Kyle Rankin @kyle@librem.one

Wow, after a single week of on-campus instruction, student/staff COVID-19 infections went from 10 to 177, prompting UNC-Chapel Hill to move to remote learning: https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/education/unc-chapel-hill-coronavirus-cluster/2020/08/17/8ebce060-e0ab-11ea-8181-606e603bb1c4_story.html

All the more reason to take control over your own location data and how it's shared, instead of hoping proprietary software funded by your data is operating in your best interests (it isn't): https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2020/08/secret-service-other-agencies-buy-access-to-mobile-phone-location-data/ #privacy

Social media is going to be intolerable the next six months with all the helicopter parents and celebrities nagging me every day to practice good hygiene, vote and get vaccinated. #yourenotmyrealdad

My uninformed theory about the Mozilla layoffs is that Google waited for anti-trust hearings and then canceled/drastically reduced FF sponsorship claiming COVID cost-cutting, safe in the knowledge that browsers weren't brought up in the hearings. #speculation

Testing your code in production. #devops #agile #movefastandbreakthings https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/russia-unveils-coronavirus-vaccine-claiming-victory-in-global-race-before-final-testing-is-complete/2020/08/11/792f8a54-d813-11ea-a788-2ce86ce81129_story.html

"DSP chips are much more vulnerable to risks as they are being managed as ‘Black Boxes’ since it can be very complex for anyone other than their manufacturer to review their design, functionality or code." https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2020/08/snapdragon-chip-flaws-put-1-billion-android-phones-at-risk-of-data-theft/

If proprietary code were higher quality than free software, you wouldn't have to spend so much time "cleaning it up" before open sourcing it.

Check out this Dice article by @yaelwrites on how to build a career in #infosec. Bonus: I'm quoted in it! https://insights.dice.com/2020/08/04/cybersecurity-expert-careers-skills-embrace-pitfalls-avoid/

This extensive and thoughtful post by a member of the #Librem5 community does a good job of explaining the past and present mobile Linux ecosystem and why Purism's approach with phosh makes strategic sense long-term. https://amosbbatto.wordpress.com/2020/08/05/advantages-of-phosh/

One of the most interesting things to me about NSA's document on cellphone tracking is that all their mitigations rely on software features they admit are flawed and could be hacked. This is why we rely on hardware to prevent tracking on the #Librem5: https://puri.sm/posts/how-librem-5-solves-nsas-warning-about-cellphone-location-data/

Customers are asking us about the recent GRUB2 vulnerability so I wrote a quick post explaining how it works and why @purism hardware isn't affected. For even more details, check out Dan Goodin's excellent Ars Technica article I link in my post.

https://puri.sm/posts/why-the-grub2-secure-boot-flaw-doesnt-affect-purism-computers/

TikTok offers 3rd parties to audit their code to quiet #privacy concerns. Auditability, not just of TikTok w/ hand-picked regulators/experts, is critical for software we rely on. For real privacy and security, you want software w/ a #FOSS license. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2020/07/29/tiktok-privacy-antitrust-china/