Too Much Security

from here and here

Verification requires I enter the number for my non-existent cell phone? Whoops, there goes another account.

Verification requires me to retrieve a code from a recovery email that no longer exists? Whoops, there goes another account. 

Verification requires me to enter a phone number and country but the country is stuck on Afghanistan? Whoops, there goes another account. 

Verification requires a voice number that hasn't already been used to verify a different account? Whoops, there goes another account.

I should be able to decide whether or not extra security mechanisms are required for my accounts.

More data, more problems

from here

Companies need to figure out how to operate with the barest minimum of our data possible. Storing vast amounts of data may be becoming a liability for them, but even then we bare a disproportionate amount of the consequences for something someone else did wrong. Nothing happens to companies, but plenty happens to us.

Think I'll stick with dumb devices

from here

Honestly, there are so many problems with smart devices, allowing attackers to break into your home network is just the tip of the iceberg.

There better not be any ads after that

from here

While paying for Internet service is a technical requirement for using websites, paying for a phone is not - as evidence I point to all the sites I can currently use without a phone. If Google starts requiring a phone in order to log in then I can't see how to continue calling the service free, regardless of whether the money is going to them (although, considering how many phones are Android, it seems likely they're getting their cut).

Won't someone bring back the idiot box?

from here

An unpopular opinion, perhaps, but every "smart" device has a computer in it. Adding a computer to anything increases the attack surface of that thing, as well as adding a host of preventative care chores that simply will not get done by the vast majority of smart device owners.

And who knows, maybe this can become a catch phrase that helps steer us all in a better direction.

Show me the money, Facebook

from here

Everyone seems to be wringing their hands about Facebook paying teens to spy on them and I'm over here wondering how I can get paid for something Facebook is going to do regardless. I mean, if stopping Facebook from spying were on the table, I would definitely choose that, but since it's not, I gotsta get paid.

Unfortunately bosses don't like to hear the word "No"

from here

For a long time people have been saying that security needs to align itself with the business when in reality it's the business that needs to align itself with security. If you're asking your security staff to open firewalls or make other sorts of exceptions instead of asking them for ways to do what you want to do securely then you are not helping the company be the best version of itself and are in fact increasing the chances of something bad happening.

You wouldn't hack a safe

from here

We crack passwords. We crack ciphers. We crack safes. We even crack eggs. Breaking down barriers seems to be called cracking, so why do we persist in calling the breaking of most types of computer related barriers "hacking"?