Cybersecurity: Staying Secure in the Digital Age with Leia Kupris Shilobod

A Personal Note From Orion

How would you react if I told you that your child’s innocent photo could end up in the wrong hands? It’s a chilling thought, but the reality of today’s digital world is that protecting children’s privacy on social media is more crucial than ever.

In this Stellar Life episode, you’ll find out how to safeguard your and your little one’s online safety with cybersecurity expert and the CEO & IT Princess of Power at CompliancyIT, Leia Kupris Shilobod, as she offers a valuable perspective on the importance of emotional intelligence, cybersecurity, and digital privacy.

Leia’s pragmatic approach to parenting and her unique integration of work and family life, coupled with her emphasis on stoic philosophy, make her experiences a valuable resource. Her insights provide practical advice for individuals and businesses, offering tangible steps to enhance their cybersecurity practices and protect their personal and professional data.

One key insight Leia shared was the significance of assuming breach and always verifying security measures. This means never fully trusting digital platforms, always double-checking the security of your accounts, and assuming that breaches are possible. Additionally, the conversation touched upon the increasing risks associated with AI manipulation and the importance of minimizing digital vulnerabilities. So, without further ado, let’s dive into the show!

In This Episode

[02:42] – Orion welcomes Leia Kupris Shilobod to share her journey of rebuilding her IT company after facing significant setbacks. She discusses the importance of taking ownership and making tough decisions during difficult times.
[09:31] – Leia talks about how she integrates her work and parenting life. She explains the value of being different and staying true to oneself.
[14:18] – Leia explains the concept of stoic philosophy and its influence on her approach to handling life situations, drawing parallels between her experiences and those of ancient philosophers.
[22:17] – Leia highlights the complacency around cybersecurity and stresses the need for individuals to take responsibility for their personal and business security. She advises using password managers and enabling two-factor authentication for online accounts.
[28:23] – Leia discusses the importance of protecting children’s privacy online, especially when sharing photos and information on social media.
[33:34] – Leia stresses the need for skepticism and verification when consuming digital media.
[39:53] – Orion reflects on the balance between trusting in the good of the world while also acknowledging the polarity of good and evil. At the same time, Leia encourages a philosophical approach to cybersecurity and maintains a healthy mistrust of governing bodies.

Jump to Links and Resources

About Today’s Show

Hi, Leia. Welcome to the Stellar Life podcast. Thank you so much for being here. I am so excited for this conversation to learn more about your incredible personal journey and learn about some things around cybersecurity that we don’t know and that anybody should be doing these days.

Awesome. Thank you so much for having me today, Orion. It is my pleasure to be here, and like you said, it’s been quite an interesting journey personally. And that, of course, leaves its way into business. I’m excited to talk to you about that journey and then drop a couple of thoughts for everybody on some simple cybersecurity practices they can implement immediately to make them much more secure.

Cool. Let’s start with your origin story. Where do you want to begin?

I actually studied psychology when I went to college because I thought that I was going to solve the world’s problems from an easy chair. When I got out into the world and started to work in human services, there was something that I needed to do that was a lot bigger. Later in life, looking back on my entire life, I was always built to be an entrepreneur. But that was pushed down by my family and other people around me because they didn’t understand it. So, it made sense that I was unhappy just being in human services.

Never Split the Difference by Chris Voss

I started my first business when I was 23. I did professional writing and some design work. I’m a decent writer; I wrote a couple of books. I was a mediocre designer. But I just knew I needed to build something like that, which is how I’m built, to build and create things. When my husband, who had been working in it at the time, was thinking about starting an IT company because he was frustrated with where he worked, I figured, “Hey, this is an awesome opportunity.” I can just sell and market his capabilities. We moved back to Pittsburgh from Hampton Roads in Virginia in 2006 and opened our IT company. That time, it was called Intex Solutions.

