Podcasts by Firewalls Don
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Restoring Trust in Elections from 2023-12-11T12:55
We here in the US like to believe that we're the gold standard for democracy. And yet, in recent years, much of the electorate has lost faith in the outcome of our elections. Many security research...
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Using Email Aliases from 2023-12-04T12:55
Your online account credentials have two parts: a user name and a password. Today, most online providers force you to use your email address for your user name. This gives the service provider a gu...
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Smart City Blues from 2023-11-27T12:56
City governments are relying more and more on a vast network of sensors to tell them what's going on: stop light cameras, gunshot detectors, air quality sensors, license plate readers, automated to...
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Best&Worst Gifts for 2023 from 2023-11-20T12:56
The holiday gift-giving season is upon us - and therefore it's time for my annual guide on the best and worst gifts for your loved ones, at least in terms of security and privacy. There are some pe...
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Smartphone Spyware from 2023-11-13T12:55
Today there is a thriving market for legal, for-profit smartphone spyware (aka mercenary spyware). Companies like the NSO Group are free to create and sell highly sophisticated, zero-click malware ...
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The Rise of Cellular IoT from 2023-11-06T12:55
Connecting all our stuff to the internet – making devices “smart” – brings with it a lot of risks. Besides the more obvious cybersecurity vulnerabilities, these devices are also collecting a lot of...
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Reclaiming the Internet from 2023-10-30T11:55
What happened to the internet? It had so much promise. Social media and search results are full of stuff we never wanted to see. Surveillance capitalism is monetizing our most private information t...
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It’s Time to Try Proton from 2023-10-23T11:55
Email is old and was never built for security and privacy. Thankfully there are several modern secure email services. My personal favorite is Proton Mail and I'll explain to you today why you shoul...
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What’s Your Threat Model? from 2023-10-16T11:55
There are several privacy-focused services available today. And the products we use have a dizzying array of privacy and security settings. How do you know which products you need and which vendors...
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Cybersecurity Awareness Month from 2023-10-09T11:55
October is national Cybersecurity Awareness Month here in the US. One of the four key themes this year is Recognizing and Reporting Phishing. We just discussed this at length with Nick Oles, but I ...
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Catching Phish from 2023-10-02T12:02
The weakest link in most cybersecurity systems is you - that is, human beings. And one of the primary ways that people are tricked into infecting their devices (and potentially then threatening oth...
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iOS 17 Security&Privacy from 2023-09-25T11:58
Apple has just released a major update to its mobile operating system: iOS 17. There are tons of fun new features, but today I'll walk you through some of the security and privacy enhancements. The...
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Your Face Belongs to Us from 2023-09-18T12:09
When the New York Times broke the Clearview AI story in 2020, we suddenly had to face the reality that no one could truly be anonymous in public any more. This powerful app could take a picture of ...
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Remediate Your Network from 2023-09-11T11:55
Today I wrap up my four-part series on how to secure your home network. We've enumerated our devices, gotten rid of stuff we don't need, assessed the state of our devices and now it's time to actua...
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Containing Big Data from 2023-09-04T11:55
In the US today we're dealing with a completely unfettered free-for-all of data harvesting. Without meaningful privacy regulations like the EU's GDPR, our private information is being collected, co...
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Assessing Your Network Security from 2023-08-28T11:55
In the third part of my series on securing your home network, we'll assess your security and privacy vulnerabilities. In prior weeks, we've exhaustively listed our network devices (Scan) and remove...
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Demystifying AI from 2023-08-21T11:55
Unless you've been living under a rock, you've seen several news stories about AI, machine learning and so-called Large Language Models. While tools like ChatGPT hold a lot of promise, many are dee...
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Hacker Summer Camp 2023 from 2023-08-15T03:51:03
Every summer, hackers from around the US and around the globe descend on Las Vegas, Nevada, for a series of computer security conferences which are lovingly referred to as hacker summer camp. These...
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Cult of the Dead Cow from 2023-08-07T11:55
In the early 1980s, personal computers started entering our homes. Prior to the internet and services like America On Line (AOL), there were online bulletin board systems (BBS) where people could s...
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Less is More from 2023-07-31T11:55
Last time, I told you how to enumerate all the devices on your home network. Before we go to the trouble of analyzing and mitigating their vulnerabilities, we should take the opportunity to cull th...
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The Politics of Privacy from 2023-07-24T11:55
Despite growing demand from US citizens for privacy protections, the federal government has failed repeatedly to enact basic privacy laws. However, one US state - California - has led the charge on...
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IoT Inventory from 2023-07-17T11:55
The Internet of Things (IoT) has added internet connections to lots of home devices. Each and every one of those devices runs software on a computer chip. Almost all software has bugs and those bug...
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National Cyber Strategy from 2023-07-10T11:56
After lengthy negotiations and revisions, the White House has finally released its National Cybersecurity Strategy document, outlining it's priorities and goals. It's a wide-ranging and ambitious d...
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Access Backup Plan from 2023-07-03T11:55
You're using a password manager. You're even using two-factor authentication. Great! When done properly, this will keep the bad guys out. Unfortunately, if you're not careful, it may also keep you ...
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Hacking in Space from 2023-06-26T11:50
Right now there are thousands of satellites orbiting above our heads performing crucial tasks. At the end of the day, they're just computers running software - albeit at thousands of miles up and t...
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Go Forth, Do Good Deeds from 2023-06-19T11:55
I launched my mission to improve people’s privacy and security almost ten years ago now. It’s been quite a journey and I’ve learned a lot in that time. One thing I’ve realized is that there’s only ...
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Making a Difference from 2023-06-12T11:55
At some point, when you care enough about a particular cause, you shift from following the issue to actually trying to advance the issue - to make a difference. The easiest way to do this is to fin...
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Blocking .zip Domains from 2023-06-05T11:55
Two weeks ago, I told you about the availability of two new top-level domains that also happen to be popular file name extensions: .zip and .mov. The ambiguity will undoubtedly be exploited by ne'e...
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Vehicle Privacy Report from 2023-05-29T11:51
Modern cars are more like smartphones on wheels. Like our cell phones, they are chock full of sensors, computer chips and software, and they're connected to the internet 24/7 via cellular modems. W...
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Problems with Passkeys from 2023-05-22T11:51
Everyone hates dealing with passwords. This has led to a mad search for'password-killer'technology. After several failed attempts, there's finally a worthy contender: passkeys. The technology has b...
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Probing the Ministry of Truth from 2023-05-15T11:55
In the book"1984"(published in 1949), George Orwell envisioned a Big Brother that would control the media and dictate what was"truth". But Orwell didn't predict that"telescreens"would fit in our po...
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Blocking Google Popups from 2023-05-08T11:55
Have you noticed Google getting really pushy lately with offers to"sign in with Google"? You're not alone. Many websites offer the ability to create a free account so that you can"personalize your ...
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STOPping Mass Surveillance from 2023-05-01T11:55
There's a big difference between mass surveillance and targeted surveillance based on a court-approved, limited-scope search warrant. But advances in technology have made warrant-less, dragnet surv...
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How to Avoid Juice Jacking from 2023-04-24T11:55
Our smartphones have become indispensable tools for our daily lives - so seeing that dreaded red battery indicator can induce some serious anxiety. But before you jack your phone into some public U...
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Securing the Internet of Things from 2023-04-17T11:55
As cybersecurity experts love to say, the"S"in"IoT"stands for security... meaning there is none. I've seen estimates that say there were almost 30 billion IoT devices on the internet in 2022. I hav...
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Reviewing Mullvad Browser from 2023-04-10T11:55
Right after releasing my episode on web fingerprinting, highly-respected VPN provider Mullvad teamed up with Tor to release a new web browser, specifically designed to protect your privacy - includ...
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Privacy Peeps Panel from 2023-04-03T11:55
On today's show, I'll take you behind the scenes of not one, not two, but three different privacy websites. I ask Nate from The New Oil and Niek from Privacy Guides how they deal with being a publi...
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Fingerprinting Your Devices from 2023-03-27T11:55
Marketers are desperately trying to follow us as we traverse the web. Tracking where we go and what we do allows them to better target us with ads. Browsers have built in protections to block older...
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Solving Your Password Problems from 2023-03-20T11:55
If for some reason you haven't started using a password manager yet, it's time to make the move. But how can you trust all these important secrets to some unknown company? How can you be sure that ...
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Securing Your Home Network from 2023-03-13T11:55
Our devices are connected to the Internet 24/7 and the only thing separating them from the bad guys is usually your home router. In the era of smart devices and the Internet of Things (IoT), we als...
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Designing Apps for Privacy from 2023-03-06T12:55
Privacy advocates like me implore people to use secure apps that protect their data. But how difficult is it to actually create those apps? How do you balance security and privacy against sharing f...
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Unmasking Shortened Links from 2023-02-27T12:50
Web links are great, when you're on the web. But if you need to read off or write down a web address, or URL, to someone else, anything beyond a simple domain name is going to be way too complicate...
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Fixing Social Media from 2023-02-20T12:56
Social media wasn't always so bad. It didn't use to collect so much information. It didn't use to feed us content we didn't ask for in an attempt to maintain our attention. Doom scrolling, virtue s...
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Where&Why to Plant Your Flag from 2023-02-13T12:55
As a general rule, I would normally advise people to minimize the number of online accounts they have, including avoiding creating unnecessary accounts and closing accounts they no longer need. How...
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Combatting Surveillance Capitalism from 2023-02-06T12:55
The business of data mining and behavioral advertising has never been stronger or more ubiquitous. And yet, cracks are beginning to appear in the foundations of surveillance capitalism. Nowhere is ...
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Data Privacy Week 2023 from 2023-01-30T12:55
Every January, we celebrate privacy with Data Privacy Week. It has rightly expanded from Data Privacy Day. And of course every day should be data privacy day. In the news: The FBI shuts down a m...
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Using Aliases to Improve Privacy from 2023-01-23T12:50
Our email addresses and cell phone numbers have become highly valuable identifiers for marketers. Like government-issued IDs, your email address and phone number are directly associated with your i...
