229: Slinky with a Lot of Math

Published: Jan. 12, 2018, 12:37 a.m.

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Nick Kartsioukas (@ExplodingLemur) spoke with us about information security, melting down spectres, lemurs, and sensible resolutions.

Nick recommends Aumasson\\u2019s Serious Cryptography (also available from NoStarch) as a good orientation. (Offline, he also recommended Shneier\\u2019s Secrets and Lies.) \\xa0

When thinking about security, you need to develop your threat model (EFF) and not panic (Mickens). As a user of the internet, there are some getting started guides (Motherboard, EFF, Smart Girl\\u2019s Guide to Privacy) along with Nick\\u2019s advice of using an antivirus program (comparison), an Adblocker (uBlock), a password manager, and 2-factor authentication. Data backups are also very useful (3-2-1 rule: 3 copies, 2 separate media, 1 offsite). For a professional infosec perspective, the CIS 20 are best practice guidelines for computer security.

For Spectre and Meltdown, the best high-level explanation is in Twitter from @gsuberland though XKCD does its usual good job as well. For more detail, about speculative execution bugs, check out this github readme.

For the history of the Stuxnet, check out Zetter\\u2019s Countdown to Zero Day and the Security Now podcast episode 291.

Ham radio Field Days for 2018 are June 23-24

Last but not least: Depression lies so get help and if you want to know how to help someone else, look at MakeItOk.org

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