Beware! Anonymous has become the Hello Kitty of hacktivism
If you think hacktivists are a problem now, just wait. The tools are becoming increasingly easy to use, and the hacktivists increasingly stupid — making everyone a target.
The Full Tilt
Stilgherrian delivers an undiluted dose of criticism and analysis of the ways digital technology is changing our world and the spin that goes with it. Mostly in words -- sometimes in audio or video formats -- always cynical. Incorporating the Patch Monday podcast.
Stilgherrian
Stilgherrian is a freelance journalist, commentator and podcaster interested in big-picture internet issues, especially security, cybercrime and hoovering up bulldust. He studied computing science and linguistics before a wide-ranging media career and a stint at running an IT business. He can write iptables firewall rules, set a rabbit trap, clear a jam in an IBM model 026 card punch and mix a mean whiskey sour.
Latest Posts
PS4 socials all the gaming, says Sony; but why?
With PlayStation 4, Sony joins the cavalcade of companies sacrificing your privacy to replace the profits lost thanks to plummeting hardware prices. Fun, but at what cost?
Influence, vanity metrics and other internet astrology
Science-free vanity metrics from Kred, LinkedIn, and all the rest are gamifying you and your business -- and you're the loser.
Berners-Lee, Silicon Valley, and Australia's cultural cringe
Sir Tim Berners-Lee's visit to Australia drew out the same cultural cringe that drives that eternal, daft question, "how can we create our own Silicon Valley?"
Some of that ol' NBN religion
Discussions about Australia's National Broadband Network (NBN) has long since departed the realm of rational existence to become purely symbolic--and it'll stay like that until the election in September.
Australia's National Security Strategy? Or Labor's election-year cyber gimmick?
The Australian Cyber Security Centre that was announced yesterday may be useful, but seems more like an election-year gimmick that will tempt governments to increase surveillance and control.
Uncovering the smartphone: a year 10 perspective
Students at North Sydney Girls High School recently spent six weeks away from normal classes to work on projects of their choice that were somehow related to the smartphone.
2012 infosec review: Focus on crime, not cyberwar
Cyberwar is overhyped. The clear and present danger is the increase in criminal activity. And while mobile devices are vulnerable, they may also represent our chance to get information security right.
2012 in review: IT vendors prepare for cloudy big-data future
Last year, we decided that 2011 had been IT's year of consolidation. Now, it seems like 2012 has been about vendors setting up their strategies for 2013, beyond cloud and BYOD and into big data.
The Internet of Things controlled by smartphone
Once all manner of everyday objects become equipped with processors and connectivity, we'll have the Internet of Things. Futurist Mark Pesce thinks the smartphone will be its remote control.