Welcome to 2026!!! I want to wish all of my readers a very Happy New Year as we embrace this fresh start and the promise of a beautiful new beginning.

I am so excited for what’s ahead, and I’m making a promise to myself and to you to share much more on this blog throughout the coming months.

Thank you for being part of my journey! Let’s make this year our best one yet!

I know for a fact I wouldn’t be standing here, without the incredible people in my life. To my family and friends: thank you from the bottom of my heart for being my steady ground. Whether you were there for a late-night calls, a much-needed laugh, a shared lunch, dinner or merienda or a helping hand when things got overwhelming, your support meant everything to me. You made the highs higher and the lows much easier to navigate.

As the clock counts down to 2026, I’m carrying all that love and gratitude with me.

Goodbye 2025!!!

Happy New Year everyone! I can’t wait to see what’s next for all of us!

It’s been a long time since I posted here at menardconnect.com.

I missed blogging a lot so get ready to dive down the rabbit hole! In the near future, this blog will explore the fascinating intersection of social media, artificial intelligence, and information security.

Speaking of AI, I brainstormed with my AI overlords for catchy blog title ideas and OMG!! I was amazed that the overlords came up with clever titles. See samplers below:

• Bye Birdie, Hello Karma: Why I Traded Twitter for the Wild West of Reddit
• Can a Robot Say Happy Birthday Better Than Me? A Hilarious Experiment with AI Greetings
• Is That Text Legit? Cracking the Code of SMS Scams (and Protecting Your Info)

And now I am worried if my AI overlords will take over my content too

So stay tuned for those upcoming posts!

Hacked? Compromised? PH Govt entity? What’s new? Hehehe

The crypto related tweet sent on April 22, 2023 (tweet active as of posting this article, 1.3M views and counting, 500+ RTs,  1.1K QTs wow ha!)

eth should honestly pump to $4000 by next month.

the doh will pump it ?

— Department of Health Philippines (@DOHgovph) April 22, 2023

Tweet Link here

DOH gave some vague explanation, but my menardconnect translation = they are lying and this is just some lame excuse

DOH ADVISORY

Please be informed that the due to a technical glitch in Twitter, which was also experienced by some entities and organizations globally, the Department of Health’s (DOH) official twitter account was renamed to “Vela Exchange” for a short period.

— Department of Health Philippines (@DOHgovph) April 22, 2023

Tweet link here

Why a lame excuse? They have not cleaned up the “compromised” tweet so they are not in control here . Hello po! Linis muna bago promo-han dyan sa twitter

Here is my tweet about it:

“Technical glitch in Twitter” + “Also experienced by some entities and organizations globally” = Excuses!!! The fact na hindi nyo pa rin nabubura yung tweets nyo about crypto means hindi nyo pa rin na-sesecure twitter account nyo @DOHgovph https://t.co/7b37ckWmT6

— Menard Osena (@Menardconnect) April 24, 2023

Its just sad that a government agency can blatantly LIE (and get away with it) here in twitter (but ever since elnoskum took over this birdsite this seems to be the trend/direction of the site). Hope DICT help their sister department in this #infosec #security related incident and cleanup! Will add more thoughts on this soon…

Just letting you all know that I am on Mastodon too You can reach me there at @menardconnect@infosec.exchange

Why? There is some major turbulence in the bird app so its a good move to have an alternative social media app. So why not Mastodon right?

I’m still learning the ropes there so please be patient with me and wish me luck too.

Even in the bird app I was once a noob pala look oh my 2009 post

Again follow me there at @menardconnect@infosec.exchange

or visit https://infosec.exchange/@menardconnect

and click Follow

Message me there in Mastodon and let us both expand our social networks!!!

Until next post…

Our featured SMS SPAM for today is the Lets play bingo my friend SPAM. I got this sms spam several times today Lets play bingo my friend, Bingocards is only P1 and P40 for free, What are you waiting for? Install and Cash IN now & win up to 5.7M!

linky.XX/BingoXXYY-ZZZ

Spammer sender numbers include the following numbers:

• +63 946 369 6607
• +63 981 342 2645
• +63 920 378 3410

These messages are also suspicious because I don’t play bingo on my phone. I also did not subscribe to any bingo game online so these are unsolicited text message spam. Currently I still cannot pinpoint where did the spammer got my number but I have some suspicions and will post them some other time (maybe when I have many sms spam post already). For now I’m ignoring them and sharing this post as a public service

Do you also get lots of SMS Spam? if yes, please feel free to leave some comments below.

