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07 June 201511 June 2015

Weekly Wrap 261: Two conferences, two states, many cybers

My week of Monday 1 to Sunday 7 June 2015 has been both productive and exhausting, covering two conferences in two states.

It’s a long time since I’ve written five articles in week. It’s at least six months since I’ve done four, which is as far back as I could be bothered scrolling let alone five. But of course, there’s podcasts and other projects that have generated revenue, including random geekery and technical consultancy, so “number of articles” isn’t a fair measure.

Still, this has been one of my most productive weeks in a while. Excellent.

Articles

ASIC still able to wield its magic hammer online, Crikey, 2 June 2015. The hammer I refer to is section 313(3) of the Telecommunications Act 1997.
Australia’s cyber defence ‘pretty ordinary’ before ASD’s Top Four, ZDNet Australia, 3 June 2015. This piece quotes Major General Stephen Day, who heads up the defensive side of the Australian Signals Directorate (ASD). This and the following piece were generated from Check Point’s Cyber Security Symposium in Sydney.
Tâ€‹elstra CISO blasts cyber ‘attribution distraction’, ZDNet Australia, 4 June 2015. Mike Burgess is said CISO.
Air gaps still a cheap and effective defence for critical networks: Kaspersky, ZDNet Australia, 4 June 2015. This is the first of two articles that came out of the AusCERT Information Security Conference, and there’ll be more next week.
Islamic State has ‘best cyber offence’ of any terrorist group, ZDNet Australia, 5 June 2015. This article cites Mykko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure in Helsinki.

Podcasts

None. The next episode of The 9pm Edict is scheduled for Monday 15 June, or the day after.

5at5

There were two editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday, and Sunday. To save me having to tell you this, you could just subscribe.

Media Appearances

On Monday, I spoke about Chinese ATMs with face recognition on ABC 891 Adelaide.
On Friday, I took part in the AusCERT Speed Debate. The Livestream recording has bad audio, so I’ll link to the YouTube version when it becomes available.
Also on Friday, I was interviewed by the University of Melbourne student newspaper Farrago. I’ll link to that story when it goes live.

Corporate Largesse

On Tuesday, I went to the Check Point Cyber Security Symposium in Sydney, or at least part of it. The goodie bag included a signed copy of Brian Krebs’ book Spam Nation, a Check Point branded notebook, a chocolate from A10 Networks, and of course copies of Check Point’s promotional material. Food and drink were supplied.
From Tuesday night through to Friday, I was at the AusCERT Information Security Conference as AusCERT’s guest. They provided return flights from Sydney to the Gold Coast, airport transfers, three nights accommodation at RACV Royal Pines Resort, and of course all the conference food and drink — and there was plenty of that. For taking part in the Speed Debate, I was given a bottle of Jim Barry The Lodge Hill Shiraz 2012 from the Clare Valley. And everybody got a copy of Bruce Schneier’s book Data and Goliath, an AusCERT-branded shirt, and a rather well-made courier bag. From CyberArk: A macaron, delivered creepy-like into my hotel room while I wasn’t there. From Firemon: A branded glass-cleaning cloth. From Mimecast: a keyring bottle opener. From NCC Group: a golden bath duck. From the US Naval Criminal Investigative Service: an NCIS cap — yes, from the real NCIS, not the TV show.

The Week Ahead

Monday is a public holiday for the Queen’s Birthday, but nevertheless I’ll be working. I’ll be writing a feature for ZDNet, as well as returning to Wentworth Falls after a week away.

From Tuesday to Thursday, I’ll be working on another feature for ZDNet, as well as my “regular” column, as well as the running so late it’s embarrassing ebook. ~~I see there’s an Apple keynote at 0300 AEST on Tuesday, so that may feed into something.~~ [It didn’t.] And I’ve got an interview to do on Thursday afternoon.

~~On Friday, I’ll be heading down to Sydney for a media briefing by Cisco.~~ Friday is another writing day.

I’m not sure how the weekend will go, but I see that there’s Poetry in the Pub in Katoomba on Sunday afternoon. I happened to be there last month, and I thought it might be interesting for The 9pm Edict podcast. We’ll see.

Update 11 June 2015: Edited to reflect the abandoning of the Friday trip to Sydney.

[Photo: Sunset on the Gold Coast, Photographed from the 16th floor of the RACV Royal Pines Resort on 3 June 2015.]

13 May 201525 January 2019

The 9pm Inadequate Sense of Occasion

Royal Visit 1954 -- Central Station: click to embiggen

There’s terror in Australia’s suburbs. But fear not. Attorney-General the Honourable Senator George “Soapy the Ankle” Brandis QC is on the case. And Bob Garfield speaks true wisdom.

In this podcast, there’s talk of trains, bombs, terrorism, conspiracies, more bombs, and more trains.

30 April 201508 May 2015

Weekly Wrap 255: A new dawn occluded by storms

My week of Monday 20 to Sunday 26 April 2015 was rather dismal, and not just because of the severe storms that hit New South Wales.

The storms were big. A month’s worth of rain fell on the first day, and then there was more rain. Ausgrid had to deal with more than 6000 power line failures, most of them because of trees. The State Emergency Service had more than 11,000 jobs to deal with, and again most of them were because of trees. People were killed. Houses were washed away.

Fortunately, I was at the periphery of all that. It was more the weather’s side effect, the fact that I was trapped indoors for the latter part of the week, which led to further introspection along the lines that I explained last week.

That new dawn was occluded by a stormy week, which culminated in the Anzac Day weekend and the personal reflections that brings. It’s all a lot to deal with, really.

Podcasts

“The 9pm Get Some Goddam Perspective Again”, being The 9pm Edict episode 41. It contains listeners’ follow-up comments on the previous episode, about Anzac Day, and something about a snake.

