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 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.
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The audio is ©2016 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and is being served directly from the ABC website.
Australia’s mandatory data retention legislation is back in the news again, in part because ABC journalist Will Ockenden put a year’s worth of his so-called “metadata” online and invited people to trawl through it.
This morning I spoke a little about the concept on ABC 105.7 Darwin with breakfast presenter Alan Steer.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (5.6MB)
The audio is of course ©2015 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Given that there’s bound to be quite a bit about data surveillance in the news again soon, here’s three of my articles on the topic that’ll set the mood.
Hundreds of millions of Samsung smartphones have a serious security vulnerability. The company has known about it since December, but hasn’t done anything about it. I spoke about this on ABC Radio’s The World Today on Thursday.
A software bug is making around 600 million Samsung mobile phones around the world vulnerable to attack. The bug in the phone’s keyboard software could allow hackers to read text messages and to view and take photos. It was found by a US computer security company which informed Samsung late last year.
If you want the technical details, read the Ars Technica story, New exploit turns Samsung Galaxy phones into remote bugging devices.
Here’s the three-and-a-half minute radio story. There’s also a transcript, and a written news story, Samsung phones vulnerable to cyber attacks because of software bug.
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The audio is ©2015 Australian Broadcasting Corporation, and it’s being served here directly from the ABC website.
Since this report aired, Samsung has said that it will fix this vulnerability, but not all Samsung smartphone owners will receive the fix immediately.
On Wednesday morning, smartphone users on the Optus network in Queensland were running an hour early. Why? The ABC’s Will Ockenden decided to find out for the national current affairs program AM, and apparently that involved taking to me.
Presenter Ashley Hall introduced the story like this:
Queenslanders have long resisted embracing daylight saving time, leading to split time zones down Australia’s east coast for large chunks of the year.
But this morning many from the Sunshine State were given a taste of what it would be like after the Optus mobile phone network automatically updated phones to Sydney time.
Here’s the story as broadcast.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.3MB)
The audio is ©2015 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. The audio is being served directly from the ABC website, where you can also read a transcript.
Update 1300 AEDT: I just noticed that my comments were quoted by Yahoo!7 News and the Sunshine Coast Daily, and even translated into Chinese for Radio Australia and translated into Dutch for Metronieuws. It all connects up.
The Christmas Day attacks on Sony’s PlayStation Network and Microsoft’s Xbox and the supposed culprits, Lizard Squad, featured in this week’s “Tech Wreck” segment on ABC 720 Perth. Also, fake fingerprints and Facebook’s end of year review.
Lizard Squad had claimed responsibility for the attacks, and stopped them when Kim Dotcom paid them off. I reckon that was a mistake. Meanwhile, infosec journalist Brian Krebs thinks he’s identified Lizard Squad members, and later reported that at least one has been arrested.
A hacker presenting at the Chaos Computer Club conference in Germany demonstrated how he could recreate a fingerprint just from photographs.
And the Facebook thing? Just read this guy’s story.
The presenter is Jamie Burnett.
I’ve delayed posting this audio because there was a problem. I normally record off the ABC’s internet feed, but the link dropped out part-way. Journalist Will Ockenden was kind enough to pull the audio from the ABC’s archiving system, but that was interrupted by bushfire alerts. What to do?
I decided I’d post it as-is, because this is what Perth listeners would have heard, and it highlights just how serious Australia has to get during our hot, dangerous summers.
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The next “Tech Wreck” segment is on ABC 720 Perth this Tuesday 6 January 2015 at 1430 AWST / 173 AEDT.
The audio is ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.
Following the earlier report on AM, ABC Radio’s The World Today explored the eBay data breach story further, looking at the potential for identity theft.
The reporter was Will Ockenden, and here’s how presenter Eleanor Hall introduced the item:
Internet retailing giant eBay is admitting today that the hacking of its computer systems three months ago could affect all 145 million users of the auction website.
The company has defended the time it has taken to discover the unauthorized access to its network, and the two week delay in letting its users know that their private information was stolen.
Internet security analysts say they now expect a rise in the number of secondary attacks, as hackers attempt to exploit other sites.
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.
Here’s the full story, served directly from the ABC website, where you can also read the transcript.
Podcast: Play in new window | Download (1.9MB)
The audio is of course ©2014 Australian Broadcasting Corporation.