Show Notes
You lock your doors at night. Not because you expect a break-in. Because the world is messy and you'd rather sleep. Cybersecurity is the digital version of that decision. This episode strips cybersecurity all the way down to what it actually means: protecting digital things that matter from being misused, stolen, broken, or taken over. It covers why cybersecurity isn't owned by one type of person, why the real work starts with human decisions rather than technical tools, and how we ended up i...
More from Plaintext with Rich
Device-code phishing starts with an uncomfortable possibility: the sign-in address you checked really does belong to Microsoft. The document you're expecting comes with a code, the page looks right, and the question that matters is still hiding in the request. Plaintext with Rich follows the approval from the person entering that code to the software waiting on the other end. A television sign-in and a parcel collection slip help explain device-code flow without turning your commute into a te...
Browser extensions can stay in your working day long after you've forgotten why you installed them. That tiny toolbar icon may represent a bigger arrangement than you remember making. Rich explores what extension permissions describe, from website data to other browser capabilities, and why broad access deserves context rather than automatic suspicion. Socket's August 2026 investigation supplies a concrete example of useful extensions acquiring malicious behavior, including some bought from l...
You came for a conference agenda, and the website wants proof you're human. ClickFix can hide behind that familiar check, with instructions that deserve a much closer look. Rich follows the moment a fake CAPTCHA, a test meant to distinguish people from automated visitors, changes what it asks you to do. Microsoft's August 2026 TerminalFix analysis provides a concrete example involving an imitation Cloudflare screen and commands pasted into Windows Terminal or PowerShell. CERT Polska's Februar...
Episode 4: When the Phones Woke Up Finding one another doesn’t fix the city. There are still people waiting for news, families searching for loved ones, and neighborhoods trying to function without the systems they depend on. Then the phones begin waking up. In the final chapter of Last Seen, messages arrive out of order, maps fill with roads again, and everyday convenience returns almost as quickly as it disappeared. But after seeing what happens when one damaged connection affects nearly...
Episode 3: The Meeting Place Leah and her parent are both moving across the city, but every piece of information arrives too late. Each new clue leads to another place the other person has already left. With phones, maps, and location sharing still unreliable, a forgotten family emergency plan may be their only chance to stop missing each other. In Part Three of Last Seen, the search leads to a broken clock in Washington Park and a meeting place no one has mentioned in years. I...