Threat-Modeling

Why Privacy Matters “I have nothing to hide.” You’ve probably said this, or heard someone say it. It’s the most common response when privacy comes up. And it’s completely wrong. Privacy isn’t about hiding crimes. Privacy is about power—who has it, and who doesn’t. The Real Cost of “Nothing to Hide” When you say you have nothing to hide, you’re assuming: The rules will never change You’ll never be targeted unfairly No one will ever misuse your data Your information will never be stolen History proves all of these assumptions wrong. ...

Episode 6: Building Your Threat Model Your browser does not support the audio element. Download MP3 Duration: ~10 minutes | Format: Practical Episode Summary “Privacy” isn’t one thing. Protecting yourself from advertisers is different from protecting yourself from hackers. Protecting yourself from an abusive ex is different from protecting yourself from a government. The tools are different, the tradeoffs are different—and if you don’t know what you’re defending against, you’ll either do too little or exhaust yourself doing too much. ...

Goal Create your personal threat model identifying what you’re protecting and from whom, then set up your secure development environment for the rest of the course. Prerequisites: Week 1a (Cypherpunk Philosophy) This is Part 2 of 3 - Covers threat modeling and environment setup. 1. What Is Threat Modeling? Threat modeling is the process of identifying what you need to protect, who you’re protecting it from, and how you’ll defend it. ...

Goal Understand why system hardening matters and master the foundational principles of defense-in-depth security. Learn how attackers exploit unhardened systems and how layered defenses contain breaches. Prerequisites: Weeks 1-10 (especially Week 5 SSH hardening, Week 9 physical security) This is Part 1 of 4 - Subsequent parts cover MAC systems, kernel hardening, and sandboxing. 1. Why System Hardening Matters The Attacker’s Advantage Without hardening: Single vulnerability → Full system compromise Example attack chain: ...