Tag: infosec

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Talking swatting on Sydney radio 2UE

2UE logoThis morning a Sydney teenager was arrested over a supposed hostage drama which is now being reported as an alleged swatting attack — a false report to police in the hope they’d respond in force. Which they did.

As The Sydney Morning Herald reports:

Police descended on the Arncliffe home just after 4.40am on Wednesday after emergency services received a report that the 18-year-old had tied up his father and a friend and was planning to shoot them because they had sexually assaulted his mother…

The teenager surrendered to police without incident.

The teenager’s mother claimed that his laptop was hacked and that he had told her he was the victim of “swatting”.

Sydney’s Radio 2UE picked up the story this afternoon, with Ian ‘Dicko” Dickson and Sarah Morice speaking first to their police reporter Michelle Taverniti, then me, then a 97-year-old caller recalling a different meaning of “swatting”.

Taverniti said that the teenager told his mother that he’d been visiting Hack Forums to trade Bitcoin. But as I said on-air, that’s what the lad told his mother told the police told the police reporter. We shall see.

“Three laptop computers and a smart phone were found at the house and these will be forensically examined by police,” says the NSW Police media release, so I daresay we’ll find out more in a couple of days.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (7.3MB)

This audio is ©2014 Radio 2UE Sydney Pty Ltd.

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Weekly Wrap 208: Mysterious productivity as winter arrives

Departing Sydney Central on the 1621 to Lithgow: click to embiggenI don’t want to jinx this, but my week of Monday 26 May to Sunday 1 June 2014 was yet another productive one. That makes it seven or eight solid weeks in a row. This pleases me. I jut wish I knew why it was happening, so I can make sure it keeps on happening.

That said, I haven’t had much of a social life in there. Maybe that needs to change. But for the time being, well, as the proverb says, “Make hay while this sun shines.”

Podcasts

Articles

Media Appearances

5at5

Another full week this week. But why don’t you subscribe to 5at5, and then I don’t need to keep telling you about it.

Geekery

Corporate Largesse

  • On Thursday I went to the launch of Kaspersky Lab’s new product, Kaspersky Security for Virtualization Light Agent, namely a dinner at the ECQ Bar at the Pullman Quay Grand Hotel, Circular Quay. There was food and drink, of course, and we were all given a Kaspersky-branded coffee mug, pen and hard-backed notebook, plus the mandatory USB memory stick containing the media assets. I got back to my hotel through the magic of Kapersky’s Cabcharge account.

The Week Ahead

On Monday I’ll be working on an ebook project, and on Tuesday I’ll be writing about whatever Apple announces and then planning out the rest of June.

The exact order of play for the rest of the week will depend on cashflows, but it’ll include writing something for ZDNet Australia, finishing off the ebook, sorting out online sales for same, and finding some more revenue for my podcasts for June.

The weekend is a long one, for the Queen’s Birthday, so I will probably be in Sydney, though I’m open to suggestions.

[Photo: Departing Sydney Central on the 1621 to Lithgow , photographed on 30 May 2014 through the train window.]

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Talking internet security on ABC Radio Overnights

ABC logoThere’s a reason I’m firing off all these blog posts so early. I’ve been up since 0300 this morning, because at 0400 I was doing a radio spot on ABC Radio Overnights.

Presenter Sally Knight and I spoke about all manner of security and safety issues, including questions that came in from the listeners — which is always interesting on this program, because it goes to air across Australia on every ABC Local Radio transmitter, city and country. You get to hear the real concerns.

This is the full 47-minute block of conversation.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (34.7MB)

The audio is of course ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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Weekly Wrap 207: Much productivity before a delayed winter

Sydney skyline from Camperdown: click to embiggenMy week of Monday 19 to Sunday 25 May 2014 was a busy one, despite having effectively lost a day flying back from the US. Excellent.

I suspect that in part this is down to the weather. Normally, things start getting gloomy in April, and the seasonal aspects of my depression kick in. For that not to have happened by now, nearly the end of May, is almost unheard of. I’m not complaining, you understand. I think it’s excellent. Yeah, fuck those polar bears!

Podcasts

I’m very pleased to say that I’ve resurrected my other podcast, Corrupted Nerds, with an episode entitled Conversations 10: Michelle Dennedy, privacy engineering. She’s chief privacy officer at McAfee.

Articles

Media Appearances

5at5

A full week this week. But why don’t you subscribe to 5at5, and then I don’t need to keep telling you about it.

Geekery

It’s been three years since I included this section in my Weekly Wrap, mostly because the geekery that I do is usually for clients, and therefore none of your business, or just routine stuff for myself, which is boring. However I’m bringing it back this week because I did a few little things of note.

  • I refurbished the website for my tech business Prussia.Net. As well as giving it a totally new appearance, as easy task thanks to Anders Noren and his WordPress theme Hemingway, I set things so that it uses HTTPS/SSL everywhere. I’ll have more to say about that soon. I also gave it an image of Sydney taken from the same location as the photo in this post.
  • I set up the Tip Stilgherrian page, as already described. I confirmed that such things are decidedly easy these days, and I’ll have more to say about that soon.

Corporate Largesse

  • On Wednesday I had coffee with some people from ManageEngine. They paid for the coffee.
  • Also on Wednesday, I had coffee with some people from Actifio. They, too, paid for the coffee. This is basic hospitality rather than largesse, I know, but once I started down the path of full disclosure, I decided to do so completely.

The Week Ahead

Today, Monday, consists of a morning of production planning, followed by the production of a new episode of The 9pm Edict. Tuesday and Wednesday are days full of writing, in theory.

On Thursday I’m heading into Sydney to record this week’s Download This Show with Marc Fennell, perhaps a meeting or two, and then the launch of Kaspersky Lab’s new security for virtualisation products — with, as the invitation says, “your choice of drinks”. That’s Kaspersky code for “liver damage is inevitable”.

Needless to say, I’ve booked accommodation for the night.

I’ve got a meeting or two in Sydney on Friday, and then the weekend is currently unplanned.

[Photo: Sydney skyline from Camperdown, photographed on 20 May 2014 from Rydges Camperdown Hotel.]

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Talking the eBay data breach on 1395 FIVEaa Adelaide

FIVEaa logoI’m pleased that the eBay data breach has been getting widespread media coverage. I certainly don’t mind doing a third radio spot today.

As has become a semi-regular thing, I spoke with afternoon presenter Will Goodings on 1395 FIVEaa Adelaide. Just a quick five minutes between a fascinating talkback in which people expressed strong feelings about not being able to smoke at al fresco eateries and the news.

I think we covered the essentials, no?

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.2MB)

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.

The audio is ©2014 dmgRadio Australia.

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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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.9MB)

The audio is of course ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.