Eric - Member - The Prepared

Reply to: News for the Week 2024-04-29 Posted 3 days ago

Notes from last Friday’s flood-themed threat modeling session: = threats = floodssurprise you’re in flood zone and don’t know itinsufficient drainagedips in road floodedstanding water floodrunning water flood / mudflowmold = assets = basement homelife (drowning)house in low lying neighborhoodhouse damagehouse contents damagepetsaccess to hospitalaccess to storeaccess to gassanityneighbors = protections = higher foundationhouse on stiltssandbagsquick dam – quick deploy inflatable sandbagsplastic liner around sandbagspruning treesbuy home with fewer risksno large trees near housemove horses to high spotssump pump – maybe multiple – battery backupdrainage for water to flow around houseparks that soak up waterfrench drainageevacuation planstay with friend in safer home during stormsignup for local/county alertswatch local newsdon’t drive during stormdon’t drive through high waterknow the low spots in roads and avoid themknow how to evac car safely if car caught in floodplastic (waterproof) containers for items in garagekeep garage items off the groundfansdehumidifiersroof tightdownspouts lead away from houseclean roof gutterswindows have no leaksdoors securemove important stuff to high spotsbackup copy of documents to cloudlist of plumbers/handymen/etc for emergency contractor helpcats in carrier upstairsriskfactorreview topographic mapbioswale – pit for collecting waterHOA monitors and improves drainagemonitor nearby storm grates for trash buildupgreen space to absorb waterwiden river channels to allow more swell before homes/businesses impactedalternate routes to clinic/store/evac/hospital for when lowlying roads floodedget to know your area – topography/resourcesdon’t build/buy/rent on edge of riverchecklist for storm prepacclimate to discomfortphysical fitnesswaderslife jacketcheck in on neighbors before/during/after storm and exchange numbers

Reply to: News for the week of 2024-05-06 Posted 3 days ago

Interview with CDC’s flu director about the H5N1 bird flu situation. She says that CDC has been sidelined due to lack of cooperation from states. She makes a clear distinction between high risk of a pandemic starting versus low risk to individuals because that pandemic hasn’t already started. CDC’s top flu scientist says the risk to the public from H5N1 is low, but she isn’t sleeping well. Here’s why

Reply to: News for the Week 2024-04-29 Posted 2 weeks ago

Live threat modeling exercise this Friday evening, May 3, on Discord at 6PM Pacific / 9PM Eastern. This is a good way to think about what we’re preparing for and ensure we’re addressing the most important issues. Learn more about the technique from this article. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/07/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-mostly-and-love-my-threat-model/ Join our Discord now at this link so you’ll be ready when the event starts: https://discord.gg/aWWeSHuX?event=1225995579868446811 Prepper Chat Nights are on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of every month. Last time our chat spontaneously turned into a threat modeling session. We learned a lot and had a good time, so we’re going to try another round this week.

Reply to: News for the Week 2024-04-15 Posted 3 weeks ago

At yesterday’s chat night we this article on threat modeling and tried sketching our own threat model. https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/07/how-i-learned-to-stop-worrying-mostly-and-love-my-threat-model/ We started with a handful of threats that we wanted to be well prepared for: hackers, a disgruntled ex, mice… Then for each we got specific about how each of them could hurt us. Were we concerned about survival, property, health… preserving the cotton candy in the walls… For each combination of threat and asset, we talked about options for protecting that asset from that threat. And occasionally decided that some of those risks could just be accepted without protection. = Threats (source of problems) = hackersdisgruntled ex – newbie hackerhurricanewildfirehousefiremousefloodwater heater damage = Assets (what could actually go wrong) = moneydebit cardcredit cardidentity – name, ssn, address – use to file for unemploymentaccess to food/waterpossessions in apartment: carpet, furniture, suppliesaccess to shelteraccess to toiletimmune healthlifecotton candy in walls = Protection (how to mitigate threats to assets) = Say no when purse company asks if ordering purse for someone in Texas.Be careful who you piss off.Up-to-date contact infoLifeLock– gave alert of info used for other state unemployment– alerts on any usage of information– invasive! credit card company blocked cardno upload to lifelock.– but locked out of account– and they keep warning via email anyway– alternative: credit karma shows what loans you have openHomeTitleLock – like LifeLock but for homechange passwords quarterlyemail account reminds password change every 3 months2fa on all financial accounts – any accountcredit card notifies via text on each usagestash of pemmicanfire extinguisherplan to bug out and related equipmentred cross contact infocar bug out kitbug out kit buried in front yardBB gunsanitize house with BAK benzyle chloratesandbagspumpdon’t play in flood waterboatflood evac plan to higher elevationflood panwater sensor in water heater flood panmaintenance/plumber contact infoshop vacfans to dehumidify

