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Private Session: whistleblowing architects and bank robbing bandits on Archinect Sessions #71

2016-07-07T13:53:00-04:00

Wrapping up our special editorial theme for June 2016, Privacy, Archinect writers Julia Ingalls and Nicholas Korody join us on the podcast this week to discuss two of their recent features—Julia's piece on banking security with input from a reformed robber, and Nicholas' interview with the architecture firm that moonlights as a government whistleblower, posting hundreds of secret documents online.

Listen to episode 71 of Archinect Sessions, "Private Session":

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Shownotes:

Nextdoor, "the private social network for your neighborhood"

Imagining the future cyberattack that could bring down New York City

2016-06-21T14:46:00-04:00

Copycat attacks sprang up around the world: trains going haywire in Japan; smart thermostats freezing pipes in Minneapolis; Chinese hackers noodling around a water utility in San Francisco. Americans suddenly realized that, although they had spent plenty of time anguishing about how to protect the country’s physical borders, with every device they bought, they had been letting more and more invaders into their cities, their homes, and their lives.

"They had moved everything they did online, thinking they were moving into the future; they woke up the morning after thinking they’d moved into a war zone instead."

This is a great work of speculative fiction that imagines a cyberattack that brings down New York City in the near-future. Self-driving cars smash into the roadside, hospital staff can't access their records, power plants go offline causing mass blackouts.

The article's subheading reads "A scenario that could happen based on what already has." And, indeed, most of the technology described is already in use.

The automation of cars, homes, and entire cities means IRL hacks are a real threat. For more on this, check out Archinect's interview with Joseph Grima of Space Caviar about the RAM House, a prototype dwelling equipped with "airplane mode."

For tips and tricks on how to shore up your cybersecurity, take a look at this handy beginner's guide specifically tailored to architects. And for more content related to changing not...

Are we losing the cyberwar?

2016-06-16T18:09:00-04:00

There are simply too many ways for an attacker to get into your computer now. If you log on to the office network with a smartphone, or if you carry a laptop between work and home..you make it very easy for intruders to enter the office network [..] With Wi-Fi hot spots, which can be easy to tap into, popping up everywhere, and with ever more network-enabled devices entering both the office and the home—smart TVs, smart front-door locks—intruders have a panoply of ways to break into your life.

"Looming darkly over this almost Mordorian cyber threatscape is the prospect of cyber war—a future conflict fought with weaponized code that can do physical damage to infrastructure, and potentially kill people."

According to this New Yorker article, cybersecurity experts look back fondly on the days of computer viruses. The real problem now is cybercrime – and it's increasingly becoming an IRL threat as well, as we make "smart" everything from our houses to our cars to our lightbulbs.

This month, Archinect's coverage includes a special thematic focus on Privacy. For more on the ways that technology is changing our notions of privacy and security, check out some recent articles:

Do you have projects that grapple with cha...

London revives co-housing

2016-06-15T10:28:00-04:00

As rents spiral in London, one company is proposing a solution. The Collective is a new block of apartments that acts like a giant shared house: small private bedrooms with communal laundry, kitchens, spa, cinema and workspaces … and some covert matchmaking by the managers. Our series on the global revolution in urban living goes inside the modern-day boarding house

Read related articles here:

NSA exploring data collection from Internet of Things, including biomedical devices

2016-06-14T18:29:00-04:00

The National Security Agency is researching opportunities to collect foreign intelligence — including the possibility of exploiting internet-connected biomedical devices like pacemakers, according to a senior official. [...] When asked if the entire scope of the Internet of Things — billions of interconnected devices — would be “a security nightmare or a signals intelligence bonanza,” [Richard Ledgett, the NSA’s deputy director] replied, “Both.”

For more on the world of the Internet of Things, check out these links:

This month, Archinect's coverage includes a special thematic focus, Privacy. Have projects that grapple with how city data and other new modes of urbanism have changed our notion of privacy? Submit to our open call by Sunday, June 19.

Copenhagen is the first city to try to monetize its data

2016-06-09T13:29:00-04:00

Copenhagen has become the first city in the world to attempt to monetize its, and others’, data through a city data market. Traffic snarl-ups, home break-ins, whether it rained or snowed, and how much electricity the city dwellers use each day is among the data to be traded for cash, city officials announced. Interestingly, the city, which is partnering with Hitachi on the project, also wants to incorporate others’ data.

"Not all data will have a price tag—some of it will be free, but it will be anonymized anyway."

Relatedly, in a recent conversation with Joseph Grima, co-founder of Space Caviar, the architect suggested, "...the home is becoming a factory of data to the point that one could pay one's rent through the process of producing data simply through a set of domestic activities."