I worked really hard to grow it along the way. We had a lot of dips. We tried a failed merger with another company and came out of that, making a fraction of what we were beforehand. After that, it was in 2010 and then in 2014. So three, four short years later, we had some drama happen inside of our company. Because of that, the outcome was that we lost 62% of our business in one quarter, the fourth quarter of 2014. That was one of my biggest turning points. Because of what had occurred, an employee got very frustrated with several things internally in my company and kind of negotiated with one of our clients to work with them internally. When he left, he also talked to some other clients who were some of our largest accounts, and they felt uncomfortable staying with the company, so they left us. That was a big chunk of our business that left. I had the opportunity then to either take this as an opportunity to be a victim and say, “Oh, all this bad stuff happened to me,” “Oh, this guy or this situation, these clients,” and make it about other people’s actions, or I had the opportunity to say, “This is my fault. This is my company, this is my life and my success, and my failure is my fault,” which is what I decided to do. “I take ownership of that moving forward.”

In 2015, we started that year with very little. I committed myself to a course of action to take full ownership and build my business back. Just so you can understand the dire straits that we were in June of that year, I asked one of my other IT business owner friends for six grand so that I could cover payroll. The house we lived in went into foreclosure three times that year because I had to pay employees. Business bills and employees get paid first. I get paid last. But that showed me that no matter what it is, if I want to do it, I will succeed. I’m going to find a way to make it happen. And that was one of the biggest lessons I learned from that year.

If it's digital, don't trust your eyes. Take everything with a grain of salt because anything can be manipulated using AI nowadays. Click To Tweet

You seem like a go-getter, but how do you develop that mindset of, “No matter what, I’m going to make this happen and take ownership?” Did you have some mentors? What helps your evolution? Was it just internal guidance?

That’s a really good question. At that particular moment, it definitely was my internal compass, recognizing that I was at a turning point where I could make one of two decisions, and that becoming. Allowing myself to be a victim would not get me anywhere I said I wanted to be. That was part of it.

And you had four kids at the time, right?

Yes, four children.

You have four children, yet you’re working so hard on building this thing and making it happen. That’s incredible.

Assume that whatever you’re doing online is already insecure.

Yeah. There were a couple of things there. The first is that I recognize and embrace now, whereas I had a hard time before, and I’m just really different. I’m not like most people, and that’s okay.

I like that. It’s something I’m trying to still embrace myself. I want to be like you, but I just can’t.

Yes, you can. Having my kids at work was okay for me. If it was okay for me, I felt I had to be okay for everyone I worked with. I just told my team, “If you need to bring your kids to the office for something—daycare falls through, they’re sick—that’s cool.” I wanted to extend the same thing that I wanted for my life and business to the rest of my team.

I took my kids with me to a lot of different stuff. I sometimes take them to a networking event. When my youngest daughter was born, I went back to work three days later with her strapped to my chest. I took her on a server install to a different state. It was pretty funny. So, I had this Maya sling thing that I absolutely love. I put her in whenever we go somewhere, and she was breastfeeding and talking to us. We were on-site in a different state, installing the server and all these computers. I have her in the sling, and I’m breastfeeding her so she can be quiet. Then suddenly, I was talking to the client—luckily, it was a woman—she pulled away from the breast, and she pulled down on my boob, and this big waterfall of breast milk dripped.

The more I tried to be someone I was not, the more unhappy I was.

That’s so funny.

At least it was a woman, right? It typifies how I’m just like, “We’re just going to continue to roll, right?” Whatever it is, we will figure out a way and continue to roll.

Wow. I’m sure your kids are different, too, because they grew up in this more interesting, inclusive environment. A lot of times, parents separate work from kids, and there is the kid’s world and the adult world, but it’s almost like you prepare them for life, in a way. And the girl was nursing. That’s great, modeling what a mom can be like. That’s incredible.

Sometimes, I think they would have preferred that I was normal, like everybody else’s parents. But as they get older, they recognize the value of being with somebody who is okay with going against the flow. Sometimes, I think they definitely wish that I was normal and doing all the normal things, but now they are very accepting of my different way of doing things.