Articles

Banning VPNs won’t fix streaming video geoblock grief, ZDNet Australia, 20 April 2015.

5at5

There were only two editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday and Tuesday. To save me having to tell you this, you could just subscribe.

Media Appearances

None. A planned spot on Tuesday to talk about tech news on ABC 702 Sydney was cancelled because they needed to focus on their storm coverage.

Corporate Largesse

None.

The Week Ahead

Well it’s almost over now. Today, or was we call it, Thursday, I’ll be writing for ZDNet Australia, doing some blog posts including this one, running errands, and returning to Wentworth Falls after a couple days in Sydney. On Friday, I’ll be focusing on my legacy IT business, Prussia.Net, which now bears little relationship to how the website describes it, and which much change. The weekend will include whatever things I feel like at the time, because it’s the weekend.

[Photo: The storm approaches. The first of several days of heavy rainstorms hit New South Wales on Monday 20 April 2015. This shot was taken from a taxi driving down the Great Western Highway, somewhere between Leura and Wentworth Falls.]

13 April 2015

Weekly Wrap 253: Easter and too many things

My week of Monday 6 to Sunday 12 April 2015 was a little busier than it should have been, given that the Easter long weekend was in there. Mind you, I did plenty of work-related things in there.

I won’t list them all, because some of them were background things that you’re not allowed to know about yet. And some of them were thoughtful, long-term things that will be discussed soon enough. So it’s just the list for now.

Podcasts

“The 9pm Government by Fools”, being The 9pm Edict episode 39. It contains a brief rant about pies, amongst other things.

Articles

Downloaders be warned: Dallas Buyers Club wants your name and address, Crikey, 8 April 2015.

5at5

Three editions of 5at5 this week, on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. To save me having to tell you this, you could just subscribe.

Media Appearances

None.

Corporate Largesse

On Thursday, I went to the Australian media launch of VMware’s vCloudAir service at L’Aqua Restaurant at Cockle Bay, where a very lovely brunch was served.

The Week Ahead

I’m in Sydney all this week, and have a bunch of things to do, but in no particular order. I’ve got to plan the next month, produce an episode of The 9pm Edict podcast by Tuesday night, plan out a subscription drive for that podcast, review six TV scripts, write a column for ZDNet Australia, produce and post the recording of last week’s UTS lecture, coordinate some medical treatment, and finally assemble that ebook that’s been lurking in the back of the to-do list for far, far too long.

[Photo: En route to Sydney, being the view from a Blue Mountains line train as it travelled down to Sydney in the early morning light on Thursday 9 April 2015. It was a very different mood from last week’s view.]

31 December 201401 January 2015

Fine posts for 2014, such that they are

As in previous years, the list of most popular posts for 2014 was disappointing, so I’ve compiled this list for you to consider instead.

As it happens, only three posts stood out for me, and all of them were on the previous list.

May Reza Berati be the last, Mr Abbott. I do like this as exampled of the controlled rant, barely concealing a seething rage.
Operation Sovereign Borders, sinister and banal. Ditto for my reaction to Mick Kinley, acting chief executive officer of the Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) shrugging off concerns that Australia removes safety equipment from the lifeboats we put asylum seekers on before telling them to go home.
Algorithms and the Filter Bubble, Take 3. I continue to get compliments about this lecture, so it deserves to be on the list.

In the past I haven’t included the material I wrote elsewhere, for ZDNet Australia, Technology Spectator, CSO Online, Crikey, ABC The Drum and the rest. That’s all listed on my Media Output page. But this year I will highlight some of my personal favourites.

It’s strange, but we never really had to learn to love the bomb, Crikey, 29 January 2014.
Want secure software? Listen to Marge Simpson, ZDNet Australia, 13 March 2014.
It’s time that ‘metadata’ met an end, ZDNet Australia, 20 March 2014.
Enjoy your Ubergasm, but don’t expect respect in the morning, ZDNet Australia, 30 April 2014.
To win the cloud, remember George Westinghouse, ZDNet Australia, 27 May 2014.
Enough with the cyber ‘wake-up calls’, ZDNet Australia, 11 June 2014.
Google’s backward step on Android app privacy, ZDNet Australia, 20 June 2014.
Big data is just a big, distracting bubble, soon to burst, ZDNet Australia, 11 July 2014.
Beware the spin behind Australia’s new surveillance laws, ZDNet Australia, 21 July 2014.
Beware the spin behind Australia’s copyright law discussion paper, ZDNet Australia, 28 July 2014.
Putting people at the centre of enterprise security, ZDNet Australia, 3 November 2014.

Continue reading “Fine posts for 2014, such that they are”

04 September 201419 September 2014

Talking geoblocking and copyright on ABC Gold Coast

ABC logo The government’s discussion paper on online copyright infringement came out just over a month ago, the submissions period closed on Monday, and now the debate is really kicking off — including on the complicated legal issue of geoblocking.

Now I’ve already given my opinion on the political spin in the discussion paper itself. But the specific issue of geoblocking came up on ABC Gold Coast, and this morning I spoke with breakfast presenter Bern Young.

Legally it’s a grey area. By signing up for a Netflix account from Australia, for example, you may be breaking the terms and conditions of their service. But you’re still paying for the content, and money is passed on the the actual producers.

The only people missing out are the local Australian distributors who’ve inserted themselves between the content producers and the audience. What value are they adding, exactly? The whole point of the internet is to enable people to connect globally.

CHOICE sees it as a consumer issue. Doesn’t geoblocking, the restriction of content availability by location, restrict competition? They’ve just launched a TV campaign making that point. Even the government’s own inquiry into IT pricing recommended that geoblocking be outlawed.

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