For other relevant content, check out these links:

The rise of the blockchain beyond cryptocurrencies

2016-06-09T12:58:00-04:00

The growing interest in blockchain has morphed its concept into something new. Before, the blockchain was simply the spine of the bitcoin network, but today the technology is being used on a burgeoning list of distributed ledgers with varying degrees of openness, security and complexity. [...] Ethereum, a public blockchain platform created by Russo-Canadian programmer Vitalik Buterin...proposes to do away with middlemen everywhere, not just in finance.

"Ethereum is a blockchain on steroids designed for more than trading cryptocurrency units or ‘coloured’ assets: developers can use it to build programs that interact with the world based on public rules enshrined in so-called smart contracts."

Some architects are already working on utilizing the blockchain to transform just about every aspect of how the profession operates – from the organization of a studio to the way projects are funded. Last fall, I talked with FOAM about some of the potentials of blockchain and Ethereum, in particular.

"Architectural transactions could evolve in a number of ways with blockchain technology," states FOAM. "For example, from the point of view of the business model, architecture could move away from client-designer relations that rely solely on fixed design and hourly fees. Instead they could exchange equity in the built environment in the form of smart contracts that distribute cryptographic tokens that represent share or equity in the agreement."

Che...

Hackers can use the vibration motor in your phone to eavesdrop on you

2016-06-08T15:05:00-04:00

Hackers may be pickin’ up good vibrations from your phone. All the better to surveil you with, my dear. Researchers at the Electrical and Computer Engineering school of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign discovered that the vibration motor in your devices can operate like a microphone, according to the researchers’ paper. That means, if a hacker rewires your vibration motor (which TechCrunch reported could be executed “in a minute or two”), they can listen to what you’re saying.

In related news:

The theme for June is Privacy. How has architecture transformed notions of privacy? How have privacy concerns transformed architecture? Submit to our open call by Sunday, June 19!

University of Calgary pays $16K to recover data held hostage by ransomware attackers

2016-06-08T13:05:00-04:00

Canada's University of Calgary paid almost $16,000 ($20,000 Canadian, ~£10,800) to recover crucial data that has been held hostage for more than a week by crypto ransomware attackers. The ransom was disclosed on Wednesday morning in a statement issued by University of Calgary officials. It said university IT personnel had made progress in isolating the unnamed ransomware infection and restoring affected parts of the university network.

"It went on to warn that there's no guarantee paying the controversial ransom will lead to the lost data being recovered."

Attacks with ransomware have become increasingly frequent. As the name suggests, ransomware allows hackers to take computers hostage until the user pays up. The increasing prevalence of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has facilitated the rise in such attacks.

As the University of Calgary's Vice President stated, ""We are conducting world class research daily and we don’t know what we don’t know in terms of who’s been impacted and the last thing we want to do is lose someone’s life’s work."

For more on that state of privacy in our digital era, check out these links:

Casing the joint: Geoff Manaugh discusses his latest book, "A Burglar's Guide to the City" on One-to-One #26

2016-06-06T14:19:00-04:00

Writer and BLDGBLOG founder Geoff Manaugh's latest book, A Burglar's Guide to the City, isn't just a set of case studies on bank vaults and getaway routes—it's a dialectic for public and private space. It’s definitely the first book I’ve come across classified jointly under “architecture” and “true crime”, and it's full of fascinating insights into how burglars exploit architecture to pull off the perfect crime, as well as the extent architects go to prevent that from happening.

Geoff spoke with me about the research behind the book, and how a personal experience with burglary changed his ideas about privacy in architecture. For more podcasting with Geoff, check out our conversation about autonomous vehicles on Archinect Sessions #43.

Listen to One-to-One #26 with Geoff Manaugh:

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Open Call for Submissions: "Privacy"

2016-05-30T10:53:00-04:00

Privacy: just the word is probably enough to elicit a cringe. Boundaries transgressed, information accessed, space trespassed—whether digitally or spatially, our private selves are vulnerable in more ways than ever, while simultaneously, our ability to connect and communicate with everything other than ourselves has expanded fantastically. The potential, and the paranoia, is immense.

How then might architecture respond and adapt to imposing structures of privacy? Effective immediately, we're accepting submissions to our editorial theme for June 2016: "Privacy".

》Editorial Submissions: Privacy Trespassed

Not too long ago, the notion of a glass home was scandalous. Within the last decade, commercialized cooperative models of living and working (i.e. “co-working” and “co-living” spaces) have removed many of the traditional arenas for privacy in homes and offices worldwide. In what other ways has our notion of privacy been rearranged by shifts in architecture? Send us your reflections, ana...