Send bitcoins if you want your brain back

from here

So based on this article, scrambling your brain with ransomware might be a bit of a stretch. However, if they can figure out the position of a pigs legs, how much more difficult would it be to read keystrokes (you know, like the ones when you enter your password)? I feel like maybe they didn't think this through all the way.

It's a trap!

found on Art Of Trolling

If you see emails like this, don't click the provided link. It's absolutely not legit. Take a look at the email address(es) for one thing. Also it follows all the classic patterns for a phishing scam - it's vague, it generates a sense of urgency by telling you your account is going to be deleted, and it tells you to log in with the link provided and enter more information in order to prevent that from happening. The link will go to a fake login page where they'll steal your username and password, and that extra information they want you to enter afterwards is to steal even more information, perhaps credit card information or answers to security questions so they can break into other accounts besides just your email - though once they get into your email account they can use the forgotten password feature for your other accounts to gain access to them because they'll mostly work by sending you codes and/or links to your email account that they now control.

And stop changing the settings back to default all the time

from here

Supposedly you can change the authentication method to OAuth2, but that didn't seem to work properly for me and even if it had, I'm not sure how many authentication tokens it will keep separate (I'm using an email client because I have multiple accounts and I don't want them getting linked)

I'm sold and so are my kidneys

found on Me.me

This seems like a great way to find the most gullible people on campus.

Do you think the curtains could act like a mask?

from here

Tech support scammers kind of depend on technologically impaired victims, but I imagine with the increased public awareness of contagions and their countermeasures they must be getting an uptick in weird questions.

Impressive ancient lockbox

Watch on YouTube

As impressive as this several hundred year old contraption is, what everyone really wants to know is how long it would take the Lock Picking Lawyer to get into it.

A bathroom adventure

from here and here (image source)

Which door will you choose?

Master Of Disguise

found on Izismile

That is VERY convincing. if it were among actual leaf litter I doubt I'd be able to pick it out. Mother Nature certainly puts us humans to shame when it comes to disguises/camouflage.

Privacy Dies In The Fine Print

from here and here

If democracy dies in darkness, then privacy dies in the fine print of those countless agreements you accept without really thinking about it in order to use things like Facebook, Google, Twitter, your Roomba, your smart TV, etc.

As long as you're getting something for free you don't look too closely at it. Don't want to look a gift horse in the mouth, after all - but maybe you should.

And yes, just to be abundantly clear, I'm proposing a new catch phrase:

Privacy dies in the fine print

NSA Sticker

Product Page

I feel like I've seen this image before, but I'm not sure where. I am sure that it looks really nice as a sticker and does a good job of drawing attention to the NSA's collection of our data.

But still technically correct

from here (image source)

Apparently there are special keys (control keys) designed to do just this, but I'm not sure this was supposed to be such a key. If this had been the expected result then there wouldn't be much point in taking the photo.

Bet they wish they'd learned how to pick a lock

found on Izismile

The best time to learn lock picking is before you needed. The second best time to learn it is now.

At least the malware can't do any more damage

from here and here (image source)

The malware can't do any more damage because there isn't more damage that can be done. This computer is finished.

For the kids who were only warned about free candy

found on Acid Cow

The admonition about not taking candy from strangers always struck me as oddly specific. What if the stranger had something healthy like an apple instead? Was that somehow OK? What if they had a snack platter with all sorts of different things? Were we only supposed to avoid the candy and take the chips instead?

Especially since this was advice for children, it seems unreasonable to expect them to extrapolate from one specific piece of advice and apply it in a bunch of other similar but different scenarios as well - but perhaps parents didn't anticipate predators would adapt.

Like an ankle monitor in your pocket

from here

I can't get over how carceral the policies about this college's mandatory tracking app are. It really does seem like the students are being voluntold to submit to house arrest at the college, and the app is a technical control that helps enforce that.

I understand there are concerns about COVID-19 and re-opening the school, but there are more privacy-friendly ways, and heck maybe it would be better if the school didn't re-open and went online instead.

I am curious what the school administration would do if a student said they didn't have a phone. Would they buy the student a phone? Probably not. They want the features of an ankle monitoring without having to pay for the hardware or infrastructure so they offload that cost onto the students. It's like the gig economy (exploitative as that is) but for hardware.

The Defence Works: Phishing Emails In Real Life

Watch on YouTube

The interactions that phishing emails try to employ really don't stand up to scrutiny when used in the real world, do they? Honestly, it would be creep as fuck if a guy from your bank actually sat down beside you on a park bench to discuss a problem with you. How the fuck would your bank even know you were there?

Money talks, privacy walks

from here

It's not technically wrong for companies to eagerly hand over your data to the government in return for money, but it certainly seems like it should be ethically/morally wrong.

