infosec – Page 14 – Stilgherrian

16 February 201517 February 2015

Weekly Wrap 245: Technology old and new, plus fatigue

My week of Monday 9 to Sunday 15 February 2015 was hectic. I must learn that the long commute to Sydney, two hours each way, doesn’t mix with doing so to be there before 0900 and starting to return after 1700. Not two days in a row, anyway.

Still, I did get quite a bit done, even if all of the outputs haven’t appeared yet.

Podcasts

“The 9pm Sleepless Necessary Remedial Action”, being The 9pm Edict episode 36. This one was quicker to produce, at eight and a half hours. It’s also the longest episode of the Edict ever.

Articles

Big data ethics is a board-level issue, ZDNet Australia, 13 February 2015.

5at5

There were three editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday, Thursday and Friday. The two missing days where when I had very early starts and very late finishes and, probably more importantly, a conference to pay attention to during the day. Hmmm. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all as they’re released. Subscribe. Just subscribe.

Media Appearances

On Tuesday, I spoke about smartphone surveillance on 1395 FIVEaa Adelaide.
Also on Tuesday, I spoke about smartphone surveillance on ABC 720 Perth.

Corporate Largesse

On Tuesday and Wednesday I went to the APIdays Sydney at Australian Technology Park, where I was amply fed and watered.

The Week Ahead

On Monday, I’ve been catching up on all manner of loose ends, including blog posts. ~~Tuesday through Wednesday are writing and production days, though I’ll work out the exact sequence of events as I go along.~~

On Tuesday, I’ll be re-planning the rest of February, as well as doing shopping and other errands, as well as doing some research and organising some story pitches for those people we call “editors”.

On Wednesday I’m doing a day trip to Sydney to run some errands in Parramatta and the CBD, meet some people, and finally see the sleep physician to get this treatment program started. I may blog about that last point, because some people have expressed interest.

On Thursday I’ll be writing for ZDNet Australia, and perhaps someone else.

On Friday, I’m heading into Sydney on another day trip — for errands and a meeting and then, in the afternoon, NICTA’s Techfest at Australian Technology Park, and then an appointment to rearrange my back and neck.

Saturday is unplanned. Place your bids now.

Sunday is the start of the Tech Leaders Forum, formerly known as Kickstart. This year it isn’t being held on the Gold Coast, but in the Blue Mountains west of Sydney, at the Fairmont Resort. The event continues on Monday.

Update 17 February 2015: Edited to include changes to the schedule.

[Photo: The Future is Coal, a standard 45-car coal train passing through Wentworth Falls, photographed on 15 February 2015.]

16 February 2015

Talking Smart TV surveillance on ABC 720 Perth

ABC logo As I mentioned in my previous post, one of the technology stories that crossed over into the mainstream media last week was the news that Samsung’s Smart TV were listening out for conversations — part of its voice recognition features — and transmitting them to an un-named third party.

Now I won’t repeat the reasons why Samsung needs to do this, but I will repeat that Samsung’s big mistake was to have this voice recognition feature turned on by default — which meant that customers were unaware it was happening unless they happened to read the lengthy privacy policy and understand its implications.

This is the second radio spot I did on the topic, for ABC 720 Perth with presenter Jamie Burnett.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:21 — 4.2MB)

This audio is @2015 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Bonus link: My ZDNet Australia piece from Smart TVs are dumb, and so are we.

16 February 2015

Talking Smart TV surveillance on 1395 FIVEaa Adelaide

One of the technology stories that crossed over into the mainstream media last week was the news that Samsung’s Smart TV were listening out for conversations — part of its voice recognition features — and transmitting them to an un-named third party.

Now Samsung needs to do this because the TV itself doesn’t have enough grunt to do the voice recognition. It’s the same reason that Google Translate needs to send your words off to their servers, do the translation there, and send the translated words back.

And there’s a reasonable argument to be made that the TV needs to listen the whole time, so it knows when you’ve started talking to it.

The audio information is sent to a third party because they’re the ones providing the speech recognition technology.

But Samsung’s big mistake was to have this feature turned on by default, so that customers were unaware it was happening — unless they happened to read the lengthy privacy policy and understand its implications. And who does that?

I ended up doing two radio spots on this topic, and this is the first — a chat with Will Goodings on 1395 FIVEaa in Adelaide.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (16.6MB)

Bonus link: My ZDNet Australia piece from late 2013, Smart TVs are dumb, and so are we.

09 February 201509 February 2015

Weekly Wrap 244: Cloudy sky, cloudy mind, kinda

My week of Monday 2 to Sunday 8 February 2015 was exhausting — but as you can see, the productivity levels started returning to something approaching normality. Slowly.

