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The issue of online security is never far in the background these days: high-profile TV presenters in court for downloading child pornography [link]; Julian Assange holed-up in the Ecuadorian embassy in London; or attacks by Anonymous on Melbourne IT (AAPT) records that allegedly made some of the ISP's users' private information public. 

While we can all applaud the apprehension of criminals through police monitoring; and we might be swayed by Assange's assertions that corporate and government secrets are forms of conspiracy and that such conspiracy is a bad thing; we may not be so pleased by our browsing history; or worse, our medical history; or our employer's HR records being made available to a cyber bully or blackmailer.  

It is increasingly difficult, perhaps impossible, to keep our personal records and secrets out of computer systems that have the potential to be hacked; as easily by the bad guys as by the good.

Depending on your point of view the vigilantly group Anonymous may be: the good; the bad; or the ugly.  They say the hack at Melbourne IT was to highlight the risk of forcing ISPs to keep client's browsing records;  and a protest, in general, against the proposal to give Australian police and security agencies wide sweeping powers to intercept and examine our electronic records. 

 

The recent ABC interview with Nicola Roxon, Federal Attorney General and Neil Gaugan, Assistant Commissioner, Australian Federal Police (on 1st August 2012) was informative.

The proposed laws would allow agencies to bypass encryption by installing tracking software on a suspect's computer, presumably remotely and undetected,  and by forcing users to surrender computer passwords.  How: by torture? I'm sorry Your Honour I've forgotten! - OK that'll be 20 years for contempt.  Maybe rendition to Guantanamo would do the trick.

One thing Neil Gaugan did say was that: 'Encryption's killing us. Encryption is extremely difficult for us. It's very expensive, very clunky, very slow to decode encrypted Internet protocols.' he did not say it was impossible to break.

When asked about the proposal to force ISPs to keep user browsing and email information for two years he said: 'What we're asking for is data retention to be across the board. So, it's in relation to if you and I emailed each other, not the content of that particular communication, but the context, i.e. when it took place, where we were when we did it, time, date.'

Anonymous has just demonstrated that this information may not be exclusive to your ISP, ASIO and the police; but could potentially fall into the hands of your business competitor; a cyber bully; or a blackmailer.

You can read the whole ABC story by Hayden Cooper in which he also interviewed a cyber activist; an IT expert; and a victim online - Click here

I have discussed many of these issues elsewhere on this website: 

For issues around business records (these may include your HR records or medical history) - click here

For issues around conspiracy and Wikileaks - click here

For a discussion around secure encryption and personal privacy  - click here

 

 

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Travel

Bulgaria 2024

 

 

In May 2024 Wendy and I travelled to Berlin then to Greece for several weeks.  We finished our European trip with a week in Bulgaria, followed by a week in the UK, before flying back to Sydney.

On a previous trip to Turkey and the Balkans we had bypassed Bulgaria, not knowing what to expect. My awareness was mainly informed by the spy novels that I've read in which Bulgaria figures. These reflect real life 'Cold War' espionage when the country had one foot in the Soviet Union and the other, half in the West.

Read more: Bulgaria 2024

Fiction, Recollections & News

The Soul of the Matter

 

 

 

 

It was hot, dry and dusty when they finally arrived in Jaisalmer.  But then, how often is it not hot and dusty here? 

In the markets a wizened woman, of indeterminate age, is using a straw broom to aggressively sweep the area in front of her shop. The dust will soon be kicked-back by passers-by; or swept back by her neighbours; requiring her to sweep again, and again.  She will do the same again tomorrow; and the day after; and the day after that.

Jennifer's mind is elsewhere. She's has dreamt of visiting exotic India ever since a client at the hairdressers told her, with enthralling details, of her adventures here.

They've arrived in the dusty city late in the afternoon, by road from Jodhpur.  In spite of his preference to visit California or Las Vegas again, she's finally persuaded Bruce that he might like India. He should try something a bit more adventurous for a change.

Below the entrance to the famous Jaisalmer Fort, is a small square that marks the start of the road winding up, then turning at right-angles, through the protective elephant-proof gates.  In this little square, motorised trishaws: Tuk-tuks, jostle restlessly like milling cattle.  They are waiting for tourists, like our travellers, who may hire them tomorrow to see the town or, if they are lazy or tired, just to mount the steep hill up to the Fort. 

Read more: The Soul of the Matter

Opinions and Philosophy

Jihad

  

 

In my novella The Cloud I have given one of the characters an opinion about 'goodness' in which he dismisses 'original sin' as a cause of evil and suffering and proposes instead 'original goodness'.

Most sane people want to 'do good', in other words to follow that ethical system they were taught at their proverbial 'mother's knee' (all those family and extended influences that form our childhood world view).

That's the reason we now have jihadists raging, seemingly out of control, across areas of Syria and Iraq and threatening the entire Middle East with their version of 'goodness'. 

Read more: Jihad

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