The Call for Cybersecurity, Samaritans and Civics

Last week an associate sought help from being digitally stalked, after sifting through a few guides these were the most thorough I've found for basic cybersecurity.

Hackblossom (very thorough, has a 'cheat sheet' condensed version, but lots of reading to do and can be overwhelming in times of emergency)

https://hackblossom.org/domestic-violence/

Chayn's brief guide (quick, not thorough):https://chayn.gitbook.io/diy-online-safety/english

Chayn's complete guide (I've not yet reviewed it--note that it's a separate link but includes a sort of procedural outline for navigating through all elements and a step for basic risk assessment in the process):
https://chayn.gitbook.io/advanced-diy-privacy-for-every-woman/


WHO'S BEHIND SOME OF THE "REOPEN" CAMPAIGN?
As an example of digital security risks based on current events--someone (not me) found and compiled a list of various websites and IP addresses belonging to the various groups that advocate for re-opening the economy.
There's at least one case of a few names and physical addresses being found (possibly including someone's home), several gun companies and coalitions (which corroborates reports that the protests were quarterbacked by 3 brothers who owned a gun company) and another being traced to being funded by the Nevada Republican Party.

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1HQnx-RvMM7BrpX1ysgjqzu8XkaDeu0w4gJgTtzB3dfk/edit#gid=0

On one hand, I think of how some native horseback warriors would carry a special stick and  tap an enemy with it in battle as a kind of humane way to acknowledge they've bested the opponent while sparing their life. So when it comes to this kind of quasi(? I don't really know what the official definition is)-doxxing, there's a part of me that just wishes they'd get their act together and that folks would gently tap them on the shoulder (or leave a note at their doorstep). 

Violence often manifests an unusual duality to the spirit.







Use caution with online social media quizzes--or just don't do them:
Given that we're 1) in the midst of a major election year 2) in the midst of a major pandemic that forces everyone to stay at home and use the internet more often if they have access to it and 3) at the cusp of a major economic crisis

This is a key time for gathering information and refining ai + fake social media profile creation.

The Senior Picture challenge, and various personality quizzes are all prime suspects.

[see Ukrainian connection to the quizes]



ZOOM
Meanwhile, the reason for concern over zoom's security vulnerabilities for folks who tend to get lumped into the other side of the political spectrum:


For folks who downloaded the app, it's possible someone could get your own IP address much like the stuff above.  Since the "zoombombing" incidents often targeted PoC

I'm not going to put energy into editing a comment I made elsewhere so here's the basic reason for caution among folks who are often targeted by the Neonazi groups that have disrupted various zoom meetings:

The issue with zoom for people who advocate: to wait and continue trusting a platform where Neonazis already coin the term "zoombombing" for its easy exploits is a serious risk--especially to anyone that's not compatible with the white supremacist agenda. Your fundamental safety and survival outweighs features and nice feelings for professionalism or at least should for people who've historically had the cards stacked against them.

For people whose communities or families have directly been threatened by neonazis, leaving trust to a company with your presence and data--chats, names, correspondence, images, likely user IP addresses and MAC addresses [which can reveal one's personal physical location] too for those who installed--is a serious threat to personal safety and also national security considering the encryption key behavior and where the zoom development division is based or if data gets intercepted and brokered out in unscrupulous ways.

The last item I'll raise is that zoom isn't based on open source principles which probably says a lot about their fundamental paradigm and culture for transparency. That they've repeatedly misrepresented their security assurances -- much of it being architectural and organizational level -- suggests to me it'll take a while to fully adjust their stance.

https://theintercept.com/2020/04/03/zooms-encryption-is-not-suited-for-secrets-and-has-surprising-links-to-china-researchers-discover/

https://www.npr.org/2020/04/03/826129520/a-must-for-millions-zoom-has-a-dark-side-and-an-fbi-warning

 

As always I also need to include a disclaimer: as individuals, I appreciate and respect my international friends. I also know that countries, US, China, Iran, Russia, wherever--don't always act in the best interest of each others' residents (including their own), and remind folks that several of these countries often set up, fund, or even operate entire companies, not to mention often have specialized departments or units where peoples entire full-time job entails adversarial and exploitative activity.