Yeah. And for you, there was no other way.

The more I tried to be someone I was not, the more I tried to conform to what people said I needed to do, the more unhappy I was. There was this, like, “This is what I say I want my life to be.” Then I saw the actions I was taking, the thoughts I was having, or the pressure from external forces going in a different direction, and I had to get really honest with myself. If I say that I want these things, if I say that I want a strong partnership from a life partner, if I say that I want to be able to save money, if I say I want to be able to grow my business, then I have to get real with myself and identify what are those actions that I’m taking? What are the voices that I’m hearing? They are going to take me in a different direction than the thing that I say I want.

It’s important to have good information and influences to help you move in the direction you want to go.

With that kind of brutal honesty, you must make some really hard choices. One of the very hard choices I made was leaving my husband because he was my business partner, and we were married for a very long time. I took them and bought a house, moved out, and it was another five years before we were divorced, and then I bought him out of the business.

Incredible. You’re such a go-getter. It’s so amazing. How do you deal with difficult times? It looks like you take the decisions, “I’m gonna be real with myself. I’m gonna make the decisions.” How do you deal with those naysayers, with even internal voices that say, “Who are you kidding? How can you do it? You have four kids. You just got divorced. How are you gonna take this business to the next level?

I tell people that it’s really important that you have a really good diet of information and influences coming into you that are going to continue to help you get in the direction you say you want to get. So, whether that is on social media or unfriending someone on Facebook, you can mute them and never hear what they say; they don’t know that. You never see their negative posts on Instagram. I curate that entire feed to be very inspirational about things coming up about business and personal development. I’m a fan of stoic philosophies, so many of those things or tags I follow when I go there.

Stoic philosophy is an ancient philosophy founded by a Greek Zeno of the citadel. I can’t tell you how long it was. It was before Christ. He was a merchant, and he had this boat that he had invested so much money in. The ship that would have all of these goods he would sell got shipwrecked. He was in a very similar situation when I lost all that business. Except maybe it was probably more devastating for him. He said, “I was shipwrecked before I even left the port.” In other words, this thing was destined to happen. If it happens, you must just accept it as it is.

Removing emotional ties to a situation allows your brain to come to a better, calmer place where you can make better decisions.

It kind of goes similarly, I’m sure you have, but if your listeners have heard Eckhart Tolle’s book The Power of Now, where he talks about the difference between your life and your life situation. Stoics believe that in a situation that you’re in, if you’re judging it, you can judge it as good, or you can judge it as bad, or you can be indifferent about it. In other words, not get. Have your emotions tied to it so much. Being able to remove that emotional tie to a situation allows your brain psychologically to be able to come to a better, more calm place where you can make better decisions. You can see a different perspective, perhaps, and a way through because if you are really angry, upset, distressed, or very sad, your brain cannot function at a high level. It’s just not possible.

You need to be able to get to a more solid state to determine how to act. Stoic philosophy focuses on virtues and being a virtuous person. Marcus Aurelius was one of the stoics, one of the emperors of Rome, who talked about how we were made for each other. Community is very important. Sometimes, you will come up against people who are rude or unkind, and that’s just life. And so you take that as it comes. But you need to make sure that the people you decide to have in your close circle, those people you bring around you, are highly curated so that all those people continue to lift you up.

Amazing. I get the idea of putting your emotional world aside, and from a calm place, you can make a better decision. Is there a process to put the emotions aside? And the idea is very appealing. I have to take charge right now. I’m going to push my emotions aside. I’m going to do what I need to do. Yet, it also seems very difficult not to. It’s like you detach from your emotions so you can think clearer. How do you do that?

The Power of Now by Eckhart Tolle

A word to say that people might use when somebody is completely emotional these days might be like, “Oh, he’s very stoic.” Stoic philosophy is different from that. It recognizes that we are all humans, that we have emotions, and that they are important. But if you allow yourself to be completely driven by your emotions at every moment, then it’s difficult to make logical decisions because you are so emotion-driven.

