Security – Page 10 – Scriptingthewhy.com

Swapping Phones and Trading Places

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Jesus Saves but Scriptingthewhy saved my bank account baby! Read this script!
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Hey you, yes you, you the reader. Do you want to know a secret? I know something special about you. The fact that you’re reading this means that you are in the market for getting robbed.

I’m sure there hasn’t been a point in time, where you haven’t had the thought to give some stranger on the internet your hard-earned cash. Please keep in mind that hard-earned was said depending on your work ethic, we all know that results may vary. You say “no”? None of this sounds appealing to you. Don’t worry, that wasn’t my angle.

Humans, it has long been known that we are creatures of habit. We don’t like change much, so we often don’t like it when our plans have hiccups. This could range from something small like having to pick up a tube of toothpaste because you just squeezed your last bit this morning and now you have to add another item to stop for on your shopping list or, to something big like having your phone no longer working because it’s not in your name despite the fact it was fully functional the day before.

You don’t quite understand that last one? Don’t worry, I’m going to script it for you.

Lord, I think this is what Z-Daddy was talking about. This phone was working a minute ago.
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A Change in Signal

If you can, picture you’re using your phone for one minute and you put it down only to come back moments later to find that it no longer operates the same. You try making some calls, double check to see if you have any “bars” (“signal”, if you wanted to be technical).

You turn on and off the airplane mode, restart your phone, and still nothing. It’s obvious that something is off and this clearly isn’t normal, you shouldn’t try putting it off to deal with it later.

There is a super high chance that you could be experiencing SIM Swapping. SIM (Subscriber Identity Module) swapping which may go by other names like SIM hijacking, SIM splitting, or sim jacking (not sure how much I like that last one, sounds like a trip to HR), is the art of an attacker/hacker gaining control of your phone number.

Once your number is obtained, life for you is going to go from Netflix and Chill to Bodies by Drowning Pool pretty quickly.

Another globe crisis and cyberattacks on the rise…I’m good with this.
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Changing Faces

If you’re an advent reader of mine then you’ll already know or have a good sense of who would commit this act and why, but if you’re not, ask yourself the following. How could you have committed this heinous crime of not subscribing? Why haven’t you subscribed to keep up to date on when I post? And are you going to be missing out if you don’t subscribe? To that last one, I can honestly say “yes”.

Subscription shaming aside, this act is committed with the intent of the attacker becoming you. Why would someone choose you as a target you may be asking? As mentioned before, imposing as you can grant them access to everything you have and more.

They can intercept incoming messages meant for you. Some events have involved credit cards being charged and financial institutions trying to confirm if the purchase was legit only for the attacker to confirm in your place.

Sometimes there’s just no other way to say it.
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Ways to Phone Jack

So you may be wondering, how is something like this executed. I mean, clearly, there has to be some telltale signs before it even happens, right? Well…in most and by most meaning all, you’ll never know that your information is being collected.

This could be done by using keyloggers malware, phishing emails, or which happens in most cases social engineering. The attacker will be someone who has been in the same vicinity as you and has listened close and long enough to obtain enough information to pose themselves as you.

Enough to fool your cellphone provider into giving them more information that they may be missing to commit further attacks. Once that happens, the fun of trying to get everything back in order begins, depending on your response time when you find out your phone no longer has service.

I watched out for social engineering, and I’m didn’t crazy.
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Becoming Socially Unacceptable

At this junction, which is normal, you might be wondering how to prevent this from happening. Social engineering is tricky to catch, so you have to pay attention to everyone you’re within earshot of. Trying to do this constantly will drive you insane and pretty much overload your senses…well and at some point, you’re going to lock eyes with someone for a little longer than what’s considered to be normal, and you may end up weirding them out. The point is, you’re going to end up like Jim Carrey from the movie 23 and be uber-paranoid.

An easier and more sane solution is to be mindful of your volume in places where you’re required to verbally give your information as talking to the person as if you two are in a rave could end poorly since eavesdropping is an easy skill perk that we all have. If writing it down, make sure you are aware of people who may walk by as this could lead to them being able to perform “shoulder surfing”, this is a clever name I know. I didn’t coin it but still somehow, I can feel your judgment.

