FAQ

Who are you?
I am a guy who is interested in security. I have had to learn the hard way that security is always needed and the field changes daily. Security professionals are always playing catch-up to the hackers and most folks don’t know enough about security until it is too late. I am learning new things every day and want to share what I learn with you.

Why should we believe what you have to say, who made you the expert?
I have experience in the security field but I am by no means an expert. And I ask that you challenge me as much as you can by commenting on my posts. If you have doubts, see wrong information or simply disagree, please leave a comment. If I have overlooked something, please point it out. As said, I am learning new things every day and though I know some things about a lot of things, I do not know a lot of things about everything so I welcome any type of feedback and urge you to do your own research. I am creating awareness, the rest is up to you 🙂

Why this website?
As mentioned above, I want to share my knowledge, tips and insights with you. In turn I’m hoping you will use this information and share it with others. If everyone knows about the techniques and vulnerabilities that are being exploited, it becomes much harder for a hacker/piece of malware/something or someone malicious to exploit them as hopefully you are prepared to defend yourself.

Do I need an account to comment on posts?
Nope! Anyone is free to leave a comment. Comments are, however, held for moderation so they will not appear on the site immediately.

What information do you collect on me?
I have deliberately opened comments to every post so that no registration or accounts are needed. This way I do not have your information ‘on file’. However when a comment is submitted, the WordPress installation logs the following:
– The name you entered.
– The e-mail address you entered.
– The IP address you visited/submitted from.
– The URL you entered (if any).
– Your comment.
You can easily give a fake name if you feel like it but your IP will reveal your location and the ISP you use. It will only reveal this information if I were to look up the IP address but unless I receive multiple spam comments from a same IP address, I see no reason to ever do this. To prevent the logging of your IP, use a VPN or proxy service. The IP address can not be removed by me and will be permanently linked to the comment you submitted.

The webserver this site is hosted on collects raw logs like every other server on the planet. Date, time, IP, referral address, exit page etc. These logs can not be disabled on the server side (I have tried and crashed the whole site several times). I check these logs at the beginning of every month for one purpose; to see how many visitors came to this site in the month before. The logs are not exported or saved and are automatically overwritten by the server after a while to make space for the new logs.

I use a service that allows me to see the following information I am interested in (no, not Google analytics):
– Validate the visitor numbers in the raw server logs (to get an accurate number).
– See where most visitors are coming from (to see if someone is linking to me, I check it out and link back if possible).
– What countries are people visiting from (to see if I should include articles relevant to a specific country).
The country information is presented in bulk, meaning it does not show me John was from the US and Jessica was from Germany. It tells me 300 people visited from the US, 100 from Germany, for example.

So while I do not know a lot about you, I could if I wanted to. Until I turn evil and have the time to spend digging through logs 24/7, all I can give you is my assurance that I do my best to keep the information I/the website collects as safe as possible to the best of my ability. I won’t trade, sell or make the information publicly available.

I’m sure I’m forgetting to mention something but it is not intentional. If something comes to mind I will add it here and in the mean time if you have any questions regarding this, please contact me.

How much do you earn off this website?
I’ll answer this as soon as I park my Bentley and eat my Caviar, please hold.
I do not make any money off this website. Zero. And I am not looking to make money (not off this site at least). My references to products, software or services are not because I earn a commission for mentioning them and my AV testing is not sponsored by any AV vendors. I would not risk invalidating my work that way.