Untimely meditations

One man's thoughts, observations and rants

Welcome to the personal blog of Joop Beris. I blog about a wide variety of topics, ranging from atheism to information security and lots in between. I welcome feedback on my articles but there are some guidelines. Feel free to share articles you like by using the sharing buttons but please give me credit if you want to share something. Also, check out my privacy policy and other legalese.

Below you’ll find the most recent things I’ve written. Feel free to check them out, leave a comment and share them with others who might be interested.

Latest posts

  • “We must be free to insult each other”

    “We must be free to insult each other”

    If you’ve taken the time to read the page describing what this blog is all about, you will have seen that I describe myself as a free speech radical. I believe that free speech is absolutely necessary if a democracy is to function at all. I therefore believe that any form of censorship is objectionable,…

  • Bits of Freedom calls for international opposition against Dutch proposal

    Bits of Freedom calls for international opposition against Dutch proposal

    Dutch digital rights defenders Bits of Freedom are calling for international opposition against the latest proposal from Ivo Opstelten, wanting to grant police the right to hack into suspects computers, even across borders. In an article on their blog, they outline the cybersecurity risks related to this proposal. I’m also hoping for a lot of…

  • Data snooping only catches ‘incompetent criminals, accidental anarchists’

    Data snooping only catches ‘incompetent criminals, accidental anarchists’

    British Information Commissioner Christopher Graham told a committee of MPs and peers last Tuesday that the draft Communications Data Bill as it stands would only put a stop to “the incompetent criminal and the accidental anarchist”. This proposed bill would give British law enforcement and secret service more access to telecoms data.

  • Another letter from Ivo

    Another letter from Ivo

    Dutch minister of Justice Ivo Opstelten is certainly being a busy boy. Just a few days have passed since his last letter and now he has written another one, equally worrying or perhaps more so. In short, he is suggesting in an as yet not public letter that the Dutch police should have the right…

  • #OpDutchPirateBay – Anonymous threatens to attack The Netherlands

    #OpDutchPirateBay – Anonymous threatens to attack The Netherlands

    On October 6, the Anonymous movement announced an attack on The Netherlands, in retaliation for several Dutch providers blocking access to The Pirate Bay, a well known torrent site. The group spoke (anonymously of course) of being displeased by this blockade.

  • All your data are belong to us

    All your data are belong to us

    Organisations that are considering a move to the cloud would be wise to consider the effects of that move on the privacy and confidentiality of their data. That is the conclusion of a new report published by the University of Amsterdam. The university of Amsterdam examined the risks of such a move for educational institutions…

Recent comments

  1. The universe is random and infinite. How can these things exist without a creator??? Maybe because if you look closely…

“There are two different kinds of people in the world: those who want to know, and those who want to believe.”

Friedrich Nietzsche

Philosopher