Articles by Stilgherrian

A clever website purporting to show the difference between the speed of Labor’s NBN and the Coalition’s broadband plan has gone viral — but is it a fair and accurate representation? We fact-check How Fast is the NBN.

Yes, Malcolm Turnbull knows Labor’s NBN policy of fibre to the premises is technically superior than the Coalition’s plan. But he argues this is not the only factor.

Some time this week we will see “the 12-page costing” for the Coalition’s broadband policy. Stilgherrian lists 13 questions to ask as you flip through the pages.

Some malicious hackers — potentially from China — hacked the RBA in 2011. But is it really the international online security threat everyone is claiming?

Hacking is getting easier, and any criminal with a cause — or even without one — can now bring down companies’ websites and access users’ personal information. The latest victim is the ABC.

App.net went and changed the Silicon Valley orthodoxy with a paid, then “freemium”, model to threaten Twitter. But are we willing to pay for a better, more secure service?

Malcolm Turnbull has offered a defence of the Coalition’s broadband internet strategy, but claims he needs more numbers from NBN Co. We’d settle for rough estimates ahead of the election.

Telstra says it’s speed-shaping trial of peer-to-peer internet traffic isn’t about copyright infringements but customer service and peak access. But users are highly cynical of the motives.

Telstra says it will trial slowing down its users at peak periods to discourage the use of peer-to-peer software. But will it cut piracy or just piss off its customers?

Bernard Keane says the federal government’s war on cybercrime is propaganda. But Crikey’s tech guru counters: it might not be a war, but there’s plenty of reasons to be concerned.

Kim Dotcom is at it again — but this time it’s encrypted. Here’s what’s revolutionary about his new file “sharing” service.

Now there’s a war on cyberbullying. What is the government up to, and will it make a difference?

Aaron Swartz was a hacker in every sense of the word. His death — at just 26 — is a tragic loss for technology’s bright young things and raises questions about the fight for freedom of information on the internet.

In 2012, Big Copyright suffered several setbacks. And Big Data ramped up its efforts. Our technology expert looks back and forward at the world online.

The online world was abuzz with Instagram’s hardline terms of use changes. But users should know what they’re getting themselves in for when using social media platforms.

Once again the old media have missed the point of privacy online, preferring to maintain their patch instead of focusing on issues such as data mining.

Trial by media? Trial by Google is the real threat to privacy, Lord Justice Brian Leveson told a Sydney audience today — fresh from delivering his media ethics report to the UK government.

A new website from OpenAustralia makes it easier to submit freedom of information requests — and the process becomes more transparent.

Stephen Conroy has abandoned plans to erect a filter around the internet. He learned moral outrage wasn’t going to win the day. His bureaucratic colleagues need to do the same.

What is to “publish” in the digital age? Search engines are now targets as we wake up to the fact the law says we’re publishing every time we go online.

Mandatory data retention proposals have libertarians in a flap. But what Google and a bunch of other companies are doing via Wi-Fi is much worse.