Episode 15: Digital prepping for cyberwar
February 26, 2022
Today Europe is at the start of a potentially major war that could spread beyond the boundaries of Ukraine. In particular, the risk of a widespread and worldwide cyberwar is realistically on the table. Today I am giving tips for securing your money, files, computer and communications against potential cyberwar.
Episode 14: Web3, blockchain and digital resilience
December 18, 2021
What you need to know about Web3 and blockchain technologies such as NFTs, dVPN, and IPFS, and how they will impact digital resilience
Show notes: Three articles on Web3 from FreeCodeCamp and WIRED and Medium; IPFS; Sentinel distributed (dVPN framework - see also Exidio). Also well worth listening to this podcast on how not to get scammed on Web3.
Episode 13: A new five-layer privacy framework
August 15, 2021
How much privacy is enough? This is a question a lot of privacy advocates are asking. In this epiode I present a new five-layer privacy framework to help you decide how much privacy you need in different circumstances.
Episode 12: Digitally resilient everyday carry (EDC)
June 13, 2021
How do you stay digitally resilient when traveling and away from home? As we prepare to cautiously start traveling again, today I'm going to cover what everyday carry (EDC) gear you might consider having in your backpack to ensure you are digitally resilient wherever you are.
Show notes: See companion blog post for a detailed list of my backpack contents.
Episode 11: Protecting your images and videos
May 30, 2021
In this episode we explore everything to do with protecting your images and videos. Do you know how to keep them safe and secure? What could images you post on social media reveal about you? Answers in this show.
Show notes: Article on which social media strip metadata (I have not verified the accuracy of this); How to see EXIF metadata in images; How to remove EXIF metadata (including ImageOptim for Mac; article on what your image content can give away; facial recognition by Yandex and Google; How to write a DMCA takedown notice.
Episode 10: Digital resilience using non-internet technologies
April 4, 2021
Today we are looking at technologies that are not Internet connected, or that allow you to function without using the Internet. This includes various forms of radio, mesh networks, and ways to store and access files without the Internet.
Show notes: Radio communications: check out information about amateur radio on the ARRL website. For amateur radios, cheap Chinese radios are now very popular, such as the Baofeng UV-5R ($39.75). For a more robust radio, consider the Yaesu FT-4XR ($79.95). For personal FRS radios, a good choice is the Motorola Talkabout T600 ($119.99). For an AM/FM radio, consider the Sangean MMR-88 ($69.99) that also includes a built-in weather radio. You can access the Primary Entry Point (PEP) radio map here. More information on weather radio can be found on the NOAA website, and my favorite weather radio is the Midland WR-400 ($69.99). Information about public safety radio frequencies and systems is on RadioReference, and a great all-round scanner that works with most systems is the Uniden Home Patrol 2 ($483.97). Mesh networking apps include Briar and Bridgefy. For better range, try GoTenna Mesh which can even be used to create city-wide coverage. For non-Internet cloud check out NextCloud. Knowledge Reboot Kits: check out Project Gutenberg and Kiwix.
Episode 9: 10 digital resilience gear recommendations to buy with your stimulus check
March 14, 2021
Wecome to the gear episode. Today we are going to geek out and talk about digital resilience gear, and some carefully thought out recommendations for equipment you might consider buying if you have a bit of money left over from your stimulus check (for US listeners).
Show notes: here are my 10 recommendations:
- Book - the Personal Digital Resilience Handbook or Organize for Disaster
- A bunch of cables - USB mini, C, lightning plus adapters. Check out this 3-in-1 cable plus a Desktop USB adapter and a Car Adapter.
- Mic Lock for blocking your microphone on computer or phone.
- Power bank - check out the GoerTek ES-982 25,000mAh with solar charging and flashlight.
- MySudo subscription.
- ProtonVPN subscription.
- Sync.com subscription.
- Portable SSD Drive - I like the Samsung drives such as the Samsung T5. For cheaper alternatives, look for regular hard disks or USB flash drives. I currently like the PNY series USB flash drives.
- Cellular LTE data hotspot. The Rolls Royce model is the Nighthawk M1 LTE Hotspot but cheaper alternatives are available if you search for LTE hotspot. Remember to get data service on a differnet network than your cellphone.
- AM/FM and weather alert emergency radio. I like the Sangean MMR-88
Episode 8: Threat Modeling
March 7, 2021
How do you decide what the priorities are for your digital resilience? How much resilience is enough? How many backups do you need? How much privacy do you need? Today I describe a way to make those decisions through a process called Threat Modeling.
Show notes: The New Oil Threat Modeling Page.
