It appears the Australian Federal Government is determined to do a Thelma & Louise and literally drive off a cliff into the abyss over truly mindless and ill-conceived legislation as concerns encryption, privacy and security. It has the potential to make us totally uncompetitive in global information technology markets and cut off at the knees a fledgling Read more about Will the last AU based start-up please turn off the light?[…]
This a quick post to say that my first book has now been published on Amazon. In total its taken a good 9 months from the initial idea. The book focusses on Personal Information Security and how in business personal information needs to be secured and protected. The book is full of lots of practical Read more about First book published[…]
In our modern world its difficult to comprehend how many systems hold various bits of information on you, it ranges from banks, credit score agencies, dentists, all the way to SaaS providers and your telco. Social networks also have mountains of information on you that they mine to work out your personal preferences, so they Read more about Privacy and Security go hand in hand[…]
API’s are a convenient and handy way to get different computers systems to talk to each other, but often they are also an easy way to get in by the backdoor deep into computer systems. In this article, we look at few of the most common mistakes made and what you can do about it. Read more about API Security – Carefully does it![…]
Privacy is a big concern if you are running a business, regardless of size. All businesses need to keep sensitive information about their customers, staff, associations and potential customers – all of this will contain information that pertains to individuals which could cause them (and you) harm if illegal accessed or divulged. Further the ability Read more about Privacy and Your Business, what are the risks?[…]
Given the release of the KRACK vulnerability, it is becoming very clear you need to take additional steps to make your Wifi network more secure. You should take this as a wake up call to understanding the risks inherent with a Wifi network and just how easily it can be used to gain access into Read more about KRACK – Securing Your Wifi Network[…]
I came across some interesting podcasts that discuss the ‘sticky’ situation of data privacy and how to ensure data security over time. Perspectives on Privacy on Future Tense Staying Connected – A Privacy Crisis Given the changes happening in Europe later this year, I reckon this will cause a progressive ‘tightening’ of privacy regulations globally. Read more about Privacy and Meta Data – what it all means[…]
I must admit, one of my all time pet peeves is when engineers do not implement their user authentication service in the right way to be defendable against an attack. Take for the instance the recent hack against Zomato in which they had 6.6m hashed user passwords stolen. The real problem here is not that the Read more about User Authentication, you must do it right![…]
This is part of the TechEd Section. As mentioned previously, I was on the look out for a suitable Solar sensor to provide measurement of the strength of the Sunlight on our property. Now where the RG-11 is located is actually quite an ideal place for determining Solar light levels, as it has a clear Read more about Arduino Hydreon RG-11 Optical Rain Sensor, with Solar Sensor[…]
This is part of the TechEd Section. My project of tying together various sensors to work out what is happening around the property is taking shape. I just took delivery of the Hydreon RG-11 Optical Rain Sensor a few days ago, cost $99 plus postage from Ocean Controls. A nifty little unit that makes use Read more about Arduino Hydreon RG-11 Optical Rain Sensor interfacing[…]
Technical Debt – A phrase that brings shiver to any experienced engineer or software architect. In this article I’ll explore why it is so Evil and a few basic things you can do to stop it bringing your whole business to a go slow state. (This is a follow-up article from my talk on Technical Read more about The Evils of Technical Debt[…]
This is part of the TechEd section. As previously mentioned, to diversify my techie skills (and its fun), I have a little side home DIY project on the go to achieve the following: Create a RS485 network, to allow me to easily connect together multiple Arduino’s over a distributed network. Gateway said RS485 network onto Read more about Arduino Clones and DHT11 temperature/humidity sensor[…]
According to a recent report – security looks to be a top concern among Software Architects. In this article I go into detail on one of the core ways in which you can achieve dependable security in evolving online systems – namely defense by depth. What is defense by depth? Simply put this is where one Read more about Software Architect Security – what does defense by depth mean on the cloud?[…]
Software Architects need a combination of skills to be able to succeed and deliver designs that are long lived and able to provide strong commercial value to a business. Below I list what I consider to be the top 5 skills in order to be a good Software Architect. #1 Able to listen and confirm Read more about Software Architect skills, the top 5[…]
PII (Personally Identifiable Information) broadly speaking is information that relates directly to the individual (you) and allows you to be individually identified, plus it is often of a sensitive private nature. We explain in this article what it is and how to protect yourself against people trying to steal your identity through PII. Why is Read more about What is PII Really?[…]
Online systems need to be both secure and designed to last, so how can you achieve both and not blow the budget? This article covers a few simple principals you can adopt which are both good for your systems architecture and good for your security. #1 System Components should only do what they say on Read more about Systems Architecture & Security, winning at both[…]
Software/Enterprise/System/X Architect all seem to be pretty much interchangeable titles these days – the trouble is for most people it’s hard to exactly pin down what a X Architect is and what they are expected to do on a day to day basis. Well you are in luck, this article will shed some light on Read more about What is a software architect, really?[…]
According to this article Cisco just had a bit of a shock in the Vault 7 CIA leak – namely that a simple malformed telnet command to one of its effected switches can either reboot it or get it to execute commands with admin privileges (or the equivalent of admin). This is a Zero Day as Read more about Just turn off telnet everywhere now…[…]