Eric Jacksch 

46 Followers
92 Following
89 Posts
SecurityGuy, vCISO, investigator, and writer. Opinions are mine alone and do not reflect that of any other entity.
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My kid just WhatsApped from his German exchange trip. They had to call an ambulance for him.

He has food poisoning, was very pale and nauseous. He was dehydrated and his blood pressure was dropping.

He's fine now but I wanted to share this because it has the most Western Europe Is a Civilized Place ending ever.

The paramedics came to the mall, took him into the ambulance, gave him an IV, checked him out, stayed with him until he felt better, then told him "No charge. Enjoy your trip to Germany." And if that wasn't enough, when they realized the group had had to move onto the train station without him, they gave him a ride over there to catch up with them.

I'm so ground down by the predatory realities of America in general in 2025 that this just about blew my fucking mind.

🀣
@krayola good to reconnect!
It’s a good thing the industry has these cyber security risks under control, otherwise all these job cuts could be a very bad sign of things to come.

linux is too difficult imo, I don't understand the hype at all and why so many people are like "just switch to linux, it's easy!"

it's not easy, and why would I want an operating system that has to be taken up as some kind of hobby instead of just using my computer like normal.

i'll just stick with ubuntu instead, thanks.

#linux #computers #ubuntu #mastodev #women

Oh, look. Here comes Monday

Delivery Firm’s AI Chatbot Goes Rogue, Curses at Customer and Criticizes Company

https://time.com/6564726/ai-chatbot-dpd-curses-criticizes-company/ πŸ˜‚

Delivery Firm’s AI Chatbot Goes Rogue, Curses at Customer and Criticizes Company

An AI customer service chatbot for delivery service DPD used profanity and criticized the company after prompting by a frustrated customer.

Time
Also, the trolley problem episode of The Good Place was pretty funny.

Security colleagues - I'm looking for help with a public interest project.

For those of you who don't know me yet, I'm an Ottawa, Canada-based cybersecurity consultant. I've been in the field for almost 30 years, and my consulting company is also licenced as an investigation agency in the Province of Ontario. As a result, I regularly receive calls (often referred by other investigators) from people who have concerns about the security of their computers, phones, tablets, online accounts, etc.

Some callers are just paranoid. Others are escaping from domestic violence or dealing with other high-conflict situations and have legitimate safety and security concerns.

While there are exceptions, local law enforcement generally doesn't have the skills or resources to help someone who believes that their devices are being used to spy on them.

Many people have an unrealistic idea of what digital forensics entails. I find myself regularly explaining that, yes, I could examine their PC and look for spyware. But, even if I find it, the likelihood of being able to provide acceptable evidence of who installed it is extremely low. And then there is the cost. Unfortunately, those who need help the most also tend to be the least able to pay for it.

While I'm happy to take them on as a client, the vast majority of these people need to secure their accounts and possibly factory reset their devices. For us in the field, that seems very straightforward. But for others, it's like climbing a mountain. They don't even know where to start.

A lot of the resources are out there if you know where to look. Apple has articles on how to reset an iPhone. Facebook and Google have articles on how to secure your account, etc. But what's missing is a URL we can send someone that can help them get from "I think my ex is tracking my phone and reading my messages" to a more secure situation.

I'm planning to set up a free public site in a wiki format with restricted editing to maintain integrity.

Are you willing to help by taking on a single product/service, owning the page, and keeping it up-to-date? Most of the popular products and services already have pages on how to secure accounts or reset the device, so many of these pages will be an introduction, specific recommendations, and links to the appropriate page.

Also, if this reaches anyone who has expertise in selecting and maintaining open source wiki software, I'd love any advice you can offer.

Thanks!

it's my keyboard's 30th birthday today, give him booosts!