For instance, if something happens, like, let’s say that someone on my team messages me, they are being very rude, inconsiderate, or unkind in their message. My initial emotion is anger, frustration or irritation. You stop, and you feel that, right? You say, “Oh, I’m feeling irritated, or I’m feeling angry.” Instead of pushing it away, you get curious about it. You don’t allow yourself to continue in that direction and be irritable. You say, “Oh, I’m feeling irritable about this, or I’m feeling irritated. What about this? Is it making me feel irritated?” It’s not pushing it away but changing your perspective. And maybe it’s because, “Well, I don’t like the way that came across.” And then I can ask myself, “Well, did I interpret that right?” It’s writing. Sometimes, the sender sends something, and you’re receiving it in a way it’s not intended. “Maybe I didn’t receive that properly because it wasn’t communicated to me correctly.” Or you can say, “Well, maybe they’re frustrated, and they don’t know how to communicate the right way to me, and I should just be grateful that they’re saying something so that I have the opportunity to fix it.” It helps you to take that moment when Viktor Frankl talks about how, between stimulus and response, there is a space, and that is the space where you get to choose your reaction to that particular stimulus and that emotion.

Amazing. So it’s a matter of training yourself with intention.

Yes.

And the more you do it, the quicker and more efficient you will be at it.

One of the biggest things that I learned is how empowering it is to just get curious.

The more empowered you feel when a life situation occurs, and you feel these emotions that are just tossing you all about, the more empowered you feel because now you know what to do with that emotion. You don’t feel like it’s pulling you in one direction or another. One of the biggest things I learned is how empowering it is to just get curious, and it doesn’t matter your situation. I would be surprised if I saw that you interviewed Chris Voss before.

Yeah, I did.`

I love that guy. I read Never Split the Difference at least once a year. It is amazing.

Maybe I should read it.

Oh, my gosh. Yes, please.

I have a lot of amazing books at home. We are very good at collecting tons of really smart books, and we feel really smart for having those books, and they’re still in boxes. This makes me feel smart when I have this book in my library.

I’m pretty sure Chris talks about that, too, and that the person across the table is not your adversary. The best thing to do is to get curious, understand their perspective, and understand where it is.

This process reminds me of more of a modern teaching of Byron Katie’s modern teachings with her questions. Can you absolutely know that it is true? How do you react? What happens when you believe that thought? Who would you be without that thought? There is also a turnaround. When you question your questions, you question your thinking, and you think about your thinking, you evolve.

You want to make sure that whoever you're sharing data with, you verify the identity of that person. Click To Tweet

Yes, 100%. I would say that a lot of my approach to life today is based on being a voracious learner and always wanting to learn how to be better and think differently. Between the Stoics, I’ve also read Byron Katie and Chris Voss’ books.

He’s a cool guy.

Tolle.

I met him in person a few times. He’s quite an interesting dude. He’s very masculine and has a macho personality. I like that.

We should see the world with our own eyes and have our own experiences, and not just live through our screens.

I’ve taught some of his strategies to my team because when people call us for it or a cybersecurity problem, it’s not because they want to be like, “Hey, you guys are just doing an awesome job.” Stuff’s on fire. People are frustrated. I taught them some strategies, especially the late-night DJ voice, one of my favorites. When somebody’s upset about something, you just lower the tone of your voice, and you start to speak. Speak a little slower, and it just automatically calms the person down. People are like, “It works.”

I’m going to read this book because I love influence. I do hypnotherapy, and I’ve been doing neuro-linguistic programming for a while now. I love influencing people in the best possible way, in a heart-driven way. This sounds like a really good book for me to read if I can just get myself to read it.

It’s inspiring. I want to shift because you mentioned cybersecurity. Let’s talk about cybersecurity. What are some things we need to do in our everyday lives that we’re not doing?

You’re responsible for your security, and you’re also responsible for the security of whatever business you work for, you own, or are trying to build.

