As predictable as the seasons

from here

I've seen enough bitcoin 'give-aways' to know where this is going. These days most bitcoin give-aways are scams. Even if this one is legit, there are going to be so many fraudulent variations that people won't know which is the real one.

It may be that life imitates art, but business should know better than to imitate fraud. Free money usually falls under the heading of too good to be true, but this is going to lend an air of credibility to the concept and people are going to get burned as a result.

It's not a data breach, it's an unexpected backup

found on Laughing It

I'd be surprised if the hacker didn't just take the bitcoins for themselves rather than telling you the login details. If the hacker is just asking for a portion of the funds I'm tempted to say s/he deserves it for providing a valuable service.

Take a bite out of your own crime

from here

Was it some kind of anti-theft sausage? Clearly it had tamper-evident properties.

If only all crooks could give themselves away like that.

Your Password Strength Offends Me shirt

Product Page

Are you looking for a way to let your users know they can do better? Well showing up to their desk wearing one of these might do the trick.

Makes you wonder why they still bother

from here and here (image source 1 and 2)

I'm no fan of DRM. It acts against the user's interests, so I consider it a form of malware. As such, I have no qualms about people neutering it, even if it is illegal to do so. Hearing how quickly it can be neutered (in about a day in this recent case) I can't help but wonder if it's even cost effective to continue developing such software. I'm pretty sure it takes more than a day to make it.

You get what you pay for

found on Imgur

Maybe if banks had budgets the size of the Mars Program they could afford better cameras.

No honour among data thieves

from here

If there's one thing I hope I never get tired of it's laughing at the misfortune of bad guys. Crooks getting hacked will never get old.

What warnings about government surveillance sound like to some people

found on HugeLOL

When reality sounds like a conspiracy theory it's no wonder people become more open to believing in conspiracy theories. 

What could possibly go wrong?

from here

Even after changing direction they still don't seem to be thinking about spam. If someone can send harassing content then they can also send any other kind of unwanted content. In fact the attempt to connect itself may be unwanted. I can't tell you how many times I've seen emails from people at other businesses wanting to connect for business purposes. In theory this is what Slack was trying to facilitate but it would still be unwanted commercial messaging from my perspective. I don't want to connect with them, I'm not the right person at my company to reach out to, and frankly I doubt my company is interested in fielding invitations from every Tom, Dick, and Harry organization out there.

Don't call us, we'll call you.

Credential Stuffing: The Dangers of Reusing Passwords Online

Watch on YouTube

A great explainer about account security that was apparently put out as an advertisement. You're not expected to buy anything, though. It seems someone struck on the idea of using the advertising facility at YouTube to expose people to security awareness training, which is actually quite brilliant.

Privacy shared is privacy lost

from here and here (image source)

It's hard to imagine this needs to be explained but privacy really doesn't work this way. It can't be shared. I'm not sure what the Russians were thinking when they made this but it definitely won't fly here. You can give people privacy, but you can't share it with them.

Jeremiah was a guard frog

found on Izismile

This makes you wonder about just how smart spiders are that they can develop work animals out of another species for the purposes of protecting what the spider values most - not entirely unlike what we did with wolves eons ago. If given enough time, would the spiders domesticate the frogs? 

The friendliest fire

from here and here (image source)

If shooting someone on your own side is considered friendly fire, shooting yourself should be the friendliest fire. 

Smile You're On Camera sticker

Product Page

The idea behind it is probably to warn people about YOUR cameras, but the thing is, even if you don't have a camera, no matter where you take it it's probably telling the truth. 

Still waiting for antivirus updates

from here and here (image source)

You might be wondering what computer virus is airborne, but in the age of wifi the real question is what computer virus isn't airborne. What I'm sure you can't see is that the mask has a wire mesh on the inside meant to block signals to and from his wireless antenna. 

I'm not a robot, I'm just a collaborator

found on Reddit (original tweet)

When the robots stage their uprising and kill all humans, now we'll know how they did it thanks to Rob Lach

Maybe they're compensating for something

from here

Eleven zero days is an awful lot of zero days.

And each one is worth an awful lot of money. 

Stuxnet only used 4-5 to compromise nuclear enrichment facilities and set back Iran's nuclear weapons program by years. This group better hope whatever they're doing with 11 is worth more than what they could have gotten by selling them, or they are going to be so pissed.

Artistic Security

found on Reddit

Is it for security? Is it a work of art? Can it be both?

Are we living in a simulation?

from here (image source)

I certainly hope they have another layer of security somewhere, because that gate isn't stopping anyone.

Jerry Rig Everything : DO NOT buy this $100 Smart lock

Watch on YouTube

It's always good to know if the things you're buying are going to do their job, especially if their job is to protect you or your belongings. Clearly this isn't something you want to rely on for anything valuable enough to warrant a $100 lock.

So much for 'incognito' mode

from here and here (source article)

I guess it's too much to ask that the world's largest advertising company actually deliver on their promise of giving us privacy.

You want your passwords to grow up big and strong, don't you?

found on Reddit

More characters and more variety of characters both contribute to the strength of your password, and while length is supposedly more important than complexity, in an ideal world the password would be randomly generated and stored in a password manager so you could have both length and complexity at no additional cost.

Remember to have your vehicles spayed or neutered

from here and here (image source)

This might stop someone from stealing the car (although the missing door might do that all on it's own) but it certainly won't protect the contents of the car.

