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.
