Posts

C3L - Meet the team!

 Introduction to the people behind this blog! This blog is where members of C3L post about current projects, spread a bit of information, and write about their personal interests in order to create a wider outreach.  The blog has three main authors contributing: Scott (the director of the company), Alex (researcher and co-developer), and Grace (Research assistant for the company.) The purpose of this post is to officially introduce each of us as individuals in order to give a small insight into who we are and what we're like at C3L as people.  Firstly introducing, Scott:  I'm Scott, I started the company to take advantage of an opportunity to work in standards way back in 1995 and have managed to keep my hand in since. My background is in engineering and I've been doing it since leaving school and university. I'd like to think I'm good at it, taking a holistic systems view to things and looking into why they aren't secure and then trying to find ways to fix thin

Video Game Heritage - Preserving and Archiving

  Introduction   The area of digital prevention is becoming a more important topic and is something awareness of is growing with video games as part of this topic. What it is meant by video game heritage  is that it consists in preserving objects of every nature, so as to pass them on to future generations. Heritage is the sum of all these preserved objects drawing a link between the past, present and future. Video game preservation is the act of taking steps to ensure that older video games will be easily accessible and playable in the future. It  includes archiving development  source code  and art assets, digital copies of video games,  emulation of video game hardware , maintenance and preservation of specialised video game hardware such as  arcade games,   video game consoles , and digitisation of print video game magazines and books . Video game archiving, is to maintaining them as intrinsic value to future generations. The item people make use is composed of what they aspire too

Securing the Metaverse

  Introduction If and when the concept of the metaverse becomes common use it will likely have security challenges associated with it. Regardless of we may think of the metaverse concept either positively or negatively because it such early days we do not know what the end product will be so there is no real harm in discussing ponytail problems and we may be able to solve them.  In   futurism   and   science fiction , the   metaverse   is a hypothetical iteration of the   Internet   as a single, universal and immersive   virtual world   that is facilitated by the use of   virtual reality   (VR) and   augmented reality   (AR) headsets.   Often today, a metaverse is a network of 3D   virtual worlds   focused on social connection. The term "metaverse" originated in the 1992 science fiction novel  Snow Crash by Neal Stephenson  , as a portmanteau of "meta" and "universe". Metaverse development is often linked to advancing virtual reality technology due to incr

Awareness of Sextortion emails spoofing your own email address

  Introduction As one of these type of emails ended up in my junk folder and was a new one to myself I thought it would be a good idea to share information about this type of online sextortion scam. A reminder sextortion scams are a type of phishing attack whereby people are coerced to pay a crypto currency ransom because they have been threatened with sharing video of themselves visiting adult websites. These scams are made to appear all the more credible because they provide seemingly plausible technical details about how this was achieved, and the phish can sometimes also include the individual’s password. Phishes are designed to play on people’s emotions so that they will behave in a way which is out of character, and scams such as this are no different. The phisher is gambling that enough people will respond so that their scam is profitable; they do not know if you have a webcam, have been visiting adult websites, or the means by which you communicate with people, in short, they a

The Metaverse and SDOs

  Introduction “Metaverse” is a term created by author Neal Stephenson in his 1992 science fiction novel Snow Crash. It combines the words “meta” and “universe.” He envisioned it as an immersive virtual world that runs parallel to the real world. The metaverse is  a concept which is being talked up by some as the future of the internet. Though at the moment there is no single agreed  definition of it. The basic definition is i nstead of being on a computer, in the metaverse the user might use a headset to enter a virtual world connecting all sorts of digital environments.   Unlike current VR, which is mostly used for gaming, this virtual world could be used for practically anything - work, play, concerts, cinema trips - or just hanging out. Most people envision that the user would have a 3D avatar - a representation of themselves - as they use it.  Also, some organisations believe the metaverse will be based around  Web3 and exist on a blockchain ledger, while use making use of NFTs an

New Article from C3L on Vulnerabilities in Our Digital Home

  What our homes mean to us has been redefined over the COVID era. We now work, rest, and play within its boundaries, not only with family, but also with friends and colleagues in real life or through our computers and connected devices. This "open door" policy, spurred by the pandemic, shows no signs of abating. As a result, our homes are vulnerable in several new ways, and we need to ensure our "new normal" doesn't take advantage of our hospitality. Homes are also becoming smarter; we are inviting in more technology that is viewing,  analysing , and understanding our daily lives: Think of, Ring doorbells, Alexas, Zoom, Teams, and banking apps. We are giving technology permission to have some amount of control over and insight into our lives — to do this, they need to be connected and therefore we are introducing more open doors for potentially uninvited guests. For these reasons, Home Gateways are vital to homes in order to ensure the four walls we live in are

Online Safety and the Relationship with Cybersecurity

  Introduction This post will give an overview of the relationship between online safety and cybersecurity. This will hopefully give an idea of how they work together, their differences and how they both complement each other. Online safety refers to the act of staying safe online. It is also commonly known as internet safety, e-safety and cyber safety. It encompasses all technological devices which have access to the internet from PCs and laptops to smartphones and tablets. Being safe online means individuals are protecting themselves and others from online harms and risks which may jeopardise their personal information, lead to unsafe communications or even affect their mental health and wellbeing. In English, we have different words for safety and security. With their use and meaning often being used for different contexts. Though depending on the context 'safety' in English can mean to be secure or 'security' referring to being safe. Though in French for example the

Exploring the themes and ideas around the Cultural Splinternet

  Introduction   As a reminder, the “splinternet,” can be defined as where cyberspace is controlled and regulated by different countries. This includes regulations and national firewalls. As well there are the barriers across cultures with media and language being two defining features. These naturally exist in the physical world (nation-state) because of how we naturally divide ourselves up and congregate in similar and like-minded groups. Internet reflects that and in some cases to a greater harmful degree. My view is you can divide the splinternet into three types:  National/Geopolitical  (i.e. West vs East) Regulatory (i.e. GDPR) Cultural (i.e. language) The goal of this post is first explore some of the language gap within the cultural splinternet with examples and whether it is something worth tackling. Secondly, how the  impact of regulatory / national splinternets affect the cultural splinternet. The examples I have chosen may be a  bit biased but they are things I find persona