Author: Andrea Monti

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The assault on the US Capitol and the culture of law and order

The handling of the assault by former President Trump supporters has provoked strong criticism of the American security apparatus, responsible for not having foreseen what would happen. Ensuring public order, however, requires means, but also a philosophical choice in the management of security by Andrea Monti Professor of Law and Order, University of Chieti-Pescara – Originally published in Italian by Formiche.net

The scenes of the assault on the American Capitol evoke images more suited to other latitudes than that of the country universally accredited as a flagship democracy. Leaving aside why such a disconcerting event happened, and therefore disregarding the political consequences of having triggered a violent protest, it is worth making a few considerations on “how” the public order emergency looks from an Italian perspective. Continue reading “The assault on the US Capitol and the culture of law and order”

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The Zyxel’s Firewall Bug. Twenty Years Passed Invain

by Andrea Monti – originally published in Italian by Infosec.News

Routers … are affected by a severe vulnerability that makes it possible, without any artifice or hack, to obtain the router’s access password.
Therefore, it is possible to block the operation of the device, making services inaccessible and, in some cases, accessing the user’s internal network. It would make it possible to intercept e-mails and, more generally, the information contained therein— all without the user’s knowledge. We wonder … how is it possible that equipment with such vulnerabilities to the privacy of citizens and the activities of companies can be placed on the market without any control, without any information or caution, without any assumption of responsibility on the part of manufacturers and distributors and without any protection for defenceless (and unsuspecting) users? Continue reading “The Zyxel’s Firewall Bug. Twenty Years Passed Invain”

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Who owns your computer, and more importantly, can you trust it?

Operating systems and software manage the usability of machines by Andrea Monti – Originally published in Italian by Infosec.News

Adobe announces the end of Flash Player and that it will block content based on this standard, which is considered inherently unsafe and the subject of constant security updates.

It is a subject for another article to investigate why it was possible to allow such software (and those of other manufacturers) to burden and weaken computers around the world . For the time being, we are interested in the relationship between obsolescence management, licensing, the ‘ownership’ of a computer (or a smartphone or a tablet, or – when the IoT will, unfortunately, become a reality – any household appliance).

In short: buying a computer does not mean becoming its owner, because its usability depends on the strategies of operating systems and software’s producers to keep it running. The subject is certainly not new (Richard Stallman wrote about it at the dawn of free software), but today it has reached worrying dimensions.

Continue reading “Who owns your computer, and more importantly, can you trust it?”
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USA, China and the Weaponisation of Culture

The invasion of a sovereign state implies fighting the internal ‘resistance’. Therefore the adoption of counterinsurgency strategies is necessary. What does this mean in a Second Cold War scenario? The analysis of Andrea Monti, Adjunct Professor of Law and Order, University of Chieti-Pescara – Originally published in Italian by Formiche.net

The inoculation of values and lifestyles of an adversary civilian population plays a fundamental role in any form of conflict. Disrupting the adversary’s social structures is the prerequisite for weakening its resistance, facilitating the acceptance of the foreign presence in one’s territory in case of invasion or domination, in case of defeat.

Theoretically, the reasoning is coherent and shareable from a strategic point of view but, as counterinsurgency experts know, its concrete application in a state of waged war (even ‘by proxy’) is very complicated. Continue reading “USA, China and the Weaponisation of Culture”

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Pfizer vaccine. Does adverse reaction information back up conspiracy theorists?

Spreading news about Pfizer vaccines’ allergic reactions is dangerous. A change in a communication strategy is urgent.

By Andrea Monti – Originally published in Italian by Infosec.News

After the British patient, other people (two nurses from a hospital in Alaska) suffered an extreme allergic reaction within ten minutes after the administration of the vaccine.

The news, in itself, is not relevant because any vaccine can have side effects and, as written in another article, it is simply wrong to think that the administration of a vaccine, as of any drug, cannot have consequences ranging from annoying to lethal. Concerning the specific case of the Pfizer vaccine, then, not being an expert, it is wise to refrain from any technical consideration, and wait to read some scientific study that explores the topic. Continue reading “Pfizer vaccine. Does adverse reaction information back up conspiracy theorists?”