This post by @fredwilson.eth came at an interesting time: https://avc.com/2023/05/the-freedom-to-innovate/

Over the weekend, I have found that something to my activities, presumably Quilibrium, has made me a person of interest. How do I know this? Buckle up, it's a very strange ride.

BDFL of Quilibrium, Eng @ Farcaster, ex-Coinbase, always opinionated, never hydrated

/quilibrium

I had been planning a weekend trip to LA with friends for a while. It was meant to be an engagement party for two of my friends, one of which was planning on proposing on the Santa Monica Pier. We initially hit some heavy weather delays that derailed my launch for phase two, which I planned on starting before we left.

After finally getting a new flight plan set up for a day later (and many very annoying interactions with American Airlines for their DFW screwup), I was able to get tickets through Southwest. Sort of. As it turns out, I was able to get tickets for everyone, but me.

What happened? I called Southwest, the agent on the other line said there was some kind of hold, specifically "probably some TSA thing".

wtf.jpg

But, she advised, I could talk to an agent at the airport to get my tickets issued. So I did. I was able to get my ticket, after I was questioned where I was going and why.

This sounded very familiar. @moxie was first clued in on shenanigans like this when he experienced something he described very similarly: https://www.cnet.com/news/privacy/security-researcher-i-keep-getting-detained-by-feds/

But, I got my ticket, so I was able to fly. Then things got weirder.

We got to the hotel and checked in. I opened my laptop to catch up on emails, and when I was pairing my laptop with my phone, I saw a peculiar SSID in the list of wireless networks – looked like a random garbage string.

Looking at the raw payload, it was very clear there was an endpoint nearby trying to do some kind of overflow attack. Could be mere coincidence that it was near me, but it persisted the entire time I was staying at the hotel. Nevertheless, my devices are kept up to date, locked down, and VPN'd.

But when we got back to the airport to go home, things got weird again – nearly all of our bags were randomly picked for screening, and while I wouldn't consider frequent gate changes to be suspect, I overheard the gate attendant answering a phone call confirming that "Cassandra Heart is checked in for this flight".

Did I mishear? Was I losing my mind? I tried to handwave it off as me just being overly paranoid due to the concordance of events, but for our second flight, which took us home, after I boarded, I got a phone call while at my seat, and others were still boarding.

A woman, claiming to be the gate attendant, but had a different sounding voice, asked me if I was on the plane. She said that she had forgotten to scan my ticket. This was weird because:

1. people were still boarding
2. it didn't sound like the gate attendant
3. I scanned my ticket.

But we made it home – I have a very particular setup for monitoring my home while away. Two of those lines of defenses is a long term UPS backup for internet connections and battery-connected cameras. It seems, while we were away, there was a power outage.

Peculiarly, this power outage happened exactly between snapshotting intervals of the cameras, and was not an area-wide outage. Additionally, my garage door was unlocked, which it was not when I had left.

I cannot explain what this all was, who was doing anything around this, or if they were all connected events, but I can say this was an incredible series of coincidences if they were not connected.

But I will refer back to Fred's statement:

"The most powerful technologies send waves of fear through the establishment."

And if it is in any way related, I will reaffirm: I will not back down, I will not shut up, I will assert my constitutional rights and help secure those rights for all on the web with Quilibrium.

And thankfully, plans weren’t all ruined — he got the girl ❤️

The raw payload of the SSID broadcast — there are tools to let you inspect these things, no connection required

wait, how did you look at the raw payload? means you were connected? you knew it was sus and you connected anyway out of curiosity?