I was traveling for the majority of July, spending a week with my husband visiting his family in Minnesota and another week in New York meeting with editors and attending a hacking conference, so I only have two posts and one podcast episode to share with you this month.

German Police Raid Homes of Tor-Linked Group’s Board Members (ZDNet) One board member described the police’s justification for the raids as a “tenuous” link between the privacy group, a blog, and its email address.

PG&E Allows Substantial Account Access Without a Password, Researcher Finds (Security Now) A security researcher found that he was able to make major changes to his account, including scheduling service shutoffs, using information that could be easily found online.

PODCAST: Trump Administration Plans to Detain Families Longer than 20 Days This interview with Layal Rabat came out early this month.

Some personal news: I’ve been accepted to Arizona State University’s Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication’s 12-month Masters in Mass Communication Program, starting in mid-August. I’ll be focusing my studies on investigative reporting and data journalism. I’ve been self-publishing since I was a tween in my parents’ basement back in 1991, and freelancing full-time since December 2009, and I’m thrilled to have the opportunity to get feedback on my work and kick things up a notch.

I’ve also accepted a research assistantship at the Donald W. Reynold’s National Center for Business Journalism, where I’ll get to learn how to use a Bloomberg Terminal, level up my investigative business journalism skills, and continue writing for the businessjournalism.org website.

I will continue freelancing (and podcasting) as time permits, and have some pretty interesting articles and a video course coming out in the coming months, which I can’t wait to tell you all about. I’ll also be speaking on a panel on getting paid/dealing with delinquent clients at ScienceWriters 2018 in Washington, DC on Saturday, October 13. More on that soon.

Somehow, 2018 is half over, which means it’s time for another URL dump. Here are five articles and three podcast episodes I worked on that were released in June. These include my first ever post for enterprise.nxt, some primers for business writers, some posts for techies, and podcasts for people watching Cobra Kai (cohosted by the amazing Melanie Gale). Enjoy the sunshine, and we’ll catch you next month.

Medical Device Security: Hacking Prevention Measures (enterprise.nxt) With so many lives at stake, computer scientists and healthcare IT pros are motivated to develop strategies that keep patients safe from medical device hackers. They’re making progress.

What Journalists Need to Know About Password Managers (Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism) Despite its relatively low rate of adoption, there’s still a big market for password management software, and there’s no shortage of companies wanting to throw their hat into the ring.

What You Should Know About GDPR (Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism) Even with the clear warnings and affirmative consent required by GDPR, companies that collect large swaths of data from users are responsible for securing that data, particularly if it is being retained and/or sold to third parties.

Eraser Project Admin Garrett Trant on How the Longtime Secure Deletion Tool Lets Windows Users Wipe Files From Hard Disk Drives (Hosting Advice) When people put computer files in the trash bin or erase them from their hard disk drives, they’re still recoverable to computer forensics specialists. Eraser helps Windows users working with sensitive data wipe files completely so they’re unrecoverable.

Genedata: Advanced Software Solutions Help Biopharmaceutical Companies Automate Complex Processes and Streamline Workflows (Hosting Advice) Genedata helps transform large volumes of data into important scientific discoveries by providing time-saving software, consulting services, cloud hosting, and operational IT support help companies increase the speed with which they work. By automating complex experimental processes, the company also helps researchers identify dead ends early in the R&D process, saving biopharmaceutical organizations millions of dollars.

Podcasts

Facebook Gave Select Companies Access to User Data–Even After It Was Supposed To Have Been Cut Off Interview with Cyrus Farivar, Senior Tech Policy Reporter at Ars Technica

Karate Chop: Daniel LaRusso Needs Therapy (Cobra Kai Episode 2 Recap)

In this recap, we discussed swim parties, inhaler tossing, fish sticks, and picking fights in other people’s dojos.

Karate Chop: Adults Go Home (Cobra Kai Episode 3 Recap)

In this episode recap, we discuss Johnny’s recruitment strategy, Samantha’s high school dance, Spygate, and Miguel’s karate #fail.

 

Luckily, May wasn’t as hot in Phoenix as I thought it would be, but… HOW IS IT June already? I’m working on some big projects right now I hope to announce sometime in the late summer or fall, but for now, here are eight articles I wrote and two podcasts I made. (One of them is about Cobra Kai!)

Why is it OK For Cell Phone Companies to Sell Your Data to Third Parties? (Slate/Future Tense)
We shouldn’t be complacent about this.

Questions to Ask When Covering Health Care and Artificial Intelligence (Donald W. Reynolds Center for Business Journalism) 
Things like algorithms and computer learning are changing health care. There are major implications for the increased use of medical technology and a number of questions reporters should keep in mind.

Researching Fraudulent Organizations in Health Care (Donald W. Reynolds Center for Business Journalism)
Investigative writer Charles Piller and Christopher Robinson, professor of law and University of Arizona associate dean for research and innovation, spoke about the science of genetic testing at the Association of Health Care Journalists health journalism conference in Phoenix. The panel offered a blueprint for uncovering and reporting on fraudulent organizations

How to Enhance Your Golf Game (Experience Life)
Expert advice for improving your golf game while also preventing overuse injuries.

