Keeping the Leopard at Bay: Digital Safety in the Age of AI
When I reflect on my father’s conception of the world, it is with strong envy. He had clear ideas about truth and falsehood that strengthened him in World War Two during the Crusade in Europe, fighting as an army scout.
In my time, truth claws to stay on the circumference in the sky of knowledge. We face a tsunami of misinformation, half-truths, deception, and traps to ensnare our thoughts and personal data. The Leopard remains ever present, Dante’s symbol of fraud and malice in the Inferno.
Keeping the Leopard away from our sensitive information and our lives requires ever expanding vigilance. Navigating these difficult waters requires technical understanding and healthy skepticism. Fortunately, information security methods offer guideposts to a safer harbor. This work provides a soft approach to learning the craft of self-protection, a Virgil, yielding plain-spoken advice.
AI threatens new challenges to our digital comfort. Falsehoods enjoy enhancements in deepfakes, in tailored phishing attacks, and in remarkable research capabilities for attackers. Fortunately, countermeasures exist to aid in defense. Diligence, determination, and a love of truth, however, hold essential in their daily use.
The Leopard will be with us , albeit our best efforts. But with insight, we can stay clear of the predator’s ravenous intent. That is this work’s great hope.