As I mentioned before, I have been a little incapacitated, but for Security Saturday I have a plan. It's not a big plan, and I might have done something like this before (I most certainly have) but I think it is worth a shot. We are going back to basic. Let me know some basics you would like to talk about! (also, you can still use code WHOOPS2021 for a free month of membership :P )

Also, on a somewhat related note: being consistent for a long time is a real struggle. But alas, let's go back to basic!

This time not as I did in my previous introduction to security, but as a human being. Security (in the digital sense) is an idea that arises when considering the interconnectedness of the internet. For example, your coffee machine might be taken hostage by some ransomware, or your nuclear power plant might be hacked by a nation-state... The possibilities are quite wide, so what is basic?

I have been considering this and I think the answer is our phones. Besides a few wise sages who have brick phones (usually dumb Nokia or Motorola devices) we all have smartphones, and more increasingly everything is built around those. Smartphone apps for banking, for credit card authentication, to connect with your car (in like 3 different ways).

But we don't kno0pw what the little distraction rectangle does exactly under hood, now do we? I consider myself mostly up-to-date with phone tech and I have absolutely no idea what exactly is going on in my android phone, because it has been secure FROM me.

You see, google has an ecosystem to protect. They want you to run Android and use the play store (same with Apple and the App store) and so they secured not just the apps from eachother, resulting in a convoluted system which uses something called called "intents", they also secured the underlying system from you.

This means they control your data, and you have to trust them to treat it right. You also trust them to not make mistakes and accidentally lose your passcodes (I have all my two-factor codes on one phone, and no recovery whatsoever... Which I should really fix, at some point...).

So, for those of us that want some smarter phones (and not a brick), but do not trust google (anymore) and do not want to switch to Apple (or do not trust Apple either...) what is left?

Well for starters, I have had my eyes on the Librem 5, which is open-course enough and has hardware switches to disable some connectivity (making it more secure the hardware way) ( https://puri.sm/products/librem-5/ )
But that is not the only option, there is also the Pinephone, which too has hardware switches, and is significantly cheaper. ( https://www.pine64.org/pinephone/ )
Now, personally my first smartphone ever was the Fairphone 2. And recently it came to my attention that the Fairphone 4 will be coming out with support for /e/ OS. Now I do not know much about /e/, but Fairphone has done a lot for de-googled android in the past and not to mention they are one of the few fair and "green" companies that seem to really bring something believable to the table. ( https://www.fairphone.com/en/open-source/ )

None of these phones will integrate into your life quite as nicely as a regular android or iOS phone will. And although some of these phones have ways to emulate or import android apps, it will probably be not as smooth an experience.

But even so, when going back to basic I see again and again that it is my phone that makes me most dependent on technology and the most vulnerable. So that means it might be a better move to have the integration be less smooth. Make sure it is a little uncomfortable to use so that you keep aware of the flaws.

But who is to say? My current Motorola One Action I chose so that it would be updated regularly and stay safe that way. What kind of phone do you have? Why? Would you switch to one of the above? Or do you know of another option?

let me know, and as always, stay safe out there!