Grant Winney

Security

Security. A game of cat and mouse.

Why do I need to install an extension just to copy/paste?

Why do I need to install an extension just to copy/paste?

I was creating a document in Office365 the other day - something I've done a hundred times - but when I tried to paste with their custom right-click menu I was greeted with a popup telling me to download a browser addon. Well, that's weird.

Why am I getting a "Please complete the security check" error?

Why am I getting a "Please complete the security check" error?

I visited a page the other day and saw something odd.. a page that said it was checking my browser. It's unpolished and unfriendly, and my first instinct was to just close the tab and forget it. Then I dropped to the bottom of the page and noticed the link to Cloudflare. Interesting.

Create a TOTP 2FA code for your app

Create a TOTP 2FA code for your app

I use 2FA on every site that supports it, but I'd never given much thought to how a 2FA code is generated. Let's learn how!

What is minification vs obfuscation?

What is minification vs obfuscation?

Mozilla announced they'll no longer accept extensions with obfuscated code. It's good news for users, maybe not so much for developers. Obfuscated code is (intentionally) nearly impossible to understand, and could easily be malicious. Let's unpack and break down a few concepts.

Protect your GitHub account to keep your code secure

Protect your GitHub account to keep your code secure

GitHub, GitLab, and Bitbucket just released a joint statement on a widespread ransomware attack that resulted in compromised accounts. That got me thinking, what can a person do to protect his or her code on GitHub? As it turns out, a lot...

A look at the many ways APIs can authorize access

A look at the many ways APIs can authorize access

After writing about so many APIs and having to figure out the auth process for each, I wanted to compare and contrast how some of these services approach authentication and authorization, and why they might've decided to do it the way they did.