Stilgherrian

Talking end-to-end encryption on ABC RN Breakfast

13 June 2017 in Conversations, Defence, Internet, Media, Politics by Stilgherrian | No comments

Australia is opening a new campaign in the seemingly never-ending Cyptowars. This time, the target is end-to-end encryption.

Our favourite attorney-general, Senator George Brandis QC, wants “the cooperation of companies like Apple and Facebook and Google and so on” to help the government break into encrypted communications. That cooperation would presumably extend to messaging apps that use end-to-end encryption, such as WhatsApp, Signal, Telegram, and so on.

And cooperation would be ensured, thanks to new legal sanctions.

Brandis says he’s not interested in putting mandatory “back door” access into the encryption used by messaging platforms. But how can that be true when he’s asking for the tech companies to be able to provide access to customers’ encrypted messages? That’s exactly what a back door is.

Anyway, this morning I was interviewed on this topic by Fran Kelly on the ABC’s RN Breakfast. We spoke for more than seven minutes.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 7:29 — 6.9MB)

For more analysis, try George Brandis’s salvo in cryptowars could blow a hole in architecture of the internet, by the Guardian’s Paul Farrell.

Talking Victorian MP website hack on ABC Radio Melbourne

11 January 2017 in Conversations by Stilgherrian | Permalink

Screenshot of Tunisian Fallage Team defacement ABC logo “Victorian Treasurer Tim Pallas’ website hacked by Tunisian Islamists” was the headline on the Herald Sun story today. Yes, the Tunisian Fallage Team had taken credit for the defacement.

This afternoon I put this into context with presenter Warwick Long on ABC Radio Melbourne, formerly ABC 774 Melbourne.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:14 — 2.9MB)

Talking civil use of metadata on ABC 105.7 Darwin

23 December 2016 in Conversations, Internet, Media, Politics, Privacy by Stilgherrian | Permalink

ABC logo When mandatory telecommunications data retention legislation was first introduced — the so-called “metadata” retention laws — Australia’s favourite Attorney-General Senator George Brandis QC stressed that it wouldn’t be used for civil proceedings. Guess what just happened?

On Tuesday, Brandis’ office announced a review of the laws to see whether retained metadata could be used — wait for it — in civil proceedings.

On Wednesday I wrote about this in a ZDNet column titled Brandis rushes to release telco metadata for civil proceedings.

And on Wednesday afternoon I spoke about it with Kate O’Toole on ABC 105.7 Darwin. Here’s that conversation.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 6:53 — 4.2MB)

Talking the Yahoo data breach on ABC The World Today

17 December 2016 in Conversations, Internet, Media, Privacy by Stilgherrian | Permalink

ABC logo “The internet company Yahoo has revealed it has been hacked again, this time losing a billion user accounts,” began ABC Radio’s The World Today report on Thursday.

Guess which muppet was interviewed by journalist Will Ockenden? Yeah, me.

Here’s the full four-minute story.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:00 — 1.8MB)

Talking Twitter and Vine on ABC Radio’s AM

05 November 2016 in Conversations, Internet, Media by Stilgherrian | Permalink

So Twitter is closing down Vine, the app that shares six-second videos. I’m not surprised. I always thought Vine was a gimmick.

On 28 October I gave my feelpinions to ABC Radio journalist Brendan Trembath, and they ended up in a 3-minute story for AM. There’s also a written story, Vine video sharing app killed off in latest sign of troubled times for Twitter.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:39 — 1.2MB)

Talking medical device hacks on ABC The World Today

05 November 2016 in Conversations, Internet, Media by Stilgherrian | Permalink

ABC logo Whenever there’s news of a medical device being hacked, it gets a lot of attention — and rightly so. So when cardiac devices made by St Jude Medical got some attention, I did a radio spot.

ABC Radio journalist Lindy Kerin recorded a brief interview with me on 25 October, and fragments were used in this 5-minute story from The World Today, and in a separate written story, Cyber security experts claim St. Jude cardiac implants vulnerable to life-threatening hacks.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 4:55 — 2.2MB)

The 9pm Edict LIVE

09 October 2016 in The 9pm Edict by Stilgherrian | Permalink

UPDATE: The next episode of The 9pm Edict will be recorded and streamed live on Thursday 6 July at 2100 AEST.

If you want to listen to The 9pm Edict podcast live on the internet as it’s being recorded, this is the place to be — not all those individual episode pages.

Check the schedule on The 9pm Edict‘s show page.

The recording sessions are streamed live via Spreaker, but you can listen right here. The widget immediately below shows all of the episodes of the Edict uploaded to Spreaker. A “Live” button will appear when the broadcast starts.

You can also use the Spreaker apps (the listening apps, not the studio/production apps).

Tweet along using the hashtag #9pmlive.

This podcast is listener-supported. If you’d like to contribute, please throw a few dollars into the pot.

Talking the death of voicemail on ABC 1233 Newcastle

02 October 2016 in Conversations, Internet, Media by Stilgherrian | Permalink

On Thursday, Mornings on ABC 1233 Newcastle noticed that some big businesses in the US had turned off voicemail, using text messaging instead. They also noted that many people had stopped using voicemail personally too.

That led to a conversation on the radio with Rosemarie Milsom, and here’s a recording.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 8:42 — 6.9MB)

Talking the Yahoo data breach on ABC Radio National Drive

25 September 2016 in Conversations, Internet, Media, Privacy by Stilgherrian | Permalink

ABC Sydney TARDIS 1 ABC logo Yahoo was the victim of the biggest data breach in history, at least so far, so it was inevitable that I ended up talking about it in the media.

This is my conversation with Jonathan Green on ABC Radio National Drive on Friday night.

Yahoo has confirmed the theft of user data including e mail addresses, birth dates, encrypted passwords and security questions. It took the internet giant two years to find out about the massive data breach. Stilgherrian is a Yahoo user and avid writer and commentator on the topic of cyber security and privacy. He talks to RN Drive about the incident.

And here’s what it sounded like.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 5:13 — 4.8MB)

[Photo: The view in ABC Sydney TARDIS 1, photographed in April 2016.]

Talking The Code and smart cars on ABC 774 Melbourne

25 September 2016 in Conversations, Internet, Media by Stilgherrian | Permalink

Screenshot from The Code series 2 ABC logo I haven’t made a big deal of being technology consultant for the new series of the ABC TV drama The Code — at least not here — but we decided to talk about that on ABC 774 Melbourne on Thursday night.

The conversation with Casey Bennetto also included some of the recent news about self-driving and smart cars — and, for some reason, the Twitter account Florida Man. Amongst other things.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 19:33 — 12.1MB)

[Photo: Jan Roth (Anthony LaPaglia) and Jesse Banks (Ashley Zukerman) in The Code series 2. Photo courtesy ABC TV.]