Salam comrades.

Salam comrades.

Please take this weekend to do some simple security cleanup for your family. This week was kind of a turning point for AI and cyber security, and a lot of my friends are not aware of any of it, so I don't want to bore you with the specifics after I bored a good friend of mine who helped me better understand the gravity of the situation, but there were many cyber security issues that impacted many websites this week and it seems we are at a tipping point where open source AI models can be used by bad actors (cough *Israel* cough) to deploy agents and try to do brute force attacks or DDoS attacks or otherwise hack your data.

Basically, what happened was that Quest Diagnostics was hit..it has 100 million patient records. MANY other sites were also hit.

I recently learned that Quest Diagnostics is the world's leading provider of diagnostic information services, including clinical laboratory testing, routine and specialized blood work, molecular and genetic diagnostics, and pathology.

It is not a reason to freak out, but I do think there are some simple things that you should do ASAP to minimize your exposure risk. So here are some suggestions on how to do that thanks to my dear cybersecurity expert friend.

So, first set up a password manager...like one password. Give your spouse or partner access to a shared vault. Teach them how to use it. Learn how to use it yourself. Google it.

Then update your passwords for all of your critical stuff. Like your email account, your bank or financial stuff. Store it in your password manager. Use the strongest password that you can make up. I know it's a little bit annoying, but it's worth it.

Third, use two factor authentication for everything you can. SMS is not ideal (for obvious reasons), although it's better than nothing, but Google authenticator or a passkey is better. A hardware key is the safest, but you're probably not going to do that.

You can also add a SIM pin to your phone. It makes it harder to do a SIM jack. If they get to your phone, they get access to all kinds of other things. (new anxiety trigger unlocked)🫠

Update your phone and your computer to the newest releases. Turn auto update on. Freeze your credit/visa card (very important) until you fix all your passwords. That takes five minutes. Google it.

If you're using cloud code or if you have AI agents yourself that are browsing the web...they're also probably vulnerable.

If you're building stuff on your computer, ask your ai bot or grok, which is connected to twitter and has the most current information about this issue, ask it to audit any of your repos for vulnerabilities, ask your ai agent to make this into a scheduled task so you can do this daily. Things are moving very quickly right now, it feels hard to keep up but you should at least try.

And finally, consider some light resiliency stuff. This probably sounds silly but just humor me. Have some printed out copies of your important documents like your financial accounts and important certificates, have some cash on hand, have some shelf stable food and clean water or a water filter. Get a paper map... buy a generator. We who have been suffering from war for years have adapted this into our daily lives..we know.

That can at least power your fridge or some devices for a few hours.

Again, I do not want to alarm people. But war has taught me that one should have a secure plan at all times. I think it's pretty clear that our secure plan needs to factor cybersecurity risk as a legit threat now. So just take a weekend and shield yourself. I hope that's helpful. Shout out to my friend T for his knowledge and help.

Also, while at it, always remember to dismantle terrorist Israel.