rainMy week of Monday 5 to Sunday 11 June 2017 wasn’t bad at all, despite the rain. Most of the achievements were in the background, however.

Articles

Podcasts, Media Appearances, Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

Monday is a public holiday for the Queen’s Birthday, but I’ll be working on the SEKRIT editorial project. That work will continue on Tuesday, after which the project should not be SEKRIT. Wednesday will be devoted to administrivia.

Thursday will be spent in Sydney. So far I’ve scheduled a meeting, two medical appointments, and a bunch of errands.

On Saturday, I’m recording the pilot episode of a new podcast. I’ll tell you more about that in about a week.

Further Ahead

I’m covering 5th International Conference on Cybercrime and Computer Forensics (ICCCF) on the Gold Coast from 16 to 18 July, I hope; and the national conference of the Australian Information Security Association (AISA) in Sydney from 10 to 12 October.

If there’s anything I should add in there, please let me know.

[Photo: Central station in the rain, photographed on 9 June 2017. The view is from a NSW TrainLink V-set (#purpletrain) standing on platform 7 looking towards platform 8.]

Talking the eBay data breach on ABC The World Today

ABC logoFollowing the earlier report on AM, ABC Radio’s The World Today explored the eBay data breach story further, looking at the potential for identity theft.

The reporter was Will Ockenden, and here’s how presenter Eleanor Hall introduced the item:

Internet retailing giant eBay is admitting today that the hacking of its computer systems three months ago could affect all 145 million users of the auction website.

The company has defended the time it has taken to discover the unauthorized access to its network, and the two week delay in letting its users know that their private information was stolen.

Internet security analysts say they now expect a rise in the number of secondary attacks, as hackers attempt to exploit other sites.

eBay users should change their passwords immediately, and if they use the same password anywhere else, they should change the password there too — and invest in password management software so they can start using different random, complex passwords for every online service.

Here’s the full story, served directly from the ABC website, where you can also read the transcript.

The audio is of course ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Talking ID and security on ABC 105.7 Darwin

ABC logoYesterday I ended up having a brief chat about identity, security and the concept of federated ID on ABC 105.7 Darwin. Here it is.

Breakfast presenter Richard Margetson had received a message from listener Heather from Tiwi, who’d lost her wallet. Amongst the hassle of having to replace all her cards, it was going to take up to six weeks for her new Medicare card to arrive — although she did get a new Medicare number to use straight away.

Margetson wondered whether technology might fix this. I set him straight.

The audio is of course ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Weekly Wrap 124: Dirty dog, dirty martini

My week Monday 15 to Sunday 21 October 2012 was marred by the black dog, who decided to visit in strength with his friend back pain. Productivity was very low.

It’s a shame. I have the workings of several quite good articles in various stages of assembly on the computer, and invitations to take part in a variety of interesting unpaid projects. At least half of them will progress no further.

Podcasts

Articles

None.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • On Monday I had lunch at a North Sydney cafe with Marc Brown, managing consultant of Trustwave SpiderLabs in Australia, along with members of their external PR team. They paid. I believe I had smoked salmon salad.

The Week Ahead

It’s a busy week of writing ahead, after the usual Monday scramble to complete the Patch Monday podcast. At this stage it looks like I’ll be in Sydney on Wednesday and overnight into Thursday. The weekend is currently unplanned, but that will be fixed later today.

[Photo: Manhattan at the Carrington, an essential part of yesterday’s return to normality. For some value of “normal”.]