Friday, November 30, 2012

no need for a condom

found on quickmeme

and here we have "dreamy bill gates". i really wish this was called "sleep deprived bill gates" so as to be less ambiguous.

oh yeah, and thanks for all your help with the viruses, bill.

Fus Roh Doh!

from here

just another way to say "careful where you click"

Thursday, November 29, 2012

maybe an STDD

found on animal memes

well, it's a fair question, but i'm leaning towards sexually transmitted digital disease, just to differentiate from the original variety.

when you outlaw proxies...

from here

could russia be planning to ban Tor? hope not, but they wouldn't be the first to try if they did.
(thanks to josh corman and anonymous for bringing that to my attention)

Wednesday, November 28, 2012

bad security advice

found on google image search

ok, this is called bad advice cat for a reason. whatever you do, don't take this advice.

number of cards skimmed is over 9000!

from here (source image)


  • Skimming equipment - anywhere from a few hundred to a few thousand dollars
  • Getting caught by the authorities - a few years in prison
  • Getting compared to a Dragonball Z character for your crimes - priceless
i'll go ahead and say it - leonid rotaku is the goku of card skimming.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

do you have protection?

found with google image search

i've never even heard of sexually oblivious rhino before, but given the tendency for security threats to be compared to sexually transmitted diseases, i suppose it makes sense for this meme to cross paths with security on occasion.

a festive breach

from here (source image)

dumping shredded but still readable police documents on the crowd in a parade? what could possibly go wrong?
(thanks to mikko hypponen and dave lewis respectively for pointing it out)

folks, if it's sensitive enough to shred, then it's sensitive enough to NOT REUSE. shredding doesn't magically make it safe for public consumption.

Monday, November 26, 2012

password trouble



i seriously hope the real obama is smart enough to not fall for telephone scams from north korea.

steal all the identities

from here

apparently someone tried this for real over in greece.

Friday, November 23, 2012

creepy homeland security

found on google image search

i don't know about you, but i find that image to be disturbingly creepy.

passwords 2



remembering strong passwords is only half the battle.

Thursday, November 22, 2012

dumb ways to die



as i'm sometimes fond of saying, security is just a class of strategies for fulfilling our need to keep the people and things that are important to us safe, and i think you can see a number of the things mentioned in this safety video that could have been avoided with better security (inviting a killer into your house? wow, yeah, that is a really dumb way to die)

gotta give 'em credit

found on very demotivational

there's a form field you probably don't want to fill in.

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

can you help out a poor cyberwar vet who's down on his luck?



thanks to rob rosenberger for creating and sharing this demonstration of how absurd the idea of cyberwar is.

if you accidentally hand out your cocaine as candy...

if you accidentally hand out your cocaine as candy on halloween instead of keeping it in a safe place so mistakes like that can't happen, then you might be a security idiot

(inspiration)

Tuesday, November 20, 2012

scumbag mac

found on the art of trolling (apparent source story)

hey, don't look at me, mac fanboys. i didn't make this one, i simply found it.

privacy international's "why privacy matters"



often times i just share things i think are funny because we generally have a soft spot for humour and as human beings we are prone to sharing humourous things. this isn't funny, in fact it's quite serious and thought provoking, but i still feel compelled to share it and i'm sure others will too.

memes aren't always about making you laugh, even though that seems to be the dominant form of memetic expression online.

also, the privacy international site where this came from seems to have some great stuff on it so you should definitely check it out.

Monday, November 19, 2012

SCADA security club

from here (source image)

it really sucks that the people keeping the lights on and the water running are so keen on silencing the people who are trying to point out that there are security problems. the emperor doesn't want to hear that he has no clothes.

what security cameras also capture



so this presents an interesting conundrum. security cameras represent a trade-off - by giving up a little privacy we gain a tool that (in theory) can help put bad people in jail. but this video demonstrates that they capture heart warming moments as well. does that ability to capture such feel-good moments cancel out any of the invasive downside of the cameras, or does the fact that someone watched those moments, recorded them, and put them on the internet actually make this more invasive.

tell you what, imagine that stealing kisses scene at the beginning was 2 guys who are still in the closet. or imagine that it's a couple who are married .. but not to each other.

we should only be so lucky to have some of these heart warming moments in our own lives, but the ability to decide if, when, and with whom those moments are shared shouldn't be a matter of luck.

Friday, November 16, 2012

hack back - what could possibly go wrong

found on senor gif


hack back, you say? attribution isn't that hard, you say? yeah right. if it's this easy to fool people in real life, it's even easier online.