Some other countermeasures you can take instead of opting for text-based confirmations are, your cellphone provider will let you add a PIN (Personal Identification Number) to your account for an extra layer of protection. When making use of 2FAs (two-factor authentications) verification methods, opt for biometrics which relies on either facial recognition or fingerprint scanning as this involves confirmation of your physical being.

Another method is having a security key that looks like a flash drive but a simple tap or insert into the phone could be more secure if you didn’t want the hassle of trying to get your phone to recognize your face. It is highly advised to contact your provider as soon as possible if you get a “Number changed” or your phone stops operating normally, the effects and fallout could run into years of working to get everything fixed.

Within 5 hours a credit card statement of $7,845.35 could be in your name and that could be the prelude to what’s to come.

Small Detour:

Check out this person’s experience with SIM swapping because their story is wild, click here.

Sean: I want to be a hacker like Z-Daddy when I grow up.
Z-Daddy: I’m not a hacker kid, you know what, forget it.
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Made it this far and found this to be entertaining? Then a big thanks to you and please show your support by cracking a like, scripting a comment, or plug-in to follow.

Would like to give sincere thanks to current followers and subscribers, your support and actions mean a lot and has a play in the creation of each script.

Is there something I may have missed about SIM swapping? Script a comment below.

Cloud Talk, Programming, Security, Tech

How to Win Father of the Year

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Children team building exercise on grass — Truly a photo representation of the school system that never hit so hard.
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I’m just going to assume all the people reading this are grown adults and have experienced that moment in their career (or job) where you’re being tasked with finding someone to lead your team.

You’re provided with a room full of people and still, you manage to find no one who would fit the bill. This shocks you. Why? Because all too often people say they have the “juice” to lead but when placed center stage they fold faster than origami paper.

Embarrassing I know; however, time is ticking, and your client isn’t going to wait for you to find the “right for right now” candidate. But then again, what would be the perfect candidate for this situation?

father with child on shoulders — A good Scrum Daddy will never be an absence father…unless it’s his day off.
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The Chosen One

So who is this person that the company is going to have to employ in order to run your band of misfits? Don’t look at me, it’s not me, although Z-daddy makes an excellent leader.

Quickly subscribe to join Zeroclay Nation, so you can join the one and become an army of none. Shameless plug-in aside, back to answering the question. Well like most creative, non-so-creative names in the IT world, they’re called Scrum Masters.

Scrum Masters, while the name sounds like an underground kink club, are accountable for helping their team succeed. They are responsible for managing the exchange of information between team members.

This is done as a team member or collaborator. Most scrum teams (I say most because working in teams with different people creates “experiences may vary situation”) can run themselves so having top-down management isn’t ideal for this band of misfits.

A Scrum Master often helps in groups or on a one-on-one basis (to all of you who thought of Hall and Oats, a big shout out to you, stay classic).

They may facilitate exercises, give guidance, or help people come to conclusions on their own. Scrum Masters are like having a coach that everyone on the team likes and can get along with and who doesn’t stare at you from around the corner while you’re taking a shower.

father and girl on bench on lake shore — A good Scrum Daddy will protect his team, but Z-daddy will always protect his nation.
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The Perfect Supervisor

Have you ever played the video game Bioshock? Your answer was no? I’m shocked. For those of you who have played you’ll know what I’m laying down and for those of you who don’t, let me explain.

Bioshock, in a nutshell, had an underwater city and within that city were these little girls with syringes who went around drawing what looked to be blood but wasn’t.

I’m not going to get into the whole details, just know every time you sighted a little girl, she wasn’t alone. There would be a giant known as “Big Daddy” walking and for the most part, protecting her. So long story short, don’t mess with the little girl or you would have more than a double barrel to worry about.

Anyway, back to the point, Scrum Masters in a way act as the Big Daddy to a scrum team. Scrum Daddies help their teams by coaching in self-management and cross-functionality, creating focus in providing high-value increments that meet what the client defines as done or better known as “the definition of done”.

Scrum Daddies in times of need will, motivate and remove any impediments to the team’s progress, and ensure all Scrum events taking place are positive, productive, and kept within the timeframe also called timebox.

Scrum Daddies also help product owners by facilitating stakeholder collaboration as requested or needed, leading, training, and coaching them in their adoption, and by finding out what exactly is expected and conveying that to the scrum team.

