FEATURED ARTICLES
The Great IT Blackout: How a CrowdStrike Update Paralyzed the World
On Friday July 19th 2024, the world was hit by one of the most significant IT blackouts in history. Thousands of Windows machines failed to boot up or reboot, disrupting banks, airlines, TV broadcasters, healthcare companies, major retailers, and numerous other businesses globally.
While the cause of the outage is known and efforts to restore normalcy are underway, this widespread chaos underscored the world’s growing dependence on a handful of technology companies and critical questions remain unanswered. Here’s an in-depth look at what happened and its implications for our technology-reliant society.
By Khalil Sehnaoui - 25 July 2024
(Computer) Hackers: Let’s Set the Record Straight
If I asked you to say what you saw in your mind when you read the title of that piece, what would you say? Most probably you would say you visualized a dark figure wearing a hoodie sitting behind a computer screen and doing bad things to good people.
That’s ok, I won’t hold it against you because that is how the mainstream media, and blockbuster movies, have been portraying computer hackers for a few decades now.
And it’s totally, absolutely, entirely and utterly wrong. Let’s set the record straight.
By Khalil Sehnaoui - 11 August 2023
Information Security Experts (Computer Hackers): What Do They Really Do?
Whenever I mention my field of expertise and line of work, the first questions I usually get are “Can you access my Facebook account?”, “Can you read my Instagram messages?” or something along those lines of indiscreetness, curiosity and most definitely illegal uses of one’s computer prowess. This is the effect that the statement “I’m a computer hacker” generally has on people. It is a combination of mystery, incomprehension and bewilderment, laced with a media-induced perception of illegality and crime.
But what do computer hackers really do for them to have become, in the past decades, some of the most sought after and highest paid experts in the world?
By Khalil Sehnaoui - 15 August 2023
Data Breaches, Theft & Crime in the Digital Age: Who’s to Blame?
Why does it seem so easy for criminals to steal and sell our data, breach our networks, steal our money, ransom our files? In my opinion, they are getting a lot of help, whether consciously or not, and this is the purpose of this article: voicing my opinion on where some of the blame lies and what can be done about it.
By Khalil Sehnaoui - 23 August 2023
Panorama du piratage informatique en Iran
Le piratage de la télévision iranienne le 8 octobre dernier a été revendiqué par le groupe Edalat-e Ali, coutumier de ce genre d’attaques. Cette opération, au modus operandi complexe, dénote une intensification de la lutte, alors que la République islamique semble ébranlée dans sa stratégie de contrôle de la propagande politique face aux manifestations anti-régime.
Reste à savoir quel est le modus operandi de ces combattants de l’ombre et leurs motivations.
Par Khalil Sehnaoui - 23 October 2022
Iran: la fronde numérique face aux mollahs
Cette dernière décennie a vu l’émergence de l’arme numérique, bien plus efficace que les fusils et accessible au plus grand nombre. Des révolutions arabes à ce soulèvement des Iraniennes, force est de constater que les régimes dictatoriaux usent toujours du même instrument pour éteindre ces révoltes: la coupure de la connexion au réseau Internet et la répression. Dans le cas présent, malgré les dispositifs et moyens importants dont dispose le régime des mollahs, ces derniers ne parviennent pas à museler l’opinion des protestataires ni la diffusion partout dans le monde des messages de la contestation.
Par Khalil Sehnaoui - 17 October 2022