BitPay’s Secure, Open-Source Approach Enables Businesses and Developers to Leverage Bitcoin Payments and Find New Revenue (Hosting Advice)

Agriya Helps Entrepreneurs Dream Big and Work Fast When Recreating Popular Programs and Launching New Businesses (Hosting Advice)

Venngage Takes the Heavy Lifting Out of Infographic Creation Through Classic Templates and A Smart Recommendation Engine (Hosting Advice)

Inky Protects Businesses From Phishing Attacks By Mixing Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, and Computer Vision Algorithms  (Hosting Advice)

Podcasts

Melanie Gale and I started a podcast about Cobra Kai called The Karate Chop! Episode 1 is a recap of Episode 1: Warm Beer and Bad Pizza.

Call Detail Record Surveillance Triples with Robyn Greene on the Monday Morning Dumpster Dive!

Happy May! The jacaranda trees are blooming, and here in Phoenix, we’re also preparing for triple digit weather. This month’s batch of posts have a little something for everyone.

Game, Set, Match (Experience Life) Learn how to maximize your potential on the tennis court with tips from two pros.

Reporter’s Briefing: Explaining Cryptocurrency (Donald W. Reynolds Center for Business Journalism) A primer for journalists looking to cover Bitcoin, blockchain, and cryptocurrency.

Can Software Eliminate Hiring Bias?  (Medium/Built to Adapt) How machine learning can help companies become more diverse.

In addition to these posts, I wrote a market guide for Freelance Success‘s weekly newsletter. FLX is a fantastic resource for established, professional non-fiction writers.

Oh, and I was on television! How To Erase Yourself From Search Engines wasn’t a piece I wrote, but rather a news segment on ABC 15 that I was interviewed for, along with some Facebook Live videos, including this one.

I also signed an open letter on the importance of security research, and against efforts to chill or intimidate researchers, alongside over fifty experts and expert advocates. We believe that “computer and network security research, white-hat hacking, and vulnerability disclosure are legal, legitimate, and needed now more than ever to understand flaws in the information systems that increasingly pervade our lives.”

Much in the same vein, our one podcast in April was about Keeper Security dropping a lawsuit against a tech reporter.

March is the new January! Or should I say, late April? I’ve gotten behind on sharing posts I’ve written and podcasts I’ve hosted, but the good news is that you can get caught up all at once.

Security News

A Practical Guide to Microchip Implants (Ars Technica) An estimated 50 to 100k folks have implants; how do the benefits compare to the risks?

Hackers Are So Fed Up With Twitter Bots, They’re Hunting Them Down Themselves (The Intercept) As Twitter ramps up its efforts against fake accounts, researchers are devising algorithms to distinguish humans from bots in their spare time. You can also read this article in Portuguese!

Too Many People Are Still Using ‘Password’ as a Password (Motherboard) ‘Starwars’ was another popular and bad choice for passwords last year.

What Are Data Brokers, And Why Are They Scooping Up Information About You? (Motherboard) These sites you haven’t heard of are sharing boatloads of data about you.

Here’s a Long List of Data Broker Sites and How to Opt Out of Them (Motherboard) How to get off of people search sites like Pipl, Spokeo, and WhitePages.

Textbook

Business Writing: A Content Marketing Approach (StuKent Publishing) is now out and available for professors. I have a webinar on that same landing page.

Miscellaneous

The Potential Downside of Unlimited PTO and Vacations (Dice Insights) Unlimited PTO or vacation sounds pretty fantastic, but the reality is that such perks come with some potential loopholes that can affect you in big ways.

Breaking Into DevOps Engineering (Dice Insights) DevOps boils down to a collection of technical and cultural practices that allow organizations to build products at a more efficient clip. Here’s how to break into the segment.

Taste and Nutrition Test: Food Bars (Performance Menu, paywalled) I took a look at some popular nutrition bars, and analyzed their macronutrient content, calories, ingredients, flavor, cost, etc.

Mr. Robot Redux

I wrote up our tweet chats for the penultimate episode and the finale of Mr. Robot’s third season. on Motherboard.

Podcasts

I hosted or cohosted five podcast episodes:

Trump Dumps Formal Trans Ban

Federal Reserve Cracks Down on Wells Fargo, DOJ’s Rachel Brand Resigns

EPA Suspends Alaska Mining Proposal on Pristine Watershed

Twitter Releases New Information on the Extent of Russian Election Influence

New Tax Bill Revealed; Dissenting GOP Senator Flips Vote

Interviews

I was quoted in The Outline’s Bribes for Blogs: How Brands Secretly Buy Their Way Into Forbes, Fast Company, and HuffPost Stories, an investigative piece on unscrupulous marketing practices.

I was interviewed on WOSU’s Tech Tuesday: Hackers vs. Twitter Bots.