It’s not often that I find myself agreeing with GCHQ, but ex GCHQ Director Robert Hannigan’s recent comments in an interview with the BBC Today programme struck a chord. Hannigan headed GCHQ from April 2014 until his resignation for family reasons last year. Whilst in post he pushed for greater transparency at the SIGINT agency. …
Category: networks and networking
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2018/12/11/well-i-never/
May 12 2017
using a VPN to take back your privacy
With the passage into law of the iniquitous Investigatory Powers (IP) Bill in the UK at the end of November last year, it is way past time for all those who care about civil liberties in this country to exercise their right to privacy. The new IP Act permits HMG and its various agencies to …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2017/05/12/using-a-vpn-to-take-back-your-privacy/
Jan 24 2016
guest network
Last month Troy Hunt posted an interesting comment on his blog about the problems around the etiquette of allowing guests onto your home wifi network. In his post, Hunt notes that guests can be deeply offended at being refused access. This is understandable. If they are guests in your home then they are probably close …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2016/01/24/guest-network/
Nov 10 2015
torflow
Yesterday, Kenneth Freeman posted a note to the tor-relays list drawing attention to a new resource called TorFlow. TorFlow is a beautiful visualisation of Tor network traffic around the world. It enables you to see where traffic is concentrated (Europe) and where there is almost none (Australasia). Having the data overlaid on a world map …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2015/11/10/torflow/
Jul 30 2015
get your porn here
Dear Dave is at it again. Sometimes I worry about our PM’s priorities. Not content with his earlier insistence that UK ISPs must introduce “family friendly (read “porn”) filters”, our man in No 10 now wants to “see age restrictions put into place or these (i.e. “porn”) websites will face being shut down”. El Reg …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2015/07/30/get-your-porn-here/
Aug 13 2014
net neutrality
My apologies that this is a few weeks late – but it still bears posting. John Oliver at HBO gave the best description of the net neutrality argument I have seen so far. Following that broadcast, the FCC servers were, rather predictably, overwhelmed by the outraged response from the trolls that Oliver set loose. Unfortunately, …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2014/08/13/net-neutrality/
Apr 08 2014
heartbleed
This is nasty. There is a remotely exploitable bug in openssl which leads to the leak of memory contents from the server to the client and from the client to the server. In practice this means that an attacker can read 64K chunks of memory on a vulnerable service, thus potentially exposing security critical information. …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2014/04/08/heartbleed/
Oct 05 2013
good news for tor
The past couple of days have seen a flurry of news stories about Tor. Some of the news has hit the mainstream media, some of it hasn’t. Yet. A couple of day ago, a rather plaintive post to the tor-talk mailing list read: “looking for a way to contact silk road.Site shut down.money at stake.” …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/10/05/good-news-for-tor/
Sep 20 2013
that’s another password I have to change
Michael Horowitz has posted an interesting article over at Computer world. In it he points out that, by default, most android devices (tablets and ‘phones) routinely ‘phone home to Google to back up Wi-Fi passwords along with other assorted settings. Google sells this option as a convenience to help you regain settings after you upgrade …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/09/20/thats-another-password-i-have-to-change/
Sep 10 2013
tor node upgrade
I have switched my tor node to the experimental branch and it is now running version 0.2.4.17-rc. The huge load on the network seen since the botnet starting using it on about 19 August last has forced the tor project team to recommend that all relay operators move to the 0.2.4 branch (and this release …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/09/10/tor-node-upgrade/
Aug 22 2013
tor usage on the rise
A couple of weeks ago I noted that the release of tails 0.20 seemed to be popular – at least if the traffic on my mirrors was anything to go by. The statistics published by the Tor project itself show an interesting rise in (probable) Tor usage since June. The graphic shows that the number …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/08/22/tor-usage-on-the-rise/
Jul 14 2013
base64 gets past omani deep packet inspection
Back in December 2011 Roger Dingledine and Jacob Applebaum of the torproject gave a talk at the 28th Chaos Communication Congress titled “How governments have tried to block Tor“. That talk focused on the arms race between privacy campaigners and technologists working on tor and the actions of oppressive governments. The presentation gave many examples …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/07/14/base64-gets-past-omani-deep-packet-inspection/
Jun 13 2013
microsoft windows is conspicuous by its absence
At DigitalOcean – or so says Netcraft in its latest write up on their astonishingly fast rise over the last six months. Apparently, in December 2012, DigitalOcean had just over 100 web-facing computers whilst in June 2013, Netcraft found more than 7,000. That is some growth. But I’m not surprised. I make no apology for …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/06/13/microsoft-windows-is-conspicuous-by-its-absence/
Jun 12 2013
blimey that was quick
The cable tester I ordered at around 17.00 yesterday arrived in this morning’s post. And jolly good it is too for such a ridiculously cheap item. As expected, the instructions are amusing but pretty clear for all that. It is easy to use and feels fairly robust, despite the price. Now the results. I am …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/06/12/blimey-that-was-quick/
Jun 11 2013
blimey that is cheap
David’s comment to my post about my gigabit ethernet upgrade prompted me to look for a cheap LAN tester so that I could check continuity through the RJ45 coupler that had caused me difficulty. It would also be handy to be able to check the box full of old patch cables that I seem to …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/06/11/blimey-that-is-cheap/
Jun 10 2013
PRISM – we had it first
I can exclusively reveal that the UK government had a PRISM database long before those upstarts in the USA. In the late 1970s I worked in the Statistics Division of what was then the UK Civil Service Department. We used a database of Civil Service personnel called PRISM (Personnel Record Information System for Management). I …
Permanent link to this article: https://baldric.net/2013/06/10/prism-we-had-it-first/
with thanks to Dr Fun
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