April Recap
Updates and Items of Interest
Updates
Alt-Tech Failures
One of my major points of contention with the broader “freedom movement” has been a lack of respect for user’s privacy. Despite being nominally aware of the dangers of state surveillance and corporate abuse, there is a serious lack of accountability when “Alt-Tech” enterprises fail to take proper measures to safeguard their users’ data. In putting together a list of data breaches during the Covid Crisis, I realized that things were much more troubling than even I was aware. I am honored that Lessons from Alt-Tech Failures has been republished in
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In what ended up being a raw video rant, I responded to Unjected’s arrogant dismissal of their users cybersecurity risks. In downplaying their own responsibility they irresponsibly mislead their users about the importance of protecting their private information. The points made were so frustrating I made the point of responding to the entire segment, despite the lack of respect for users’ privacy being made very quickly.
April Fools
I like to take the opportunity to use humor to think of problems from an entirely different perspective, hopefully learning new things along the way. As dark as things can be, it’s always worth finding ways to share some joy however you can. The previous year’s April Fools post ended up being my most popular for quite some time, unfortunately I was not able to replicate that success this year. I hope people found both entertaining and informative.
The Death of The Web
A hot topic this month has been the US Government’s expansion and renewal of Section 702. This fundamentally undermines trust in the Internet as a whole for privacy and security. By further weaponizing how connected people are against them, the future of personal and political expression looks quite bleak. The imminent destruction of what allows the web to be an environment for dissent is one of my primary reasons to decide to speak out about technical implications of tyranny.
Further reading
New Fediverse Instance
I’ve moved the Libre Solutions Network fediverse profile to a new instance running mitra. You can follow @lsn@fedi.libresolutions.network with your own fediverse profile, or with RSS. The main reason I’ve moved the profile is that mitra supports federation over darknets, which is something I hope to experiment with in the future. In addition ot this, you can also subscribe with monero to get access to exclusive posts.
Mitra is relatively simple, but I’d wholeheartedly recommend it’s use. Beyond the darknet and monero support, it also has the ability to work as your own private social network if you disable federation, and you can even hide the public timeline if you wish. It’s become my new favorite fediverse software. Mitra is developed by silverpill.
Personal Update
Since January, I had intended to take more time to reverse the weight gain I’ve put on since the beginning of the Covid Crisis. It’s been quite a bumpy road. Recently a lot more time has been made available as I’m currently without work. This development is welcome because I think I’m going to need even more time to turn work into tangible results. I’m almost done reading my selected self-help book for the year, and I’ve also made progress swimming and walking regularly.
In hindsight, I have failed to scale back my work on this project, which I don’t feel entirely bad about but is something that may change. Canadian Cyber Freedom has been on a bit of a backburner as I’ve had some recent disturbances get in the way. Though I’ve still been making occasional updates to the site’s content, I just haven’t had the time to create the necessary guides to assist people participate. You’ll notice I’ve published this recap early, this is so I can be distraction free for the next week as I double-down on my exercise routine.
Your understanding and encouragement mean a great deal to me. I am grateful for many of the kind and thoughtful allies I have encountered while participating here and elsewhere. Aside from occasional spirals of despair, I am highly motivated to continue this project. The feedback I’ve received is that I successfuly do what I intended to do: add a valuable technical perspective to the broader liberty-minded work of others. While I try to balance my own effort and energies, I aim to focus on important points that need further reflection. I hope that you find value in what I do, and your support goes a long way for my own peace of mind.
Items of Interest
Interactive CBDC Tracking Map
This map looks like a very useful tool for getting a glance of which countries are building and adopting Central Bank Digital Currencies.Don’t Be Fooled: Much “AI” is Just Outsourcing, Redux
about swarm intelligence and cybernetics.
Don’t look at the gig workers behind the curtain! I had a great conversation with Mathew Crawford atConfused by SOLID
Solid never felt like a solid contender to me. It’s a brilliant concept but the execution is disappointing. If you’re fascinated by distributed computing and security, you’ll want to take a look at goblins.Fake Facebook MidJourney AI page promoted malware to 1.2 million people
Always be careful to source your software from trusted developers! Where you get your software can have a huge impact on your cybersecurity risks.