Reply to: News for the Week 2024-04-15 Posted 4 weeks ago

Prepper Chat Night is this Friday evening, Apr 19, on Discord at 6PM Pacific / 9PM Eastern. Join our Discord now at this link so you’ll be ready when the event starts: https://discord.gg/KXmPpe6H?event=1224348401244569600 Prepper Chat Nights are on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of every month. It’s a (video optional) call where we mostly talk about our recent prepping experiences and lessons. === Note: The Friday chats aren’t the only reason to join Discord. While the website remains the better place for guides, articles, and experience reports, Discord really shines for conversation or helping someone through an immediate situation. The two work well together, and I use both every day.

Reply to: News for the week of 2024-04-01 Posted 1 month ago

New vaccine to prevent UTIs just passed phase 3 trial: Uromune. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10052183/

Reply to: News for the week of 2024-04-01 Posted 1 month ago

The FDA has granted emergency use authorization for pemivibart (Pemgarda) as a Covid-19 pre-exposure prophylaxis for immunocompromised peoples aged 12 and older. Pre-exposure prophylaxis means it must be given before exposure to be effective in providing protection. This is long-awaited news for immunocompromised people, since the previous monoclonal prophylaxis, Evushield, stopped working almost a year ago. https://www.fda.gov/media/177068/download

Reply to: News for the week of 2024-04-01 Posted 1 month ago

Prepper Chat Night is this Friday evening, Apr 5, on Discord at 6PM Pacific / 9PM Eastern. Join our Discord now at this link so you’ll be ready when the event starts: https://discord.gg/wZEgVgUw?event=1224342730100969633 Prepper Chat Nights are on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of every month. It’s a (video optional) call where we mostly talk about our recent prepping experiences and lessons. === Note: The Friday chats aren’t the only reason to join Discord. While the website remains the better place for guides, articles, and experience reports, Discord really shines for conversation or helping someone through an immediate situation. The two work well together, and I use both every day.

Reply to: News for the week of 2024-03-25 Posted 1 month ago

Close call on Linux cybersecurity this weekend. Someone spent years compromising Linux cybersecurity so that they could remotely break into any Linux server. The bad software made it into development/unstable releases of major Linux distributions this March and was discovered on Friday Mar 29. Anyone running these versions needs to update immediately and consider the possibility that someone has already broken in. https://arstechnica.com/security/2024/04/what-we-know-about-the-xz-utils-backdoor-that-almost-infected-the-world/

Reply to: News for the week of 2024-03-25 Posted 1 month ago

65 million current and former AT&T customers just had their passwords posted online, as well as name, address, phone, DOB, and SSN. Data is from 2019, so change your password if you’ve had the same password since then. Not much you can do about the other data lost unfortunately. AT&T resets account passcodes after millions of customer records leak online

Reply to: Ideal distance to bugout location? (For the sake of discussion.) Posted 1 month ago

” I wouldn’t want to rely on cell phones in an emergency situation” Having a backup communication option is important, because phones are unreliable as you said. What are some good backup options? My main backup option is to physically meet at home. Whichever of us is away from home can hopefully return quickly by car. Satellite texting such as Garmin InReach or Motorola Defy seem like a much more reliable backup which I haven’t tried yet. BTW, don’t want to downplay the value of cellphones. Amazing communications option. Just good to have a backup for when they fail.