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New Year’s Resolutions: 2023 from 2023-01-16T12:55
It’s that time of year again! Time to put the past behind us and look forward to a brand new year, full of possibilities and hope! In today's show I'll throw out several tips for improving your pri...
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Privacy Tide is Turning from 2023-01-09T12:55
Facebook stock is down 65%, they just paid $725M to settle the Cambridge Analytica lawsuit, and they've just been fined over $400M by the EU. But that's not the worst part (for Meta). The EU and it...
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SPECIAL: LastPass Breach from 2023-01-02T12:55
Right before Christmas, LastPass dropped a bombshell report explaining that bad actors appeared to have made copies of LastPass users'encrypted password vaults. The information was a little short o...
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Building a Better Private Network from 2022-12-26T12:55
All our devices and apps use the internet these days. But what are they doing on the internet, exactly? Who are they talking to? You'd be surprised. But there are tools which will not only let you ...
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Best of 2022! from 2022-12-19T12:55
The year is almost over and as we head into the holiday season I wanted to reminisce with some of my favorite snippets from the last year! Unlike in previous'best of'shows, I've actually included s...
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We Are the Cavalry from 2022-12-12T12:55
Today when computer systems fail, they can cause real, physical harm. In just the last few years, we've seen cyber attacks interfere with our food supply, tamper with city water supplies, and disru...
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Tis the Season for Scams from 2022-12-05T12:55
Tis the season for giving... and unfortunately, also for taking. Scammers tend to be extremely active during the holiday season. We're buying lots of stuff online, having lots of packages delivered...
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300th Episode!! from 2022-11-28T12:55
I can't believe I've been doing this for 300 weeks - almost 6 years now! And returning for his 3rd"podcentennial"episode is world-renowned security guru Bruce Schneier! Today we'll discuss hacking ...
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Best&Worst Gifts for 2022 from 2022-11-21T13:08
Black Friday is just around the corner, which marks the unofficial launch of the holiday shopping season. As you're considering what gifts to give to your loved ones this year, I want to make sure ...
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Surveying the Digital Explosion from 2022-11-14T12:55
Connected computers have changed the world perhaps more than any other single invention. The impacts of nearly instant global communication and effectively infinite, perfect storage of information ...
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Redirect Ransom from 2022-11-07T13:50
QR codes are not inherently dangerous. They're effectively links we can click in the real world using the camera app on our phone. Like hyperlinks on a web page, QR code"links"can take you to good ...
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Building Trust with Privacy from 2022-10-31T11:55
It's easy to tell people to use this or that privacy tool, but this always assumes that you trust the service that is providing that tool. How can mere mortals ever hope to obtain sufficient knowle...
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Your TV is Watching You from 2022-10-24T11:55
This is going to sound bonkers, even though you're used to so many things tracking you... web pages, emails, and apps... but I'm here to tell you that while you're watching your TV, your TV is also...
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Protecting Schools and Students from 2022-10-17T11:55
We talk a lot about security and privacy on my show, but we don't talk enough about these subjects in relation to students and schools. Schools are tragically underfunded and can't afford to hire c...
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Mobile Payment Fraud from 2022-10-10T11:55
Cold hard cash is becoming more and more rare these days. People just don't carry it around much any more. So how do you split a bill at a restaurant or buy from a street vendor? Many people today ...
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Capture the Flag for Fun&Profit from 2022-10-03T11:55
Cybersecurity is the only technical, professional occupation I know of where practitioners routinely sharpen their skills through open competitions. The contests are based on the classic capture th...
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iOS 16 Security&Privacy Features from 2022-09-26T13:16
Apple just released a major update to its iPhone operating system, iOS 16. This release has some really important security and privacy features, including Passkeys, Lockdown Mode and Safety Check. ...
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Tornado Warning for Free Speech from 2022-09-19T11:55
You may not be into cryptocurrency, but a recent incident involving a so-called"cryptocurrency mixer"has some important implications for privacy and free speech. Today we'll examine the relative an...
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Decoding Computers&Software from 2022-09-12T11:55
A little over 20 years ago, Charles Petzold wrote what would become a classic book on understanding modern computers and the software that drives them. Computers have become essential to daily life...
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LastPass Source Code Breach from 2022-09-05T11:55
Password manager software maker LastPass suffered a data breach last week, which understandably made their customers very nervous - and caused some people to question the decision to put all their ...
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The Night the Lights Went Out in Vegas from 2022-08-29T11:55
Thirty years ago, a young hacker named Jeff Moss (aka The Dark Tangent) threw a party in the desert of Nevada to commemorate the demise of a bulletin board system called PlatinumNet. Unlike the oth...
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Hacker Summer Camp 2022 from 2022-08-22T11:55
If it's August in Las Vegas, it's time for Hacker Summer Camp. There are three hacker conferences that coordinate to happen next to each other every year: BSides Las Vegas, Black Hat and DEF CON. M...
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Privacy vs Content Moderation from 2022-08-15T11:55
There's no doubt that the internet has enabled criminals to share illicit and vile content with ease. The advent of high-quality end-to-end encrypted communications has made sharing this material h...
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Security Via Subtraction from 2022-08-08T11:55
All software has bugs, so the more software you have installed, the more bugs you have. It's not just the bugs in any individual application, but it's also magnified by interactions between some ap...
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No Place Left to Hide from 2022-08-01T11:55
Cameras are everywhere. Every person you pass on the street has a camera on their phone and security cameras are everywhere. They're so cheap and small now, and most of them are connected to the cl...
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Hacking Your Honda from 2022-07-25T11:52
The"rolling code"technology used to remotely open and lock your car is supposed to prevent hacking. Unfortunately, Honda has a pretty serious vulnerability in their cars that apparently allows anyo...
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Crowdsourcing Network Security from 2022-07-18T11:55
We take that little box that connects our home to the internet for granted. But in reality, it's often the only thing hiding our computers and vulnerable IoT devices from automated, remote attacks....
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The Data Dam is Breaking from 2022-07-11T11:55
This week we'll talk about three significant new data breaches. Each of these data leaks are important in different ways, but the trend is clear: data wants to be free. First of all, we need to sto...
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Necessary Chaos from 2022-07-04T11:54
While many of us prefer order in our lives, at least most of the time, we sometimes need a little chaos. Specifically, we need a source of true randomness in order to properly drive many of our cry...
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Total Cookie Protection from 2022-06-27T11:50
Firefox officially rolled out its Total Cookie Protection feature last week, which is a clever and elegant solution for blocking tracking using third party cookies. Unfortunately... it doesn't seem...
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Moving Beyond Passwords from 2022-06-20T11:55
Everyone hates dealing with passwords, and yet they've been the de facto standard of computer authentication for decades. But there's light at the end of this long tunnel. There is a passwordless f...
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Peppering Your Passwords from 2022-06-13T11:55
I preach about using password managers constantly - because they really are a fantastic tool for increasing your security. Humans suck at creating memorable passwords that are not also easy to gues...
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Cryptocurrency 101 from 2022-06-06T11:55
Everyone has heard of Bitcoin, but almost no one understands what the heck is actually is. Today I'm interviewing Seth from Seth for Privacy who knows cryptocurrency backwards and forwards. Seth is...
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Emergency Mode from 2022-05-30T12:25
Modern smartphones have a potentially life-saving feature called"SOS"or"Emergency"mode that can give first responders critical medical information and automatically dial your country's emergency ph...
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Tomatoes&Telegraphs from 2022-05-23T11:50
There's a lot we can glean from history but sometimes it's not as obvious as you might think. For example, did you know that until the mid-1800's, most of Americans hated tomatoes and that ketchup ...
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Global Privacy Control from 2022-05-16T11:50
When we surf the web today - on our computers or smartphones - we are mercilessly tracked. Marketing firms and data brokers are hoovering up ungodly amounts of our personal data, selling it, tradin...
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How to Stop Tracking&Stalking from 2022-05-09T11:55
We are being tracked constantly by our cell phones. We willingly carry supercomputers in our pockets 24/7, and these devices are chock full of sensors and radios that are tattling on us. Sometimes ...
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What is the Most Private Browser? from 2022-05-02T11:55
Security isn't a big differentiator today when choosing a web browser. First of all, 3 of the top 5 browsers all use the same engine - Chrome, Edge and Opera are all based on Chromium. Second, ther...
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Private from Everyone (But Us) from 2022-04-25T11:55
Google and Facebook will swear up and down that they do not sell your data. While technically true, they do sell access to your data. Basically, your data is private from everyone - but them. And t...
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Demystifying VPNs from 2022-04-18T11:55
When people don't understand how something works, it can be easy to be afraid of the consequences of that thing not working right. And this also makes them ripe targets for being frightened by huck...
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Luck Favors the Prepared from 2022-04-11T11:55
Today, most of us take the internet - and access to the internet - for granted. It's ubiquitous. However, the current war in Ukraine has (hopefully) made us realize that things can change dramatica...
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De-Google Your Life (Part 4) from 2022-04-04T11:52
I wrap up my de-Google project this week with two biggies: Google Drive and Google Docs. I decided to reduce my Google data footprint as one of my 2022 New Year's resolutions, so I've done a ton of...
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Teaching&Preaching Privacy from 2022-03-28T11:50
Today I'm speaking with a fellow privacy evangelist: Henry from Techlore. Like me, Henry and his team are on a mission to teach regular, everyday people how to secure their data and improve their p...
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De-Google Your Life (Part 3) from 2022-03-21T11:55
One of my New Year's resolutions for 2022 is to reduce my Google footprint - to try to de-Google my life as best I can - and hopefully inspire you to do the same. In today's show, I'll talk about r...
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Computer Security Goes Microscopic from 2022-03-14T11:47
We didn't use to think too much about physical computer security because most computers were safely stored in our homes or businesses. But many people today use laptops which can be lost or stolen ...
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My De-Google Strategy from 2022-03-07T12:50
As my de-Google project progresses, I realized that I skipped the most important step: reconnaissance. Before you can de-Google your life, you need to first make a list of the Google products and s...
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Securing Your Mobile Device from 2022-02-28T12:51
Your cell phone is a super computer and phenomenally powerful tracking device. Even George Orwell wouldn't have dreamed that telescreens would be pocket sized and that citizens would willingly carr...
