"Just because it can connect to the internet doesn't mean it should." My dishwasher died last week. Mid-cycle, no warning - just a puddle on the kitchen floor and a error code nobody could decipher without Googling. No drama. Appliances break. You clean up, you go shopping, you move on. I figured I'd have a new one ordered within an hour. Instead, I spent an entire evening down a rabbit hole that genuinely rattled me. I started where most people start - filtering by price, brand, and energy...
about 2 months ago • 4 min read
“Automation doesn’t remove responsibility. It concentrates it.” Ben decided to let the AI “handle things” overnight. Inbox triage. Calendar cleanup. Draft a few polite replies. Nothing risky. He even joked that it felt like having a junior assistant working the night shift while he slept. By morning, the inbox was spotless. A little too spotless. Threads had been archived he didn’t remember reading. A meeting had been rescheduled. A service he vaguely recognised was suddenly on a more...
about 2 months ago • 2 min read
“Hope is not a strategy – backups are.” I want to finish January with something that often gets framed the wrong way. Backups aren’t about paranoia. They’re not about assuming everything will go wrong. They’re about removing the fear of it going wrong. The moment backups suddenly matter Most people don’t think about backups until: - a phone is lost or stolen - a laptop won’t turn on - an account gets locked - a device is dropped, spilled on, or just… dies In that moment, the question isn’t:...
2 months ago • 1 min read
“Complexity is the enemy of security.” By now, you’ve probably noticed a pattern in these early 2026 emails. Nothing dramatic. Nothing scary. Just small, calm steps that quietly reduce risk. This week is about one of the most overlooked security wins there is: Removing things instead of adding them Most people think better security means: - more tools - more settings - more apps - more effort In reality, it usually means less. The problem nobody sees Over the years, we all accumulate digital...
2 months ago • 1 min read
“Confusion is a powerful attack vector.” This week’s email came from a very real, very human moment. My dad’s girlfriend reached out because her phone suddenly stopped working properly. Messages wouldn’t send. Photos wouldn’t back up. Every screen seemed to be warning her that she was “out of space” and needed to pay more money immediately. The question she asked wasn’t technical at all. It was simply: “Is this really Google?” And honestly? That’s a fair question. When the warning is real –...
3 months ago • 2 min read
“The best time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining.” We’re a week into the new year now. The emails are back. The calendar is filling up. The motivation is already starting to wobble a little - and that’s OK. This isn’t the week for big overhauls or dramatic resolutions. So today, I want to keep this simple. If you do one security thing in 2026, make it this: Secure your email account properly Your email is the keys to the kingdom. Password resets. Bank notifications. Social media...
3 months ago • 1 min read
“Security is not a product, but a process.” - Bruce Schneier It’s the week before Christmas, and if your house is anything like mine, the calendar is chaos, the shopping list is getting longer, and someone is asking when we can finally sit down. So today’s email is short, practical, and a little festive. A cyber twist on a Christmas classic ’Twas the week before Christmas, when all through the house, Not a creature was stirring, not even a mouse. The new gadgets were wrapped and tucked under...
4 months ago • 2 min read
"The cost of convenience is often paid in the currency of privacy." - Timsux Wales Hi Reader, 🙏 It’s been one year since I launched this newsletter — one year of weekly emails without skipping a beat. Some weeks I squeezed in a few words between meetings, deadlines and everyday chaos. Today I wanted to pause and simply say: thank you. Thank you for reading my book. Thank you for being here every week. Thank you for your replies — I read every one of them. The story Terry turned a corner and...
5 months ago • 2 min read
“The chain is only as strong as its weakest link, for if that fails the chain fails and the object that it has been holding up falls to the ground.” — Thomas Reid, Essays on the Intellectual Powers of Man Hi Reader,In this week’s news, we’ve seen another substantial breach — this time at Discord, the platform millions of us use daily for chat, calls, and community. An attacker gained access to a third-party vendor handling Discord’s age-verification appeals.During just 58 hours of access,...
6 months ago • 2 min read