Your weekly reminder to back up your data, update software and otherwise pay attention to your digital environment. (Oh, and to head to the CRASH Space meeting…)

Once again skimming the late release on the Tuesday Sweep. For me that’s because I got sidelined by the combination of this week’s zone “Leave It Better” and the weekly task of a neglected inbox.

I have HTTPs Everywhere installed, set to block all non-HTTPs connections. It’s brutal. I couldn’t actually load my own (very neglected) websites! Today I fixed that. Thank you Let’s Encrypt! (Donate if you use ’em, if you can.)

As I was poking around my hosting service’s settings for setting up SSL, I realized that I had an old email address still active that I hadn’t checked in 5+ years. Yikes. I hate email. So I’ve been slowly cleaning that out one slow webmail screen of 100 messages at a time. It feels good, though, to purge the trash. It’s so easy to make digital waste disappear, but it’s making me think of all the trash in the real world. That’s historically been a real health problem, but we’ve banded together through government and created municipal waste services, even if the solutions aren’t ideal. If you’ve never run a business and had to pay for private trash collection, it’s hard to overstate what a value public trash collection represents. On a daily behavior front, the anti-litter campaigns of the 70’s and ’80s have done their work on me and I have a visceral negative reaction to the idea of becoming a litterbug. Public campaigns can work (PDF). It can take as little as 25% of a population to buy in to make lasting change in a culture. We can be that change in online culture. It’s worth it.

Jump in Here

  • Welcome. If you haven’t been following along, it’s okay. You’re not behind, you’re just where you are.
  • Need a instant pick me up? Jump straight to our Easy Wins.
  • There are more recommendations under Start Here.
  • Feeling more ambitious? Just wait for the Learn section!

Sweep

Weekly Basics

  • Check that backup systems are actually running. (more)
  • Update main computer(s), phone(s) and tablet(s). (more)
  • Clean out and reset wallet/purse/laptop bag/vehicle. (more)
  • Spend some time adding passwords to your password manager and updating flagged passwords. (more)
  • What neglected inbox will you spend 10 minutes checking today? (more)

This Week’s Focus:

Zone 04: Leave It Better

  • Survey your domain. Patch ‘em up or shut ‘em down. Better off than a bot. (more)
  • Spend some time today learning your industry’s best practices. (more)
  • If you found a security problem in one of your projects, tell people. Don’t be embarrassed. Everyone makes mistakes. It’s how they get fixed that matter. (more)
  • If you’ve found a security flaw in someone else’s project, speak up safely. (more)
  • If you’ve found a security flaw speak up KINDLY and with attention to detail. Community, it can be the best thing and the worst thing. Which one it is, is up to us. (more)

Learn

News and Updates

Where do you scan for news, include a politics update! This sections gonna be slapdash because the Zone 03 reorg took some time

Engage

We are a community. You are a welcome part of it.

Relax

I couldn’t pick just one. These pretty much all come from Tod. Except the Hamster Bed. That one’s from me.