Month: September 2017
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Dear Patrons
Originally published on Patreon. This week I received a message from an intermediary between myself and the SFPD. The message sent to me is one of concern. Let me back up a little bit. I’ve begun work to write a book about growing up on the streets of San Francisco. The short version is that… Read more…
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Americans are horrified by DHS plan to track immigrants on social media
Originally published in Engadget. The government is turning Facebook into a new kind of surveillance tool. 1 / 2 D. Thomas Magee Starting October 18th, the Department of Homeland Security will collect and store "social-media handles, aliases, associated identifiable information and search results" in the permanent files of all immigrants. This will include new immigrants,… Read more…
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Hacking and infosec news
Originally published on Patreon. Showtime is running a cryptocurrency miner, college degrees and infosec, CCleaner was used for espionage attacks, ISPs are colluding to taint apps with spyware, the Deloitte hack could have Trump info involved, and much more. Miner threat In last week’s roundup I included an item about the Pirate Bay attempting to… Read more…
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Why Equifax’s error wasn’t hiring someone with a music degree
Originally published in Engadget. Turns out that what you studied is a terrible indicator of infosec skills. 1 / 3 Illustration by D. Thomas Magee In the wake of the Equifax breach, a significant number of people lost their minds this week upon discovering that one of its newly deposed security executives has a degree… Read more…
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Hacking and infosec news
Originally published on Patreon. Another Equifax hack comes out, sexism rears its head at former Equifax CISO, the WordPress plugin backdoorer is unmasked, where those energy grid hacking headlines are coming from, AI can guess your password, and more. But stock in golden parachutes is way up Equifax appears unstoppable in its quest for beating… Read more…
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How Bodega typifies Silicon Valley’s cultural ignorance
Originally published in Engadget. Solving problems that don’t exist, as usual. 1 / 5 Illustration by D. Thomas Magee On Wednesday a story about two ex-Google employees receiving an obscene amount of money for a bad idea hit social media and was met with a level of outrage you could feel through the screen. If… Read more…
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Introduction: Rise
Originally published on Patreon. Just so you know where I’m coming from, this is the introduction to my new book. It should help with assumptions about me, what kind of research I do, and my perspective on inequality regarding consumers and cybersecurity. Ask me any questions you like in the comments. The book was… Read more…
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Hacking and infosec news
Originally published on Patreon. No one feels bad for Equifax, Kaspersky binned at Best Buy, we meet the Cellebrite of car hacking and surveillance, a Cracka With Attitude goes to prison, and you get a D-Link router 0day and you get a D-Link 0day and you… Everyone thought it was Mr. Robot promo The plucky… Read more…
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Facebook's widening role in electing Trump
Originally published in Engadget. Blaming fake accounts isn’t Facebook’s get-out-of-jail-free card, apparently. 1 / 6 Illustration by D. Thomas Magee Facebook admitted this week that a Russian propaganda mill used the social-media giant's ad service for political operation around the 2016 campaign. This came out when sources revealed to The Washington Post on Wednesday that… Read more…
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Hacking and infosec news
Originally published on Patreon. The FCC’s pants were down in malwaretown, Instagram and Yahoo have summertime security sadness, we learn how half a million pacemakers get firmware updates, Reality Winner’s case gets more complicated, Paris had a creepy wine heist, and more. FCC doesn’t give a cuck Infosec Twitter had fun passing around the “letter… Read more…