My Vaccine Injury - What Happened

First of all, I want you to know that I'm not a crazy anti-vaxxer. I've always been in support of vaccines, but was like many others, hesitant to get the COVID vaccine because it was so new, and so little time was available to study long-term side effects. This is my personal story of my ongoing struggle with adverse effects of the COVID vaccine. I am not a medical professional, this is not medical advice.

In August, knowing that the Federal government was going to mandate the vaccine for employees and contractors, I received the J&J COVID vaccine. I don't remember much from the following two weeks, other than being in immense pain, and being unable to think clearly. At some point a family member drove me to the ER, where they confirmed I was experiencing adverse effects of the vaccine, but were unable to provide me any relief other than "take Advil and stay hydrated".

Don't Fall for the NESA Eagle Scout Verification Scam

I've been extremely disappointed with the National Eagle Scout Association partnering with Publishing Concepts to contact anyone who has ever received the rank of Eagle to "verify" their contact information. I have received multiple emails about this, and before calling decided to do some research. Extremely disappointed in what I found.

This "verification project" is in fact a huge marketing ploy to convince Eagle Scouts across the country to spend hundreds of dollars on their "50th Anniversary Book". This is, in fact, a variation of the "Who's Who" book scam many people encountered in college, where we receive a letter telling us that we've been selected for this book, verify your information and purchase a copy! Of course what they don't tell you is that everyone gets in the book, and there's nothing special about it at all.

The only reason these businesses are allowed to operate is because they do indeed provide you the book you ordered for the extremely inflated price of $460.

The very first law of Scouting is that a "Scout is Trustworthy". The fact that NESA would do business with "Publishing Concepts", an organization which requires their employees to use hard sale tactics and even lie to people on the phone, leaves me very disappointed in NESA.

The opinions in this article are my own, and do not reflect those of my employer or clients.

Fall COVID Spike Might Be Replica of 1918 Influenza "W" Curve

The 1918 Influenza pandemic contained interesting properties which, to this day, still somewhat baffle the medical community. Most influenzas have a "U" shaped curve for mortality rates. However, the 1918 second wave in September contained a rather unusual "W" shape. In addition to affecting the very young and very old, the second wave of the 1918 flu pandemic also severely affected people between 25 and 35 years of age. One interesting theory for this phenomenon is that people over 35 years of age at the time had been exposed to a similar flu virus prior to 1889, granting them better immunity to the 1918 flu. Read more of this interesting analysis in the NIH article from 2006: 1918 Influenza: the Mother of All Pandemics

Disclaimer: This is an analysis of current COVID data from a data perspective only. I am not a doctor. This is not medical or legal advice. Consult your physician for concerns regarding COVID.

Getting Gamers Interested in Cyber Security

Today I started a new mission - increase interest in cyber security through gaming.

It's a bold move - a lot of the cyber security related games aren't commonly streamed. But then maybe that's a niche that needs to be further explored.

For starters, I'm going to stream "Thief Simulator", which focuses on physical security, as well as "Uplink", which is a very unique game that simulates hacking computers.

As a Cyber Security professional who has worked my entire career from a defensive perspective, these games will give me and others a new look at security concepts and practices.

I invite you to come give it a like over on Facebook and see what neat adventures unfold!

Ken Buckler is a Cyber Security professional and lifelong resident of Washington County, MD. The opinions expressed in this article are his own, and do not reflect those of his employer or clients.

Bitcoin Review Bomb Ransom - A New Take on an Old Scam

If your restaurant receives an email threatening to "bomb" your reviews with negative reviews unless you pay a ransom, whatever you do, do not pay it.

I was very saddened to learn that a local restaurant is being attacked by "review bombs" because they failed to pay a ransom in bitcoin. What's absolutely heartbreaking is that while small businesses and restaurants across the country are already struggling, scammers are doing this nationwide.

The scam has mostly been making its rounds through spam emails claiming to have compromising photos and videos of the recipient, typically with an old password from a data breach. More recently, the scammers have also started targeting businesses by threatening to send spam email spoofing their business domain with the intention of destroying their credibility.

Now, scammers are review-bombing businesses if they fail to comply with their demands for payment.

The Alligator Conspiracy Paranoia

A friend of mine was kind enough to recently inform me of an opinion piece on Herald-Mail titled "Don Stevenson: The alligator conspiracy". This particular opinion piece starts off with a rather shocked Mr. Stevenson relaying the disturbing revelation that Wikipedia's entry for Hagerstown City Park contains the mention of a "trained alligator" in the park responsible for population control of the geese. Mr. Stevenson became so concerned if this could be true or not that he actually called the city's Department of Parks and Recreation to find out if it was real or not. Mr. Stevenson then states, after confirming with the city that there is no alligator, that the alligator was "conspired data had been created which had no base in reality." and stops researching the alligator's origins.

An Open Letter to President Biden

Dear President Biden,

Congratulations on becoming the 46th President of the United States. While I did not personally vote for you, I hope that you will use your power as President to help this country overcome the great challenges we currently face, and lead us to prosperity.

As a student of United States history, one of the most interesting times I have studied was the cold war era from 1947 to 1991. Of particular note in the middle of this era was the Watergate scandal and President Nixon. What I found truly fascinating about the scandal is how the country's healing process was started when President Ford pardoned Nixon. Ford did so because a "long, drawn-out trial would only have further polarized the public."

Our country is very much polarized and divided, quite possibly almost as much as it was prior to the Civil War. I love this country, and I want to see the red, white, and blue fly high for the rest of my life.

Please President Biden, pardon Donald Trump and put an end to this divide. Doing so would help build a bridge across our country's current divide, and allow us to focus on more important matters such as economic recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the end of the day, Republicans and Democrats both want our country to succeed - they just disagree on how it should happen. 

As President Kennedy said, "Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future."

I hope that you indeed can bridge the divide, and help unite this country, and protect our God-given rights and freedoms.

Thank You,

Ken Buckler

Boonsboro, MD

P.S. The next time you're at Camp David, come tour Washington County, MD. Take a look at the good things we are building here, and the amazing history of our area. Our area has been a pinnacle of transportation for decades, including the C&O Canal, Railroad, Aviation, and Trucking. I hope you will visit.

Ken Buckler is a Cyber Security professional and lifelong resident of Washington County, MD. The opinions expressed in this article are his own, and do not reflect those of his employer or clients.

For Free Speech to Thrive Online, P2P Must Be Embraced

 

The most important lesson 2021 has taught us so far this year is that private companies are under no obligation to protect your freedom of speech.

While the Internet has created amazing ways for us to all communicate through social media, the fact of the matter is that people become too invested in platforms which are under someone else's control. For years we've seen increased cases of big tech showing bias towards political parties. This has all finally come to a head with the deplatforming of President Trump and even the suspension of hosting of Parler by Amazon because Parler refused to moderate content.

Currently this "big tech" bias seems to be against conservatives. However, liberals should be just as concerned about the consequences - if a conservative owned company gained popularity then suddenly started removing liberal content, liberals would and should be just as outraged.

Which Antivirus is Right for Me?

As a cyber security professional, something I'm asked a lot is "Which antivirus should I use?"

As with all cyber security questions, this really depends on multiple factors. In this case, we'll examine my recommendations for home usage. If you're a corporate user, you'll want to look into centrally managed solutions instead, which I'll probably cover in a future article.

People are often surprised at my answer to this question. It really depends on what you do with your computer, and how tech savvy you are, as well as your budget.

Personally, I actually just use the free Windows Security, but that's because I need performance over protection. So let's take a look at what solution is right for you.

Please note that as an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases using some of the links below. This compensation does not affect my recommendations.