Online Security

Who is Online

Details: Written by: Richard_McKie; Parent Category: Information Technology; Category: Systems; Published: 03 August 2012; Hits: 7735

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

Canada and the United States - Part1

In July and August 2023 Wendy and I travelled to the United States again after a six-year gap. Back in 2007 we visited the east coast and west coast and in 2017 we visited 'the middle bits', travelling down from Chicago via Memphis to New Orleans then west across Texas, New Mexico, Nevada and California on our way home.

So, this time we went north from Los Angeles to Seattle, Washington, and then into Canada. From Vancouver we travelled by car, over the Rockies, then flew east to Toronto where we hired a car to travel to Ottawa and Montreal. Our next flight was all the way down to Miami, Florida, then to Fort Lauderdale, where we joined a western Caribbean cruise. At the end of the cruise, we flew all the way back up to Boston.

Seems crazy but that was the most economical option. From Boston we hired another car to drive, down the coast, to New York. After New York we flew to Salt Lake City then on to Los Angeles, before returning to OZ.

As usual, save for a couple of hotels and the cars, Wendy did all the booking.

Breakfast in the Qantas lounge on our way to Seattle
Wendy likes to use two devices at once

Fiction, Recollections & News

Australia's Hydrogen Economy

As anyone who has followed my website knows, I'm not a fan of using 'Green Hydrogen' (created by the electrolysis of water - using electricity) to generate electricity.

I've nothing against hydrogen. It's the most abundant element in the universe. And I'm very fond of water (hydrogen oxide or more pedantically: dihydrogen monoxide). It's just that there is seldom a sensible justification for wasting most of one's electrical energy by converting it to hydrogen and then back to electricity again.

I've made the argument against the electrolysis (green) route several times since launching this website fifteen years ago; largely to deaf ears.

The exception made in the main article (linked below) is where a generator has a periodic large unusable surpluses in an environment unsuitable for batteries. In the past various solutions have been attempted like heat storage in molten salt. But where there is a plentiful fresh water supply, producing hydrogen for later electricity generation is another option. Also see: How does electricity work? - Approaches to Electricity Storage

Two of these conditions apply in South Australia that frequently has excess electricity (see the proportion of non-hydro renewables chart below). The State Government, with unspecified encouragement from the Prime Minister and the Commonwealth, has offered A$593m to a private consortium to build a 200MW, 100t hydrogen storage at Whyalla. Yet, the State already has some very large batteries, with which this facility is unlikely to be able to compete commercially. Time will tell.

Opinions and Philosophy

Population and Climate Change – An update

Climate

I originally wrote the paper, Issues Arising from the Greenhouse Hypothesis, in 1990 and do not see a need to revise it substantially. Some of the science is better defined and there have been some minor changes in some of the projections; but otherwise little has changed.

In the Introduction to the 2006 update to that paper I wrote:

Climate change has wide ranging implications... ranging from its impacts on agriculture (through drought, floods, water availability, land degradation and carbon credits) mining (by limiting markets for coal and minerals processing) manufacturing and transport (through energy costs) to property damage resulting from storms.

The issues are complex, ranging from disputes about the impact of human activities on global warming, to arguments about what should be done and the consequences of the various actions proposed.

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