I think the biggest thing you need to start with is that many people are complacent. They think, “Well, this isn’t going to happen to me, or what would hackers want with my business or personal information? They’re not going to get very much anyway.” That’s where we start down the wrong path. In today’s world, all of our information is digitized. Your personal and business information are all digitized. I was talking to my dad. He’s 74 years old and says, “I don’t have to worry about this still. My stuff’s not online. I don’t have these accounts.” Like that, I was able to talk to my mom, who got it. But even if you try to stay offline, all those corporations with your information have a digital right, whether that’s your doctor or the IRs.

I feel like everybody knows everything about me to a certain extent. Maybe everybody has a piece of me, but if somebody can connect the dots, they can find everything about me. There is no privacy. Plus, we have here. My husband loves Alexa, and even my son likes to ask Alexa questions now. I know that every new machine that comes from China has the possibility of connecting and rewiring everything in your house, doesn’t it?

Yeah. That’s what you should be thinking about. In my business, that is what the threat surface is. That’s a technical term for it. It’s like thinking about where you have accounts online. It could be social media or banking. I would be surprised if you even knew the number of accounts because you probably created them ten to fifteen years ago and don’t even remember anymore.

All that is part of your threat surface, where all those accounts are online, who has your information, what kind of information they have about you, and remember that you are a whole person. You’re responsible for your security, and you’re also responsible for the security of whatever business you work for, you own, or are trying to build. You want to keep the same strategies throughout. That will include making sure that all your passwords are unique, long, and complex. By unique, that does mean that you don’t reuse passwords everywhere. I know anyone listening to this right now thinks, “I can’t do that.”

Well, I’m using 1Password for all my passwords.

Do you mean the password manager?

Yeah, it’s a password-managing app where you just have a master password, and it saves all your passwords.

Yes, that is really helpful. I’d recommend getting some kind of password manager for everyone: you only have to remember that one long, unique, and complex password. The password manager will actually help you create more unique passwords for other websites. 100% of businesses and personal employees need a password manager.

I recommend getting a password manager. A password manager will actually help you create more unique passwords for other websites.

For somebody who doesn’t know, what you can do with 1Password is create a main password. Then, you can store your credit card information and secret notes, and every time you go to a website, you see the icon of one passport pop. When you click on it, it automatically fills up all the right passwords. When you register on a website, you will be given the option of a very long, complex password. You just hit yes, save it with this website, and that’s it.

Yes. I highly recommend something like that. Also, one password will do this for you, and many websites will turn on two-factor or multifactor authentication. In our term, we call those ‘two FA’ or ‘MFA,’ and you want to turn that on wherever you can. Check settings to see if there’s a way to turn it on anywhere. Sometimes, it will prompt you to say, “Do you want to turn this on?” Sometimes, it doesn’t, and you have to go into the settings to be able to turn it on. But do that everywhere you can. Make sure it’s at your bank, in your email, and, of course, your password manager, as well as any financial assets, investments, and anything else. Check to make sure that MFA or two FAs are turned on. That’s going to be huge.

Yes. Two-factor authentication means that to log into certain accounts, you’ll have to get a text to your phone, for example, with a code, and then you can log into that account. So, it’s not just one password. There are more secure steps to help you log in. So, a hacker cannot come and just decode one password. You will have to hack your phone, as well as answer a security question.

Or intercept it, which you can do. That’s why some people say, “Well, I have two FAs turned on, so my password doesn’t have to be secure.” The answer is no. Your password still needs to be secure for a long time because it’s possible to intercept that second factor and grab that token. So even then, you want to make sure that all of your passwords are secure in a password manager. Long, complex, and unique. For length, you’re looking at a minimum of 15 characters. 25 is better, but a minimum of 15. And no dictionary words.

Your password still needs to be secure for a long time because it’s possible to intercept that second factor and grab that token.