German state gov. ditching Windows for Linux, 30K workers migrating
Hardly surprising these days, but it’s worth considering why those in your life may still be running windows these days. There are many companies that sell devices with linux pre-installed these days, one doesn’t always need to learn how to install it. Of course, with a thumb drive, (and your backups done) and some time, you can install a user-friendly distribution to your machine. Kubuntu is a decent option for those migrating from Windows, but others also recommend the tried-and-true Linux Mint.
Microsoft employees exposed internal passwords in security lapse
CISA orders agencies impacted by Microsoft hack to mitigate risks
It gets harder and harder to justify relying on Microsoft at all.
Telegram fixes Windows app zero-day used to launch Python scripts
Telegram’s peer-to-peer SMS login service is a privacy nightmare
Two serious issues for Telegram worth understanding. Communication software can be it’s own security risk if it can be exploited.
X automatically changed 'Twitter' to 'X' in users' posts, breaking legit URLs
Hackable Intel and Lenovo hardware that went undetected for 5 years won’t ever be fixed
As more and more e-waste piles up, I’m convinced that low-level technical skills like repair, salvage and reverse engineering are going to be very valuable in the future.
Only ATM in Luskville, Que. set to close end of May
Digital currencies have their own privacy risks, using cash is an important way to signal your opposition to the War on Cash and protect financial transaction freedom.
Hardly a surprise at all, but all the more troubling. Pushing back against a two-tier society of the watchers and the watched is crucial to protecting fundamental human rights.
Finternet: the financial system for the future
The idea of tokenizing everything seems far-fetched to many, but “triple-entry accounting” may end up being the next massive driver of real-time all-pervasive mass-surveillance.
April 2024 PeerTube newsletter!
PeerTube is incredible software, with your own digital infrastructure you can host your own media platform. Don’t forget to check out the Libre Solutions Network channel!
Top 10 Most Secure Mobile Phones to Buy in 2024
Not something I’d take at face value, but a good starting point for evaluating options.
Ghost is federating over ActivityPub to become part of the world’s largest publishing network.
I’ve seriously considered migrating this newsletter to Ghost, but once I have the time to do that, I may end up building my own complete CMS.
It’s tragic to see how much assaults against free expression have become normalized. No longer is so-called ‘dangerous speech’ forbidden, but now also inconvenient information and differing value judgements.
The United Nations ditches Big Tech in a bid for security
I’m very concerned about the lack of independent funding for critical Free and Open Source projects. It seems that useful software being corrupted or even bought out entirely by governments and corporations is a non-trivial threat.
FCC wants rules for ‘most important part of the internet you’ve probably never heard of’
This is related to the return of net neutrality rules in the USA. Given the assaults on the Free and Open Web, I believe that net neutrality is wholly insufficient, and that active citizen engagement to restore the web is essential.
Cryptocurrency ‘miders’ are controversial, doubly so is the outlawing of software that supports them. This is a troubling indication that digital currencies are unlikely to have strong privacy guarantees without an immense of political, social, and technical work.
Are Your Passwords in the Green?
Short passwords are the enemy. Regardless of what kind of passwords you use, you ultimately want to maximize entropy (randomness) to get the most out of them. Alphanumeric 8 character passwords are trivially easy for a dedicated adversary to brute-force. Using a password manager to generate sufficiently long and complex passwords can make a huge difference.
What about getting rid of passwords all-together? Passkeys and hardware authenticators are two potential solutions for this, but the details matter.
U.S. “Know Your Customer” Proposal Will Put an End to Anonymous Cloud Users
This has concerning implications about the future of managed services, and how people can protect their information online.
If you ever want to try long term fasting to reset your metabolism, and would like a buddy to do it with you, even remotely, I’m here for you, brother. Easier to get through it when not going at it alone.