Hey Friends,

I have previously shared ( issue #9 ) some thoughts on the future of higher education post covid-19. These were primarily based on a post by Nat Eliason, in which he gave some suggestions of how colleges\universities may need to adapt in the long term.

In the short term, universities (myself included) have been exploring ways to move some teaching online, while still providing a rich, interactive learning experience to students. This week, while preparing materials for the start of the new academic year, I came across a great platform I thought I would share.

TryHackME is an online learning platform primarily aimed at exercises for CyberSecurity students, however, it also has some general lessons that may be of interest. There is a paid subscription model, but they also have many free lessons.

Here are a couple of free examples relating to things (web browsing) we have discussed previously, which you may find of interest:

1. How search engines work
2. Using Tor Browser
3. Geolocating Images

The above lessons provide a brief insight into 'dark data'. This is 'hidden' (hence the name dark) information generated every time we use the internet, which can be used to build detailed profiles about our digital lives. It can also be thought of as 'digital footprints' that we leave across the Internet every time we post a comment or upload a photograph to a website etc.

For example, when you upload a photograph online, you may also unknowingly upload additional information 'metadata' about the photograph e.g. where you took the photograph, with which device, and exactly when it was taken. While the original photograph may be found using a search engine (e.g. Google Chrome), the additional information is hidden, but can be potentially accessed by hackers and marketing companies. Even if you later delete the photograph, the record, and details about the photograph being uploaded remain.

Hopefully, this briefly demonstrates how easily our digital footprints can grow and spread across the Internet, and why it is important to take back control of these footprints, to protect our future security and privacy (more on that in a future post).

Have a fantastic week

Chris

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Things I've found interesting this week

\\ One Article: The Cisco hack is another reminder of how humans are often the weakest link in any security defense. If it can happen to Cisco it can happen to anyone!

\\ Two Article: Elon took a step closer to his vision of a human (brain) to computer interface by implanting a chip into a Pig's brain, and monitoring Gertrude's brain activity. I wonder where people stand on this. On one hand, many will point to potential benefits for those with neurological conditions (Dementia, Parkinson's); however, the privacy community will no doubt have serious concerns. Where do you stand?

\\ Three Article: Bridgefy, the Internet free messaging app, popular with users at mass protests has been found not to provide security, privacy and anonymity after all. In fact, its relatively easy to impersonate other people, decrypt messages, and build detailed social graphs of all users connected to the network. Scary!

Favourite Quote

Privacy on the Internet? That's an oxymoron - Catherine Butler

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