Unbelievably, or at least I’m still having trouble believing it, yesterday my wife and I were raided by the FBI.
Fortunately, we’re both still alive and well, if shaken up and thoroughly terrorized, as are our dogs. Our house, however, is a wreck, and they have taken essentially everything electronic that we had. Computers, phones, everything.
Why? As it was explained to me, the username which I have been using on Twitter, and everywhere else on the Internet (“cerebrate”, and variants) for over 20 years has also been used by the person responsible for the Redeemer ransomware. (see here: New Redeemer ransomware version promoted on hacker forums (bleepingcomputer.com) )
This, obviously, is a disaster for us, and I would like to beg your forgiveness, as this will obviously mean a lack of new content for a while. (Among the things they took were all my writing and worldbuilding notes, not to mention anything to write on, and it is doubtful whether I will ever see any of them again.)
Since I have no access to most of my accounts, I would appreciate it if those of you reading this could pass this message along to other readers who aren’t Patreon subscribers and to anyone else who knows me or might be interested in the situation.
For the moment, I can be reached at the gmail address post.cyber.apocalypse@gmail.com, and a friend has set up a GoFundMe for recovery and legal costs at:
Thank you all very much for your kindness.