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De-Google Your Life (Part 2) from 2022-02-21T12:50
One of my big goals for 2022 was to minimize my Google footprint. In the last news show, I covered Google Search, Chrome and Android. In today's show, I'll tackle two other big ones: Google's email...
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Free&Open Source Software from 2022-02-14T12:50
You may not know it, but our world has already been basically taken over by free and open source software, or FOSS - specifically, the Linux operating system. Just about every single electronic app...
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De-Google Your Life from 2022-02-07T12:50
One of my New Year's Resolutions for 2022 is to minimize my Google footprint. In reality, it's very difficulty to completely avoid Google products, if you include things like Google Analytics, Goog...
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Searching for Privacy from 2022-01-31T12:50
We tell our search engines a lot of very personal things. They arguably know more about us than our best friends and significant others do. A history of your search terms can reveal so much about y...
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Building a Privacy-Respecting World from 2022-01-24T12:50
Personal data privacy isn't going to just happen on its own. We have to somehow collectively construct it. But how? Will it require regulation or can consumers drive change by consciously choosing ...
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Data Privacy Week 2022 from 2022-01-17T12:50
Of course, every week should be"data privacy week", but we do set aside a specific time each year to focus on privacy - particularly educating as many people as possible about it. Until this year, ...
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2022 New Year’s Resolutions from 2022-01-10T12:50
It's the start of a brand new calendar year! And therefore it's time to engage in that annual ritual of planning to do better this year by making our list of New Year's Resolutions. To help you wit...
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The State of Kids’Privacy from 2022-01-03T12:50
Navigating the online world today is hard enough as an adult. But it's way worse for kids. Not only are they short on life experiences that would give them the context they need, but as students du...
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The Best of 2021 from 2021-12-27T12:50
We've come to the end of another year. As we take a breather and gather with family and friends for the holidays, it's a good time to look back over the year that just passed. I've collected a hand...
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The Log4Shell Debacle from 2021-12-20T12:50
The internet is on fire this week. The worst cybersecurity vulnerability of the last ten years (and perhaps more) has kicked the internet ant hill. Companies around the globe - big and small - are ...
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End Run Around Your Rights from 2021-12-13T12:50
The rampant collection and sharing of personal data is not just a creepy nuisance. Surveillance capitalism has actually had seriously deleterious effects on society and democracy. In the United Sta...
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Defending Democracy with Technology from 2021-12-06T12:50
Transparency is critical when it comes to trust - and right now, particularly in the United States, we're having some real issues with trust in our elections. Most of our election systems today are...
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My Debit Card Was Hacked from 2021-11-29T12:50
Credit cards are more secure than debit cards. I've said this in my book, my podcast, my blog and my seminars. Credit card transactions are loans - you're not out any money if a fraudulent charge c...
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Security Requires Privacy from 2021-11-22T12:50
When you think about improving your privacy and protecting your personal information, it's important to realize that it will also improve your security. According to Craig Danuloff, CEO of The Priv...
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Best&Worst Gifts for 2021 from 2021-11-15T12:50
The gift-giving season is officially upon us, and with covid supply chain issues, if you're going to order gifts, you need to get on it. And in today's show, I'll share the highlights of my annual ...
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Restoring Trust in Our Elections from 2021-11-08T12:50
Nothing is arguably more fundamental to a democracy than voting. But it's not enough to have a secure election. The electorate also needs to trust that the results are valid. In the United States t...
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Spooky Security Stories from 2021-11-01T11:50
There were lots of scary computer security and privacy stories in the news this week, coinciding nicely with Halloween. We'll start off with an unfortunate new cybersecurity term: killware. This is...
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Through the Past, Privately: PGP Turns 30 from 2021-10-25T11:50
Today, we're surrounded by strong encryption. Thanks to efforts like Let's Encrypt, almost all web communications today at encrypted. And thanks to wonderful privacy communications tools like Signa...
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Rough Week for Facebook from 2021-10-18T11:50
Facebook had a horrible, no-good, very bad week. Not only did Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp go completely offline for about six hours, a whistleblower came forward to show the world what most of...
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Privacy Dynamic Duo from 2021-10-11T11:50
Today I have the great honor and pleasure of speaking with two luminaries in the field of privacy: Michelle Finneran Dennedy and Melanie Ensign. Between them, they have decades of experience managi...
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iOS 15 Privacy&Security Features from 2021-10-04T11:50
I admit it. I'm an Apple fan. Are they perfect? Definitely not. But in most cases, they're actually trying to be good. And at the end of the day, their business model doesn't rely on hoovering up y...
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Apple’s Problematic CSAM Scanning from 2021-09-27T11:50
Apple was set to roll out controversial new on-device scanning technology in iOS 15 last week, but thanks to pushback from groups like the Electronic Frontier Foundation and people like you, Apple ...
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Security Is Hard from 2021-09-20T11:50
It's really easy to complain about the sadly insecure state of many of our products and services, but the fact is that doing security right is hard - even when you're trying to get it right. Part o...
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Driving Data Privacy for Cars from 2021-09-13T11:49
Ever paired your phone to a rental car? Did you erase all the data from the last car you sold or turned in at the end of your lease? Do you know what data you car is sending to the cloud wireless r...
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Privacy Matters from 2021-09-06T11:50
For many people, privacy is just a vague concept. But it can literally be a matter of life and death. It deserves your attention, your consideration and (crucially) your support. Technology has vas...
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Morpheus: Securing CPUs with Entropy from 2021-08-30T11:55
Computers are supposed to be completely predictable. When you tell it to do something, it should do exactly that - over and over again, if necessary - in the same way, with the same result. This is...
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Beware the Four Horsemen from 2021-08-23T11:53
How far would you go to protect your children from sexual predators? How much privacy would you give up to try to prevent the sharing of child pornography? We are now faced squarely with those ques...
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On a Dark Tangent from 2021-08-16T12:05
Are hackers born or are they made? What is the essence of a true hacker? Today I explore these topics and more with the founder of both DEFCON and Black Hat, Jeff Moss - also known as The Dark Tang...
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Understanding Hackers&Hacking from 2021-08-11T16:09:17
What is a hacker, exactly? What does it mean to hack something? With all the ransomware attacks and election meddling in the headlines, it's easy to paint all hackers with a broad brush as maliciou...
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Selling You Out to the Highest Bidder from 2021-08-02T11:55
Every time you load a web page, your personal data is being shared with thousands of companies. The ad spaces on the page are being auctioned off to the highest bidder in fractions of a second. The...
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Guard Your Digital Rolodex from 2021-07-26T11:55
Your phone number is arguably as strong a personal identifier as your socialsecurity number, passport number or email address. These are things we almost never change any more - meaning that it's a...
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It’s Time to Drop the SBOM from 2021-07-19T12:10
The first step to solving any problem is gathering as much information as you can. Unfortunately, today we're basically flying blind when it comes to identifying and resolving latent software bugs ...
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How to Keep Ransomware at Bay from 2021-07-12T11:55
Just when you thought it couldn't get worse, the bad guys say"hold my beer". The REvil gang has managed to pull off what appears to be the biggest ransomware infection ever through a clever supply ...
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Make That Shaken AND Stirred from 2021-07-05T11:53
Robocalls are the bane of my existence. I get so many spam calls that I've just stopped answering my home phone altogether. I've given out my cell number to fewer people, so thankfully I get fewer ...
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Sad State of Cybersecurity from 2021-06-28T10:56
Today's news headlines are littered with stories on massive cybersecurity failures: SolarWinds, Microsoft Exchange, Colonial Pipeline, data breaches, ransomware... Are the bad guys ramping up their...
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Hacking Satellites for Fun&Profit from 2021-06-21T11:55
Are satellites really just IoT devices in space? They're small computers and connected to the internet, not unlike Nest thermostats, baby video monitors, and smart toasters. You'd think that they'd...
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Payment App Privacy Sucks from 2021-06-14T11:55
Payment apps are fairly secure&very convenient, but NOT private. And Venmo is the worst. Venmo is the only payment app that is primarily a"social"app. That's shorthand for"share as much info as pos...
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Have I Been FLoCed? (Part 2) from 2021-06-07T11:55
Is it possible for you to view your FLoC ID right now? And if so, can you decode this ID to understand what Google is learning about you from it? Does FLoC require your consent or cooperation from ...
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Have I Been FLoCed? (Part 1) from 2021-05-31T11:55
The public has voted and the results are in: people do not want to be tracked. In response, like pop-up ads before them, third party cookies are now being blocked by default by just about every bro...
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How&When to Use a Passphrase from 2021-05-24T11:55
Today is the day we've all been waiting for! The super-secret, highly-collectible, security-enhancing device is finally HERE!! For a short period of time, I will be offering a very limited edition ...
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Protecting Intellectual Freedom (Part 2) from 2021-05-17T11:55
What is Tor, exactly? How and why would I use it? And what the heck is a Tor node? In part 2 of my talk with Alison from the Library Freedom Project, we'll discuss why libraries are so important in...
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Protecting Intellectual Freedom (Part 1) from 2021-05-10T11:55
Want to read a book without your reading history being tracked? Do you need to surf the web with complete anonymity? If so, then look no further than your local public library. You have the right t...
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App Tracking Transparency from 2021-05-03T11:55
After what seemed like forever, Apple has finally released its App Tracking Transparency (ATT) feature which requires apps to get your permission to track you across other apps and websites. This w...
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Hunting for Stingrays (Part 2) from 2021-04-26T11:55
While law enforcement touts the benefits of cell site simulators, today we will talk about the negative impacts, as well. While the actual impacts are not documented due to secrecy, we have to wond...
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Hunting for Stingrays (Part 1) from 2021-04-19T11:55
The single easiest way to track someone today is using their cell phone. We have them with us at all times and in order for them to work, they must be tracked by the cell phone network. When law en...
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Trust No One from 2021-04-12T11:55
Lots of news to cover today... and to me the common thread seems to be a lack of proper security and privacy. So the theme today is"trust no one". And the idea there isn't really personal trust, bu...