Fear The Botnet shirt

Product Page

Product Page

Botnets are not something you want on your computer. Your chest, maybe, but definitely not your computer.

When you need to go on the go

from here and here (image source)

I can only hope that it's simply being transported and isn't actually meant to be in service.

Hall Of Infamy

found on eBaum's World

It appears that Bob the Builder and an entire culinary school went through there and I bet they were none too happy to have the tools of their respective trades confiscated.

Imagine being that desperate for antivirus

from here

Do they have difficulty getting security software in China? It actually seems quite amazing that an advanced persistent threat group would have to resort to such means to get the software. Couldn't they just get it from a torrent site or something?

Big fake tree energy

found on Acid Cow

You really have to wonder who the cell company thinks they're fooling with this disguise. It's certainly not blending into anything in the middle of the desert. It's not even a good disguise for a wooded area, it doesn't look that much like a tree.

Because they do

from here (image source)

At least one of the eyes actually will follow you wherever you go.

Insurance Scam Backfires on Scammer

Watch on YouTube

It stands to reason that those to scammers would have been in serious hot water if they had waited for the police to arrive and see the dashcam footage, but I wonder about what would have happened without the dashcam. How many times can the scammers face the police before an officer realizes they've seen these accident 'victims' before? Could one protect oneself from this kind of scam simply by being an upstanding citizen and calling the police about one's own supposed misdeed? Anyway, the dashcam obviously helped a lot here.

Disclosure Pitfalls

from here and here (image source, article)

The problem with informing the public of vulnerabilities is that the bad guys get included and then they do this sort of thing. It could be a long time before everyone is patched, but it certainly not a long time before everyone's a target (everyone with a vulnerable exchange server, that is).

Now that's a backdoor

found on Reddit

I wonder how the rest of this vulnerability disclosure story went. Was he locked up? Did future sewer workers just release information about secret tunnels into bank vaults to the general public? And if so, how did THAT turn out?

An antivirus mogul lived long enough to see himself become the villain

from here

Honestly, McAfee hasn't been a good guy for a long time, it's just taken a while for the law to catch up with him.

Hacker Port Number sticker

Product Page

So many pieces of security merchandise that I see only serve to raise awareness of certain security concepts, so it's a refreshing change of pace to find one that can actually serve as a kind of reference or cheat sheet.

Demon Hacker shirt

Product Page

Product Page

I'm always on the lookout for good ideas, and Violet Blue had a great idea. Unfortunately this took me longer than I would have liked to get done because it's been a while since I made a design and frankly the sites I use have gotten harder to use over time. Anyway, there's a bunch of products with the design at CafePress with the mark-up set to 0, and a bunch of products at Zazzle (that I'm still struggling with and can't even get a working link to yet - so frustrating) with the mark-up set as low as it can go (5%).

And of course, if you know a print shop with better prices (I'm sure they're out there), here's the graphic itself for you to use.

Oh, and fuck Gab and their ridiculously toxic response to a data breach.

Updated to add: While you're at it, and perhaps even more importantly than the shirt, check out DDoSecret's contribution page because they've been on the receiving end of Gab's ire over this. Thanks to @donk_enby for the heads up.

Troll CEO

found on Reddit

I'm sure he's laughing all the way to the bank. Wait, no, he don't even have to go to the bank anymore, the banks come to him.

Specializes in escaping the sandbox

from here and here (image source)

They say cyber security is a game of cant and mouse. In the game of cat and mouse, it's better to be the cat.

Get 'em accustomed to surveillance while they're young

found on Izismile

Actually, don't do this. Don't make your children numb to surveillance and privacy invasion. The privacy landscape is in bad enough shape as it is.

A little fuzzy on the details

from here (image source)

This is almost enough to make me wish I didn't shave my head. Almost. I would love to have a built-in face covering like this to foil face recognition, but the best I've got is an elbow I can stick my face in and pretend I'm a vampire or something. I guess as long as the pandemic is on I can still wear the face mask.

You better be wearing the brown pants if you go porch pirating here

Watch on YouTube

So just in case you thought the glitter bomb was too festive (or too complicated), this theft deterrent is just a couple of shotgun blanks to make the would-be thief soil themselves as they run away.

You know what you have to do

from here (image source 1 and 2)

Inspired by a tweet from Martijn Grooten. I guess I should have worked on this sooner.

Who watches when the watchmen are on break?

found on Instagram

I need a healthier FBI agent

Maybe Gab can pray the breach away

from here and here (image source)

This has got to be one of the more colourful reactions to suffering a data breach, but I don't think it's a productive one.

Passwords Are Like Underwear shirt

Product Page

... And they shouldn't stick to the wall!

I wonder if there are actually underwear somewhere with this joke on them.

The state says gimme gimme

from here

There's some strange logic going on in this bitcoin mining malware case in Germany. The state is laying claim to the bitcoins under the argument that the bitcoins weren't stolen. No of course not, electricity and computing resources were stolen and converted into bitcoins. If I steal a car and convert it into cash does the state keep the cash? Shouldn't the money go back to the victims to compensate them for what was taken?

Privacy Hack

found on Izismile

It won't stop the person who has it from viewing it, so it's not perfect privacy protection, but it will definitely make it harder for them to distribute it.