A friend recently pointed out that I haven’t updated this blog in a while. Part of this is because I’m way overdue to revamp this website, and don’t pay much as much attention to it as I should. Beyond that, I’ve been working on some long-term projects which launch in October, December/January and an undetermined future date. (I also helped with a podcast that’ll be out later this month, so I’ll update this post when it is.) That said, I do have five posts and a few odds and ends to share! Here’s a smattering of things I worked on over the past few months.

Huge fleets of Chinese boats have been hiding in North Korean waters (Wired UK)

A combination of satellite tech and AI has helped uncover more than 900 Chinese vessels that might be illegally fishing in North Korean waters. Also, here’s the U.S.-based Wired version of the same story.

The Best VPN Service (Updated!)  (Wirecutter, a New York Times company)

This is an update of a piece I did about a year ago, and we have a new top pick and runner-up, and some information on what VPNs are and what they do and don’t do.

How to Delete Your Information From People Search Sites (Consumer Reports)

This accompanied a beautiful narrative feature by Mara Hvistendahl. It’s also a good complement to my Big Ass Data Broker Opt-Out List, which is out now on Github!

Following the DevOps Career Arc From Beginner to Top Tier (Dice Insights)

Cybersecurity Expert Careers: Skills to Embrace, Pitfalls to Avoid (Dice Insights)

I was also quoted in a story about Mozilla’s new VPN in Daily Dot by Ana Valens and was one of many amazing guests on Freedom of the Press Foundation’s really fun podcast on Twitch, which you should totally be listening to. Additionally, I did some background research and writing for EFF’s post about predictive policing: Technology Can’t Predict Crime, It Can Only Weaponize Proximity to Policing by Matthew Guariglia. Also, I was able to cross “being cited in not one,  but two amicus briefs to the Supreme Court” off my bucket list. (While you’re here, see this letter in response to Voatz’s recent SCOTUS brief advocating a broad interpretation of the CFAA.)

It’s been an eventful couple of quarters, to say the least. With the world in such turmoil, I wanted to extend my warmest wishes for you and your family. Some of the posts below were written in response to the pandemic and its unique challenges. With working from home becoming more and more prevalent, digital security is as important as ever, whether that’s securing your accounts or just figuring out what your bosses have access to during a video meeting. And, of course, there are unscrupulous companies trying to take advantage of the pandemic to promote insecure voting technology.

I also shared tips on working from home in a time where we’re all dealing with distraction, and on keeping freelance incomes as steady as possible amidst economic turmoil. And I wrapped up with some awards I’ve recently won as well as some speaking engagements. Hopefully some of this is helpful.

Freelancing in the Time of Coronavirus

Do You Have COVID-19 or Something Else? (Lifehacker)

Staying Focused While Working From Home (Reynolds)

Freelancing? Here’s How To Keep Your Income Steady During the Pandemic (Reynolds) No matter who you are, it’s hard not to panic in the midst of massive change. Here’s what to do to feel steady in the storm.

Digital Security Tips

The Best Security Key for Multi-Factor Authentication (Wirecutter)

Slack, Zoom, Google Hangouts: Are Your Remote Work Apps Spying on You? (OneZero) It’s time to double-check your settings.

8 Ways To Protect Your Privacy From Alexa (Reviewed) If you own an Echo or Alexa speaker, you’ll want to adjust these settings.

Investigations

Why Is the Healthcare Industry Still So Bad at Cybersecurity? (Ars Technica) This demanded a cross-industry summit—so now medical, security pros attend CyberMed.

Zoom Meetings Aren’t End-to-End Encrypted, Despite Misleading Marketing (The Intercept) Co-written with Micah Lee. You can also read it in Portuguese.

Safe Harbor, or Thrown to the Sharks by Voatz? (Cointelegraph) This piece was linked to by Mother Jones, Fortune, the Verge

Voatz Blockchain App Used in U.S. Elections Has Numerous Issues, Says Report (Cointelegraph)

Internet Voting is ‘Not Secure’ and Blockchain Won’t Help, Warns Scientific Body (Coindesk)

Tips for Journalists

How to Read a 10K (Reynolds)

How to Read a Sec Form D (Reynolds)

How to Cover Mutual Aid Networks (Reynolds)

Applying for a Journalism Award as a Cooperative Can Be Frustrating: Here’s How You Can Plan Ahead (Center for Cooperative Media)

Freelancing in the Time of Coronavirus

Do You Have COVID-19 or Something Else? (Lifehacker)

Staying Focused While Working From Home (Reynolds)

Freelancing? Here’s How To Keep Your Income Steady During the Pandemic (Reynolds) No matter who you are, it’s hard not to panic in the midst of massive change. Here’s what to do to feel steady in the storm.

Speaking

In February, I testified in front of the Arizona House of Representatives Committee on Technology on ways to strengthen proposed biometrics legislation. I also spoke on ways to strengthen proposed data privacy legislation.

In April, I spoke about freelance journalism in the time of COVID-19 with Yale Privacy Lab founder Sean O’Brien ahead of the Flatten the Curve Summit.

And in May, I spoke about security concerns surrounding remote work on a panel at the virtual summit Futureproof IT, alongside with Amelie Koran of Splunk and Shrav Metha of Secureframe, moderated by journalist Rob Pegoraro.

Awards

I picked up some awards for group projects I worked on while completing my grad school degree. “State of Emergency,” News21’s group investigation on disaster recovery that I participated in, won the IRE Student (At Large) awards. The judges said, “This team’s work had a lot of scope, sweep and polish that’s admirable for a student project. They did an excellent job finding real stories, real people and bringing a nationwide focus to an issue that’s critical to so many communities in a vulnerable time of need. What could have been a boring data story about communities coping with smaller disasters was transformed into a compelling multimedia experience.” This same project also won the prestigious 2020 Robert F. Kennedy Journalism Award  in the College Journalism category.

An investigation I helped with about Arizona’s grazing fees won an honorable mention in SABEW’s 2019 Best in Business awards in the Student Journalism — Stories for Professional Media Outlets category. This same piece was also a finalist in SPJ’s Region 11 Mark of Excellence Awards in the General News Reporting (Large) 10,000+ Students category.

I rounded out the year with the final Mr. Robot episode discussions and one piece for Slate.

• Episode 9: Conflict
• Episode 10: Gone
• Episode 11: eXit
• Series Finale
• Arizona Now Has a Task Force Focused on Countering Disinformation (Slate/Future Tense)

 

Tiny Little Pieces of Plastic are Getting into Everything (Thrive) Beth Polidoro and her ASU SWAT lab set out to make the oceans and the seafood we eat safe from microplastics and other pollutants

How to Fact-Check Your Business Story (Reynolds Center) Verifying information in your stories is more important than ever

How to Read IRS Form 990 Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3 (Reynolds Center) You can find out a lot about non-profit organizations from this form, but only if you know where to look.

What Does a VPN Security Audit Really Prove? (PC Mag) Knowing which VPNs you can trust is hard for experts, let alone consumers. Can security audits help the situation? Maybe, but only if you understand how to interpret them.

How to Skim a Privacy Policy (Lifehacker) You just downloaded the hottest new app, and now you have to click through…

Hackers Dissect ‘Mr. Robot’ Season 4: Episode 1: Unauthorized, 2: Payment Required, 3: Forbidden, 4: File Not Found, 5: Method Not Allowed, 6: Not Acceptable, 7: Proxy Authentication Required, 8: Request Timed Out

Podcast:

I spoke about my ALPR articles on The Show: https://theshow.kjzz.org/content/1157091/how-some-traffic-cameras-are-tracking-your-license-plate