Category Archives: External Content

WhatsApp group for information and cyber security news – Moved to a WhatsApp Channel

External Content, Management Announcements, News, PersonalEitan Caspi

Hello all,

Following my former post, from a few months ago, about opening a WhatsApp group for information and cyber security news and content, and following concerns from group members about the privacy issues coming with a WhatsApp group – I tried to find a method to both enhance the privacy of the members of this group, and also remove the limit of 1000 members that is inherited in a WhatsApp group – So eventually I decided to move this group to be a WhatsApp Channel, which doesn’t have any limit to the number of subscribers, and also if doesn’t display the subscribers’ name and phone number to other members or to the channel admin, which is me (unless I already have your phone number in my phone address book, which means I am already in some connection with you).

Read here more about the WhatsApp channel privacy attributes at the WhatsApp article of “About safety and privacy on channels“.
A channel is practically a “one to many” content feed, somewhat similar to an RSS Feed.

I looked into moving the messaging application of “Signal”, but a Signal group is also limited to 1000 members, plus “Signal” does not have a feature similar to a broadcast channel with subscribers, so it wasn’t a suitable option to move to.

As usual – you are invited to invite relevant people to join.

So, starting 27-Jan-25 I stopped publishing new content in the group, and started publishing at the channel (which does show historical/former published content, while a group does not), found in the following link – https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VazZmk5LNSa7uZvULT0n

I hope this change will be beneficial for all of us.

Stay safe and secure!

WhatsApp group for information and cyber security news

External Content, Management Announcements, News, PersonalEitan Caspi

31-Jan-2025 – update – the group moved to be a WhatsApp channel and the content update in the group has stopped since 27-Jan-2025, in order to enhance the privacy of the group’s members and to allow the future growth in number the members. More details in a blog post, in this blog site, about this change.
For those in a hurry – the link to the channel is https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VazZmk5LNSa7uZvULT0n

The original post:

”
Hello everyone,

I opened a WhatsApp group where I regularly post information / cyber security news and sometimes other interesting things in this field.

Most of the links are to content in English, but sometimes also in to content in Hebrew.

You are hereby invited to join the group, and invite more people, using the link below.

The group’s description:
”
Hello everyone, My name is Eitan Caspi.

In this group I will share information security news and updates from around the world, including interesting content that is not necessarily news (such as technical articles, thoughts about the field, and so on), mainly in English and a little in Hebrew.

Group members are invited to invite relevant people to join. Let’s have fun!

Link to join the group – (The link was removed due to the group being moved to be a channel. See the start of this post for more details)

My LinkedIn Profile – https://www.linkedin.com/in/eitancaspi/

My Consulting firm – https://vsec.co.il/

My Information Security Blog – https://fudie.net/

My initiative to end default passwords, “Default is a FAULT!” – https://defaultisafault.com/
”
“

Sad declaration

Critical Infrastructure Protection, External Content, Government and Regulation, Information Security in Israel, The Information Security Profession, ThoughtsEitan Caspi

“There have been zero successful cyber-attacks on critical national infrastructures in the past year”

This is what Yigal Unna, the head of the National Cyber Directorate of Israel, declared at the CyberTech conference, held last week in Israel. Stunning declaration in my opinion.

I thought there is no 100% in information security (which is true for physical security as well). How can he know this for sure? Information security, and certainly as part of risk management, involves recognizing that there is never any certainty. You can always be attacked successfully and you will know about it as it happens and you may never know. You always have to assume that at any given moment, at any part of your systems – you lose, because you know you don’t cover everything and can’t cover everything.

This is a statements in the style that existed before the Yom Kippur War. Smugness and arrogance that have no place in our profession and I believe that sooner or later they will run into the wall of reality and shatter.