So you can think of Scrum Daddies are like having that cool boss you can “ascend to a certain level of awesome” with and can be a google translator between the team and product owner.

Father spending time with his children. — I’m sure all you kids are mine…I think.
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Scrum Daddies are important…right?

You may be thinking to yourself, “these guys sound nice but what makes them so important?” If you have ever worked or even played on a team, you’ll know that not everyone thinks the same.

Do you remember the days when you were in school, and the teacher instructed you to get up and go find a partner and it took the class forever for people to settle into their groups? Like you would have a group that already knew they were going to link up but to the other groups developing, the awkwardness and the petty (if your ex and her friends that made up most of the class) was real.

Then you would be instructed to figure out who was going to be the team leader or in my case “you seem smart enough and I have no clue as to what I’m doing, and I assume that you do”. This is a retrospective apology, to my old classmates, sorry, you let the eyeglasses and calm demeanor fool you.

After figuring out the leader you would quickly find that most if not all people couldn’t lead well. There are many elements that go into making a good leader. This is why Scrum Daddies are so important, a good Scrum Daddy (and I say good because I know there are bad ones out there) will do everything in their power to keep the team focused, motivated, and moving along.

You know it’s like having a father instead of seeing them only on the weekends, they live with you and you guys play catch in the yard. Trust me, I’m not emotionally broken.

Team brainstorming at a meeting. — If we put Taco Tuesday on a Wednesday, we could boost productivity.
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More of a Father Figure

So do you want to become somebody’s Scrum Daddy? Do you think you have what it takes to protect your team of little ones? Good, in this field, having a degree would be nice but at last, you don’t need one.

Not to become a Scrum Master, instead, you’ll need to start building skills that will empower you to lead your team to the best of your ability. Developing problem-solving skills, adaptability, motivation, effective communication, and organization are going to be skills needed in this role.

Always a key thing to note is to never take sides or have any predisposition for someone’s opinion. Instead, Scrum Masters should serve as a mediator helping the parties reach a solution.

You could pick up some online courses which would help you gain a deeper understanding of what is expected in this role. Just remember when you are a leader, depending on who’s on your team, they’re all your children…you just don’t have to pay child support this go around.

man in black suit smiling — I finally get to keep my paycheck this go around! Thanks Z-Daddy!
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Made it this far and found this to be entertaining? Then a big thanks to you and please show your support by cracking a like, scripting a comment, or plug-in to follow.

Would like to give sincere thanks to current followers and subscribers, your support and actions mean a lot and has a play in the creation of each script.

Do you think you have what it takes to be a Scrum Daddy or Momma?

Script a comment below about what you think your experience would be like.

AI, Cloud Talk, Programming, Security, Tech

W.o.W on Steroids

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red tv on a box — The Metaverse will not be televised, you will not be able to sit at your desk and cop out.
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Do you remember the good old days of living in a cave with your favorite show on the fire, you sat waiting for your significant other to wake up from “clubbing” too hard so they can make you a meal.

You know, real caveman stuff that lasted up to the end of the 1950s. No, me neither, I was born many years after disco had caught that lovely final sunset and bellbottoms were fading into nothing more than a high schooler’s cry for help.

Now our lives are filled with so much more than before, we went from throwing up peace signs, and yelling about making love and not war to making people pay for something they said way back when freedom of speech was just that, freedom of speech.

As you look around you, you can see that we have an ever-growing list of devices and gadgets that connect us to the internet creating a new world for us to live in and hopefully not destroy but if Uncle Ben has taught us anything, with great power, comes zero responsibility.

person wearing VR goggles — Everything is so life-like, I should try walking around.
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Meeting Meta

What is this new world we are making for ourselves just in case we can’t get on Elon’s rocket ship to Mars? Look no further than the Metaverse. No, not Meta, that was a desperation tactic to innovate a dying company. Don’t believe me, check their stock price.

Metaverse is a point for communication that bridges physical and virtual experiences. The digital environment is complete with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technology that will change how we connect to and access information.