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Social Media is Ruining Society from 2021-04-05T11:55
There are many business models and businesses that we curtail because they can be dangerous to people or democracy or society. Even rights enshrined in the US Constitution have reasonable limits. N...
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Stop Using SMS for 2FA from 2021-03-29T11:55
Passwords suck and humans aren't good at using them. Password managers can help a lot, but to truly improve your account security these days, you need to add defense in depth. The easiest way to do...
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Computers Interviewing Humans (Part 2) from 2021-03-22T11:55
Given that we're using computer algorithms to evaluate humans, can these systems be gamed or fooled? And is it possible that computers are less biased that humans? On any given day, humans can be d...
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Computers Interviewing Humans (Part 1) from 2021-03-15T11:55
Convincing a human to hire you is hard enough. Can you imagine trying to convince a computer? Artificial intelligence is now being used to automate the screening of job candidates, evaluating cogni...
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Last Straw for LastPass from 2021-03-08T12:55
Ep210. I've recommended LastPass for years - since I wrote my book and every day since. Until now. There are several good (secure and private) password managers out there. But LastPass was the full...
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Tech Learning Collective (Part 2) from 2021-03-01T12:55
In the second half of my interview with the Tech Learning Collective, we delve into their course curriculum a bit, and then discuss why they teach what they teach and how they approach these topics...
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Tech Learning Collective (Part 1) from 2021-02-22T12:50
I first learned of the Tech Learning Collective at a privacy conference in late 2020. I struck up a conversation with one of its representatives and ended up taking one of their wonderful workshops...
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Not Just a Face in the Crowd from 2021-02-15T13:02
Ep207. Clearview AI - the company that has hoovered up every face it can find on the internet to create a creepy person identifying app - is back in the news. Canada and the EU have decided that Cl...
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Free Speech&Deplatforming from 2021-02-08T13:43:17
Episode 206. The social media events around the January 6th storming of the US Capitol have sparked raging, divisive debates in the US. But the banning of individuals and the deplatforming of apps ...
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Stop Watching Me! from 2021-02-01T12:58
Tracking and data mining has gotten way out of hand. We're not only being tracked online, we're now being tracked around the real world, too. We're truly living in a panopticon - and it's not good ...
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De-Googling Your Life from 2021-01-25T12:55
We all love to beat up on Facebook over user privacy, but the real granddaddy of them all is Google. Google is everywhere. And they almost surely know way more about you than any other company on t...
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Choosing a Private Email Service (Part 2) from 2021-01-18T10:11
So I want to switch to a new, privacy-respecting email service. How do I even do that? What happens to all the email I have now? What about my calendar and contacts? Am I going to have to change my...
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Choosing a Private Email Service (Part 1) from 2021-01-11T10:11
What could I learn about you if I read all your emails? Like, all of them. Since you started sending email. Beyond private conversations, I would also likely know every web site you have a relation...
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The Great SolarWinds Hack from 2021-01-04T10:11
The Russian SVR has had backdoor access to hundreds if not thousands of government and corporate networks for nearly nine months. And if not for private security firm FireEye, we might never have k...
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200th Podcast&New Year’s 2021! from 2020-12-28T10:11
The dumpster fire that was 2020 is almost behind us, and it's time to look forward to a brighter future in 2021! By a stroke of fortuitous coincidence, this is also my 200th podcast! To celebrate t...
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Best of 2020! from 2020-12-21T10:11
I've painstakingly scoured the last 50 episodes to select the best of the best, the cream of the crop, the top tips for the year 2020! If you're already a subscriber, this will be a great refresher...
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Setting the Digital Standard (Part 2) from 2020-12-14T10:11
One today's show, Ben Moskowitz from Consumer Reports will tell us about an extremely useful tool they've created to help you improve your personal security and privacy, customized to your particul...
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Setting the Digital Standard (Part 1) from 2020-12-07T10:11
Are consumers really concerned about security and privacy in the products they buy? And if so, how could manufacturers capitalize on these attributes to sell more of their products? Consumer Report...
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Best&Worst Gifts Guide 2020 from 2020-11-30T10:11
Looking for fun gifts that won't also be gifts to hackers and data miners? In today's show, I'll list off the top products and services from my annual Naughty&Nice gifts guide! Every year, I review...
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Dark Patterns (Part 2) from 2020-11-23T10:11
So, what can we do about these dark patterns? Are there technical solutions to this problem? Or will this require regulations? Or perhaps we just need to train our engineers and consumers better? I...
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Dark Patterns (Part 1) from 2020-11-16T10:11
Are you tired of being pestered to allow notifications or access to your location? Do you wonder why you have to give your credit card number in order to sign up for"free"trials? Why weren't you to...
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Zoom: Now with Actual Privacy from 2020-11-09T10:11
Zoom went from an obscure teleconferencing company to a household word when the pandemic hit. Zoom wasn’t the best videoconferencing app by any means. But it was dead simple to use and kinda fun to...
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The Ebb&Flow of the Internet from 2020-11-02T10:11
For better or for worse, the internet today is funded by advertising. While ads can be annoying, the real issue isn't having to watch ads - it's when then ads watch us. AdTech today is premised on ...
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Big Proctor is Watching You (part 2) from 2020-10-26T09:11
In the second half of my interview with the EFF’s Lindsay Oliver and Jason Kelley, we talk about how these draconian surveillance systems put several students at a distinct disadvantage and how the...
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Big Proctor is Watching You (part 1) from 2020-10-19T09:11
In this time of COVID19, we've all had to learn to work and learn from home. But how do our bosses know we're not screwing around instead of working? How do our teachers know we're not cheating? It...
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National Cybersecurity Awareness Month from 2020-10-12T09:11
October is National Cybersecurity Awareness Month! The theme this year is: if you connect it, protect it! And given how popular IoT devices are these days, and also how horrid their security usuall...
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Apple’s Epic Battle Royale (Part 2) from 2020-10-05T09:11
What do Apple, Tyson Foods and Worldwide Wrestling (WWE) all have in common? And what is"chickenization"? In part 2 of my interview with Cory Doctorow, he explains how some markets in the US econom...
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Apple’s Epic Battle Royale (Part 1) from 2020-09-28T09:11
Apple and Epic Games are locked in an epic legal (and PR) battle that may determine the future of the App Store, the Google Play Store, and several other game distribution networks. At the heart of...
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Take Out the (Windows) Trash from 2020-09-21T09:11
If you're a Windows PC user, you know the term"bloatware", or maybe"crapware". Every consumer PC comes chock full of it. Free trials of games, cloud storage services and antivirus software. Half a ...
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It’s a Trap! from 2020-09-14T09:11
Enterprising scammers have found some very clever ways to trick you into believing your computer needs fixing, when in reality it's just fine. Using various techniques, fake web pop-up alerts can c...
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Firefox Privacy (Part 2) from 2020-09-07T09:11
Did you know that Google's search can track you on a non-Chrome browser, even if you block third party cookies? And did you also know that there's a gaping privacy hole in web surfing that even a V...
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Firefox Privacy (Part 1) from 2020-08-31T09:11
If you really care about online privacy, you can't use Google's Chrome browser. Google is an advertising company. Everything else they do is in support of that core business. If you want a secure, ...
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Apple’s Epic Battle from 2020-08-24T09:11
Epic - the maker of the massively popular game Fortnite - has thrown down the proverbial gauntlet. It has decided that it no longer wishes to cut Apple in for 30% of its profits... Which is exactly...
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This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things (part 2) from 2020-08-17T09:11
Can Facebook or Google really promise to keep your data private in this era of mass surveillance by the likes of the NSA and GCHQ? Max Schrems doesn't think so, and he's convinced the EU Court of J...
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This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things (part 1) from 2020-08-10T09:11
What good are privacy laws when we all know that intelligence agencies don't play by the rules? How can any company promise to keep our data safe when we know that agencies like the NSA and GCHQ ar...
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The Pros&Cons of Antivirus Software from 2020-08-03T09:11
When most people think of protecting their computers, they think of antivirus software. Viruses are a real problem, of course, but how well do antivirus (AV) apps protect you? And are there any dow...
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The Great Twitter Hack from 2020-07-27T09:11
Last week, Twitter was massively hacked - apparently just to launch a Bitcoin scam (though that story is still developing). Famous people's accounts were taken over, including Joe Biden, Barack Oba...
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Your Money or Your Data (part 2) from 2020-07-20T09:11
In the second part of my interview with Renee Dudley from ProPublica, we delve into the cyber insurance and ransomware incident response industries, including how some of these companies are being ...
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Your Money or Your Data (part 1) from 2020-07-13T09:11
Unless you've been living under a rock, you know that ransomware is one of the most common and most lucrative cybersecurity rackets today. But despite all the press, ransomware is massively under-r...
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TikTok Boom from 2020-07-06T09:11
TikTok is the hot new social media service (Snapchat and Instragram are so last year), particularly in Asian countries like India. But India just banned this and several other apps from China over ...
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COVID19 Privacy: Pro Tips (part 2) from 2020-06-29T09:11
In the second half of my interview with Eduard Goodman and Adam Levin from Cyberscout, we discuss the privacy aspects of our new work- and learn-from-home reality. How much privacy should you reall...
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COVID19 Security: Pro Tips (part 1) from 2020-06-22T09:11
Today I speak with not one but two experts on security and privacy to get their insights, stories and tips on staying safe from scammers and hackers in our new COVID19 pandemic reality. These guys ...
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From Mailbox to Ballot Box from 2020-06-15T09:11
With the US general election just over 20 weeks away and no vaccine in sight for the coronavirus, it's time to think very seriously about how you're going to vote. Even if you think you want to vot...
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Fiber For Our Future (part 2) from 2020-06-08T09:11
We've established that we have a high speed internet access problem - now what can we do about it? In part 2 of my interview with the EFF's Ernesto Falcon, we'll talk about how broadband fiber-base...
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Fiber For Our Future (part 1) from 2020-06-01T09:11
The COVID-19 era has exposed several weaknesses in American infrastructure and exacerbated the gulf between the haves and the have-nots. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than the digital divide...
