Let's see you "tailor" your marketing to that preference

from here and here

So I log into my ISP, of all things, and I get a pop-up that informs me that ads are a fact of life and if I want relevant ads I should give them more information about myself. They can go pound sand.

Are they trying to set a record?

from here and here

Eight breaches in five years is a bit over the top, if you ask me. I wonder what would happen if the fines scaled up for each breach you had. How many breaches until companies ACTUALLY took the security of our data seriously?

Ground Control to Scammer Tom

from here and here

Believe it or not, this was a real scam with a victim and everything. I'm not going to judge or blame the victim, but the scammer certainly found a creative way to take advantage of people.

And the hack came back, the very next day

from here

If you pay once, you better be prepared to pay again. 80% of victims who pay get hit again, and why wouldn't they? Why would ransomware operators search for new victims when they've got a paying "customer" right there?

An antivirus mogul lived long enough to see himself become the villain

from here

Honestly, McAfee hasn't been a good guy for a long time, it's just taken a while for the law to catch up with him.

Don't worry, kids, there's still hope

from here

Kids, if you had the realization that remote classrooms would spell the end of snowdays, have no fear. There's still a way to for online classes to get canceled and snow plows can't open them back up.

The Fail Whale must have joined the security team

from here

You know you're doing security wrong when... a 17 year old from Florida takes control of virtually any account he wants to to do little more than launch a bitcoin scam.

Drop f-bombs, not 0days

from here

The vast majority of people who would be affected by the 0day would probably enjoy the f-bomb more.

Are you super-extra-certain no one unwanted is there?

from here

If you can't see or hear or otherwise sense who is in the room with your safe, why are you opening your safe? That sounds like insanity. Anyone could be there. I can't imagine what the folks at BoingBoing were thinking when they decided to hawk this thing.

It works the same way for backups

from here

So Baltimore failed to protect themselves against a ransomware attack and apparently they're now planning to fail again. I'm not sure there's any other way to interpret getting insurance equal to the cost of recovering unless you think you're going to need to recover again.

And you know what, $20M would buy a lot of backups.

You might want to keep them out of your bedroom

from here

This is something that probably bears repeating A LOT. Those smart speakers and smart phones and smart watches and other devices that obey your commands aren't simply computers, there are also people listening in to help the computers improve. All the major brands (Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant, and Apple's Siri) of digital assistants are made of people, at least in part.

And honestly "Digital assistants are made of people" seems like it could make a pretty good catch phrase.

Dear corrupt government officials and the people who bought them

from here

It should go without saying that all electronic financial transactions rely on encryption for protection. Unless the wealthy want to drag huge sums of cash around to pay for their expensive lifestyles for the rest of their lives, they should maybe see about pressuring the administration to change course on this ridiculous backdoor crusade.

Who blocks the ad blockers?

found on Reddit

As ad blocking becomes more and more mainstream, sites that block ad blocking are going to see their relevance dwindle into nothingness. Even ignoring the security risks of lowering your guard, the content is virtually never worth the annoyance of being bombarded with ads.

The more you know...

from here

Just an interesting bit of history for a fairly ubiquitous idiom. I never even thought to ask about the meaning of "read between the lines" until I stumbled across this piece of information

How many ways can we say it?

found on Secure World Expo

I've got a special place in my heart for the "there is no cloud" meme. The repetition (even in spite of the variations) means it's working.

(and it gives me ideas)

It's not a matter of "if" but "when"

from here

Data Minimization: If you don't keep data you don't need, then that data can't be leaked when your security is breached

It's not just the walls that have ears anymore

from here

Google may be in hot water, but they're hardly the only ones putting mics in things.

The best defense isn't always a good offense

from here

I can't imagine a C-level executive who assaults researchers will remain at the C-level for very long, at least not unless he's representative of the culture at Atrient.

Facebook, meet percussive privacy

from here

The Facebook app is undeleteable you say? I can fix that with a simple hammer.

But at least they say they're sorry

from here

Facebook basically proves they can't be entrusted with the sensitive information they ask for, time and time again.

Thanks to Paul Watson for drawing the connection.