How Online Dating Made Me Better At Threat Modeling

A presentation at OWASP Appsec Tel Aviv 2019 in in Tel Aviv-Yafo, Israel by Isaiah Sarju

Isaiah has used online dating sites such as Tinder and OkCupid. At times this seems antithetical to his stance on privacy and security. To better understand the security ramifications of online dating, and to establish safer methods of doing it, he applied threat modeling to online dating. Through this he came up with a set of best practices depending on your threat model. This talk is relevant for anyone who is trying to balance privacy/security and a desire for human connection in this modern world. Due to the real and perceived dangers of online dating, the stigma that surrounds it, and the pervasiveness of it, it is a great lens through which folks can be introduced to the core principles of threat modeling. It also makes it fun to talk about!

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