The Vigil
Click a topic. Each piece is a note, a video, or both.
Smart home
Networks, cameras, hubs, and the devices that run the house.
Aug 10, 2026 · Note
Guest WiFi is not optional
If visitors use the same network as your cameras and laptops, they can see more than the doorbell app. Most homes never split this. The kids’ friends, the plumb…
Aug 6, 2026 · Note
The camera you forgot
Cloud cameras keep working after you stop thinking about them. The app is still signed in. The video still goes to a vendor you picked two years ago. The email…
Family
Kids, guests, and the tools already in the kitchen.
Aug 12, 2026 · Note
The chatbot in the bedroom
States spent 2026 writing laws about companion chatbots and kids. Idaho, Oregon, and Washington already require operators to stop bots from claiming they are hu…
Aug 8, 2026 · Note
You cannot supervise what you cannot see
More than one family this year found out about a companion app only after a crisis. The pattern is the same. The child used it late. The parents had never heard…
Aug 4, 2026 · Note
Default to the strict setting
The new family account bills in Congress want the safest settings on by default for anyone under thirteen. That is the right instinct even if the bill never bec…
Business
Small teams, shops, and the work that cannot wait.
Aug 11, 2026 · Note
Ransomware is a small shop problem
People still think ransomware is for hospitals and pipelines. The data says the opposite. When a small business gets breached, ransomware is in the mix far more…
Aug 7, 2026 · Note
The email that sounds like you
AI made phishing cheap and fluent. Staff now get notes that sound like the owner, the bookkeeper, or the general contractor. The grammar is fine. The urgency is…
Aug 3, 2026 · Note
Stop pasting the job into the bot
This year a well known cloud company had to explain how an employee connected a third party AI tool to the company inbox. The tool had more permission than it n…
Cyber
Remote access, quiet holes, and what to fix first.
Aug 13, 2026 · Note
The box on the wall is the door
Verizon’s 2026 breach report said something that should change how you think about remote access. For the first time in nineteen years, exploiting a hole beat s…
Aug 9, 2026 · Note
Remote access you forgot you had
Most small networks have more ways in than the owner thinks. TeamViewer from a job three years ago. A router “cloud” account. A camera vendor who can still reac…
Aug 5, 2026 · Note
Patch the appliance first
People still start their Saturday updates on laptops. Start on the boxes that face the internet. Firewall, VPN, and any device with a public address get the ven…
AI
What to put in a model, and what never to put in.