Weekly Wrap 437: Cybering for two weeks in two countries

The White HouseMy fortnight of Monday 1 to Sunday 14 October 2018 was spent in The America and then in the Melbourne. I’m exhausted. But it was all quite productive.

Articles

Podcasts

None published. But as well as the long conversation with Nicholas Fryer that we recorded in Adelaide two weeks ago, in DC I recorded a long interview with the remarkable Mike Godwin, creator of Godwin’s Law amongst many other things. Both of those podcasts will be posted some time in the coming week.

Media Appearances

None, which is unusual.

Corporate Largesse

  • My flights to the US and the related accommodation were covered by FireEye.
  • At the Australian Cyber Conference on 10–11 October there was plenty of food and drink, courtesy of the Australian Information Security Association (AISA) and their sponsors. AusCERT: A branded SyncStop “USB Condom” to protect my devices while charging from random USB ports; Tenable: a copy of Cyber Exposure for Dummies; ThreatQuotient: A stress rhinoceros, leading Benno Rice to coin the euphemism “Squeezing the rhino”; Tripwire: Three t-shirts bearing the slogan “I didn’t start the fire”; Yubico: A YubiKey NEO authentication device.

The Week Ahead

On Monday, I’m back in Sydney, where I’ll be dealing with a couple of medical things, sorting through my notes and pitching some stories, and ending the day with some social life, before taking the train back to Wentworth Falls.

Tuesday through Thursday will be about writing for ZDNet and editing podcasts. I’ll plan that out as I go.

Friday is another Sydney day, with the usual mix of medical and work appointments, plus whatever remains to be done. I’m looking forward to having a lazy weekend.

Further Ahead

The following week I’m spending a bunch of time in Sydney covering the Sibos global financial services conference on 22–25 October. That’ll keep me pretty busy, so Friday through Sunday will be more laid-back.

Beyond that:

[Photo: The White House. You know what this is. Photographed on the foggy Sunday morning of 7 October 2018.]

The 9pm End of the World, Definitely

Photo of Ivanka Trump

North Korea launched yet another ballistic missile in the general direction of the ocean. So stick a nuke on it, and we’re fucked. Well, Japan is fucked. Or the oceans is fucked. Whatever.

There’s also stories from my recent travels, cybersecurity, spooks, terrorists, and something from the Dough Anthony All Stars. And of course Nicholas Fryer with a look through The Arch Window.

But overall, the message is that we’re fucked, the man running America is a goose, so we’re really, really fucked. Plus other stuff.

Continue reading “The 9pm End of the World, Definitely”