Security | Life | Cynicism
After the mid-week reboot lat week, am trying to get back into the schedule of sending these out at the end of the week or over the weekend to recap what I saw over the week.
I've been reading a lot more recently about productivity and streamlining my own processes. I've found much of it to be extremely useful not just to get things done, but also to help organise my life in these days where for the whole family there appears to be no boundaries between work, home, school, or even bedtime. I'm still in the trial phase of many things, so will share my findings in good time, mainly through this newsletter. If you keep seeing this hit your box, it means some of the systems are working.
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Security | Life | Cynicism
Ransomware - has it died down ever since the pandemic has struck? Are we just seeing it being reported less? There was a time a year or so ago where we saw a slight plateau as crypto mining began to gain favour. But volatile prices among other issues saw criminals turn back to what works best.
A few days ago we saw Cognizant targeted by the Maze ransomware. One of the New Kids On The Block kind of ransomware that exfiltrates data before encrypting it, so even if you have your backups n'sync and can restore from backups, the bad guys will still have your data and say Take That! We're gonna extort you and your customers anyway.
Speaking of ransomware, do you remember Travelex got hit by ransomware on new years eve? The world was a very different place back then. But things haven't gotten any better for the company, as its parent group has indicated it may be set for liquidation. A far cry from the 1.2Bn it was valued at about a year ago. And while there are other factors at play, there's no denying a cyber attack in the form of ransomware caused the demise of the business.
In slightly better news, the UK's NCSC launched a suspicious email reporting service and within 24 hours received over 5,000 reports of dodgy sites. This led to 83 cyber-criminal campaigns being taken down. Most of these were peddling coronavirus themed phishing campaigns - so it's quite a timely service. If you cyber see something, cyber report something to report@phishing.gov.uk (I need to work on that tagline). But it goes to show that working together, we can achieve some good things.
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Security | Life | Cynicism
Want to look good on your next video conference call? Here's how to look good on camera according to Tom Ford.
‘I’m sorry. I’m trying to maintain the six-foot distance. Do you mind giving me a little more space, please?’” and other ways you can ask people to maintain social distancing without sounding like a jerk. I don't know what it's like where you live, but here where I live in North London, people have been rather accommodating. Waiting on the side of the road until you pass, trying to avoid awkward eye contact while muttering a thank you and some comment that no-one understands but you both kind of chuckle about out of politeness.
It's genuinely a stressful time for many people. I use humour as a mechanism to solve most things, but that doesn't work for everyone. A lesson I learnt years ago when a good friend opened up to me about a concern and I made a joke about it. It's true though, many people are poor at consoling their friends when they are upset about anything. The British psychological society has a good post on why validating your friends feeling could be the best way to comfort them.
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Security | Life | Cynicism
If you're an American, you write the date / month as month / date for some weird reason. So last week, what the rest of the world on the 20th of April wrote as 20/4, you wrote as 4/20 and the weed jokes started to make the rounds. I've always been aware 420 is code for weed, but wasn't too sure why.
Apparently the origins stem from a group of friends in 1971 who used to meet up after school at 4:20pm. The group began using the term 420, and from there it just spread out.
Kind of lucky that they didn't meet a minute earlier, or we wouldn't be sure if people were being arrested for weed, or for masquerading as a Nigerian Prince trying to defraud people.
If you're one of them weirdo's that's into science - here's what apparently happens if you drink bleach.
On a parting note, after a small mid-season break of a couple of years, the Host Unknown podcast is back on the air. Tell your friends (because you probably don't want to listen to it yourself)
After a smaller break, and for something that will make you lose all faith in humanity, the State Sponsored podcast is also back with season 2.
Stay secure My Friends
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