The Big Tech Show

This week, Adrian discusses the origins and the potential fixes of Ireland’s catastrophic HSE ransomware episode with experienced cyber security practitioner, Paul C Dwyer.Dwyer pulls no punches in saying that Ireland’s IT security infrastructure isn’t up to scratch. The two look at factors contributing to this, including an historical and cultural distaste in Ireland for investing significantly in defence-related activities.Dwyer offers some suggestions on what steps we might take to rebuild Ireland’s cyber security infrastructure in a more robust format.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Adrian looks at why some weather apps on our phones are so unreliable.He talks to meteorologist Alan O’Reilly of Carlow Weather.The two go through the best apps to use and why some are more accurate than others.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For most, it’s a breath of fresh air. The latest iOS 14.5 update will start showing you pop-ups when you open an app. It will ask you this question: “allow [app] to track your activity across other companies’ apps and websites?”This will be accompanied by a short pitch from the app concerned as to why it needs you to do this. (Although it can’t link your answer to functionality — Apple’s new rules forbid tracking to be a requirement for the app’s features to work.)If you say no, that app can’t track you across the web for the purposes of ads. (If it’s found to be doing so, it’s booted out of the App Store.)If you say yes, it’s business as usual.There are already some indications that most people will opt out of being tracked.Is it this universally a good thing or are there underreported disadvantages for small businesses trying to reach their audiences?Adrian is joined by David Campbell, head of e-Commerce at Humm and a director of Digital Business Ireland, and Daragh O’Brien, CEO of privacy firm Castlebridge.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

More than 7,000 people have signed up for a mass action lawsuit in Irish courts against Facebook. The case, organised by Digital Rights Ireland, is over a global data leak that exposed the mobile phone numbers of 530 million people.People are really upset about this, not least because Facebook doesn’t appear to be taking it seriously. There are at least 1.3m Irish numbers alone, matched perfectly against full names and, in many cases, occupation or location.The least that we can expect is a new wave of scam texts or Whatsapps. But for a few thousand people, it could be a lot more serious. The names and numbers of gardai, sitting judges, prison officers and others in sensitive positions are among the numbers leaked.As are roles such as management positions in womens’ refuges and other places that could be prone to harassing or predatory contact. All are easily searchable.In this week’s podcast, Adrian talks to the director of Digital Rights Ireland, Antoin O’Lachtnain, about the leak and the case.Digital Rights Ireland is taking the Irish court action under European GDPR rules and says that an award of between €300 and €12,000 in damages is “comparable” to what might occur in its Facebook case.Former Facebook worker Carey Lening, who now works on privacy and security issues with Castlebridge, also joins the podcast to talk about her experience and where we go from here.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Do you liven up your texts with a crying-laughing emoji? Do you try to make a point more forceful by using the hand-clapping symbol in between words? Do you intersperse the two-eyed ‘look’ pixel in every second or third Whatsapp message?You’re literally showing your age. According to experts, large swathes of emoji are now only used by middle-aged and older people.This week, Adrian talks to Keith Broni, the deputy emoji officer (yes, that’s a real job) for Emojipedia about the politics and generational angst of emoji.He’s also joined by the Irish Independent’s newest columnist, Tanya Sweeney, and Irish Independent reporter Gabija Gataveckaite, to talk about the wider cultural effects that emoji are having among different generations.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Adrian looks at whether buying digital art through NFTs (‘non-fungible tokens’) is for suckers or savvy collectors. He’s joined by Lory Kehoe, adjunct associate professor at Trinity Business School and director of digital assets at BNY Mellon.The discussion looks at the recent $69m auction sale at Christie’s for an NFT-linked digital canvas, as well as the $2.9m sale of Jack Dorsey’s first tweet via NFT and the growing prominence of Ireland’s own Kevin Abosch, who has sold over €1m in NFT digital art in the last month.What exactly do you own when you buy a piece of art via NFT? What’s to stop someone simply copying it at the click of a button? And where does it all fit in to the growth of crypto-currencies and blockchain?The two also look at the IPO of Coinbase and ask whether it’s worth the extraordinary valuation.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

“10 years ago, we were sitting around drinking coffee and talking about Facebook and Twitter. Then we just decided to start doing things. Last month, one of our local startups IPO’d at $4bn.”This week, Adrian sits down to chat with Clark Dever, one of the senior ecosystem heads at Techstars, the international startup accelerator organisation.Clark tells Adrian about the experience of Buffalo, a rust-belt city in a high-tax state (New York).The two discuss everything from incentives to tax rates and what startups should really do to get some funding and connections in place.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Adrian talks to Markham Nolan, the WWE’s VP of Media Operations.The Dubliner is responsible for managing a social media footprint of over 1bn followers as well as being influential in the WWE’s overall media strategy.The two talk about how Markham’s past in Irish journalism and Storyful. They also go through how and what the WWE prioritises in its online and media operations.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Adrian looks at the best webcams, cameras, lights and microphones for video-conferencing and Zoom calls from home.He’s joined by two experts — well known YouTuber and content creator Clare Cullen (@Clisare) and a director of Conns Cameras, Bob Conn.The panel also talks about how to set up so as to look professional.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week, Adrian welcomes back Paul Campbell, founder of the ticket-selling company Ti.to and the online event platform Vi.to.Fresh from raising over €1m, Paul talks politics, ethics and how to sell software.He also discusses the best camera, microphone and lighting setups for conferencing from home.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.