Infosec

When WhatsApp was bought by Facebook, the immediate fear was not the NSA or other government snooping (most aware users took that for granted anyway) but the likelihood that FaceBook would link WhatsApp activity to FaceBook activity giving the company access to far more information about one's life than users might like. Yesterday, WhatsApp addressed that concern. But before it did so, it quietly provided a back door to all your WhatsApp data and sold it as a benefit.

OVH is a cloud services provider. They ask that we write to them, via a form on their website, to report abuse. We did. Their system didn't work.

So here we are.

Dear OVH: You read it here first. Because your reporting system is broken and people are using your IP addresses to hammer our servers. Stop it.

Internet Security company RSA recently reported its survey that found that 30% of businesses surveyed "do not have a formal incident plan in place" and that 65% "scored themselves as "inadequate" across all five capabilities" set out in the survey. If companies aren't themselves confident of their own efforts to manage data and data breaches, is it surprising that users try to create and use false identities, substituting anonymity for privacy. Serious questions arise.

Only a few days ago, the internet was abuzz with news that John McAfee had taken to Russian TV to explain the ease with which the FBI could break into a phone (or any other device) they wanted. Now he's saying it was all a hoax.

This might just be the most subversive interview ever given on TV. For sure, it's the video the FBI, DoJ and Manhattan DA don't want you to see. But more than that: for all phone and computer users, it's a massive wake-up call. Good morning, John MacAfee, and thank you. We think.

Much political capital is being made of the USA's dispute with Apple over encryption of its iPhone and of Google's support for Apple. But the fact is that we've all got peel in this game and the arguments on both sides are insufficiently made.

AdBlock Plus, by eyeo.com, is by far the leading add-on for internet browsers whose users want to prevent the display of unwanted ads. AdBlock Plus is open that it allows certain companies to be "whitelisted" upon payment of a fee. There is absolutely nothing hidden or underhand. However, the choice of companies has, for a year, been the source of many complaints with one "promoted content" provider being the prime suspect. Taboola is the provider that has become especially hated, not because of what it does but because of who it does it for - and for some of its tech practices.

For all aircrew and other travellers (which is, of course, pretty much all of us) - the US Border Security says that it has the same rights as Australia's Customs to examine the contents of portable data devices without warrant (remember various aircrew have been arrested over pornography on their laptops going into Aus?)