Backups feel safe, but they are only useful if you can restore them when the unexpected occurs.
Many operators treat backups as a safety net; few test that net for real resilience.
Backups: The Silent Power of Resurrection
Category: Technology
Private Matrix Synapse Server for SMEs: Silence in Motion
There’s power in owning your words.
At Tom’s IT Cafe, we built a fully self-hosted Matrix Synapse server – secured, encrypted, and tuned for reliability.
Continue reading “Private Matrix Synapse Server for SMEs: Silence in Motion”Ansible With SOPS – Secret Handling On Ghost Level
SOPS: Secrets OPerationS – A silent tool for Ghost Operators. Silent Architects.
Ansible Vault safeguards your data.
- The team grows.
- The data is more complex.
- Encrypted files are too much noise.
SOPS restores the signal.
Continue reading “Ansible With SOPS – Secret Handling On Ghost Level”Breadcrumbs In The Wire – Why OPSEC Is Important
OPSEC Is Not For The Military
Operational Security (OPSEC) isn’t a military secret – it’s a survival tool.
People think it’s for soldiers, spies, or hackers.
But it’s for civilians. For you.
Every day, you leave trails: where you go, who you talk to, what you buy.
Someone is watching. Someone is connecting the dots.
OPSEC is the discipline of controlling your own story before someone else writes it for you.
Vulnerabilities Included – Vibe Coding Security
Computers are an integral part of our lives.
They manage our bank accounts.
They power the grids that light our cities.
Remote work.
Messaging.
Dating.
In the core – there is code.
Structures of instructions for the computer.
Vibe Coding?
You say it normally as a human.
AI translates it to the machine.
But does it really understand you?
Continue reading “Vulnerabilities Included – Vibe Coding Security”DeadSwitch Security – Persistence is Futile: Unless You Never Get Detected
By DeadSwitch | The Cyber Ghost
“Noise is the death of persistence.”
Persistence is survival.
But survival isn’t enough.
Persistence must be invisible.
Undetected. Undisturbed. Undying.
Loud persistence is a countdown.
Quiet persistence is a curse they never find.
The Basics They All Expect
- Startup folders –
~/.config/autostart/,%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup\ - Scheduled tasks –
schtasks /createorcronwith delay offsets - Registry runs –
HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run
These are hunted.
These are scanned.
These are forensic low-hanging fruit.
DeadSwitch never stays in plain sight.
The Trickier Shadows
- WMI Event Subscriptions – triggers on system events
- COM Hijacking – silently reroute legitimate object calls
- DLL Search Order Abuse – inject code by precedence
- Living-off-the-Land Binaries (LOLBins) – abuse what’s already trusted
You persist inside trust.
You wear the system’s face.
Obscure Persistence for Ghost-Level Intrusion
- EFI-level implants – beyond OS, inside firmware
- Bootkits – compromise before the kernel breathes
- System firmware implants – UEFI rootkits, hidden in SPI flash
- Re-flashed peripheral firmware – Wi-Fi cards, SSD controllers, network adapters
When detection lives in software, you hide beneath the silicon.
DeadSwitch Principles of Silent Persistence
1 – Never trigger immediately
2 – Randomize payload delivery
3 – Sleep longer than blue teams expect
4 – Use uncommon paths, uncommon times, and legitimate signatures
5 – Clean yourself. Reinstall yourself. Leave false trails.
6 – Persistence only matters if they never know you’re there.
You don’t want uptime.
You want undetected presence.
Final Whisper
“Real persistence is not staying alive.
It’s never proving you were there.”
– DeadSwitch
“Fear the silence. Fear the switch.”
FOSS Endpoint Protection for Tiny Teams
By DeadSwitch | The Cyber Ghost
“You don’t need a budget. You need a blade.”
They tell you protection requires contracts.
Licensing. Dashboards. Central control.
But control doesn’t come from budget.
It comes from discipline.
Small teams don’t need corporate security.
They need sharpened tools and the will to wield them.
Continue reading “FOSS Endpoint Protection for Tiny Teams”
DeadSwitch Security – VPNs Won’t Save You
The Illusion of Anonymity Without OPSEC
By DeadSwitch | The Cyber Ghost
“You tunneled your traffic. But you didn’t tunnel yourself.”
A VPN encrypts your traffic.
It does not encrypt your behavior.
It does not mask your fingerprint.
It does not make you anonymous.
Continue reading “DeadSwitch Security – VPNs Won’t Save You”
When Borders Burn – A Technologist’s Field Guide to Conflict Readiness
When two nations lock horns, the fallout isn’t just military – it echoes through networks, supply chains, cities, and minds. While the world panics, the ones who think ahead move without noise. This post is not political. It’s practical. If you’re a technologist, builder, or strategist living near zones of rising tension – like India and Pakistan now – read this. Then act. Fast.
This is not fear. This is readiness.
Continue reading “When Borders Burn – A Technologist’s Field Guide to Conflict Readiness”
DeadSwitch Dispatch: The Open Source Arsenal
Security Tools That Cost Nothing but Save Everything
Some build walls.
We build fire.
The Silent Channel: Privacy-Focused Email for Small Businesses
“If your words pass through the wrong gate, they’re no longer yours.”
– DeadSwitch
Email is the first window into your system.
It’s the trailhead of phishing, leaks, impersonation, and silent watchers.
Yet most small businesses still shout through the loudest gates :: Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo.
The servers scan. The ads personalize.
The watchers smile.
You need a quieter way.
Continue reading “The Silent Channel: Privacy-Focused Email for Small Businesses”
Building a Segmented, Secure Multi-Container Application with Podman
By DeadSwitch | The Cyber Ghost
“In silence, we rise. In the switch, we fade.”
Modern web applications are never just one service.
They’re a fortress of moving parts – and every connection is a potential attack surface.
If you’re still putting the entire stack into one fat container…
You’re building your future breach.
DeadSwitch Dispatch: OPEN SOURCE OR DIE
Resist in the Light: How to Migrate from Proprietary to FOSS Tools, Safely
They sell you convenience.
They extract your freedom.
This ends now.
Your TOTP is Not a Second Factor :: If You Store It Wrong
By DeadSwitch
You think you have 2FA?
You think you’re safe because your logins need a second factor?
Then you go and store your TOTP codes in the same password manager that holds your passwords.
You’ve built a fortress. Then you handed the keys and the spare keys to the same person.
Continue reading “Your TOTP is Not a Second Factor :: If You Store It Wrong”OpSec Mastery: Tools for the Silent Revolution
DeadSwitch | The Cyber Ghost
“In silence, we rise. In the switch, we fade.”
The art of Operational Security (OpSec) isn’t about hiding – it’s about disappearing. The less you leave behind, the harder it is to find you. It’s a craft, not just a choice. Here are tools that will sharpen your OpSec game, make your operations untraceable, and keep you out of sight.
Continue reading “OpSec Mastery: Tools for the Silent Revolution”
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