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Apple vs FBI, Part 2 from 2020-05-25T09:01
The FBI is once again trash-talking Apple for not helping them in their investigation of a terrorist - this time, the alleged perpetrator of the Pensacola shooting. However, like the San Bernardino...
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Beware the Evil Maid from 2020-05-18T09:11
Intel created the Thunderbolt protocol to give us blazingly fast data transfer and other interesting features. Thunderbolt usually comes with the newer USB-C ports, common on laptops, especially Ma...
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COVID19 Security&Privacy Tips (Part 2) from 2020-05-11T09:11
In part two of my interview with Malwarebyte's David Ruiz, he tells us how to avoid the scams we discussed last week. And then we move on to discuss the potentially serious privacy issues that coul...
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COVID19 Security&Privacy Tips (Part 1) from 2020-05-04T09:11
In times of great fear and anxiety, we need to be especially vigilant against snail oil salesmen. Never letting a good crisis go to waste, the bad guys are capitalizing on the chaos to lure us into...
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Have You Been Pwned? from 2020-04-27T09:11
Every time there's a data breach at a company or service where you do business, there's a chance that the bad guys will reverse engineer your password. And once they do that, they will almost surel...
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Phish Spotting 101 from 2020-04-20T09:11
The bad guys are having a field day with all the coronavirus hubbub, using our fears and anxieties to trick us into clicking bad links, downloading infected files, or installing malware. While the ...
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Contact Tracing, Privately from 2020-04-13T09:11
As health services and society in general struggle to cope with the coronavirus pandemic, people are desperately seeking new and inventive ways to curb the spread of the disease. A tried and true t...
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Secure&Private Social Distancing from 2020-04-06T09:11
During our global COVID-19 self-quarantining, video conferencing usage has exploded. I've tried to find hard statistics, but they're rising so fast that anything I post now will be stale tomorrow. ...
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Privacy by Design from 2020-03-30T09:11
Wouldn't it be nice if privacy wasn't an afterthought? What if user privacy was built in from the get go? What if the entire design assumed that you didn't want anyone selling your data - and respe...
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Beware COVID-19 Scams from 2020-03-23T09:11
Never let a good crisis go to waste. Though normally applied to politics, it can be equally applied to opportunistic cyber criminals. With the world transfixed by and anxious about this nasty virus...
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The CCPA and You (Part 2) from 2020-03-16T09:11
In part 1 of this interview, Hayley Tsukayama walked us through the details of the new California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA). In part 2, we discuss how this law will affect many of us who are not ...
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The CCPA and You (Part 1) from 2020-03-09T09:11
On January 1st, 2020, the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) went into effect. While not perfect, the CCPA is a landmark piece of legislation for the United States, even though legally it only ...
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Hacked: A Clearer View of Clearview from 2020-03-02T10:11
A few weeks ago, the New York Times published a bombshell article about a small startup called Clearview AI who was using a massive database of three billion faces scraped from several social media...
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Adversarial Interoperability (Part 2) from 2020-02-24T10:11
it's not cheap or easy to get your iPhone repaired - largely because there's not a lot of real competition in the iPhone repair market. That's no accident. Owners of modern John Deere tractors have...
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Adversarial Interoperability (Part 1) from 2020-02-17T10:11
Here's a riddle for you: when does something you paid good money not actually belong to you? Answer: when that device is part of the Internet of Things. Why? Because without the express permission ...
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Tax Time Brings Tax Scams from 2020-02-10T10:11
It's that time of year again: tax time! And that means it's also time for tax scams. I'll give you some tips on how to avoid them, and also help you find the real"Free File"versions of your favorit...
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Just Say No (to Sharing) from 2020-02-03T10:11
We install antivirus software to protect us, not exploit us. Like a bodyguard, AV programs needs full, unfettered access to everything in order to properly do the job. That requires complete and ab...
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Data Privacy Day 2020 from 2020-01-27T10:11
Happy Data Privacy Day! My guest today is none other than Bruce Schneier: world renowned security guru and author of several great books, including the Data and Goliath and Click Here to Kill Every...
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Clearview Knows Who You Are from 2020-01-20T10:11
A small company has amassed over 3 billion online photos from social media and other public sources, creating perhaps the largest facial database in existence - far larger than even the FBI's datab...
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Why“Free File”Isn’t Free from 2020-01-13T10:11
The IRS already knows what I made, what taxes I've paid, and even what my mortgage interest was last year. Why do I have to fill out tax forms? Turns out there's a very specific reason, and you're ...
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Time to Upgrade Windows from 2020-01-06T10:11
It's not too late! You can still snag a free upgrade to Windows 10 from Microsoft. If you're still running Windows 7, it's time to avail yourself of this offer. Microsoft is ending support for Wind...
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2020 New Year’s Resolutions from 2019-12-30T10:11
2019 has come and gone, and 2020 is upon us! You know what that means: New Years Resolutions! I've put together a Top Ten list of suggestions that will significantly improve your computer security ...
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Behind the One-Way Mirror (part 2) from 2019-12-23T10:11
We know that we're tracked, but what remains largely invisible is the massive economy working behind the scenes (or"mirror") to buy, sell, trade and bid on you and your data. I've seen estimates th...
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Behind the One-Way Mirror (part 1) from 2019-12-16T10:12
If you've listened to even a handful of my shows, you are well aware that you're being tracked around the web. But even I was surprised by some of the things I learned in the recent white paper fro...
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Snail Mail Identity Theft from 2019-12-09T10:11
We don't often think about the security and privacy of our regular old"snail mail", but we need to. According to recent activity observed by researchers of the dark web, the bad guys have been rega...
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Best&Worst Gifts for 2019 from 2019-12-02T10:11
It's that time of year again - time to see which popular gifts make my privacy/security Naughty and Nice lists! You want to make sure that when you're giving gifts to your loved ones that you're no...
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Data vs. Democracy (Part 2) from 2019-11-25T10:11
Today in part 2 of my deeply insightful interview with author Kris Shaffer, we discuss how marketers and foreign powers have been capturing our attention and even manipulating our responses. We'll ...
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Data vs. Democracy (Part 1) from 2019-11-18T10:11
They say we are in the Information Age and that data is the new oil. But many (including my guest, Kris Shaffer) are saying that was is truly valuable today is attention, not information. Informati...
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The Rise of Browser Fingerprinting from 2019-11-11T10:11:18
Marketing companies have come up with may clever ways to track our travels around the web, hoping to garner as much information about us as they can. At the same time, privacy-conscious organizatio...
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Preventing&Mitigating Identity Theft from 2019-11-04T10:11:46
How are our identities stolen? What happens to our identity information after its been stolen? Once we realize we've been hacked, what can we do to mitigate the damage and recover from the conseque...
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Dropping Dropbox from 2019-10-28T09:11:49
I've been a Dropbox user for many, many years. But recently, they've gotten really pushy - trying to get me to save all my photos and docs there, integrating with MS Office when I didn't ask it to,...
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Risky Business (Part 2) from 2019-10-21T09:11:39
You've got ransomware! Now what? If you had the foresight to create safe backups, you can restore your data and move on. Sometimes the hackers screw up and you can actually recover your files direc...
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Risky Business (Part 1) from 2019-10-14T09:11:18
As our world becomes increasingly technical and interconnected, we become more susceptible to technical misfortunes and feel more impact when they inevitably occur. In the first half of my intervie...
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Don’t Forget to Wipe Your Data from 2019-10-07T09:11:17
What happens to all the files, photos, songs and other data on your devices when you resell them or throw them away? Well, if you don't do anything, all that data is still there, waiting for someon...
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Not Just a Face in the Crowd (Part 2) from 2019-09-30T09:11:31
So what happens when your face print (or any biometric info) is stolen from a server? You can't change your face like you can change your password. Is there anything you can do to avoid your face b...
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Not Just a Face in the Crowd (Part 1) from 2019-09-23T09:11:05
Use of facial recognition technology (FRT) is exploding around the globe. While touted as a convenience for checking in for a flight or crossing the border, the opportunities for abuse are staggeri...
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Google’s Not-So-Private Sandbox from 2019-09-16T09:11:28
No doubt sensing the impending US privacy regulations, Google has released a plan to"enhance"user privacy... by finding different ways to track you. Instead of relying on cookies and fingerprinting...
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Ring’s Orwellian Doorbell from 2019-09-09T09:11:11
Today we speak with EFF's Matthew Guariglia about the creepy new partnership between Amazon's Ring Doorbell division and local law enforcement. Recent disclosures reveal that Amazon has partnered w...
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Choosing a VPN Provider from 2019-09-02T13:30:10
Evaluating VPN providers on privacy is really, really hard. Even if you read all their privacy claims, how do you know if they're telling the truth? I've read many reviews on many sites, but the re...
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The Great Cellular Sellout (Part 2) from 2019-08-26T09:11:41
In the second half of my interview with EFF's Aaron Mackey, we'll discuss why our federal agencies are not enforcing the laws already on the books that should be protecting your privacy, the real i...
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The Great Cellular Sellout (Part 1) from 2019-08-19T09:11:22
In January 2019, Motherboard broke a story about how cellular providers were allowing your location information to be sold to several third parties, effectively allowing anyone to buy the real-time...
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The Tyranny of the Default from 2019-08-12T09:11:45
Marketing firms love to tell us that we control our privacy - you simply need to opt out of tracking! Like Dorothy, we've had the power all along. Just click your heels three times and uncheck all ...
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The Great Hack from 2019-08-05T09:11:07
In today's show, I'll discuss the Capitol One hack that affected over 100 million card users and applicants. I'll also cover the latest in the backlash against Apple, Google and Amazon over humans ...
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Get Your Equifax Settlement from 2019-07-29T09:11:18
Two years after the massive Equifax breach, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reached a tentative settlement that will purportedly provide some restitution to the 148 million Americans who who...
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Privacy in a Box (Part 2) from 2019-07-22T09:11:47
In the second half of my interview with Winston Privacy CEO Richard Stokes, we talk about why your data is so valuable to advertisers and what you can do to limit all this tracking. In particular, ...
