Thinkst Blog

The Internet lit up last week over the (very public) hack of Sony Pictures. There has been no shortage of commentary on the hack, from wild accusations involving evil-nation-states, to 0-day malware more complex than STUXNET. We believe that in all this noise, its easy to lose sight of some important lessons, and so tonight, we kicked out a ThinkstScapes Ad Hoc update on it. This Ad Hoc issue is being made available free here : If you aren't a  ThinkstScapes  subscriber, and want to be, Let us know. We offer educational discounts and will be happy to oblige. We (almost) always treasure feedback. Drop us a note at info@thinkst.com if you have any.

We presented at Hack in the Box Malaysia last week on research we have been doing for the past while on Sock Puppetry. We will post more details on the research in upcoming posts, but for now, you can grab a copy of the slides [ here ] [edit] Coverage of the talk on Digital News Asia  : " Censorship 2.0: Shadowy forces controlling online conversations " [edit] Coverage of the talk on the register  : " Stop and Thinkst: Is that really the Most Popular story or did haxxors Bash it out? "

We spent a bit of time on Patrick Grays excellent Risky.Biz this week, to talk about our ThinkstScapes service. We have been running ThinkstScapes for about 4 years now, and (so far) have never had a cancellation yet. (We take this to mean that people generally like it!) As part of the show, we gave away a free issue of the 2nd Quarter Research Roundup Issue for 2014. If you are not a subscriber, you can grab your [ free copy here ]* * Also: Why aren't you a subscriber? mail us at info@thinkst.com to make it happen .

At the end of last year we did BlackHats 2013 year in review. It was a webcast (which means you are spared seeing our faces, but not from hearing our voices or seeing our slides ). Although its probably slightly dated, we think theres some value in it for those who didn't dial in. You can grab a copy of the slides in PDF here , and can watch the video below: ( talk starts at 2m07s ) Ps. We know it's dreadfully late to post the content, and have no good excuse for it. A friend asked for a copy & we realised we never put it up here.. (we promise to to do better!)

Our ITWeb Security Summit keynote this year covered the Snowden Leaks from a South African point of view. Our talk was based on ideas we articulated in an op-ed piece for Al Jazeera last year, titled: " Silicon Valley, spy agencies and software sovereignty " ITWeb has already uploaded the video (Go ITWeb!) - Below you can grab a version of the video, with the slides added as an overlay (if nothing else, it makes the nasal voice more bearable)