Archive for the ‘Tech’ Category
What if Generative AI isn’t the ‘benefit’ or ‘existential risk’ to humanity that it’s being painted as? Meredith Whittaker & Camille Francois will make you think
This is a fascinating conversation about the roots, the dangers and hype around AI. Both of these thinkers are so insightful about the issues, and raise issues in context with such clarity.I appreciate them so much. Watch the video from Al Jazeerah English at YouTube or below, and I have linked to a transcript (cough, […]
Phishing season is open
Wow, this phishing season is really stepping up – three attempts today and it’s only early afternoon. I hadn’t seen this ‘You have remaining funds in your account, [target email address]’ one before, but I got two of them today. Coincidentally, I received them about the same time as I had two calls on my cellphone […]
Teach a man to phish
I’m still not taking these personally. This is clearly fake…(i.e. Not really from Apple. Looking behind the sender, the address is kiwe@ovcsexn.com and the link goes to a domain using a Twitter t.co URL shortener. Very unApple-like.) Again, you’re in for a hard time if you actually click on these things, but hey, it’s a […]
Another day, another phish
As if we need this stuff floating around. Remember: Don’t click! I’m still not taking this personally. – P
Phishing attacks – be careful out there
I got this by email tonight: You can’t be too careful. The ‘Click Here’ link goes off to a php page citing Ottawa, and the sender, far from being Apple, shows up as a local (i.e. xtra.co.nz) email address – probably hacked. Drop me a line if you’re a security researcher and you want a […]
US Senate adopts Signal, HTTPS a year after trying to kill encryption
In today’s dose of irony … After some attempts to backdoor encryption, led by Senators Dianne Feinstein (CA) and Richard Burr (NC), who are also the top ranking members of the Senate Intelligence Committee, the Senate staff has been approved to use the Signal messenger. Signal is currently considered by most experts as the most […]
Erk! My emails! Wot?
Tl;dr version: There’s a been a problem with the email account for The Paepae since April. Sigh. It’s fixed now. Please re-send anything you need to. Thanks. -P Longer version: So, I went looking for my invitation to be a character witness at the Jordan Williams trial thinking maybe it had gone straight to spam, […]
Let’s Enhance
Let's Enhance (HD) from Duncan Robson on Vimeo. Lovely. Some of my best friends are clichés. h/t to @thegrugq
They laughed when I stuck tape over my web cam…
I’m not kidding. One of the first things I did at a new workplace was stick a small rectangle of Post-it note over the web cam. It provoked a few comments re “paranoia”, but did I care? Nope. Then, months later, I read that FBI director James Comey did the same thing, citing people who […]
A worthwhile primer on why & how government moves to undermine/ban encryption are so dangerous
Access Now’s Amie Stepanovich just delivered this useful overview of the important issues around the latest moves in The Crypto Wars. And this article, by Mark Wilson at betanews.com re President Obama effectively backing backdoors, is instructive (if a disappointment). Privacy and security killer: Obama supports backdoors to bypass encryption “If technologically it is possible […]
Blinding Flash of the Obvious re composing encrypted emails – Avoid auto-saved drafts
I recently reviewed Edward Snowden’s instructions for setting up and using PGP/encrypted email available on Vimeo: GPG for Journalists – Windows edition | Encryption for Journalists | Anonymous 2013. It’s a good tutorial. One of the points it makes about keeping your communications secure is a very important one: Don’t compose your message (pre-encryption) in […]
Tim Cook denies ‘rumours’ of NSA back-door into Apple servers
This 3 minute excerpt of Apple’s CEO Tim Cook talking to Charlie Rose yesterday interested me for a couple of reasons 1) encrypted iMessages with Apple keyless and 2) his very strong denial of rumours/suggestions of NSA back-door access … ‘the Snowden thing’ (starts 2:10, but watch the whole 3 mins): Which accords with this […]
Quinn Norton talking sense about ‘surveillance’
An important message and perspective delivered in an entertaining way. Good on her. Quinn Norton – When You Are the Adversary (52 mins) If your name isn’t Barton Gellman, Laura Poitras, or Glenn Greenwald, chances are that while the NSA may be a rights-violating threat to all, it’s not your actual, day-to-day adversary. Real world […]
An (extra) step in the right direction: Apple extending two-factor authentication to iCloud.com log-in
A while back, I enabled two-factor authentication to a number of my accounts following Mat Honan’s terrible hacking story.* This morning I noticed that, without any fanfare, Apple has extended that preference to the iCloud.com website portal … … so that to log in to iCloud, I need to have one of my ‘trusted devices’. […]
Listen to the spy movie soundtrack on this ad for the VYSK smartphone case
Making a buck out of people’s paranoia/rational fear of cyber warfare and espionage … and these (apparently) terribly insecure devices many of us carry with us everywhere. Vysk: Putting Privacy Back in Your Hands from Mustache Production on Vimeo. Read all about it: www.vysk.com (not an affiliate link). – P Update: Audio of soundtrack here: […]