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Privacy in a Box (Part 1) from 2019-07-15T09:11:17
Protecting your privacy today is hard. It's really hard. It's too hard. Every'smart'device you own is tattling on you, constantly, to dozens of companies. Your phone, your tablet, your PC, your TV,...
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Big Brother 2.0 from 2019-07-08T09:11:47
The US government is once again looking to break or hobble encrypted communications in the name of national security and law enforcement. They claim that we're"going dark"- that modern end-to-end e...
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Set Warp Factor 1.1.1.1 from 2019-07-01T09:11:35
Why do most VPN apps suck so badly? How do you know which VPN service providers you can trust with your privacy? How is it that our internet service providers know so much about our web surfing hab...
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The Internet of Junk from 2019-06-24T09:11:58
How many of your"smart"devices are smart enough to update their own software? For that matter, how many of them can upgrade at all? It's a good bet that most of them run some flavor of the free and...
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The Rise of Stalkerware from 2019-06-17T03:11:12
In today's show I have a sobering discussion with the EFF's Eva Galperin about the rise of stalkerware (sometimes called"spouseware"). It's become all too easy for abusive, unscrupulous people to s...
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A Tale of Two Browsers: Chrome vs Firefox from 2019-06-10T03:11:23
Google Chrome is the most popular web browser on the planet by far, used by about two thirds of all web surfers. But Google is an advertising company and ad blockers are a direct threat to their bu...
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Polling on Privacy (Pt2) from 2019-06-03T03:11:52
Is it possible to hide your tracks online? Is it even worth the effort to try? How do you know which companies, products and services you can trust? Is government regulation the answer? We'll addre...
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Polling on Privacy (Pt1) from 2019-05-27T03:11:52
In January of this year, Malwarebytes (a world-class antivirus software maker) conducted a massive poll on privacy that included 4000 people from 66 different countries. On today's show, I will del...
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Google Knows What You Buy from 2019-05-20T03:11:51
It shouldn't surprise you to learn that Google can read your Gmail. You may even realize that Google is scanning your emails for things like trip itineraries, which allows them to automatically add...
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Time to Break Up Facebook from 2019-05-13T03:11:55
Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes makes a heartfelt and cogent argument for breaking up the world's dominant social media company, Facebook. The litmus test for the US Government has focused too muc...
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Health Apps Behaving Badly from 2019-05-06T03:11:21
A disturbing study in the JAMA Network Open journal showed that almost all of 36 mental health apps they downloaded were sharing your data to some extent - many without proper or even any disclosur...
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Further Facebook Fiascos from 2019-04-29T03:11:12
Facebook has once again gone too far and, when caught, asked for forgiveness and promised to change. First it was revealed that Facebook has been requesting since May 2016 that new users provide th...
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Swiped: Identity Theft (Pt 2) from 2019-04-22T03:11:27
How do you deal with the threat of identity theft? Follow Adam Levin's 3 M's: 1) minimize your exposure, 2) monitor your accounts, and 3) manage the damage. We discuss these techniques and much mor...
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Swiped: Identity Theft (pt 1) from 2019-04-15T03:11:51
Identity theft is arguably one of the worst cyber crimes in terms of deep and lasting impact to the victim. This runs the gamut from simple credit card fraud to committing crimes in someone else's ...
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Spotting Scare Scams from 2019-04-08T03:11:13
Bad guys have been using scary emails and pop-up messages to bilk unsuspecting victims of millions of dollars for a long time now. But recent scams purporting to be from the CIA have taken things t...
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Fix It Already! from 2019-04-01T03:11:10
How often have you run across something so obviously bad or behind the times that you just want to scream: Hey, fix this already! Electronic Frontier Foundation to the rescue! Gennie Gebhart explai...
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Preparing for Your Digital Afterlife from 2019-03-25T03:11:19
What happens to your digital life when you die? The answer is only slightly less philosophical than what happens to your soul. The laws, as least in the US, haven't kept up with the times and there...
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Enter the Panopticon (Part 2) from 2019-03-18T03:11:41
In second half of my interview with EFF's Bill Budington, Bill helps us understand how we can at least attempt to disguise ourselves on the web and basically try to blend in with the crowd. We'll a...
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Enter the Panopticon (Part 1) from 2019-03-11T03:11:20
In the first part of my discussion with Bill Budington from the EFF, we're going to talk about some of the key ways in which we are tracked around the web as we surf from site to site. I'll ask Bil...
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Account Defense in Depth from 2019-03-04T04:17:41
The Mayor of Tampa, Florida, had this Twitter account hacked due to"the usual weaknesses, including poor passwords."The hackers used the account to tweet pornographic images and even an incoming ba...
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Guiding the Development of AI from 2019-02-25T04:13:11
Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been around for decades, but has only recently begun to fulfill the promise of truly replicating human-like decision making. The Information Age has generated enorm...
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Toying With Security from 2019-02-18T04:00:53
The European Union has recalled a GPS smart watch meant to be worn by children so that their parents can keep tabs on them. Unfortunately, due to horrible security, anyone can track these watches -...
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You Must Stop Reusing Passwords from 2019-02-11T04:00:09
Last week I told you about the literally billions of email addresses and passwords that were released by hackers as"Collections 1-5". I also told you how you can check to see if your information wa...
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You Have Been Pwned from 2019-02-04T04:03:57
Last week we saw perhaps the single largest data breach dump in history, close on the heels of another massive data disclosure from the same group. Dubbed"Collections 1-5", together these data dump...
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Data Privacy Day Pod-Centennial! from 2019-01-28T05:20:45
We're celebrating international Data Privacy Day along with the 100th episode of Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons! And what a show we have! My guest today is none other than Bruce Schneier: internation...
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Delete My DNA, Please from 2019-01-21T05:20:08
Ancestry analysis firm 23andMe has just inked a 4-year, $300M deal to share its DNA samples with the colossal pharmaceutical company GlaxoSmithKline. What are they going to do your genetic material...
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Ghost on the Wire from 2019-01-14T05:10:38
Last month Australia passed a sweeping surveillance law, quickly and without meaningful debate, called the Assistance and Access Act. Like the UK's Investigatory Powers Act of 2016. this law aims t...
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Google is Watching You from 2019-01-07T05:10:26
Just because you're not paranoid doesn't mean they're not following you. A new study finds that Android phones tattle on you up to 340 times a day.
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2019 Security&Privacy New Years Resolutions from 2018-12-31T05:10:31
It's that time of year again - time to make your New Years Resolutions! You know all those really important things I've been telling you to do, but you haven't done? Well, I'm listing out the top o...
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Replacing Your Plastic Driver’s License from 2018-12-24T05:10:26
Several US states are trialing programs to replace the venerable plastic driver's license card with a new smartphone app. Unlike the"dumb"physical cards, the app would always be up to date. One stu...
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Ads Are Tracking You in the Real World, Too from 2018-12-17T05:10:11
It's bad enough that online ads are watching us, but now billboards and other real world ads are watching us, too. Using video cameras and signals from our smart devices, marketers are tailoring th...
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Marriott’s Massive Data Breach from 2018-12-10T05:20:58
Marriott reports this week that it has exposed up to 500 million Starwood guests’ data going back as far as 2014. Affected hotels include Sheraton, Westin, W Hotels, Starwood timeshares and more, W...
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Lock Down Your Privacy on Your Mobile Devices from 2018-11-26T13:23:59
Our mobile phones today are chock full of private information and are constantly tattling about our whereabouts and activities. Most phones today have GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, motion detectors, magnet...
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The Best&Worst Gifts for 2018 from 2018-11-19T12:26:31
The gift-giving season is once again upon us! “Smart” devices make great presents, but you want to make sure that you’re not also giving a gift to the hackers out there! In this special, annual hol...
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Phone Scammers Are Spoofing Your Caller ID from 2018-11-12T13:39:16
Just because the caller ID says it’s the IRS or the Social Security Administration, don’t believe it. It’s almost surely a scammer trying to get your money or information. Government agencies don’t...
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Why You Should Care About the Future of Computing from 2018-11-05T12:35:54
Your physical world is governed by many laws and regulations that protect your freedom and privacy. Why should the digital world be any different? Todd Weaver, CEO and Found of Purism, explains how...
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Marketers Are Tracking You On and Off the Web from 2018-10-29T20:05:41
We all know how marketers are tracking our every move on the world wide web. But now they’re starting to track you in the real world, too. Security cameras exist everywhere, but companies have now ...
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The Fight for Net Neutrality is Far from Over from 2018-10-22T12:52:39
The reports of net neutrality’s death have been greatly exaggerated. We still have time for Congress to reinstate the federal rules that were struck down by the FCC. In the meantime, states like Ca...
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Did China Implant Spy Chips in Our Computers? from 2018-10-15T14:31:01
Bloomberg claims that Chinese manufacturers have implanted tiny spy chips into many of our computer systems. Apple, Amazon and others strenuously deny this. Who’s telling the truth? In today’s show...
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How to Protect Yourself From Ransomware from 2018-10-08T13:46:33
Ransomware, the malware that locks up your data and hold it for ransom, has been growing by leaps and bounds in the past few years, WHY? Because it works. Hackers trick you into installing the malw...
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Big Companies Behaving Badly: The Facebook Breach Explained from 2018-10-01T12:21:28
Between 50 and 90 million Facebook users’ accounts were exposed, appearing to give hackers full access as if they were logged in as you. Facebook has fixed the bug, but it’s not yet clear whose acc...
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Now Is the Time to Freeze Your Credit from 2018-09-24T13:15:46
One of the best ways to avoid identity fraud is to freeze your credit reports. Thanks to a new law that just went into effect, freezing and unfreezing your credit is now completely free! Freezing y...
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Prying Yourself From Google’s Clutches from 2018-09-17T10:02:24
Did you know that Google owns Android, Waze, YouTube, Pixel phones and Chromebooks? Did you know that almost 90% of Google’s revenue comes from advertising? There’s hardly any part of your online l...
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🎧The Tale of Ma Bell and Big Brother from 2018-09-10T12:39:49
AT&T is operating top secret Internet monitoring facilities for the NSA in the heart of 8 major US cities according to a blockbuster report from The Intercept. Sitting on top of major digital commu...
