3-4 weeks ago, I pimped myself an interview on BFM, and yesterday it finally aired. Woohoo!! Here’s the audio, and below are some show-notes you might be interested in if you want to learn more. I searched for these links AFTER the show, so they may not be 100% in step, but good place to start. Your browser does not support native audio, but you can download this MP3 to listen on your...
There is no greater danger of tech illiteracy, than the way we treat hackers. A society that doesn’t understand technology will view those who can manipulate it as wizards and sorcerers. Technology sufficiently advanced is indistinguishable from magic, and to most people that bar of being ‘sufficiently advanced’ isn’t set very high. The magic analogy is apt, even in...
In 2016, Chip and Pin will gradually be introduced in Malaysia, that means your Credit Cards now will prompt you for a PIN instead of signature during purchases. This will be a bit of a hassle, but it will be worth it, here’s what you need to know about it and credit card transactions in general. The 5 people you meet in card transaction First off, a short primer on credit card...
There’s been some controversy recently regarding the Air Pollutant Index (API) readings in Malaysia, with some even accusing the government of intentionally downplaying the readings. I intended to find out exactly how the readings were different, and as a glorified techie come wannabe programmer I decide to use a data approach to this as opposed to a theoretical one. In case you’re...
Passwords have always been a problem. For a password to be adequately secure, you need a certain amount of randomness (or entropy in geek) associated with the password to ensure it can’t be easily guessed. The password monkey is less secure than the password k3ithI$one$3xydev1l, but the latter is inherently harder to remember (although still very true). Remember you should use a different...
By now, you either know someone that’s been a victim of nasty malware or have yourself been on the business end of nefarious software. The perpetual duel between security companies and malicious elements in cyberspace has changed dramatically over time, and no change has been so dramatic as the rise of a new type of threat, a threat we call…ransomware!! …but what is Ransomware...
Google reported that 91 per cent of its Malaysian respondents are “multi-screening” with their smartphones, meaning that while watching TV, or working a laptop, Malaysians were at the VERY SAME TIME, using their phones. The Malay Mail reported this as Malaysians being champion multi-taskers, but I look at it as a negative, and instead view it as indication of just how easily distracted we are...
Not to beat a dead horse now, (you can read my previous articles here and here)but I’ll say it one last time, internet speeds aren’t exactly what we should be debating over these days. We should focus on internet penetration rates, and broadband penetration, and define these correctly. The MCMC defines broadband as anything over dial-up. Which is stupid, because a 128kbps ISDN would...
The simplest definition of a hacker, is someone who breaks systems. We tend to equate systems to computers, but that’s a limited definition of the term. A system can also refer to a legal system or a set of processes that have nothing to do with technology. For example, lawyers often hack around the law, looking for loopholes to exploit to give them an advantage in their case. A good lawyer...
Two weeks ago, Lowyat.net published a ‘challenge’ to their readers, one that would supposedly pay a cool RM100,000 to the winner.All you had to do was decrypt an AES-256 encoded blob of code (more accurately referred to as ciphertext). As expected, no one won. Because breaking that ‘military-grade’ encryption is beyond the capability of most normal human beings, and...