Tag: infosec

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Press conference with Det Supt Brian Hay

Here is the full audio recording of the press conference held this morning by Detective Superintendent Brian Hay, head of the Fraud and Corporate Crime Group of the Queensland Police Service in relation to the arrest of Fairfax journalist Ben Grubb.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 25:24 — 16.7MB)

For background, here are the related ZDNet Australia stories, and I’ll post further linkage when I have the time. That’ll include a fairly full collection of media stories.

Note that the Facebook hack was not demonstrated at the AusCERT Conference but the Security BSides Australia conference. There’s a few more misconceptions in some of the media reportage, but I’ll do another post about them I figure.

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Weekly Wrap 48

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. This week was very much a calm — sort of — before the storm.

Podcasts

  • Patch Monday episode 86, “Apple: Big Brother or just misunderstood?”. When news broke that Apple’s iOS-based devices were logging location-based information, the media went wild. I speak with information security engineer Alex Levinson from Katana Forensics and Professor Roger Clarke, chair of the Australian Privacy Foundation.

Articles

  • APF urges criminal penalties for smartphone privacy breaches, for ZDNet Australia, based on Professor Clarke’s comments on Patch Monday.
  • Gamification: Hot, new, unethical? for the new site Technology Spectator. I’ll say it straight up: the mindset behind the gamification trend disgusts me. And, despite what the first two commenters on that op-ed imagine, it’s not because I haven’t heard or read enough about it. The more I hear and read from gamification’s buzzword-addled cheer squad the more disgusted I become.

Media Appearances

  • On Monday I spoke with Perth radio RTRfm about the Sony PlayStation Network hack.
  • On Friday I spoke with Kate O’Toole on ABC 105.7 Darwin about the surge of spam and malware following the killing of Osama bin Laden.

I haven’t posted the audio files of those radio interviews, even though I have them. Should I? Part of me says I should do so, because it helps create a proper archive of what I do. But another part of me reckons that radio in particular is ephemeral, and that my conversations about these issues really haven’t added much new to the vast global pool of media on these subjects. What do you think?

Corporate Largesse

None. But that will seriously change next week. Stand by.

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: Victory is mine! The view from the dining table at Wattle Cottage, one of the Bunjaree Cottages where I’ve been living off and on for the last three months. The title is because this was the last in a sequence of photos documenting my battle with the forces of natural gas. I guess you had to be there…]

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Weekly Wrap 47

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. Thanks to the collision of Easter and Anzac Day to create a very long weekend indeed, there were only three official workings days.

Podcasts

There was no Patch Monday podcast because Monday was a public holiday. However I did record the key interviews for the next two episodes. That’s the furthest ahead I’ve ever been.

Articles

  • Tired Microsoft delivers solid profits, for now, for Crikey, which as you might imagine is a commentary on the company’s quarterly results.
  • I also wrote a piece for ZDNet Australia that should be published tomorrow, and my first two opinion pieces for an outlet that… well… I’ll tell you about that next week.

Media Appearances

  • On Wednesday I was interviewed by Carol Duncan on ABC Radio 1233 Newcastle about the security breach of Sony’s PlayStation Network. The audio is available at the ABC website.
  • I was interviewed on the same subject by the OzSpot gaming podcast, a production of CBS Interactive’s GameSpot.

    • [Update 8 May 2011: The direct link to the podcast doesn’t work. You’ll have to scroll down the list of episodes in the “archive” section on the right to find the one for 26 April.]

  • On Thursday I was interviewed by John Kenneally and Jane Doyle on Adelaide radio FIVEaa about… the Sony PlayStation Network hack. There’s no audio published at their website. Should I post my copy, do you think?

Corporate Largesse

None.

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: Road to Bunjaree Cottages, taken earlier today. This is one of the dirt roads leading to Bunjaree Cottages, which is where I’ve been staying off and on for the last three months. This isn’t the official road to take, as for a short distance it crosses through private property, but it’s the way I usually take when walking into Wentworth Falls.]

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Covering the AusCERT 2011 Conference on the Gold Coast

In just 11 9 days, I kick off a week and a half of travel. I’ve already mentioned that on 9 May I’m heading to San Francisco for NetSuite’s SuiteWorld event. The very day that I return to Sydney, 15 May, I’m leaving again for the Gold Coast to cover the AusCERT 2011 information security conference as part of the ZDNet Australia team for CBS Interactive.

I haven’t even begin to think about what’s happening there. I’m assuming that a production meeting some time this coming week will help. But I figured I should at least mention it in case you’re going and want to meet up.

I do know that the following Monday’s episode of the Patch Monday podcast will include material from AusCERT. But I’m also doing news-cycle journalism, because in essence I’m filling the gap in ZDNet’s coverage created by journalist Darren Pauli leaving to start his new job as editor of SC Magazine. So there’ll be plenty for me to do. It’ll be hectic.

[Updated 9.50pm: Edited to show the correct number of days until I leave. See, I’m so stressed I can’t even count.]

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Weekly Wrap 43

A weekly summary of what I’ve been doing elsewhere on the internets. This week I’m slowly getting back to the normal level of media work, it seems.

I’ve even completely finished the coming week’s edition of the Patch Monday podcast and sent it to ZDNet Australia. I feel so… productive!

Podcasts

Articles

  • Iranian hackers prove internet security is rubbish, for Crikey, explaining the implications of the presumed-Iranian hackers managing to issue themselves fake SSL certificates.
  • Electronic voting a threat to democracy, for ABC Unleashed. This opinion piece essentially says that the security risks outweigh the convenience. I was most amused to see commenters claim that I’m therefore “afraid of technology” because I don’t understand it. Convenience is everything, apparently.

Media Appearances

Corporate Largesse

  • Shiva Kumar from PR firm Edelman bought me a cup of coffee on Monday when he briefed me on using LinkedIn. LinkedIn themselves then provided me with a free Pro-level account.

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: The view from Wattle Cottage, which is where I’m living this weekend. Of course it’s one of the Bunjaree Cottages at Wentworth Falls in the Blue Mountains, where I’ve been based since early February. This is the first time I’ve stayed in this particular cottage and the view brings with it a vast number of birds.]

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Talking Hacking 101 on ABC Radio Darwin 105.7

This morning, in the wake of news that Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s email has been hacked along with those of other senior government members, the ABC’s Kate O’Toole spoke with me about the rise of hacking.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 11:04 — 5.1MB)

This material is ©2010 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, of course, but given that I provide my time for free and they don’t make the effort to make it available online, it’s only reasonable that I put it here and plug Kate O’Toole’s excellent program.