Security and Privacy topics
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...
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...
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...
Imagine a small village of a 100 people. One day, a sorcerer shows up, and grants all the villagers magical 1000-sided dice, which are purely random and can only be thrown at a fixed rate of 1 throw per second (no faster & no slower). Over the next year, at noon of every day, the sorcerer will announce a random number between 1 and 1000, and the first villager to throw that number on their...
A judge in the US has ordered Apple to provide ‘technical assistance’ to FBI, in creating what some (but not all) cybersecurity experts call a backdoor. In the few years I’ve written about these issues, I’ve never seen anything as hotly debated as this one, across the folks from digital security to foreign policy all coming down on both sides of the debate. On one hand it...
Today, I was on BFM talking about Hacking Team, the audio for which is below, and more comments and thoughts below that. Your browser does not support native audio, but you can download this MP3 to listen on your device. This is my last ditch attempt to get a conversation started about the use of surveillance software by the Government—and these conversations should take place...
Our spanking new, hand-picked Attorney-General is proposing life imprisonment for journalist who refuse to reveal their sources. And surprisingly, my favorite Member of Parliament,Dato Azalina Othman, has supported the move, saying it was ‘high-time’ Malaysian did something. Fortunately, some calmer more rationale heads, like Dato Paul Low have criticized the A-G for his short-sighted...
Next week, I’ll be on BFM for an interview about spyware, which will be my last Hail Mary play to get a conversation started about the use of surveillance software by the Government. If a radio interview on a popular station won’t do it, nothing on my blog will possibly be able to anyway 🙂 In any case, this post is a pre-emptive response to a slightly controversial idea that I cover...
If you believe (as I do), that the government bought spyware, then here are some pertinent questions Question 1: Do these government agencies actually have investigative powers? While the police might have the legal authority to investigate someone, does the PMO, MACC or anyone else share that authority. If a government agency has no right to investigate someone, then why is it buying spyware...
The Prime Ministers Department has denied (twice!) that it has ever procured surveillance software from Hacking Team. Even though hundreds of e-mails in the leaked Hacking Team archive point to it. The latest rebuttal, Datuk Azalina distanced her Ministry from other government agencies, encouraging reporters to seek official statement directly from other agencies accused of procuring the spyware...