Cybersecurity: Stop Diagnosing Yourself with Pegasus!

As one of the "trusted contributors" on /r/cybersecurity on Reddit.com, one of the FAQs was "Is my phone hacked with Pegasus? My (evil ex) is stalking me." 

The answer is "extremely unlikely". Pegasus is reserved for nation-state actors because it costs a TON of money to license, so it's only deployed against mostly political people, or people with possibly high influence and wide reach, such as reporters. While Wired deployed sensational headlines "Spyware  Scandals are Ripping Through Europe", and the verbiage was literally "commercial spyware has been deployed by more actors against a wider range of victims", implying that even normal citizens can be targeted by commercial spyware, the literally truth is, again, only people of high influence (politicians and reporters) are being targeted, i.e. "prevailing narrative has still been that the malware is used in targeted attacks against an extremely small number of people", even though the article was stating that literally despite trying to claim the opposite. Yes, Pegasus, developed by NSO Group, is getting some competition in Europe, where OTHER companies are developing similar spyware... with similar price tags.  

The article in question "$1 phone scanner finds seven Pegasus spyware infections" basically states that iVerify has managed to develope a tool to detect Pegasus and other commercial spyware. It sold $1 trial package called "IVerify Basics", and if the user choose to turn on Spyware Detection, they can generate a fingerprint to be submitted to iVerify for analysis, and 2500 or so people have done so. Out of the 2500, they found SEVEN instances of Pegasus infection. According to iVerify, "people who were targeted were not just journalists and activists, but business leaders, people running commercial enterprises, people in government positions", even though in the next paragraphs, they pointed to a Sikh political activist (and a lawyer) as one of the iVerify successful detections. They also pointed out that two of Harris-Walz staff's phones were infected.  

The article concludes with "the rate (of spyware infection) is much higher than the prevailing narrative". Yes, it is much higher, but the original number was such an infinitisimally small number, even if it's 10-100x higher, it STILL a tiny number of users being targeted. Important people... Business leaders, CEO, Company Presidents, government employees, political employees, etc. in addition to the typical reporters and political activists. 

Not average citizens on the streets. 

Restaurant Review: La Venganza in Ikea Salut Hall San Francisco

 Decided to walk around a bit this Saturday, and decided to give Salut Hall another try, and decided to try La Venganza, a Mexican Vegan eatery. Ordered a Tostada de Barbacoa (simulated), which is actually made of mushroom, and an horchata. This is what I ended up with...

It's not bad, it's not really "barbacoa", and the jalapeno isn't distributed well. There's a little bit with the guac, and that's it. I was expecting a bit more salsa, but there's enough beans here so it's okay. It's a bit on the cold side. I probably should have ordered "carnitas" instead. 

The horchata tastes okay, but it's not really that fresh, the cap was on crooked, and it's not mixed well, with a lot of the cinnamon and stuff settled in the bottom. They did warn me to shake well, but I didn't realize they mean cocktail shaking vigor. 

The problem is... the price. For $16 for the tostada, and $6 for the horchata, there's really not that much food here. I guess that's the "vegan tax", eh?  

3.5/5

Rant about PC Microphones: Specifically, the search for a Shock Mount

To optimize audio quality of a PC recording, one of the things that was emphasized was the necesity of a "shock mount", which are basically isolation for the microphone from the desk, because any sort of vibration on the desk can be transmitted to the microphone, thus affecting audio quality. And we're talking about condenser mics, not the tiny boom mics on headsets. 

Unfortunately, some mics are so niche or so unsupported, you cannot get shock mounts for them, or at least there are none advertised for them. One such is the Joby Wavo Pod. With MSRP of $99 launched back in 2022, Amazon is already discounting them to as low as $19.99. 

However, there seems to be no shock mount for it, until you look up its diameter, which is nowhere to be found on Joby's website. (FWIW, it's 60mm) Most shock mounts are the "tube" type, where two half pipes form a tube tightened by elastic shock cord in a complex pattern, which provides friction to secure the mic as well as isolation from the mounting "ring". 

You *can* find 55-65mm shock mounts on Amazon, but they cost almost as much as the mic itself... starting at $15. Then you realize those are not really compatible because the microphone has controls on the body, and the shock mount would cover those up. 

You have to get a VERTICAL shock mounts, which basically goes between the mounting "bolt" and the "nut" on the microphone itself. Which completely bypasses the friction mount problem.