Transatlantic Cable podcast, episode 132

Dave and Jeff discuss MI5 pushing for weak encryption, the EU commission telling employees to use Signal, smart pet feeders going offline, and more.

Kaspersky podcast: MI5 calls for backdoor in encryption

To kick off the 132nd edition of the Kaspersky Transatlantic Cable podcast, Dave and I discuss an IoT issue for pet owners.

Owners of second-generation Petnet SmartFeeders saw their feeders stop working because of a failure in the company’s infrastructure, resulting, in one case, in a guy’s pets not being fed for a week. Questionable pet parenting aside, we can’t help but wonder why these feeders need a connection simply to function. We ask that kind of question a lot about the Internet of Things.

The second story takes us to the land down under, where Facebook is being called upon to ban links to the Pirate Bay because they may contain malware and endanger users. We then head to Britain, where MI5 is once again beating the drum to weaken encryption.

In an interesting twist of fate, our fourth story discusses the EU Commission asking its staff to start using Signal, because of the app’s strong encryption. We take a break from the news to shed some light on Kaspersky’s blockchain voting offering, Polys. To end this week’s episode, we head back to Europe, where the free Wi-Fi at UK rail stations suffered a bit of a breach.

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