Some people are fans of medieval torture, and who can blame them. There’s just something about the sadistic treatment of people that makes us both want to watch with a bowl of popcorn in our hands, yet at the same time turn away in disgust and discomfort. How else do you explain the popularity of shows like Saw? I personally am a fan of the Iron Maiden, which before it became a name of rock...
People think of the media as the powerful behemoth that’s capable of swaying public perception. On the contrary, I think public perception sways the media. Companies like Facebook, Google and even Amazon, have gone all-in on the confirmation bias, the idea that people like and prefer information that confirms their existing ideas and biases. No one likes being told their wrong about...
On April 2nd, 1917, the President of the United States of America addressed an extraordinary session in congress, asking them to authorize America to declare war against the central powers in World War 1. Across the Atlantic, the European continent had been devastated by nearly 3 years of bloody conflict. Regardless of who started the war, President Wilson was sure the war was at it’s tail...
Nobody really knows how the FBI is hacking into iPhones. Well nobody, except Cellebrite and the FBI themselves. We can safely assume that the underlying crypto wasn’t hacked–that would be truly catastrophic for everyone’s security, and way above the pay grade of a company like Cellebrite. So we have to conclude that somehow the FBI has managed to trick the iPhone into giving up...
What happens when a government agency tasked with providing cybersecurity “guidance” and “expertise” gives you advice like “avoid uploading pictures of yourself to avoid the threat of black magic”? And then goes into damage-control claiming that it “was just a casual remark and did not represent the federal agency’s official position on the matter”, only to...
In the online world, surveillance and censorship are two sides of the same coin, you can’t have one without the other. When the government moots a ‘blogger registration’ act , we automatically infer it to be part of a wider censorship initiative, an attempt to control the narrative by subtlety telling bloggers “we know who you are, so watch what you say”. We...
Every now an again, I brush off the dust from an old laptop I have in the corner, and boot-up a couple of forgotten python scripts. One of those scripts would scrap the DOE Malaysia website for API readings in Malaysia, unfortunately, those damn fools at the DOE now only publish 7-day data, and completely wipe off anything older–for some unknown reason. I even contacted my...
A public service announcement from our good friends at the FBI, warns that motor vehicles are increasingly vulnerable to remote exploits, which in the wake of the bad-ass research from Chris Valasek and Charlie Miller shouldn’t be shocking. What struck me, is that the security advice the FBI is offering drivers was identical to the advice cybersecurity experts have been giving to–well...
You don’t have a right to freedom of speech. Obviously true if you’re Malaysian, but even Americans only enjoy a liberty in freedom of speech and not an absolute right. The difference is clear, liberties are protections you have from the government, while rights are something you have from everyone. So if someone threatened your right to live, the government is obligated to intervene...
The Apple vs. FBI story has evolved so much in the past weeks, I thought I needed to write a separate post just on the updates. Admittedly, the story is far more complex and nuanced that I initially presumed, and everyone wants to be part of the conversation. On one side, we have the silicon valley tech geeks, who seem to be unanimously in the corner of Tim Cook and Apple, while on the other we...