Free Software Community of India (#FSCI) statement on banning of apps like @element and @briar
"Federated, peer-to-peer, encrypted, Free Software apps/software like #Element and #Briar, should be promoted. They are key to our national security as they provide means to enable sovereign, private and secure communication to citizens of India. Element has been embraced by Governments of France, Germany and Sweden which should be an example for #India."
I run Systems Structure Ltd., a US consultancy that provides fractional CISO services for pre-A to post-C round #startups, along with #threatmodeling training and #securityarchitecture reviews.
I've been working in #security since 2003 and did a spell in NGOland from ~2011 to 2016, working with NGOs and news organizations targeted by states and on tools they use, including the #briar messaging app. The field work I did then fundamentally reshaped my approach to security, and I recommend that everyone in the field learn about the reality of being a high-risk user.
I live in #Helsinki the days, although in the before times (and hopefully soon again) I spent a fair bit of time in #NYC and #London. I run a #queer performance space out of my home, along with my partner, called The Attic (@theatticfi on insta), where we make space for #drag, #burlesque, #performanceart, and music, along other things. Before I moved here, I spent six or so years traveling full time.
I have written various essays over the years, which you can see on dymaxion.org, and I'm slowly writing a book. While security pays the bills, I spend a lot of my time thinking about #complexsystems, and in particular how the human and technical bits mesh, how they fail, and how to redesign them to fail better. In practice, this has meant everything from consulting on a constitution to thinking about what comes after the #climate apocalypse. The "recruiting barbarians" in my bio refers to being more comfortable outside of institutions, but I'm starting to think more about community and infrastructure building now that I live somewhere.
I'm also an #artist; I paint and am slowly learning my way around a #synthesizer, and I've been accused of being an #architect. I'm active in the #nordiclarp scene, where we take larp serious as a dramatic form and do everything from a reworking of Hamlet played at the actual Elsinore castle to a larp about the early days of the HIV crisis. I'm primarily a theorist and critic there, as well as player, and I've edited two books and written a number of essays. Nordic larp has the best toolkit I've seen anywhere for analyzing the human parts of complex systems and especially for building new systems; it's heavily influenced my security work, along with my #designfutures thinking.