This would be a place where you could create your second life, well that’s what the aim is, however, you’ll be able to do everything except eat and perform that all-so-sweet saucy dance called “fun hugging” to make a baby. You know, the important things to further our existence in this world.

girl playing computer games — She may seem nice but that’s doesn’t mean she won’t hesitate to put a cap in you online.
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In The Verse of Toxicity

If you have ever spent any time online playing a video game like Call of Duty or Halo, you will know there is a galaxy of toxic people. More than you meet in real life and it’s all thanks to not enough people signing my petition to move forward with my “Everyone gets one punch to the throat” program. Now we have a world of people walking around not knowing what a throat punch feels like.

So, as you can imagine, the metaverse is meant for everyone, however, be prepared to experience online interactions if you haven’t had one. But the metaverse end idea hasn’t been developed yet. Microsoft acquired a company called AltspaceVR which originally sought to create the metaverse mentioned above.

AltspaceVR was looking to offer a 3d world that would host club nights with live DJs, book launches, fashion shows, bible study, and stand-up comedy nights. However, with a lack of funding to keep servers running, this company was forced to sunset. That’s “We have to put Lassie down” in IT terms.

AltspaceVR join with Microsoft to create Microsoft Mesh, this is a mixed-reality communication platform that’s based on holograms using 3d captures to let people work together as if they were in the same space.

This application of VR is business-oriented and while it may not be to the likes of what AltspaceVR was looking to offer the upside is since it has holograms, you’re bound to catch a Tupac or two walking around the virtual office.

a pill and a bitcoin coin — In the metaverse, you can either take the pill to make you go back to sleep or…just give us money. We like money more.
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Trying to Live, Love, Laugh in VR

So, what makes the metaverse so important? Well, aside from having all the benefits of Ready Player One without the dystopian society (but hold on to your seat kids because we’re on our way) companies to the likes of Microsoft, Google, Nvidia, and Qualcomm all have invested billions of dollars in the idea.

This is scary because in order to have just one, I repeat just one, it could range from $25,000 to $400,000. That means you’re either putting down or paying for a house that doesn’t exist. A quick thing to note is like most things brought up in IT, the term has always been around, it dates to the 90s and was coined from a science fiction novel called “Snow Crash”. This sounds like a good read if you’re ever on the “white horse”.

Moving along, now there are some people in thought of the metaverse failing before it even launches and they’re not wrong in their thought. As you can imagine, trying to live virtually isn’t going to go all that well. Take for example, you’re playing a game in Oculus rift, and you have to go to the bathroom, since you’re playing a game multi-player you won’t be able to pause so what are you going to do? If I read any of you in the comment section saying, “I’d just go to the bathroom with the rift on”, I will be…well…not surprised because humans are going to human.

Porcelain thrones aside, other concerns are security, the metaverse has the same risk factors as simply being on the internet watching or uploading cat videos. These factors could be but are not limited to malware, viruses, hackers, and your children or significant other.

Children or significant other, but Z-Daddy how? Ja, that’s social engineering which is a form of hacking so have fun getting to sleep knowing the people you share a house with could be the reason you see mysterious charges popping up on your statements. Again, with great power, comes zero responsibility.

teacher looking a classroom of students with their hands raised — A quick show of hands, who has an Instagram account. Dear Budda, your parents are failing you.
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Building Second Life Apart

I can hear you now, “Z-Daddy, can we get a job to help build this great metaverse?” Ja, ja, mein kind. You can land a job working on the development of the metaverse. Skills that would be needed are Java, computer programming, blockchain, and UI/UX (User interface/ User experience).

All these skills could be acquired by either joining meetups (not hookups), taking online courses, or opting for a boot camp or some other form of program. C++ would be another programming language to learn if you’re looking for development closer to the hardware.

The metaverse may not be to the level of what’s displayed in the Matrix or Ready Player One but that doesn’t mean you have to spend your time at a university to apply a degree of what you could apply if were to venture on your own without a degree.

It all comes down to how badly you want to start your second life.

group cheering watching sports on tv — Z-Daddy strikes again, come on! How can you not love this guy!?
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Made it this far and found this to be entertaining? Then a big thanks to you and please show your support by cracking a like, scripting a comment, launch a share, or plug-in to follow.

Would like to give sincere thanks to current followers and subscribers, your support and actions mean a lot and has a play in the creation of each script.

Do you think you could have a play in the Metaverse?

Script a comment below.