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🎧It’s Time to Fix Our Election Systems (Again) from 2018-09-03T15:32:27
The 2018 DEFCON Vote Hacking Village showed once again that our voting machines are way too easy to hack. Even though election system manufacturers refuse to allow independent researchers to vet th...
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🎧Facebook’s Virtual Private Network is Not Private from 2018-08-27T11:29:09
Facebook’s “Protect” Virtual Private Network is anything but “private”. Facebook has been using this VPN to monitor all of your web surfing, adding even more information about its users to its colo...
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🎧Hacking Your Network Using 1970s Technology from 2018-08-20T17:28:07
Security researchers have demonstrated that a modern all-in-one printer machine can be compromised using technology from the 1970s: the venerable fax machine. If you have a fancy printer/fax, you n...
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How a Wall of Lava Lamps is Helping Secure the Internet from 2018-08-13T10:41:55
What do you get when you cross cryptography with a wall of lava lamps? Believe it or not, a much more secure Internet. Cloudflare’s CTO John Graham-Cumming will explain why all our modern communica...
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🎧Anti-Sex Trafficking Law Does More Harm Than Good from 2018-08-06T12:04:41
How can you go wrong trying to stop sex trafficking? FOSTA, that’s how. The Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act (FOSTA) tried to fix something that wasn’t broke: under pre-existing law, we already had...
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🎧When Plugins Go Rogue from 2018-07-30T13:34:22
A small company has recently bought up a bunch of mobile phone add-ons and browser plugins, and apparently decided to start snooping on its customers. The apps have been downloaded by over 11 milli...
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🎧Your Public Data May Raise Your Insurance Rates from 2018-07-23T14:11:04
There’s a data gold rush going on in the United States and without regulation, it’s turning into a Wild West of data mining. Modern humans generate tons of data exhaust every single day: what you b...
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🎧Supreme Court Scores One for Location Privacy from 2018-07-16T13:25:36
Where were you on the night of June 22nd? Your cellular provider knows. And until that date just a few weeks ago, if law enforcement wanted that info, all they had to do was ask. But we’re not just...
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🎧Crypto 101, What is Encryption, Anyway… from 2018-07-09T13:10:51
We’ve talked about encryption in just about every single one of these shows but we’ve never actually talked about what it means to encrypt something. Did you know that Julius Caesar used cryptograp...
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One Simple Step to a Faster and More Private Internet from 2018-07-02T12:28:02
Wouldn’t it be great if you could speed up every single website you visit without paying a dime? Every time you go to a website, your computer or smartphone first has to look up how to get to get t...
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🎧Supreme Court Ruling Protects Your Location Privacy from 2018-06-25T13:50:12
This was a huge week for location privacy rights. In a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court has ruled that law enforcement must now obtain a warrant to obtain your cell phone location history. You cell pr...
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🎧Your Android Device’s Backdoor May Be Wide Open from 2018-06-18T12:56:25
Android devices are everywhere - not just smartphones, but smart TVs, DVRs, streaming TV boxes and tablets. And many of these devices a shipping with a wide open backdoor for hackers. The Android d...
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🎧Carpe Datum: Opting Out of Data Collection from 2018-06-11T23:59:29
There are estimated to be 2500-4000 data brokers in the United States who are collecting, buying and selling your information. Vermont has become the first state to pass laws to regulate this data ...
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🎧How NOT to Hide Your Digital Footprints from 2018-06-04T14:34:19
When is a Virtual Private Network (VPN) not really private? Answer: When your VPN provider tracks where you go and sells that information to someone else. Today we’ll talk about a recent study that...
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Know Before You Go: Cyber Summer Tips from 2018-05-28T19:59:43
Summer is upon us and for many of us that means travel - but before you even pack your bags, you need to listen to this podcast! In my interview with Michael Kaiser (the Executive Director of the N...
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🎧GDPR: Here I Come, Ready or Not from 2018-05-21T21:57:34
On May 25th, the European Union will begin enforcing the GDPR - a sweeping set of regulations designed to return control of user data back to the users. These rules apply to EU people, not EU compa...
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🎧Why You Need to Ditch WhatsApp from 2018-05-14T21:53:33
Ever since WhatsApp was acquired by Facebook in 2014 for a staggering $19B, the extremely popular global messaging app has been losing its focus on privacy. WhatsApp co-founder Jan Koum (who grew u...
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We Now Live in the Golden Age of Surveillance from 2018-05-08T01:30:33
Phil Zimmermann fought a multi-year court battle and risked years in jail in order to defend your right to privacy. Phil created an email encryption system called Pretty Good Privacy (PGP) in 1991 ...
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🎧Defending Your Home From Rogue IoT Devices from 2018-04-30T22:50:05
Our electronics and appliance manufacturers are desperately trying to turn all of their “dumb” products into “smart” ones by connecting them to the Internet - the new Internet of Things (IoT). And ...
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🎧Who Was at the Scene of the Crime? Google Knows! from 2018-04-23T13:53:11
Google truly does know everything. Law enforcement is now turning to the search company to locate potential crime suspects. Google owns Android and Waze, along with several other smartphone apps - ...
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🎧Don’t Tread on My Internet: Saving Net Neutrality from 2018-04-16T13:23:20
Chairman Ajit Pai and the FCC voted to gut net neutrality late last year - but the fight is not over. The United States Senate can overturn these rule changes with a simple majority of 51 votes. Ri...
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🎧Best Buy Geek Squad or Spy Squad? from 2018-04-09T17:48:33
Would you take your computer in for repair if you knew the technicians would be scanning your hard drive looking for anything suspicious while they had the hood up? It’s something that apparently w...
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🎧I’m Deleting Facebook. You Should, Too. from 2018-04-02T12:25:11
At Facebook, it’s critically important to remember that you are not the customer, you’re the product. None of Facebook’s users pay a dime for its service and yet Facebook makes tens of billions of ...
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🎧Your Privacy is Now Under a Dark CLOUD from 2018-03-26T13:57:37
Your privacy and 4th amendments rights were dealt another blow last week, while no one was really looking. Congress opened the door to more warrantless surveillance by tacking on a little-known, un...
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🎧You Should Know What Facebook Knows from 2018-03-19T12:05:11
Have you ever really stopped to consider the sheer amount of data Facebook has on you? How long have you had your Facebook account? How many pictures have you posted and tagged? How many relationsh...
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🎧Protecting the 2018 and 2020 Elections from 2018-03-12T15:37:07
If a vote falls in a ballot box, but there’s no one there to see it - does it count? Marian Schneider, President of Verified Voting, explains why so many of our national voting systems have absolut...
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🎧Facebook’s Two-Faced Privacy from 2018-03-06T00:10:34
Facebook has wants your face. Guess we should have seen that coming. While Facebook has been using face recognition for years now, it began notifying users in December of much broader use of this t...
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Security Tips from a Professional Hacker from 2018-02-26T12:32:26
Should you cover your webcam? Is anti-virus software worth the money? How do you know if you’ve been hacked? How do you know what software you can trust? We’ll cover all of these topics and more wi...
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🎧Authorized Personnel Only: Saving You from Yourself from 2018-02-19T13:34:02
You know the best way to limit what malware can do on your system? Limit what YOU can do! Software on computers generally inherits the privileges of the current user. The problem is that the defaul...
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🎧Beware Geeks Bearing Gifts from 2018-02-12T13:15:57
Do you know where your software’s been? If you’re downloading your apps and driver software from third parties, you may be getting more than you bargained for. Software download sites may be attach...
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🎧Mobile Privacy: A Modern Oxymoron from 2018-02-09T13:30:20
Our mobile phones today are chock full of private information and are constantly tattling about our whereabouts and activities. Most phones today have GPS, WiFi, Bluetooth, motion detectors, magnet...
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🎧File Your Taxes Before the Bad Guys Do! from 2018-02-05T19:34:26
It's that time of year again: tax time. And that means it's also high season for identity thieves and scammers. Millions of people are affected by fake tax return filings every year. Phone and emai...
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🎧Data Privacy Day: Take Control of Your Data from 2018-01-29T12:27:59
Data Privacy Day is upon us, and today is the day you take back your online privacy. And I’m going to help you do it. There’s no more standing on the sidelines and hoping someone else will fix this...
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🎧Is This a Bitcoin Boom or a Bubble? from 2018-01-26T21:31:41
Bitcoin has been all over the news lately, and rightly so. The digital “coin” was worth $1000 a year ago, and peaked at nearly $20,000 last month -an increase of 2000% in one year! And yet it’s los...
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🎧Doing the Cybersecurity Two-Step from 2018-01-22T14:48:03
Despite being available for seven years, less than 10% of Google users have taken advantage of two-factor authentication. And yet, two-factor (or “two-step”) authentication is probably the best opt...
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🎧Dumpster Diving Trashes the Fourth Amendment from 2018-01-15T05:55:24
When can anyone search through your most intimate records and belongings? When you throw them away, of course! The US Supreme Court has already ruled that the Fourth Amendment doesn’t protect your ...
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🎧Old Spectre Causes Computer Meltdown from 2018-01-08T15:22:59
This week a couple of truly nasty computer hardware bugs were revealed by security researchers. Dubbed Meltdown and Spectre, the exploits take advantage of performance features found in Intel CPU c...
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🎧Upholding the Bill of Rights in Cyberspace from 2018-01-05T18:27:29
Can law enforcement force you to divulge your passwords? How do you limit the scope of a search warrant on an iPhone? Is powerful encryption technology creating ‘warrant-free zones’ in cyberspace? ...
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🎧Make Your New Years (Cyber) Resolutions! from 2018-01-01T13:40:48
It’s that time of year again - time for New Years Resolutions! While you consider going to the gym or maybe drinking a little less, we’re in the Information Age now - and that means you need to get...
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🎧Curl Up With a Good (Security) Book for the Holidays! from 2017-12-25T22:37:35
While you have some down time over the holidays, it’s a great opportunity to learn something new. I humbly suggest some cybersecurity and privacy “homework” that is both entertaining and educationa...
