Teraknor

At the point I write this entry, my article on the iCloud hack , is ticking past 390,000 and still pulling in a few hundred readers a day. Written in response to a request from one of the senior editors, it was hastily penned while I was attending the keynote at ALT-C. The keynote was worthwhile, but I must admit the time was spent in the cloud quickly shifting out the core content behind this article. So best not ask me about the detail of the message. Having written around 28 articles, my best to date reached over 50,000 with some notable contributions in the 20's, 30's and 40's. Nothing is less than four digits and the lowly articles in the 1000+ readers still attract minor interest. I have a colleague in my faculty with whom there is friendly banter, we have been edging past each other in the leader stakes, until now. But, to be fair, if it was not for their kindness and integrity, I would not have been introduced to writing for the Conversation. So, if you are...

Being a bit of a The Who fan, some recent news from a destroyed further education college has reminded me of the lyrics from "Won't get fooled again" . If you do not know the song, the YouTube video below,  is all that you need, a rock classic, always worth a listen. The sadness is that with a set of 'rats' escaping from the ship they have jointly sunk. I am aware that by Christmas three high profile souls are exiting. I am sure that some would say 'good riddance', I cannot disagree. But, with the damage done, they seem to be exiting to leave others to pick up the pieces. It does not take any great wit to realise, that in the nine years since the the college was in safe, capable hands. The entire remaining leadership and come and gone. With those long established in the old tradition having long left beforehand. Even if they were able to maintain any of the ideals. The previous leadership held onto the college and helped it succeed over a considerab...

By Andrew Smith , The Open University By means of an introduction, to date this has been my most popular article yet. While scheduling this, it has reached 263,000 readers, pushing me to over 1/2 a million readers in total.  Recent reports of celebrities having nude or risqué photos of themselves leaked online highlights the serious risk of hackers getting access to our personal pictures. While many of us take inane and uninteresting photos that we wouldn’t mind anyone seeing, some of us do like to share more interesting pictures with other individuals that we wouldn’t wish to be seen on the twitter feeds of millions. I am not personally interested in value judgements around taking nude pictures but I do appreciate the impact on those who have seen their intimate moments shared without their permission. How were these pictures hacked? The reality is going to be the work of cyber-security and forensic experts to discover. But as there are now so many private photo streamin...

When it comes to writing, I feel that the art is always under development, review and refinement. One day I may even string together a coherent sentence. However, I do write; creating considerable quantities of words in print over the last 12 years. Each time I embark on a new writing project, I find that it becomes another journey of discovery. Now, I am impressed that according to one random tweeter, I write click bait. After putting together an article based on verified fact, they felt that they disagreed with the article because ... to them it read like click bait . Ho hum, off to write some more click bait me thinks. 

By Andrew Smith , The Open University Over the past few months, the Android platform developed by Google and based on the Linux operating system has been having a difficult time . Hackers, with malicious intent and those without, have been investing time in finding out how weak this operating system is. Android runs on more than four out of five mobile devices. It is popular because it is free and its terms do not dictate to device manufacturers what hardware it must be used on. The hacking seen so far is partly a result of this popularity. But there also seem to be inherent problems, which experts and hackers have discovered don’t exist on other mobile platforms. What are the issues? Android is getting the most attention from malware creators, because it has more than 40,000 different malware compromises . This is worrying especially as the same systems for Windows and Apple phones seem to have only handful such issues (on non-jailbroken devices). In June concerns arose a...

My friend and sometimes co-conspirator, Kevin Large created this excellent video. Based on a CompTIA security themed roadshow demonstration we completed this summer. This can be completed in any Cisco Lab, the phone used can be found on eBay at a low cost and the rest of the kit is seen in any standard Cisco CCNA class set. Do use, please do share, please contact Kevin if you are interested in more.

By Andrew Smith , The Open University Computer users everywhere are looking at the USB stick sat next to their computer this week with trepidation. Many are now wondering if this trusted friend has turned against them now that cybersecurity experts say they’ve found a massive flaw in the very make up of these devices. It seems the humble USB drive can easily be used to compromise basic security principles in your machine. The issue is considered so serious that a statement has been issued by the USB working party, the body that regulates this technology standard. The group admits that there are security flaws in USBs but says that manufacturers should build in existing standards to protect consumers. This would mean that your average USB stick would be more expensive but more secure. In the meantime, you might want to take a second look at the stick on your desk. Sticky problem USB storage devices are still a staple tool for many of us. They are great for keeping a copy of y...