Tuesday Sweep: 28 March, 2017
Weekly Round Up
Where do you scan for news? I keep an eye out for recent exploits and breaches that have come to light, new tools, interesting idea’s, etc.
Five topics for the week:
- Heading to check out the Burbank Ikea? Stop in to see a survivor – All Amusement Fun Center (Yelp), the last Mall arcade in LA, has beat its eviction notice because of local activism, but it will be moving to the 3rd Floor. See it in its current spot until April 15th.
- If your ISP is one of the several smaller providers standing up for their user’s privacy, call them to say thank you! In depth on the issue from Ars Technica. Turning on HTTPS Everywhere and leaving it on is the solution that requires the least trust, but bad actor ISPs are a use case for a VPN you trust (hard), and Tor.
- Why is privacy for everyone? Because we should more worried about incompetence, not malice. From MIT Technology Review: “Around half of all adult Americans are on [FBI]’s image database, and its software is incorrect 15 percent of the time.” Or, you know, fear the lack of impulse control of someone you loved.
- Win! Pressure on advertisers becomes pressure from advertisers!
- Reminder: Wipe any device and every device before you donate it. Even to us. Even if the place you take it to promises to do so for you. A NAID study found identifying information on 40% of items being resold! (via Dark Reading)
Reflect
What’s are the frictions keeping you from doing “what’s right”? Regret is only useful if it leads to a plan on how to improve.
Sweep
This list will be getting longer, but lets keep it simple while folks are still setting up.
- Updated software recently? Pick a new device to check on today.
- Backups still up and running? When was the last time you made a clean disk image? Here’s a new great article on how to design a backup system.
- Reduce your attack surface: Delete a low quality app from your phone. Delete an account.
- Add a password to your password manager… and delete it from everywhere else.
- Anywhere you could add two factor authentication?
- Double check privacy settings on your phone, social media accounts.
Continuing Set Up
We’ve covered so much so fast. You’re not behind, you’re just where you are. Pick something to do.
- If you’re having trouble with all the set up, the coach tool at the Crash Override Network has a great step by step break down for many of the same introductory steps we did here.
- Review the list of OneThing articles so far and pick one to catch up on.
Engage
We are a community. You are a welcome part of it.
