Putin’s brutal aggression in Ukraine has put cyberwar back in headlines. Recently, Carey Parker, host of the Firewalls Don’t Stop Dragons podcast, reached out to us at Tech Learning Collective to talk through some of the issues the war in Ukraine has once again raised for laypeople who may be newly concerned about the reliance we’ve developed as a society on digital infrastructures. So, late last month, we sat down with him for another conversation about what anyone and, arguably, everyone could be doing not only to keep themselves safer online, but also prepared in the event of an escalation of hostilities in a cyber theater, rapid shifts in political climates, or even just natural disasters that affect telecommunication abilities.
Technology, taught collectively.
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Onion site mirror (Run your own!)
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Firewalls Don't Stop Dragons: Luck Favors the Prepared
The Enragés: Next Time the Pendulum Swings, Part 2
Earlier this month, we republished part 1 of our interview with The Enragés, where we discussed our blog post, Imagining an Optimistic Cyber-Future. In this post, you’ll find the conclusion of our conversation along with a (somewhat rushed) transcript of the same. Here, we touch on ways in which capitalism has constrained people’s telecommunication abilities, we describe some of our inspiration from earlier political thinkers, and we even answer a couple of listener questions.
Testimonials
“gain some more knowledge in IT security [at] these webinars that we can really recommend”
If you are looking to gain some more knowledge in IT and especially in IT security, [these] are some webinars coming up that we can really recommend […] held and organized by the Tech Learning Collective and will address various areas of IT and IT security. Check the event calendar out (and even subscribe)!
“very thorough and responsive to where students are”
I found Tech Learning Collective recently through their membership in the Electronic Frontier Alliance and jumped right in to many of their great learning opportunities. The System Administration and Operation Basics workshop is a great example. The instruction was very thorough and responsive to where students are in the tech learning process. After the session I now feel like I have a strong foundation of understanding that I can build upon in setting up tech for my business.
I’m excited to continue learning with the Tech Learning Collective team and recommend them to anyone seeking to understand the complex tech world we live in every day.
“helped demystify how computers are set up”
As a Data Scientist coming from statistics instead of computer science, Tech Learning Collective’s NET101 course and their Clearing Away the Clouds: How Computer Networks, Servers, and the Internet Work workshop helped demystify how computers are set up and talk to one another. The concepts were broken down into easy to digest bite sized pieces allowing the unfamiliar language to become new and accessible vocabulary, which upon reflection seemed to be the biggest hurdle in my understanding. Thanks so much!
“engag[ing for] curious minds”
Teaching a technical class from the terminal is a difficult proposition when you have students coming in from all over the world. The instructor of “Exploring Cyberspace: Network Sniffing and Scanning” did a commendable job getting a sense of the (virtual) room and talking at our level. Their task is probably helped by the fact that the Tech Learning Collective’s course offerings have titles and a mission that engage curious minds.
Before taking the class, I had some passing experience with one or two of the tools the instructor introduced. I would have considered myself a beginner. The instructor managed to take us into deep waters by illustrating small steps, making sure we understood the fundamental terminology, and asking us lots of questions. The scope of the class was thoughtfully limited—enough to make sure we could swim but also realize there is much more to learn. Quite an accomplishment in under two hours!