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One of the important things to realize these days is that when you turn a device off, it may not actually be turning off. Instead, it might go into a standby or low-power mode and keep working in some way depending on the device, while looking like it is not functioning anymore. It’s especially important to keep this in mind when you care about privacy and security. Read more ⟶

There are important things that you probably don’t know or realize about the SIM card in your device. Especially if you care about security and privacy, you should know that using a secure device with a secure and privacy-oriented operating system and applications, still make you vulnerable when there’s a SIM card installed in the device. Read more ⟶

The FBI conducted a sting operation in Europe by creating its own supposedly ‘secure’ phone and messaging platform. The operating system incorporated portions of GrapheneOS and was aggressively promoted as GrapheneOS or as being based on it. There are lessons to learn from this. Read more ⟶

I’ve been telling everyone for a few years now not to use Telegram because it lacks end-to-end (E2E) encryption by default and cannot be trusted. Without E2E encryption enabled by default, Telegram is able to read and monitor most one-on-one communications on their servers. On top of that, group chats are never E2E encrypted so Telegram can monitor and read all communications in group chats. Read more ⟶

Back in September 2018, I wrote a post criticizing Cloudflare’s IPFS gateway, which they claimed would be ‘highly-reliable’ and ‘security-enhanced’. I argued that this claim is dubious, especially after the company’s CEO arbitrarily decided to take down a website they were supposed to be protecting. Read more ⟶

If you’ve been paying attention to what happened a few weeks ago with PayPal, you’ve seen a glimpse of the dystopian future that awaits us. Read more ⟶

I came across a well-written paper last week titled “Cryptoanarchism and Cryptocurrencies” (August 20th 2020). The paper is written by Usman W. Chohan and it is available for download for free. I highly recommend reading it, even if you think you know a lot about the history of cryptocurrencies. Read more ⟶

With yesterday’s release (version 0.3.5), the QuantumGate C++ networking library introduces support for peer-to-peer Bluetooth connections using the RFCOMM protocol. Bluetooth connections enjoy first class support in the library just like TCP and UDP connections, which means that all other features of QuantumGate are also supported over Bluetooth. Read more ⟶

MobileCoin is a relatively new cryptocurrency developed under the technical guidance of cryptographer Moxie Marlinspike, the designer of the communication protocol used in instant-messaging applications such as Signal Private Messenger (‘Signal’), and later implemented by WhatsApp. Where MobileCoin differs from other cryptocurrencies is in its strong focus on privacy, speed and transaction throughput. Read more ⟶

Several articles have been published in recent months about the problems that people constantly face at local banks. There are also many complaints on social media. Members of parliament even speak of a banking ‘mafia’. Read more ⟶

A few months ago I noticed the new skill assessments feature on LinkedIn and decided to try out the one for C++ to see what it was about. And before I knew it, I spent almost a whole day — without any preparation — behind the computer doing these assessments for all the skills that I had listed on my profile. It was kind of addicting to see the blue checkmark appear behind the skills and I wanted to earn as many of them as possible. Read more ⟶

A little more than a year ago I first blogged about working on support for UDP connections in QuantumGate, and for the past few weeks I’ve focused on getting UDP support in QuantumGate ready for its initial release. I had originally planned for releasing UDP support much earlier around December 2020 or January 2021 but other stuff got in the way, such as Cyberpunk and the two lawsuits I started against the criminal local government. Read more ⟶

In the past I’ve warned multiple times not to use hardware and software from Chinese manufacturers such as Huawei, and more examples keep piling up showing why that’s a bad idea. Read more ⟶

I recently made a commercial for Energy Management & Saving Solutions (EMSS) N.V. Suriname to promote their services. It’s really more of a balance between a commercial and infomercial. The final result can be seen on YouTube (embedded below) or on Archive.org in better quality (larger). Read more ⟶