Episode 7: The Texas disaster and surviving infrastructure failure with Rakesh Bharania
February 26, 2021
We have a really special show for you today. We are joined by Rakesh Bharania, a worldwide expert in rebuilding technology after a disaster, to talk about the situation in Texas, cascading infrastructure failures, and what you can do to prepare yourself and your community for infrastructure failure.
Show notes: Rakesh Bharania's Linkedin
Episode 6: How to evaluate online services for digital resilience
February 20, 2021
We all depend on multiple online services every day for basic life functions such as shopping, doing our taxes, having meetings. But how do we know if these services are digitally resilient? In this episode we are going to be talking about how to evaluate online services for our four dimensions of digital reilience: reliability and redundancy, sercurity, privacy and control, and how to have a robust digital resilience strategy for using online services.
Show notes: OpenSignal App, ToS;DR, DownDetector. Reminder: the four step plan is: 1. Ensure you have a reliable Internet service with at least on backup; 2. Critically evaluate the online services for resilience; 3. Have and regularly use an alternate for any critical service; and 4. Have a non-internet backup plan for anything critical. The evaulation critera are Terms of Service, Business Model, Data Security, Reliability, and Extractability.
Episode 6: How to evaluate online services for digital resilience
February 20, 2021
We all depend on multiple online services every day for basic life functions such as shopping, doing our taxes, having meetings. But how do we know if these services are digitally resilient? In this episode we are going to be talking about how to evaluate online services for our four dimensions of digital reilience: reliability and redundancy, sercurity, privacy and control, and how to have a robust digital resilience strategy for using online services.
Show notes: OpenSignal App, ToS;DR, DownDetector. Reminder: the four step plan is: 1. Ensure you have a reliable Internet service with at least on backup; 2. Critically evaluate the online services for resilience; 3. Have and regularly use an alternate for any critical service; and 4. Have a non-internet backup plan for anything critical. The evaulation critera are Terms of Service, Business Model, Data Security, Reliability, and Extractability.
Episode 5: Avoid being a cat on Zoom using compartmentalization
February 11, 2021
You have probably all seen the the hilarious viral video where a lawyer in an online court on Zoom appears as a cat avatar. This is the latest of a long list of embarrasing things that have happened when people have inadvertently crossed over different parts of their lives, in this instance presumably letting a kid use their work computer. In this episode, we talk about compartmentalization, and how it can increase your digital resilience by keeping different parts of your life separate.
Show notes: The cat lawyer on Zoom video, blog post on compartmentalization.
Episode 4: How to keep your basic information private
February 5, 2021
How can you give away your name, phone number, email and address... without actually giving away your name, phone number, email and address? In this episode we are going undercover! I explain a strategy for keeping your basic information like your name, address, cellphone number and email private, by having alternate sets of information that you can give out.
Show notes: AT&T selling location information, ProtonMail, MySudo, AnonAddy, NameCheap.
Episode 3: Explaining the Gamestop saga and what it teaches us about digital resilience
January 29, 2021
In this episode I explain the Gamestop Reddit saga, and use that to bring up some key lessons about digital resilience and money, including the differences between online services, banks, bitcoin and cash.
Show notes: GameStop saga: RobinHood, Wallstreetbets subreddit, CBS News article on the saga. Banks and FDIC insurance: Check out FDIC and note PayPal is not FDIC insured (although they may be experimenting otherwise). Cash: Top places people keep cash at home (avoid these!!). There are plenty of other lists online.
Episode 2: An effective backup strategy for files, photos, videos, email and social media
January 25, 2021.
What would happen if your hard drive failed or you lost access to your Google or Apple account? In this episode I describe four technologies and three backup strategies you can use to make sure that your files, photos, videos, email and social media content are safe.
Show notes: Synchronization: three popular cloud synchronization services that meet the requirement for zero-knowledge end-to-end encryption are Sync.com Pro Solo (setup instructions are here), Tresorit Business Plus, and SpiderOak OneBackup. For peer-to-peer synchronization, use SyncThing (setup instructions are here). NextCloud. Hard, SSD and USB drives: I have found Samsung SSD drives to be very reliable, such as the T5 2TB Portable SSD. Here is the 4TB hard drive I bought from Best Buy for under $100 WD Easystore 4TB Hard Drive. My current favorite USB flash drive is the PNY Pro Elite, available in 256GB, 512GB and 1TB versions. To encrypt an SSD or USB Flash Drive, use VeraCrypt device encryption. Email and social media: Email can be backed up using Thunderbird, and for social media instructions for downloading your data are available for Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Episode 1: Three digital resilience steps you should take now
January 21, 2021.
The events of the last few weeks have brought up numerous issues relating to the vulnerabilities of our digital lives. In this episode I define digital resilience and give three steps you should take now to reduce your vulnerability on social media and the cloud.