Reply to: News for the week of 2024-03-25 Posted 2 months ago

Heads up for anyone in hurricane country: Florida, Louisiana, east Texas. This could be a very bad year for hurricanes. https://www.accuweather.com/en/hurricane/explosive-atlantic-hurricane-season-predicted-for-2024-accuweather-experts-warn/1633944

Reply to: News for the week of 2024-03-25 Posted 2 months ago

Cyberattack targeting Apple iPhones, iPads, iWatches… If you see multiple notifications about resetting your password when you weren’t trying to reset your password, do not touch them. Find some other channel to contact Apple support. Even if you correctly press “don’t allow” over and over, all it takes is one slip to press “allow” and lose your account. https://krebsonsecurity.com/2024/03/recent-mfa-bombing-attacks-targeting-apple-users/

Reply to: Ideal distance to bugout location? (For the sake of discussion.) Posted 2 months ago

“members of the group might make different calls” The solution might be to have a communication plan. It’s okay for people to go to different locations, as long as there’s some way to let each other know. Cell phones, ham radio, notes on the refrigerator… My family is smaller so it’s less of an issue for us. It’s very unlikely that my wife or I would leave town without the other. We’d almost certainly either communicate by cell phone or meet up at home.

Reply to: Ideal distance to bugout location? (For the sake of discussion.) Posted 2 months ago

If you’re purchasing or stocking a bug out location, then I can understand the pressure to make sure that one location will work for 80% of emergencies. My family has taken a very different approach. My family’s emergency plans include several alternative bug out locations. These are all relatively public places, like hotels or parking lots, where we might be safer than at home during an emergency. We will choose between them depending on the situation. Twice we’ve driven about 200 miles to a hotel. One of those times the hurricane passed right overhead anyway. It wasn’t about avoiding the hurricane, because we didn’t know in advance where the hurricane would go. We moved further from the coast, to a solidly built hotel that could withstand a storm. One of our locations is less than a mile away but has substantially lower fire risk. It’s just a parking lot, but definitely won’t go up in flames. For a wildfire, there may not be time for traveling a longer distance. We’ve also selected a hotel on the other side of our own city that’s less likely to be impacted by a power outage at the same time as our home.

Reply to: News for the week of 2024-03-11 Posted 2 months ago

Mysterious fish illness in Florida keys Critically endangered smalltooth sawfish washing up on shore. Other fish seen spinning around in the water. Florida just allocated $2 million to investigate. https://www.local10.com/news/local/2024/03/13/still-no-smoking-gun-as-bizarre-fish-behavior-spreads-in-florida-keys/

Reply to: News for the week of 2024-03-11 Posted 2 months ago

Prepper Chat Night is this Friday evening, Mar 15, on Discord at 6PM Pacific / 9PM Eastern. Join our Discord now at this link so you’ll be ready when the event starts: https://discord.gg/efjH57pv?event=1207591200463396934 Prepper Chat Nights are on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of every month. It’s a (video optional) call where we mostly talk about our recent prepping experiences and lessons. === Note: The Friday chats aren’t the only reason to join Discord. While the website remains the better place for guides, articles, and experience reports, Discord really shines for conversation or helping someone through an immediate situation. The two work well together, and I use both every day.

Reply to: News for the week of 2024-03-11 Posted 2 months ago

Looks like John got a couple quotes in there: For John Ramey, a former innovation advisor to the Obama administration and creator of the prepper website The Prepared, the community has grown to reflect American society at large in terms of political beliefs and demographic categories. “The only real unifying denominator among preppers these days is people who are smart enough to be aware of what the world is like … and they have the gumption to do something about it,” Ramey said.

Reply to: News for the week of 2024-02-26 Posted 2 months ago

Updated guidance for responding to Ebola and Marburg outbreaks. In particular, the chlorine sprays are no longer recommended. https://www.medpagetoday.com/infectiousdisease/ebola/108893

Reply to: News for the week of 2024-02-26 Posted 2 months ago

Prepper Chat Night is this Friday evening, Mar 1, on Discord at 6PM Pacific / 9PM Eastern. Join our Discord now at this link so you’ll be ready when the event starts: https://discord.gg/tDW7YqBw?event=1211857034194980874 Prepper Chat Nights are on the 1st and 3rd Fridays of every month. It’s a (video optional) call where we mostly talk about our recent prepping experiences and lessons. === Note: The Friday chats aren’t the only reason to join Discord. While the website remains the better place for guides, articles, and experience reports, Discord really shines for conversation or helping someone through an immediate situation. The two work well together, and I use both every day.

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