THE 3RD WAVE | Series on Cybersecurity

Cybersecurity: A Calling of Our Time 

When I talk about cybersecurity, I often do from a distance. However, in the piece introducing Surfshark, which we released this spring, I let my guard down and got personal. I shared some of what I had faced. Not just privacy concerns. Real exposure. Real consequences. That's why I went out of his way to make sure Cloudflare was protecting this domain, even as Shopify policies, security and servers, are forever vigilant about security for both their merchants and their customers.. In fact, all I have endured  is why this series exists.

Let me be the first to tell you: nothing is totally secure. But that's not an excuse to do nothing. It's a reason to do everything you can.

It's Not Just About Products

There's a war going on. Some call them hackers. I call them perpetrators — because that's what they are. And the best ones aren't just opportunists. They're dedicated. They stay up at night figuring out how to get to you. Not always for money. Sometimes it's sport. Sometimes it's jealousy. Sometimes it's just malice with nowhere else to go.

It's a constant back-and-forth — a tennis match between those trying to protect and those trying to penetrate. And the mistake most people make is thinking a product is enough. A VPN. An antivirus. A firewall. These things  seaweedmatter. But depending on the sophistication of who's coming for you, products alone won't save you.

Half of security is awareness. Know your attacker. Understand the attack surface. Reduce it wherever you can. Be adaptable. Because the threat isn't static — and neither can your defense be.

Not Just a Business Problem

It's the hockey mom with a house full of kids, controllers in hand, ports wide open — crossing her fingers nothing's happening. It's the teenage girl whose ex-boyfriend is watching her every move online. It's the high school kid being humiliated by classmates who found something they shouldn't have. It's the middle-aged woman, no one in her corner, who doesn't even know her privacy is already gone.

Before you know it, someone's most private moments become a joke at school, or even a community. A weapon. A source of shame. Not because they did anything wrong — but because they didn't know what they didn't know.

We need to protect our mothers. Our teenagers. Each other. That's not dramatic. That's just the reality of where we are.

Threat Is Not Branded; Does Not Wear a Uniform 

Sometimes it's sitting at McDonald's on unsecured Wi-Fi. Sometimes it's a random encounter — wrong place, wrong time, wrong network. But sometimes it's the car parked outside your house, quietly sniffing your signal. Undetected. Patient. And there may be nothing you can do about that specific moment — but you can make yourself a harder target everywhere else.

There's also the advanced persistent threat — sophisticated, long-game actors who don't smash and grab. They move slowly, quietly, and by the time you notice, the damage is done. Most people don't know this exists. Most people don't know what they're up against. And that gap in awareness is exactly where perpetrators live.

Reduce the Attack Surface

This is the phrase we'll come back to again and again in this series: reduce the attack surface. It means giving them less to work with. Fewer open doors. Fewer exposed ports. Fewer weak passwords. Fewer reasons to stay.

It's not about being paranoid. It's about being prepared. It's going to take time for America — and beyond — to truly understand this. But we have no choice. The perpetrators aren't waiting for us to catch up.

A Note to Our Customers

None of us can guarantee perfect results. Anyone who tells you otherwise is selling something. What we can guarantee is this: we're always watching. Always on the lookout. We take every reasonable step to reduce the attack surface on our end — and we'll keep doing that. But cybersecurity isn't just a store problem or a business problem. It's a personal one too. The best thing we can do together is stay informed, stay alert, and keep tightening the gaps on both sides.

THE 3RD WAVE

Cybersecurity is the component of THE 3RD WAVE that offers a new way of both embracing the latest technologies of today in the future, but also returning to simpler times when customer service was here to help, and the world was for less complex. It is imperative that way achieve THE 3RD WAVE on which to operate. A new way of looking at technology — not with fear, but with clarity. That is why I always say that cybersecurity is a calling of our time. It touches everyone: the entrepreneur, the parent, the teenager, the small business owner who wrongfullythinks they're too small to be a target.

The articles in this series won't all be long. Some will be short. Some will be a single paragraph — a quick thought, an on-the-fly observation worth sharing.

What started this whole thing today was a simple question: Should you plug an ethernet cable into your phone and walk around your house with it — even if your Xfinity line could be compromised? Is it still worth it, or a waste of time? That's it. One paragraph. One question worth asking. Please see my separate write up on that subject.

That's the spirit of this series. Not everything needs to be a dissertation. Sometimes it's just a thought that makes you a little safer than you were yesterday. Summer me critique me for moving slow, but there’s so much that goes into cybersecurity, to me there is almost no choice. It has to be discussed bit by bit in order to be processed properly. Some of it is complex. Some of it is simple. But there sure is a lot of it.

This is the hub. Everything connects here. I hope it will be helpful.

The Series

• Cybersecurity: A Calling of Our Time — You're here. This is the anchor.
• Introduction to Surfshark — Why a VPN is the first tool worth having. [Link coming]
• Understanding Ethernet & Network Security — Wired vs. wireless and what it means for your safety. [Link coming]

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