Word-whore. I write 'em. I talk 'em. Information, politics, media, and the cybers. I drink. I use bad words. All publication is a political act. All communication is propaganda. All art is pornography. All business is personal. All hail Eris! Vive les poissons rouges sauvages!
The week of Monday 7 to Sunday 13 October was spent in Melbourne, primarily covering the Australian Cyber Conference. Despite a lingering sore throat, I managed to squeeze out four stories for ZDNet and have a pleasant weekend. Excellent!
Continue reading “Weekly Wrap 489: A week in Melbourne with cybers”
The week of Monday 25 September to Sunday 1 October 2017 was made of Melbourne and back pain. One was good, the other less so.
None.
Monday is a public holiday, and here I am writing for you. On Tuesday, I’m skipping the iappANZ Summit 2017 because I need to rest my back. I’ll be reading instead.
Wednesday sees a day trip to Sydney, where foreign minister Julie Bishop is launching Australia’s first International Cyber Engagement Strategy. I previewed the strategy last week, but will be writing further for ZDNet I’m sure.
Thursday onwards is unplanned, but I know I have some geekery to perform.
Events I’m covering or speaking at include:
If there’s anything I should add in there, please let me know.
[Photo: Sydney Harbour, after David Moore. Sydney Harbour photographed from Virgin Australia flight VA859, a Boeing 737-800 registration VH-VUQ, on 30 September 2017. The style is similar to David Moore’s famous “Sydney Harbour from 16,000 feet” (1966) and related photos, but nowhere near as wonderful.]
On Thursday, prime minister Malcolm Turnbull released the government’s Cyber Security Strategy. Apart from writing about it for ZDNet, I ended up doing four radio spots. This is the first.
In this first post, I’ll mention as background reading the official Cyber Security Strategy website, the ZDNet stories Australia to get Cyber Minister as part of AU$240m cyber package and Turnbull calls for more openness surrounding data breaches, and my articles A ‘big science’ approach for Australian cybersecurity research? (published before the strategy was released, based on presentations at the ACSC Conference), and Turnbull sets the scene for a ‘Stop the Bytes’ election.
This first radio spot was on ABC 105.7 Darwin in the early morning, before the strategy was officially released. The presenter is Richard Margetson.
Each of these spots varied in content and style. In this one, we covered the recent rapid rise in cybercrime, the allegedly Chinese hack of the Bureau of Meteorology, a grab from Dr Tobias Feakin, and Australia’s ability to conduct offensive cyber operations.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (4.1MB)
This audio is ©2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
My week of Monday 7 to Sunday 13 March 2016 was another moderately steady improvement, in both productivity and mood. I am moderately pleased.
The Canberra trip went well, as you’ll see immediately below, but it was also exhausting. The rest of the week was therefore relatively quiet.
If you follow my Twitter stream, you already know all of this, and more.
Both of these articles are derived from material presented at the Australian Internet Industry Association (AIIA) Navigating Privacy and Security Summit on Tuesday.
None. I know you’ve heard this before, but I do want to wrap up that episode of The 9pm Edict podcast very soon. See below.
None.
On Monday, I’m heading a few kilometres up the Great Western Highway to Leura for part of Tech Leaders, namely a keynote by Labor’s communications spokesperson Jason Clare, and then reporting on same for ZDNet. I’ll probably have lunch in Katoomba after that.
I then plan to spend the rest of the week working on three geek-for-hire projects that have fallen behind schedule, and catching up a big chunk of that bookkeeping for the Australian Taxation Office (ATO).
That said, I hope to make the day trip to Sydney one day for a medical appointment and various errands. I’m also looking at doing that episode of The 9pm Edict podcast one evening. And I should probably write a ZDNet column in there somewhere too.
I can’t make final arrangements until Monday afternoon, however, and I need to keep the pace reasonable, so stay tuned for details.
The following two weeks are the two short weeks either side of the Easter long weekend, and will mostly be an extension of the plan just described.
I then plan to be in Canberra on 12-14 April for the Australian Cyber Security Centre (ACSC) Conference. The trick will be organising travel and accommodation.
I’ll definitely be on the Gold Coast on 24-27 May for the AusCERT Cyber Security Conference.
[Photo: The End of Summer. These are the colours of an Australian summer, as you can also see from last week’s photo — and we’ve had a long one this year. Photographed from VA654 on final approach to Canberra airport (CBR) on 7 March 2016.]