#semi-related—and feel free to call me a killjoy about this—but those hyper specific polls | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

thatswhatsushesaid · 1 year

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it has been about 6 years since i last worked in a purely information security setting, but since we were also part of central IT for a major university, we did these routine outreach and education projects to try to get the students to not do sketchy shit with their technology, and to practice better information privacy, etc

we’d host little pop-up events with games and prizes and stickers—we had little characters for all the different IT threats you might encounter while doing nonsense on the internet

and honestly i can’t even remember which threat this little guy is supposed to represent anymore, but he lives on the back of my laptop now and i love him

anyway:

1. don’t click spam links in your email.

2. don’t plug in random usb sticks you find on the ground.

3. don’t scan sketchy QR codes. but if you do and they invite you and your family, regardless of blood type, to a gathering in remote montana in 2025, do not go.

#semi-related—and feel free to call me a killjoy about this—but those hyper specific polls #you can vote in them and it’s *probably* mostly fine #like on the list of things that are risky to do on this site voting on polls like that and even occasionally providing additional info #in the tags is not a particularly high risk activity #but when you make a hyper specific poll that is clearly about you specifically and your experiences #(which to be fair is understandable esp if you have cool experiences that are very unique to you)#you are essentially creating another means of making yourself identifiable when that is maybe not what you are trying to do #and while i think the risk is still overall low it isn’t a risk-free activity and it is for sure riskier than just voting #in a bunch of different polls that would be harder for a malicious actor to collate and examine #making one of those polls essentially does the hard work for someone who may be looking to verify that you are who they suspect you are #not because they want to turn you into the next subject of a true crime podcast calm down #but probably for targeted spear-phishing #anyway just some thoughts

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