Malaysian Technology Issue from a Malaysian Tech Blog
Today, I was on BFM talking about Hacking Team, the audio for which is below, and more comments and thoughts below that. Your browser does not support native audio, but you can download this MP3 to listen on your device. This is my last ditch attempt to get a conversation started about the use of surveillance software by the Government—and these conversations should take place...
Our spanking new, hand-picked Attorney-General is proposing life imprisonment for journalist who refuse to reveal their sources. And surprisingly, my favorite Member of Parliament,Dato Azalina Othman, has supported the move, saying it was ‘high-time’ Malaysian did something. Fortunately, some calmer more rationale heads, like Dato Paul Low have criticized the A-G for his short-sighted...
Next week, I’ll be on BFM for an interview about spyware, which will be my last Hail Mary play to get a conversation started about the use of surveillance software by the Government. If a radio interview on a popular station won’t do it, nothing on my blog will possibly be able to anyway 🙂 In any case, this post is a pre-emptive response to a slightly controversial idea that I cover...
Malaysian rejoiced last month when Netflix announced that they would be coming to our shores. We were all salivating over the massive amount of content we would finally have access too…except that it wasn’t so massive. Malaysia would enjoy less than 20% of what was available to Netflix users in the US or even in the UK, and that looked like an especially lousy deal since we were...
So the buzz around twitter is that Medium.com has been blocked by the Malaysian Authorities, and guess what? It’s true. It was expected, after all Medium is where the ‘infamous’ Clare Rewcastle Brown uploads her articles to circumvent censorship of her own site, the equally diabolical SarawakReport.org. Medium is like twitter without the character limits, and it’s quite a...
If you believe (as I do), that the government bought spyware, then here are some pertinent questions Question 1: Do these government agencies actually have investigative powers? While the police might have the legal authority to investigate someone, does the PMO, MACC or anyone else share that authority. If a government agency has no right to investigate someone, then why is it buying spyware...
The Prime Ministers Department has denied (twice!) that it has ever procured surveillance software from Hacking Team. Even though hundreds of e-mails in the leaked Hacking Team archive point to it. The latest rebuttal, Datuk Azalina distanced her Ministry from other government agencies, encouraging reporters to seek official statement directly from other agencies accused of procuring the spyware...
The Government has denied buying spyware from hacking team, they really should have checked with me before issuing the statement. On the 23rd of November 2015, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said denied that the Malaysian government had procured spyware from hacking team. In a formal response (in Parliament!!), the Minister simply stated “For your information, no such device was purchased by the...
I get annoyed when parent associations insist that the Government needs to teach science and maths in English. They argue that because English is the lingua-franca of science, teaching science in English will help students learn more effectively without needing them to translate scientific terms from the vernacular. They add that teaching Science and Maths in English is a great way to improve the...
From: [email protected] Sent: 23 Dec 2015 To: [email protected] Subject: Cybersecurity Year end message. *This message is intended for all Malaysian Government servants only, do not forward without prior approval* Greetings and Salam 1Malaysia. I want to use this year-end as an opportunity to discuss the important topic of Cybersecurity. This year was interesting for me personally, and for...