Okay, great. What about social media? I have one photo of my son on social media, and this is the day he was born, where I posted our photos. I didn’t put his photos on social media. I signed him up for gymnastics, and I have to sign a waiver that they can take photos, but then on the phone, they’re like, “Don’t worry, we’re not going to post your son’s photos.” But it’s everywhere where people feel like it’s totally okay to post kids’ photos. I don’t know, especially with all the information that is coming up lately with child predators and stuff like that; it’s very dangerous to put your whole life online, Right?

I agree with that. So, as you rightly explained, if you allow your child into any kind of program, even school, you do have to sign that release. They are required to ensure that they retain your and your child’s privacy if you say no. I’ve noticed that most organizations take that very seriously and will look through the photos before posting. So that’s good. I don’t recommend allowing other organizations to do that unless you feel very comfortable with it. I post about my children on my social media. Sometimes, I only allow it to be friends who can see those kinds of things instead of the whole world. They’re also older now, which makes a big difference because they’re posting about themselves on social media.

Well, you have older kids. Mine is tiny, so, yeah, it’s different.

Yes. Protecting their privacy when they’re young is very important. Some people don’t think about that, that you post a picture and think it’s cute, but then it ends up in the public domain. Anyone can copy that and do whatever they want to do with it. They can put it in an AI and manipulate it to find out information about your small children, maybe where they go to school, where they go to daycare, and what sports they’re in. I mean, they can collect. Open-source social media is one of the biggest platforms for any malicious actor, whether it’s a digital hacker or somebody who’s, like, trying to get kids to interact with them online. You just create an account on Facebook, and you can find out all this information about kids. Then they create a fake account, pretend like they’re another child, and they already have all this information about them because you, the parent, posted it online.

Some people don’t think about protecting the privacy of their children when they’re young. It should be every parent's priority. Click To Tweet

It is so scary. I feel like my childhood was safer than what’s going on today. It’s very difficult. As an entrepreneur, I just did a fancy photo shoot. I do post my photos online, and they can end up in the hands of people that I don’t want. Is there any way to protect that? Or will everything I post on Instagram just go anywhere?

Yeah. You have to be prepared for whatever information you post online. Just assume that it doesn’t matter what happens to that because you put it out there. That’s what we have to do because those platforms are not secure; they don’t protect our privacy. Even when sending an email, I tell people that if they have something confidential and important, they should not send it in an email. Because unless that email is encrypted, when you click send, it goes over the Internet in plain text and can be intercepted. When it arrives in someone’s inbox, they can press forward and send it anywhere else, or their computer could get infected, and a malicious actor could get into their email. If it’s really important, only put things in secured portals behind a secure password multifactor authentication and know who has access to it. Everything else is in the public domain. Just be prepared to lose it.

Is speaking about things on WhatsApp or over the phone even safe?

Open-source social media is one of the biggest platforms for malicious actors, whether it’s a digital hacker or somebody who’s trying to get kids to interact with them online.

Some of those platforms, like WhatsApp, say that they have end-to-end encryption and are more secure than other messaging applications. But you just want to think about what kind of information you’re sharing and with whom you’re sharing it. You want to make sure that whoever you’re sharing it with, you verify that person’s identity. And again, if it’s highly sensitive or confidential, you want an alternative mechanism to be able to send or share that kind of information as, remember, I mean, if you send something via WhatsApp or one of those messengers, people take screenshots of that and have it go other places all the time.

One of my girlfriends called me because her daughter was messaged a couple of weeks ago by a boy a couple of years older than her, saying, “Hey, I have this picture of you, and it’s circulating in the middle school.” She was pretty taken aback by it and looked at the picture. It didn’t have her daughter’s face, but it had some of her daughter’s body and very short shorts on. It wasn’t awful. But at the same time, she was pretty uncomfortable with this. That was sent originally through, like, the kids have one of those messaging apps, and that’s where it was originally sent. You never know when someone will take a screenshot of something and then shoot it out to a bunch more people.