Podcasts

“The 9pm Sleepless in Canberra”, being The 9pm Edict episode 35. Yes, a new podcast appeared just one week after the previous one. Amazing. It still took 11 hours to produce, though. I must fix that.

Articles

From practitioners to politicians, we lack the infosec clue needed, ZDNet Australia, 3 February 2015. Part of a 10-story ZDNet feature section, Security and Privacy: New Challenges.
Australian infosec budgets are probably wrong: Deloitte, ZDNet Australia, 4 February 2015.
Why a dumb security video will help you work smarter, not harder, ZDNet Australia, 6 February 2015. My review of the new video from the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) surprised some readers.

5at5

There were three editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday, Tuesday and Friday. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all as they’re released. Subscribe. Just subscribe.

Media Appearances

On Friday, I spoke about Twitter’s business, and the risk of uncontrolled bullying, on ABC Radio’s The World Today.

Corporate Largesse

On Thursday, I went to a media briefing by VMware at Sydney’s Flying Fish Restaurant in Pyrmont. There was excellent food and wine. I had the duck terrine and the lamb loin with side dishes.

The Week Ahead

Monday will have pretty much ended by the time this gets published. It’s likely to have been a day of pottering around after very little sleep, and planning for the rest of the week.

Tuesday and Wednesday both see day trips to Sydney to cover the APIdays conference at Australian Technology Park. “Liberate then Innovate”? I feel sick already. Late Wednesday afternoon I’m also covering a seminar on “Risk-based approach to Privacy” being run by iappANZ, the International Association of Privacy Professionals ANZ. These will be long, exhausting days — in part because I’ll have to do the long commute both days rather than staying in Sydney, thanks to cashflow constraints. Wish me luck.

Thursday and Friday are writing days, I’m guessing, turning those two hectic days into words for money.

The weekend is unplanned.

[Photo: Sydney skyline from Camperdown, photographed from level 6 of Rydges Camperdown Hotel on 5 February 2015.]

01 February 201503 February 2015

Weekly Wrap 243: Wattle, delays and fatigue

My week of Monday 26 January to Sunday 1 February 2015 didn’t quite go to plan. Everything was still slower and more liquid than I’d wished. But such is life.

I won’t go into too many details. Some of it is on my Twitter stream, and if you really want to investigate then you can drill down into my tweets for January.

Podcasts

“The 9pm I can’t believe it’s not January”, being The 9pm Edict episode 34. The first seven minutes or so were an interesting psychological journey to produce. I have deleted the original audio file of that music loop so that I never have to listen to it again.

Articles

None. But that feature for ZDNet Australia was filed on Thursday as planned, and should appear on Monday or Tuesday.

5at5

There was only one edition of 5at5 again this week, on Friday once more. You might want to subscribe so you receive them all in the future. Subscribe. Just subscribe.

Media Appearances

None, although I did get a few requests, which I turned down.

Corporate Largesse

None, because I cancelled my planned trip into Sydney.

The Week Ahead

Let’s have another go at returning productivity to some semblance of normality, shall we?

Monday is mostly about catching up on blogging, administrivia and the endless communications backlog — although I’m getting better at just deleting things.

~~On Tuesday, I will be updating a certain ebook and, if the cashflows work, getting it online so people can buy it. On Wednesday, I’ll be writing a column for ZDNet Australia, I think.~~

Tuesday will be a day of more administrivia and planning. On Wednesday, I’ll be heading to Sydney for a mid-morning media briefing by Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, as well as a haircut. I’ll report on same for ZDNet Australia. The briefing, not the haircut.

On Thursday, I’ll be heading to Sydney again for a lunchtime briefing by VMWare, as well as several errands. Somewhen in there I’ll knock out a column for ZDNet Australia.

Friday through Sunday is unplanned, but since there’s quite a bit to catch up on, I suspect it’ll end up being quite busy.

[Update 3 February 2015: Edited to add a second trip to Sydney, and other minor schedule changes.]

[Photo: Random wattle, photographed at Bunjaree Cottages on Australia Day, 26 January 2015.]

18 January 2015

Talking propaganda hacks on 2UE

This was the week that the Australian media returned from holidays. What caught the eye, or ear, of Justin Smith on Sydney’s radio 2UE on Tuesday afternoon was the series of hacks and planned hacks for political purposes.

Someone had hacked the Twitter and YouTube accounts of US Central Command (CENTCOM) — although it probably wasn’t Islamic State. And Anonymous, or at least their French-speaking sections, announced that they were declaring war on the jihadists.

I’m posting the audio stream even though it suffers some dropouts. I’m assuming this was just the stream back to me, rather than the broadcast chain, because we continued on air regardless.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.7MB)