Thursday, November 15, 2012

why is encryption not a piece of cake...

from here (source image one, two, and three)

doesn't it seem like NASA should be able to do better than this? i mean, even if encryption is 'haaaaarrrrd', NASA should still be able to do it easily, shouldn't they?

protect this server, you will

from here

i wonder what lucasfilms/disney thinks of google stealing their cast to perform physical security duties.

it's actually in google maps, by the way. see below.


View Larger Map

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

i don't always sign up for a skype account...

from here


right, so something i started doing in 2006 (or maybe earlier) actually protected me today in a way i had never even considered. awesome.

don't run

found on very demotivational

very good advice for a little person. i think i'd add "don't do anything bad to begin with and then you won't need to run".

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

breaking badware

from here (source image)

it really has been an amazing story, i can't dispute that. time will tell how much of this is real and how much is just rumour.

not wanted: mcafee



thought i'd add a little contrast to this unfortunate news about the founder of mcafee who hasn't actually had anything to do with the company for somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 years.

(what's that? "not wanted" is a little too close to "do not want"? well, you can't win 'em all)

Monday, November 12, 2012

if you're a spymaster who cultivates a larger than life public image...

if you're a spymaster who cultivates a larger than life public image and draws attention to himself then you might be a security idiot

(inspiration - seriously, shouldn't this guy be a role model for the spies under his command and keep a low profile?)

kaspersky wat r u doin?

from here (source images one, two, three, four, and five)

i kid you not - kaspersky did a video where he helped save jackie chan's digital butt, there is indeed a t-shirt with kaspersky as che guevara, and he has even alluded to taking on fictional character john mcclane's role of saving the world.

i guess the answer to the question "kaspersky wat r u doin?" is "trying to be the hero of information security".

Friday, November 9, 2012

air support

found on comixed

one of the reasons it's important to stay alert is that you never know when your adversary will completely change the game

wallpaper permissions

from here (source image)

just let that whole concept sink in a bit. permissions for wallpaper. what the heck does wallpaper need any permissions for, nevermind those ridiculous sets of permissions. wallpaper doesn't actually do anything.

Thursday, November 8, 2012

tries to restore drive image...

from here

hey, with the quality of remediation advice some experts hand out, this is actually an understandable error.

yo dawg, i heard you like scams...

found on failbook

... so i made a scam about scams.

i could see this working, too.

Wednesday, November 7, 2012

what is spied cannot be unspied

from here (source tweet and image)

i don't relish the job of the person who has to sift through all those stolen jpegs. sure there will likely be some good stuff in the pile, but there will also likely be some boring stuff and some stuff that will make them want to reach for the eye bleach.

by the way - the picture above is the only blue waffle you ever want to see. trust me.

no monopoly on bad ideas

found on picture is unrelated

his fashion sense may not be good, but it's better than his good sense. i guess he knew what kind of day it was going to be right from the start.

Tuesday, November 6, 2012

complains that av doesn't do what it says on the box

from here

yes i used technologically impaired duck, because people who do this are clearly suffering from some sort of impairment. you know who you are.

email voting

from here (source image)

honestly wondering what they're thinking in new jersey. i guess secret ballots aren't important anymore.

Monday, November 5, 2012

don't hold back. tell us what you really think.

found on the art of trolling

is giving scammers a piece of your mind a thing now? does it work? because if so i've got a whole heap of "your scam is bad and you should feel bad" to unload on them.

if you don't test your backups, you're gonna have a bad time

from here

this goes for data backups as well as backup generators - they need to be tested occasionally to make sure they still work, otherwise you could be hosed when you really need them.

Friday, November 2, 2012

wearing protection: ur doin it wrong

from here (source image)

a picture of a lock and a key are no substitute for actual protection (regardless of the context)

i can't see the difference. can you see the difference?

found on picture is unrelated

i guess simply drawing open eyes on his closed eyelids wouldn't have worked with that particular sleeping position. i'm sure no one will notice.

Thursday, November 1, 2012

WTF is wrong with cops today?

source article

just in case you haven't gotten your daily dose of WTF. it's really worth it to go read the article and the one it links back to. we give authorities privileges that aren't afforded to normal citizens so they can "serve and protect" us. but in this case, even if it was an accidental discharge as claimed, you have to wonder what possessed this guy to unholster his weapon around children and point it at one in the first place.

the risk with establishing authorities is that we may be giving power to the wrong people. this appears to be one of those times.

crickey!



uhhh... given what happened to steve irwin, this schtick probably wouldn't have been my first choice, but it does have good info.