February 2014 archive

the spy in your bathroom

Back in June 2008 I noted Craig Wright had posted to bugtraq reporting a “remote exploitation of an information disclosure vulnerability in Oral B’s SmartGuide management system”. I found it faintly amusing that a security researcher should have been looking for vulnerabities in a toothbrush. I should have known better. A report in wednesday’s on-line …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2014/02/28/the-spy-in-your-bathroom/

checking client-side ssl/tls

At the tail end of last year I mentioned a couple of tools I had used in my testing of SSL/TLS certificates used for trivia itself and my mail server. However, that post concentrated on the server side certificates and ignored the security, or otherwise, offered by the browser’s configuration. It is important to know …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2014/02/12/checking-client-side-ssltls/

policy update

An exchange of emails with Mark over at bsdbox.co a day or so ago made me realise that my privacy policy needed updating. Not, I hasten to add, for any fundamental reason, but simply because a couple of the references in that policy were out of date. I have therefore amended it and version 0.2.0 …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2014/02/12/policy-update/

privacy matters

The Open Rights Group here in the UK has been campaigning against mass, unwarranted surveillance by GCHQ since the Snowden revelations first emerged in summer of last year. Two of its current campaigns are: “don’t spy on us” and “the day we fight back“. I have signed both of them. I have also written to …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2014/02/11/privacy-matters/

compare and contrast

Foreign Secretary William Hague is apparently concerned about press restrictions in Egypt. He has reportedly urged the interim Egyptian government to demonstrate commitment to free expression. The press release on the gov.uk website says: Speaking today about increasing restrictions placed upon journalists and the media in Egypt, Foreign Secretary William Hague said: “I am very …

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Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2014/02/08/compare-and-contrast/