No I will not break the law for you or fix your computer

found on Imgur

There are already t-shirts that say "No I Will Not Fix Your Computer" (I have a couple of those), but I really think there needs to be some to answer those hacking requests too. It's not just relatives that ask, by the way.

It just works ... for the crooks

from here and here

I wonder if profiting from criminal enterprises has anything to do with Apple becoming the world's most prosperous company. Seems like it must have helped the bottom line at least a little, considering the numbers involved.

Hacking Cheat Sheet Mug

Product Page

This certainly seems like a clever idea. No need to carry around a sheet or go to a web page all the time when the commands you're looking for are right on your coffee mug.

At least the tanks can't see each other

from here (image source)

I don't know what was going through the architect's mind when they designed this public washroom, but I have a strong suspicion they've never used a public washroom before.

Have we already forgotten what Snowden showed us?

found on Funny Junk

Everywhere you go and everything you do is already being tracked one way or another, there's no need to put chips in vaccines (even if we had that kind of technology).

As for phones in particular, Snowden isn't the the only one to reveal the spying and tracking associated with them, but he is arguably the most famous one to do so.

Stealthy predator gives away its position in 3...2...1...

from here (image source)

Camouflage is meant to protect one from being seen by an adversary, but sometimes protection can backfire.

Protection that works

found on Izismile

I bet you wish you had this kind of protection when you cut onions. I know I do.

WhatPhone is even more secure than WhatsApp

from here

At some point the people who are trying to hide things from law enforcement are going to realize that it's safer to just not have the devices that the authorities keep going after and use the old-school trade-craft instead.

Human Error's Guide to Keeping Security Simple - Mimecast Security Awareness Training

Watch on YouTube

There appears to be an entire series of videos with this Human Error character. I like that, even though this is meant to be professional security awareness training material, they still have fun with it and employ humour to keep the audience's attention. I am a big fan of using humour to communicate security concepts.

What Not To Wear: Getaway Vehicle Edition

from here and here (image source)

You might think it's the perfect license plate for a getaway vehicle because witnesses won't be able to read it properly, but the purpose of this license is so obvious you'll be drawing the attention of police even when you aren't trying to get away from the scene of a crime.

In fact, there's even an XKCD comic about an almost identical license plate. I don't know if art was imitating life or if life was imitating art in this particular case.

Hospital California

found on Ebaum's World

You can discharge yourself but you can never leave, because the exit is too well hidden/camouflaged.

Security so bad you'll see stars

from here

If you're counting on attackers being dumb enough to think cracking your password didn't work because it looks the same as when you're typing it into a password field, you're in for a rude awakening.

If Data Is The New Oil, I'm An Environmentalist Shirt

Product Page

Product Page

Data Environmentalist seems like an interesting new way to say privacy advocate. Certainly the data that is most commonly referred to when people say data is the new oil is data about regular people, and it would be great if companies stopped harvesting so much of it.

Or are your efforts all toothless?

from here and here (image source)

Someone is going to have to find somewhere else to dig. Either that or they're going to have to figure out how to remove those toothpicks (which is not unimaginable).

Picking the right deterrent depends an awful lot on knowing your adversary. I suppose time will tell whether this cat's owner really knows their cat.

Demotivational security questions

found on Izismile

Another reason to lie on security questions is so that forgetting your password never forces you to examine how wrong your life turned out. That's not a helpful frame of mind when you're trying to recover your account.

GIF no quarter to the enemy

from here

I LOVE the idea of someone driving botnet operators slowly crazy by replacing the most important parts of the botnet with funny pictures. I hope they got so frustrated they pulled their hair out.

The hallway looked clear

found on Dump A Day

It's a little tamer than what Kevin McCallister did in Home Alone, but it still works.

A taste of their own medicine

from here and here (image source)

Now that one of the world's most notorious spy organizations thinks the data collected and sold by Silicon Valley is a national security threat, maybe they'll have a change of heart about all that data they're collecting about ordinary people like you and me.

When unlocking things improves privacy

found on Izismile

I think it stands to reason that most people don't want their bedroom activities shared with the entire world. In such a case it's probably good to remove the handcuffs from your bed posts and pack them away discreetly before you move to a new house.

And I thought urinals lacked privacy

from here (image source)

It's had to imagine a more public setting than raised up on a stage with no walls or anything else to obstruct the view. I would definitely opt for going behind a bush if this was the other option.

Firewall Enabled Face Mask

Product Page

Keep it enabled when you're out and about. You don't want anything slipping through your defenses.

The Fail Whale must have joined the security team

from here

You know you're doing security wrong when... a 17 year old from Florida takes control of virtually any account he wants to to do little more than launch a bitcoin scam.

Of course the automated teller machine told on him

found on Reddit (source article)

If he didn't know ATMs had video surveillance before, he sure does now.