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1330 words, 5 minutes. Jean-Léon Gérôme, The Gladiators (Bronze, c.1878). Do you like hyper-masculine, gladiatorial confrontations where losers suffer not just the ignominy of defeat but significant even permanent loss of status in a rigid hierarchical system? You do, do you? Well then you’ll like this. Or do you think that sounds detestable? If so you’ll want to defeat this barbarous idea before it takes hold. Keep reading. The World As It Is The number of security qualifications has exploded. »

4300 words, 14 minutes. This post was circulated privately in April 2020. Three months later the government announced that Huawei 5G equipment will be removed from the UK by 2027, a reversal of their previous position. I’ve updated the timeline with that development. Otherwise, the text is almost unchanged from the original. Keep that in mind. It follows my July 2019post on the consideration the UK and its allies are giving to Huawei as a supplier of 5G mobile equipment. »

4095 words, 16 minutes. A Diplomatic (Chinese) Design Presented to the U.S. – 12th February 1881 by Thomas Nast, for Harper’s Weekly. I rarely mention vendors here, so this post is an exception. It’s the second in my “Projectionist”series. The series is ultimately about power and the great forces and constraints shaping our world. I’m going to talk about 5G, Huawei, China and the consideration the UK and her allies are giving to the use of Huawei’s products in national mobile networks. »

650 words, 2 1/2 minutes. Article Financial Times article “Israeli group’s spyware ‘offers keys to Big Tech’s cloud’”, Mehul Srivastava in Tel Aviv and Tim Bradshaw in London, July 19th 2019. https://www.ft.com/content/95b91412-a946-11e9-b6ee-3cdf3174eb89 Comment This comment is provided on the basis that the article is factually correct and the details within are technically accurate. The article claims to describe a recent product demonstration of the Pegasus Malware software by NSO Group: »

4300 words, 17 minutes (full). 1500 words, 6 minutes (short). Leak Summary APT34 is an Advanced Persistent Threat group associated with the Islamic Republic of Iran. Its source code and tools were recently leaked via a Telegram channel. In addition to those tools, information was divulged about the group’s targets which included companies and governments in the United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, China, Qatar, and Turkey among others. The “Dookhtegan” group leaking APT34’s information expressed particular animus towards the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence. »