Listen up for true facts about Donald Trump, true facts hidden by the Mueller investigation, and an encounter with the sex walrus.
Continue reading “The 9pm Authoritarian Tentacles”The 9pm Authoritarian Tentacles
Weekly Wrap 437: Cybering for two weeks in two countries
My 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
- No Russian interference yet in US midterm elections: FireEye, ZDNet Australia, 4 October 2018. Interesting analysis. The first of three stories from the FireEye Cyber Defense Summit.
- America the ‘indispensable nation’ for cybersecurity: Madeleine Albright, ZDNet Australia, 4 October 2018.
- North Korea is the most destructive cyber threat right now: FireEye, ZDNet Australia, 5 October 2018. The key word here is “destructive”. When discovered, the DPRK hackers tent to trash everything in sight.
- My Health Record justifications ‘kind of lame’: Godwin, ZDNet Australia, 10 October 2018.
- UK’s NCSC to monitor internet routing to stop DDoS and hijacks, ZDNet Australia, 12 October 2018. An update on the NCSC’s impressive Active Cyber Defence work.
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:
- McAfee MPOWER Cyber Security Summit, Sydney, 30 October.
- International Association of Privacy Professionals ANZ (iappANZ) Annual Summit, Privacy: Handling the Seismic Shift, Melbourne, 1 November. (Tentative)
[Photo: The White House. You know what this is. Photographed on the foggy Sunday morning of 7 October 2018.]
The 9pm Hallucinating Goldfish
A random man shares his fear, a fear we all share. Nicholas Fryer makes life more enjoyable. And you know that end of the world thing? Pffft. The Cold War. That all turned out OK, so what’s the worry?
There’s also talk of gamified urination, paranoia, nuclear war, legumes, gelato, and bamboo. And Nicholas Fryer takes a look through The Arch Window.
Continue reading “The 9pm Hallucinating Goldfish”The 9pm End of the World, But More So
Do you think we’re close to a nuclear war breaking out? That’s just one of the trivial questions addressed in this podcast.
There’s also talk of gay marriage, racism, British tourists, more racism, and Senator Malcolm Roberts. And of course Nicholas Fryer takes a look through The Arch Window.
Continue reading “The 9pm End of the World, But More So”The 9pm End of the World, Definitely
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”Talking technology on ABC 720 Perth, episode the second
The hack of Sony Pictures Entertainment inspired many of the talking points on today’s “Tech Wreck” segment on ABC 720 Perth.
Did North Korea hack Sony? Or was it hackers-for-hire employed by North Korea? Or was it someone else who hired hackers and paid them to look like they were working for North Korea? At this stage nobody knows. But whoever did the hack, it is not “cyberwar”.
Sony is also trying to take legal action against people publishing links to the stolen material, which is surely going to trigger the Streisand Effect — which I explained.
We spoke about how Sony’s computer networks were shut down, leading to working like it’s an office from ten years ago, but with added paranoia.
And we also spoke about the Pew Research Center report, as described in the Fairfax press, which suggested that living a public life online would be the new default by the year 2025. Privacy will be considered a luxury.
The presenter is Jamie Burnett.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 21:32 — 13.7MB)
The audio is ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.