What about AI manipulation? That’s a whole topic right now. You can see a video of somebody, and as time goes by, it becomes more and more reliable. In the past AI videos, you could see, “Oh, this is AI, this is totally fake.” But now it’s getting more and more real. What type of information is the next generation going to receive? How do you know what is true in politics everywhere? You don’t.

You don’t. If it’s digital, don’t trust your eyes. That’s what it is. I mean, if you weren’t there, didn’t take the video yourself, or were not present, take everything with a grain of salt because you do not know anymore. Anything can be manipulated. A photo can be manipulated easily with one of these programs to make it look like something completely different happened than it did. As you rightly mentioned, you have someone’s picture in a video, and you can make a video by saying something with a few short words, like a sentence. The AI can extrapolate that to an entire phrase or paragraph of whatever that person wants that AI to say. So you cannot trust your own eyes. Going forward, you can’t say, “Oh, I saw this video on YouTube, I saw this picture, this meme.”

You have to be prepared for whatever information you post online.

Because you don’t know, that does force us to get out from behind our computers and go into the world and see things for ourselves, which, frankly, Orion, I don’t think is bad. I think that what we should be doing is getting out and seeing the world with our own eyes and having our own experiences.

You mean living like normal human beings and not just living through our social media, screens, and computers. Every concert. You see, it used to be everybody with their lighters, everybody with lighting a real fire, and you seem like a sea of little beautiful light dots. Now, it’s a sea of iPhones. It’s quite terrible. You go back to Eckhart Tolle and live in the moment. There is no living in the moment. There is no moment. Everything is living through a filter, through a screen.

Have you seen the deep fake of Tom Cruise? It’s amazing. This guy is so good. You definitely think it’s Tom Cruise. In the beginning, when I saw those videos, I actually thought it was Tom Cruise. But then something didn’t work. “Wait a minute. It’s pretty amazing.” I think the whole world is moving toward digital currency. It’s a part of the agenda of eliminating cash and controlling us even more. When I looked at the truckers in Canada, I saw that just because they disobeyed the idea and protested an idea and claimed their health sovereignty, was that the right word?

They just wanted to not be injected, and they protested, and their bank accounts were frozen, and GoFundMe campaigns with millions of dollars were just taken off like that. Everything we have digitally in the central bank accounts can be gone in a day. How do we prepare for that?

That’s a really good question. I’m not going to say that I have all the right answers, but I think that having a very healthy mistrust of governing bodies is a good idea because we can see that even though in America we have certain rights and that it says that the rights of the people will not be infringed, we’ve clearly seen that.

That’s obvious. What do you mean? No?

Yeah.

I feel like the Constitution is a suggestion right now. Everything is a suggestion now.

Take everything with a grain of salt because you do not know anymore; anything can be manipulated.

Yeah. So there’s a huge push towards it, back towards some self-sufficiency in some ways. I don’t like the idea of digital currency because I don’t trust any of those banks. And we saw what happened with FTX regarding cryptocurrency, where we had a madman who was an egomaniac running that and lost a billion dollars or something like that. I’m a strong proponent of still being able to have paper money that we get to do with as we see fit and then other ways to be more self-sufficient that we’ve lost over time.

I started making many different things at home, and I told people about it. I made my own yogurt. Then, I made cream cheese from the yogurt and made my own apple cider vinegar. We harvested that this past weekend because I got a bunch of apple scraps from one of my friend’s apple trees. We got a whole bunch of apples. We had tons of organic apples this fall, and then we had so many that I cut them up and let them ferment for four months. Now, we have our own apple cider vinegar. People are like, “I didn’t know you could do that.” I’m thinking, “Well, someone had to make these things. If you buy them in the grocery store, someone has to make them. Why can’t we make it?”

Today, I’m in the process of making my very own first sourdough bread. I had another podcast this morning, but I had, like, an hour and 20 minutes, and I went with my little one. He didn’t go to school today. I went to my friend’s house, and she gave me a starter. She taught me what to do and gave me a PDF of how to do it. It’s a very long process, but I’m sure it will be delicious because I’m very sensitive to gluten. But sourdough bread, I can do. Sometimes, cooking for my family is much healthier because I’m in control. I know what goes into it and use organic ingredients, so it’s great.