In the U.S., we've seen various tensions and systemic issues in society further amplified and exploited--whether it's racial tension and police brutality, or rumors of chemical plants exploding that rely on digital gossip to spread, or as most of us have heard about and witnessed, propaganda, false news, and misinformation around political candidates.

Shy, or finding an internet voice?

They should be the same, whatever I think about or want to say, I can type and post on the internet. However, before I get the stuff from inside of my head into print, there's another voice that comes into play, and typically it says the following:

1. "Does this make sense to me, or is it riddled with errors?"
2. "Should I consult Strunk and White?"
3. "Am I copying the tone of someone else's blog writing without carrying my own content in it?"
4. "Is it too long?"
5. "Am I ready to defend my ideas, opinions, and statements?"

Still, I'm pretty determined to make concise posts on a regular basis. Even if it means that more than 60% of them are drafts. Sometimes, the reason is simple enough, I like to cram lots of ideas into one sentence. Off is the grammar (hehe). I start writing an essay. Maybe I want to say something controversial that would be potentially disastrous if not said correctly in public. At other times, it's a much more common and bizarre personal conflict. Am I shy, or do I just lack confidence? Perhaps I'm both in this case. Isn't a lack of confidence a major contributor to shyness anyhow?

At this point, someone could ask "why are you writing about being diffident?"

Because I don't really trust you. Or the people who make up the internet community in general. But I should explain why. When I'm feeling shy around other people, it's because I don't have confidence in something or someone around me. Please don't be upset about this, I'll redirect your attention to my ideas about survival...

Even today, you might know someone who mostly sits and is content to quietly watch others at a social environment, but let's go back to the earliest days of shyness where I can presumptuously control how we played a part in our environment. As very young children, either we were brought into a new environment (a daycare), or it came to us (many strange new people come to our house).

Picture the latter scenario (oh, and by the way, you're now a sibling of mine for the next few paragraphs):

Our parent(s) host a party and invite many people whom we have not yet met or cannot recall meeting. More than that, we are bombarded with strange new information. Perfumes, colognes, party food, special potpourri, strange looking people, our parent(s) may be dressed unusually, some of the guests are wearing strange clothes or look nothing like our parents, etc.

As your parent(s) introduce us to the alien guests, one of them awkwardly bends down to greet you with arms extended (in a way that is certainly not how our parent(s) would reach for us) and teeth bared in some kind of a smile. We cannot resist the urge to squirmingly break free of their grip and run away. In a flash, we have successfully disappeared and hidden in the safety of our room. Politely, our parent(s) apologize and explain that you're shy and...

That's enough of the scenario, let's analyze.

So what happened here? Clearly there was a fearful/fleeing response to all of these people, but why? I believe that we didn't have confidence in being around these strangers, and with few indicators to show that they were humans who could be trusted just like our parent(s), we had no other choice fight our way out of their grip and flee.

In retrospect, I realize that I made this potentially more complex than need be by putting in so many possible variables (smells, people, visual stimuli) but I believe we can apply the same idea to each factor. We could not confide trust in the guest because

1. We were unprepared to receive the incoming information and stimuli; as such, our stable household environment became a new environment
2. We did not know how to discern what was pertinent to us as we experienced it
3. We had not yet learned how other people express and convey important information

And so, most everything appeared as a threat.

Back to blogging.
I'm finding blogging to be a similar experience. I'm still trying to figure out most of the internet and blogging itself, and by the time the finalized version of this post is out for the public to read, it will have probably been much later than the original post date. The internet is an odd place where information (wanted or not) shows up and interpersonal relations develop (again, wanted or not). For now, I'll be content with writing the occasional essay while being a little bit shy.