Tag: Destructive

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Proof of Happiness or Evidence against you

The notion of personal privacy with images is a social maze to navigate carefully. So you are out for a night out with some great friends and one of them takes out the phone for the mandatory group selfie.

Do you

Option A. Refuse to be in the pic and brace for the “why” questions from your friends?
Option B. Reluctantly smile and take the pic whilst asking them not to post it all over their social media knowing full well that is exactly what they are going to do?
Option C. Declare that you are on the run from the authorities and can’t risk it?
Option D. Take the phone, smash it and RUN.

It has become a major principle that separates us. What are the deeper reasons for inclusion or exclusion? What have you got to hide? Who are you hiding from? Why do you take images of yourself so much? What are you trying to prove?

Once the image is captured you have no control and in most cases, it’s totally harmless. Roll on 10 years and it then becomes material evidence that is held against you.

Not another group selfie
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A Simple Plan…ditch the SmartPhone

“Be careful Straight Trees often have crooked roots”

— Random Fortune Cookie

Doesn’t really matter how we got here but London is dormant, empty and anxious to return to “normal”.  Only there will never ever be a “normal” again.

9 am: I’m at Baker Street tube station and there is no rush hour, I comfortably get a seat.  Gyms are packed with people trying to keep the body and brain active and the façade of returning back to normal is heavy in every conversation.

So how to plan around uncertainty? How to find some confidence?

The Facts

  • Gatherings are very limited
  • All face-to-face services are now chronically slow and prone to cancellation.
  • The “working from home” economy will be here until March 2021…yes another 6 months of this should be expected.
  • Zoom dominates the global market for video conferencing and is totally accepted by all
  • Social media and WhatsApp are the primary methods of news.
  • Cloud architecture is now the primary, on-premise data centres are now the far side of the network
  • Site-to-site VPN to on-premise resources is now not as vital, remote access to VPN to mask your home location is more useful.
  • Being tracked via your mobile phone is a certainty and accepted by most.
Keep thinking

The excuses – How to get away with almost anything right now

  • Waking up at noon every day
  • Walking around the house in your underpants
  • Being late
  • Being slow
  • Not being accountable for anything
  • Not trying
  • Not coming up with new ideas
Don’t just sit there waiting for things to get back to normal………..Do Something

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Not every cage is a prison

Like most people the toll and impact of this “unseen thing” has forced an irreversible change in Life. For me self-isolation has been an emotion cage I struggle to escape, sometimes in control, but deeply troubled I wonder from day-to-day with no real aim or goals.

In a few more days a new era begins as I’m released from my current mission. Maybe this cage is not a cage at all.

What’s my next mission Guv?

Somehow – Tom Clancy’s The Division 2
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Endlessly

A stark picture was painted by CheckPoint founder Gil Shwed who stated very clearly how the landscape is getting more and more complex with a monster of 16 attack vectors with countermeasures of 26+ security technologies ramping up to a complexity rating of 416 just to stand still.

An absolute nightmare for any Security Analyst responsible for the organisation’s controls.

In the meantime, new threat actors are born everyday.

Threats are growing fast
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How to keep calm in Austria

In a few months, it will be a full decade since I first ventured into Austria and I must say that it’s been mostly good.  I’ve learned to navigate what is by far the most hostile environment I’ve lived in. Austrian are in the category of “Rude people” so I development anti-social strategies to avoid them in their own country.

Creative and aggressive use of technology helps me avoid the need to ask questions, this is key as do not speak German.  Uber and Amazon and occasionally FaceBook have provided excellent faceless services helping me get the exact things I want and need.

Cash is King

Money literally talks and avoids misunderstanding or aggression.  I also tend to pre-paid my stays at hotels and pay for taxis in advance, no arguments. I paid you, now shut the fuck up.

Plug-in Zone Out

I tend to use headphones triggering the natural human response of not trying to engage in any German conversations with me.

Of course, this forced isolation has it downside but I do love the Austrian countryside.

Beauty Austrian countryside, really rude people.

A decade of Stealth