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🎧The Fight for Net Neutrality Isn’t Over from 2017-12-18T11:48:32
Net Neutrality suffered a severe but expected setback this week when the new FCC repealed the protections enacted in 2015 by a 3-2 party line vote, without any public hearings or investigation into...
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🎧Project Galileo: Ensuring the Silent Voices Are Heard from 2017-12-15T04:25:14
Many of the most important voices on the web today are individuals or small, low-budget organizations: human rights groups, investigative journalists, political dissidents, and fighters for democra...
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🎧The Best&Worst Cyber-Gifts of 2017 from 2017-12-11T21:58:44
The gift-giving season is upon us and technology presents are always popular! But what you may not realize that the hackers and marketers out there are secretly hoping you’ll give your friends and ...
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🎧A Nasty Worm in Your Apple Product (and How to Fix It) from 2017-12-04T20:43:42
It’s been a rough week or so for Apple products, in particular their new Macintosh operating system version called High Sierra. A horrendous security bug was released last week that would let anyon...
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It’s Time for Everyone to use Secure Email from 2017-11-30T23:43:46
In the era of mass surveillance, our communications are being hoovered up, searched and stored by both corporations and intelligence agencies, without a warrant and with almost zero transparency. W...
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🎧Choosing the Safest Web Browser from 2017-11-16T16:27:43
In our next installment of the Castle Defense 101 series, I’ll help you to choose the web browser that will keep you safe and protect your privacy. We’ll talk about the big four (Safari, Internet E...
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🎧It’s Time to End Dragnet Mass Surveillance from 2017-11-09T16:02:50
The law that enables the warrantless collection and searching of the communications of US citizens is set to expire at the end of 2017. In today’s show, David Ruiz and I discuss several bills in Co...
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🎧Beware the Reaper – Lock Down Your LAN from 2017-11-02T13:52:19
We have a lot to catch up on! This week we discuss a Bad Rabbit, a grim Reaper, and some risky Russians. A new WannaCry-like ransomware is hitting Russia and Ukraine, Kaspersky Labs is dealing with...
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🎧Using Ad Blockers to Tame Those Annoying Web Ads from 2017-10-26T21:48:09
Web ads are the bane of our web-surfing existence, and yet people repeatedly reject the notion of paying for web content. How do we strike a balance? Today I speak at length with Ben Williams from ...
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Do We Own Any Media We Buy Anymore? from 2017-10-19T15:26:41
In the second of my two-part interview with activist and author Cory Doctorow, we discuss how copy protection schemes (called “Digital Rights Management”) is trying to control how you watch, save, ...
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The Mouse That Scored, How Copyright Went Wrong from 2017-10-12T11:26:44
In the first of a two-part interview, activist and author Cory Doctorow explains how copyright law has failed to keep up with the realities of the modern digital world, potentially exposing consume...
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🎧Goodbye Privacy, Hello Panopticon from 2017-10-05T17:22:22
Just because you’re not paranoid doesn’t mean they’re not tracking you! And just because you feel that you have nothing to hide doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be worried about privacy. In today’s editi...
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🎧Rise of the Machines: Should We Fear Artificial Intelligence? from 2017-09-21T13:39:34
Will the robots rise up and take over? Or will Artificial Intelligence usher in a Utopian future? These concepts may have seemed like science fiction just 10-20 years ago, but visionaries like Elon...
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🎧Equifax Breach, Here’s What You Need to Do from 2017-09-15T00:10:44
Equifax, one of the three major credit bureaus, was hacked - over 143 million U.S. accounts may have been leaked, making them much more vulnerable to identity theft and fraud. In this episode, I he...
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🎧If You Aren’t Backing Up, Your Data is on Borrowed Time from 2017-09-07T12:39:41
Do you have backup copies of all your family photos and home videos? What about your tax documents and other financial data? Maybe you have a collection of priceless family history information that...
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Your Privacy Rights Are Under Assault at the U.S. Border from 2017-08-31T16:03:20
There are bills before Congress to use drones along our border for mass surveillance and provisions to capturing all manner of biometric data when you travel. How will that data be used and who wil...
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🎧How to Live in the Era of Fake News from 2017-08-24T18:10:56
Jeffrey Ritter, author of “Achieving Digital Trust”, is back to help us understand the phenomenon of “fake news” and to explain why it’s not a new thing. We talk about how deception and misdirectio...
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🎧Hackers Crack Safes, Teslas, Car Washes and Voting Machines from 2017-08-17T18:20:02
Chris Romeo regales us with tales of safe-cracking robots, demonic car washes, possessed Teslas, and hacking of voting machines! Where did this all happen? At the hacker conferences, of course! We’...
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Why I Killed my Company to Save my Customers, pt 2 from 2017-08-10T14:58:05
In this final segment, we address the classic conundrum: law enforcement believes that your servers hold key information that would prevent a devastating terror attack, but revealing the informatio...
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Why I Killed my Company to Save my Customers from 2017-08-03T13:39:38
Ladar Levison is the CEO and Founder of Lavabit - a secure email service whose most famous customer was Edward Snowden. In part one of my two-part interview with Ladar, we discuss what happened whe...
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🎧Achieving Trust in the Digital Age from 2017-07-27T14:09:09
Is trust just an emotion or is it more than that? In this week’s episode, I speak at length with Jeffrey Ritter: a lawyer, diplomat, researcher and author of the book “Achieving Digital Trust”. We ...
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🎧How To Hack An Election from 2017-07-20T13:08:39
What could be more crucial to a democracy than a voting system we can trust? Today I speak with Barbara Simons, President of VerifiedVoting.org, on why so many of our US election systems are vulner...
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🎧Creating and Remembering Killer Passwords from 2017-07-13T22:00:38
Passwords are the bane of our modern existence. Why the hell haven’t we figured out a better way to prove who we are? Today is the first in a series of educational shows that I’ve dubbed Castle Def...
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NotPetya Malware Strikes, Everything You Need to Know from 2017-07-07T01:38:47
Lawrence Abrams is the creator and CEO of Bleeping Computer, and he and I delve into the latest malware sweeping the globe called NotPetya (among other things). The supposed ransomware appears to b...
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Don’t Tread on My Bits: Why Net Neutrality Matters from 2017-06-28T14:26:40
Are you ready for the next YouTube, Netflix or Hulu? Then you need to fight to save net neutrality. Today I discuss the threatened gutting of the hard-fought net neutrality rules with Ernesto Falco...
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🎧If You Use Public WiFi At The Hotel, Airport, Coffee Shop…. from 2017-06-21T10:37:42
If you use public WiFi of any sort at the hotel, airport, or coffee shop (AND WHO DOESN'T), then you need to pay attention. A VPN could be a viable answer to protect your data and your devices. The...
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🎧The Feds Plan For Cars That Can Track&Tattle On You from 2017-06-14T16:55:54
The Internet of Things will soon include cars... what could possibly go wrong? If all the cars on the road could tell each other what they were doing, would that make us safer? Maybe. But if your c...
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How Dumb Are Your ‘Smart Devices’? from 2017-06-07T14:32:20
Do you have a “smart” TV? Or an Internet-connected baby monitor? Then you are a part of the Internet of Things (IoT)! Welcome to the world of everyday devices being connected to the network, allowi...
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🎧Cyber Travel Tips: What To Know Before You Go from 2017-05-31T15:13:29
Summer is upon us and for many of us that means travel - but before you even pack your bags, you need to listen to this podcast! In my second interview with Michael Kaiser (the Executive Director o...
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Learn These WannaCry Lessons Before Round 2 Hits from 2017-05-24T18:11:42
The WannaCry virus hit over 200,000 computers in over 150 countries in a matter of days. While WannaCry spread quickly, it had some fatal flaws that prevented it from doing a lot more damage. Howev...
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🎧Inoculating the World Against Malware from 2017-05-17T21:32:09
The WannaCry ransomware worm spread across the planet is a matter of hours, infecting over 200,000 computers in just a matter of hours - this included hospitals in the UK, phone service in Spain, a...
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🎧Intel Closes a Nine-Year Backdoor from 2017-05-10T16:50:24
This week I’ll tell you why you should not be using Microsoft’s Edge Browser, how to find out if you were bitten by a very clever Google Docs phishing scheme, and why you can’t believe every voice ...
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Your Email is as Vulnerable as Sending a Postcard from 2017-05-03T18:00:34
Would you write banking information, passwords, private conversation or any sensitive data on the back of a postcard? Sounds like a silly question perhaps - but this is the equivalency of writing p...
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🎧When the Hackers Become the Hacked from 2017-04-19T13:52:13
The Shadow Brokers have dumped a treasure trove of NSA secret hacking tools, proving that even the best secret-keepers in the country can’t always prevent info from leaking. Is it better for intell...
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🎧How to Pick The Only Password You’ll Ever Need from 2017-04-12T18:55:18
This week I talk with Chris Romeo on why humans are so horribly bad at picking good passwords and why this invariably makes you vulnerable to hacking. We discuss password managers and how to create...
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🎧Congress Just Sold You Out (Again) from 2017-04-05T20:55:35
This week I discuss the stunning repeal of Internet privacy provisions with Ernesto Falcon from the Electronic Frontier Foundation. Congress narrowly passed a bill that would not only toss out the ...
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Protecting Your Privacy at the US Border from 2017-03-29T12:56:09
What are your rights at the border? It depends on your immigration status, and even US citizens will not enjoy their usual Constitutional rights in this situation. This is an important topic that s...
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🎧Masking Your Digital Footprints from 2017-03-22T15:51:09
WikiLeaks dumped almost 9000 pages of secret CIA documents on the web for all to see, detailing dozens of secret hacking tools and techniques. What does this all mean for you and me? In this week’...
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🎧How The Bad Guys Trick You Into Taking Their Bait from 2017-03-15T19:46:08
“Phishing” is one of the most common and most effective ways for the bad guys to get your passwords or credit card information. In this episode, I’ll be discussing this classic hacking tactic that ...
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🎧Why CloudBleed Wasn’t So Bloody Scary from 2017-03-08T13:07:56
The media was once again telling everyone to light their hair on fire over the latest web bug that threatens to expose all of our private information - a bug they called CloudBleed. In this show, I...
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