Think about where you have accounts online, such as banking and social media. That is part of your threat surface. Click To Tweet

And I also, during COVID, I went down, deep down, all the rabbit holes of what’s going on in Hollywood and conspiracy theories and even flat earth, all of it. I went down all those rabbit holes and don’t trust anybody anymore. But, God, I sound so jaded. It’s not true. I try to be more of a pollyanna and believe in the good of the world. I also believe that we dictate our reality, and what we project comes back to us.

That said, the world has a polarity of good and evil. And yet, when there is this polarity of good and evil, when the evil increases, which has the light increase, it’s like the yin-yang symbol. It’s always in some kind of balance and harmony. And if somebody is struggling with one password or any of this information, just go back to that philosophy and just take a deep breath and question your thinking and all that good stuff. But, yeah. So, at that time, I grew my very first watermelon. I’m very proud of it. I have a photo of me holding my big watermelon. I only got two and didn’t invest much in growing them. The second one was stolen by the gardener. We called him and said, “We saw you on the video. Bring it back.”

It’s so funny.

Find ways to protect your privacy and secure anything that you already have: any platforms, your computers, your applications, and everything like that.

It was really funny. Do you have any final tips on cybersecurity and how we can protect ourselves and our loved ones?

Going forward into the world with just a general philosophy is the best and healthiest way to do that—think, never trust, always verify, and assume breach. Assume that whatever you’re doing is already insecure, whatever platform is already insecure, and find ways to verify authenticity. Find ways to protect your privacy and secure anything that you already have: any platforms, your computers, your applications, and everything like that.

Well, I feel like we just touched the tip of the iceberg, and this thing is going so deep when it comes to protecting your intellectual property, your website, your email, and so many more things. So, hopefully, it will continue. I really appreciate your time. Can you share with us where people can find you?

You can find me on LinkedIn. My handle is Princess Leia, like Princess Leia from Star Wars. You can also find me on Facebook. My website is www.compliancyit.io

Okay, cool. I really appreciate your time. I appreciate you being a lioness mama, a huntress, and a go-getter. I appreciate you being such a hard-driven human and helping the world the way you do.

Thank you. It was such a pleasure talking to you, Orion.

Thank you, listeners. Remember never to trust, always verify, assume breach, find ways to protect your privacy, secure anything you have and have a stellar life. This is Orion. Till next time, thank you for joining.

Your Checklist of Actions to Take

{✓}Use a password manager app to create and store long, unique, complex passwords for every account. Popular options include 1Password, LastPass, KeePass and the ones built into browsers.

{✓}Enable two-factor or multi-factor authentication everywhere you can. This adds an extra layer of security beyond just a password.

{✓}Aim for passwords with a minimum of 15 characters, and 25 is even better. The longer the password, the harder it is to crack through brute-force attacks.

{✓}Don’t use dictionary words in your passwords. Substitute numbers and symbols for letters when possible and avoid obvious substitutions like changing “password” to “p@ssw0rd.”

{✓}Be cautious about sharing personal information or photos of children online. Once it’s posted, you lose control over where that content could end up.

{✓}Don’t trust digital content like videos or images – assume they could be manipulated. Rely only on firsthand accounts and trusted original sources.

{✓}Curate your social media feeds to limit negative influences. Unfollow accounts that promote misinformation, conspiracies, or unhealthy mindsets.

{✓}Get curious and question your thoughts before reacting emotionally online. Explore where that feeling is coming from with an unbiased perspective.

{✓}Approach the digital world with a “never trust, always verify, and assume breach” mindset. Verify identities and vet information from multiple trusted sources.

{✓}Follow Leia Kupris Shilobod on LinkedIn and Facebook and visit her website, www.compliancyit.io, if you want to work with her to fortify your digital defenses.