Tag: nicole dyer

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Talking the 2016 Census and privacy on ABC Gold Coast

ABC logoAustralia’s 2016 Census is turning out to be the most controversial in history, mostly because the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) has decided to keep people’s names and addresses associated with their raw Census data for four years, and perhaps longer.

This has of course triggered privacy concerns.

Personally, I think the ABS has only itself to blame, because they didn’t include us citizens in the journey this decision, and they’ve been hopeless at explaining themselves.

I wrote about this for ZDNet on Monday, Census privacy risks are not what they seem, and that triggered a couple of radio spots.

This conversation with Nicole Dyer on ABC Gold Coast was the first. It begins with some comments from the ABS Census Director, Caroline Deans.

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

This audio is ©2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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Talking AusCERT 2016 infosec on ABC Gold Coast

ERT 2016: part of the stage for AusCERT 2016

ABC logoAs careful readers will know, I’ve spent most of the week on Australia’s Gold Coast at the AusCERT 2016 Conference. That piqued the interest of ABC Gold Coast.

On Thursday morning I recorded a chat about various security and cybercrime topics of interest, which was edited down to this 16-minute conversation.

The presenter is Nicole Dyer.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (9.0MB)

This audio is ©2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

[Photo: Part of the stage for AusCERT 2016, photographed on 25 May 2016.]

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Talking the Ashley Madison hack on ABC Gold Coast

ABC logoThe Ashley Madison hack returned to the news this week, because the 30-day deadline given by Impact Team, the hacker(s) who claimed responsibility, expired, and the site’s data started being dumped onto the internet.

While I’d spoken about this before on ABC 936 Hobart, this week I spoke about the then-latest developments on Friday with ABC Gold Coast. Here’s the full conversation with morning presenter Nicole Dyer.

The site I mentioned at the end, where you can check whether your email address appears in the Ashley Madison data dump, or in many of the larger data breaches of recent years, is haveibeenpwned.com, run by Australian security researcher Troy Hunt. Use it.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (7.0MB)

The audio is of course ©2015 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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Talking the cult of Apple on ABC Gold Coast

ABC logoToday the iPhone 6 went on sale, and of course the Apple fanchildren went into their usual semi-crazed state waiting for the Apple Stores to open — even on the Gold Coast.

ABC Gold Coast morning presenter Nicole Dyer decided to give me a call to explain the phenomenon, and here’s the recording.

She asked me about Stephen Fry’s review of the iPhone 6 for The Guardian. I was not complimentary. I referred to it as “one of the most embarrassing pieces of technology writing in the history of electricity”.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.2MB)

The audio is ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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Talking the eBay data breach on ABC Gold Coast

ABC logoOnline marketplace eBay has suffered a massive data breach. Their official statement outlines what we know so far. This conversation on ABC Gold Coast from earlier this morning was the first of several media spots I’m doing today.

As I explained to presenter Nicole Dyer, if all 150 million or so user records were stolen, this makes it one of the Top 5 biggest data breaches by volume of all time.

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.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.9MB)

Also worth listening to is Will Ockenden’s report on ABC Radio’s AM this morning. It features security researcher Graham Cluley.

The audio here is of course ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

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Talking Internet of Things on ABC Gold Coast

ABC logoThe fact that a bunch of technology journalists had gathered on the Gold Coast to discuss the latest tech trends caught the interest of the local ABC radio station. This conversation from Wednesday 19 February is the result.

Presenter Nicole Dyer and I ended up talking about the Internet of Things — and of course I mentioned the internet refrigerator and the internet rice cooker — smart cars, smart air conditioning, smart TVs and how they can be hacked. It’s a more lighthearted approach to some topics that I’ve discussed more seriously elsewhere.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (3.8MB)

The audio is ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.