Text message is like the ff below:

Hi, I’m a Shopee hiring
manager and I’m currently
hiring a part-time team.
Wages are paid daily. You
can work from home and
earn between 1,000 and
50,000 pesos a day. The
job is simple and can be
done anytime, anywhere.
To apply for a job, click on
the Whatsapp:
+6399524130xx
(Note: Applicants must
be at least 20 years old,
students cannot
participate)

This one is basically an iMessage spam that lures future victims by promising that they will earn big amount of money! Just contact them daw via whatsapp (using different PH based mobile numbers) to

1,000 to 50,000 pesos per day is a lot of money so this one plays the the “Greed is good” card so please be careful and don’t put your trust easily.

Sender is usually random number/name using free email (outlook, QQ.com or gmail.com or other other free email service provider)

For now I will tag them as SMS Spam because they are unsolicited message but I am doing some research to see if I can tag it as SMS Scam too (and maybe get some insights on where did they get our number/imessage accts)

Other sample SMS spam images are below (with whatsapp (wa.me/contactnumber) link

Are you getting these annoying sms spam too?

Please leave your comment below and share to us your experiences.

And today I just received one nasty SMS/text message that is worthy of seeking legal advise (Article 282, Revised Penal Code level po ) and to turn this annoying text messages experience into a positive one, I’m gonna be blogging about them as public service announcement like my previous years SMS Scam posts.

Background:
Me mga tanong sa high school FB chatgroup ko about Google Trends at sa post ni Sen. Kiko Pangilinan tungkol sa latest Google Trends at PH 2022 Election (shoutout na rin ito sa mga Mascian batchmates ko ). Sinubukan ko sagutin ang mga tanong nila (re: Google Trends at PH election correlation) at pinost ko ang sagot sa FB ko pero limited audience. Useful daw sabi ng mga HS batchmates so posting it here sa Menardconnect.com.

This is a reaction post sa info na posted sa page ni Sen Kiko:

Image Credits: Sen. Kiko Pangilinan FB page

Overall, This is good news!!! Ibig sabihin nito mas mataas ang searches at engagements related to Leni at Kiko (versus the competition) via Google. Ibig sabihin mas maraming naghananap ng information about Leni at Kiko. Mas maraming search mas maraming interesado sa kandidato.

Ano ba yang Google Trends na yan?
Google Trends shows how popular yung term na sinearch mo sa Google. Mas maraming nagsearch, mas mataas sa Google Trends. Google Trends will also show data/statistics about the search term (example: related topics at related search queries). Kaya rin himayin ni Google kung saang country/geographic area/language yung search. At dahil Google dominates the search engine market (90+% market share) with estimated more than 3.5 million searches per day (noong 2021 ito) this is really helpful data sa election.

Si Google Trends merong good data/insights about the PH Elections (ito yung source cited sa post ni Sen Kiko Pangilinan sa taas)

Ano ibig sabihin nyan?

Try ko i-explain as simple as possible kung paano ba yang Google Trends na yan (pano nag wo-work, ano scope, etc):

Google always collect yung mga sini-search natin na terms/words (pag nag search ka via PC or phone/ internet browser or App) at pag marami ang nagse-search nung term na yun, malalagay sya sa Google Trends (trending/sikat na yung “term” na hinahanap mo).

For the sake of illustration here is a very simple example.
Halimbawa: meron 1000 na tao na nagsearch sa google at tig-iisang search lang na related sa PH Presidential candidate for that period of time, makukuha natin yung percentage ng nagsearch. Like sa Presidentiables:

Image Credits: Google Trends

Ang simple explanation nito ay:

• 550 ang nagsearch ke Leni,
• 240 ke MarcosJr,
• 100 ke Isko,
• 80 ke Pacquiao,
• 30 ke Lacson

Mas complex yan sa totoong buhay kase marami yung data ni Google (over 3.5 million searches per day nga di ba?) at marami pang ibang datapoint ang pagkukuhaan at i-correlate ni Google (IP addresses, browser, geo location, cookies, atbp.)

Does that translate to peoples’ preference to vote for a particular candidate?
Highly possible. Me mga research sa US (at sa ibang bansa pa), na Google Trends is aligned sa voter’s reference/election results/prediction (see sample research here).

As of writing, sa Pilipinas wala pa akong nakikita at na-analyze na research na ganito (or baka nde ko pa lang nakikita/nababasa). Pero dahil halos same lang naman ang pag-function ng internet searches sa buong mundo, this is highly possible sa Pilipinas setting.

Note: Highly possible ha at hindi absolute na yan ang mangyayari. (see my list of caveats sa dulo ng post)

Bakit ginagawa ito ng Google?

Isa po sa major business ng Google ay ang online advertisement (Online Ads, Google Adsense, oo yung mga nakikita mong ads sa mga websites) so meron silang napalalaking at napakalawak na data about Google searches (Big data ang tawag po dito). Google shares this data together with other insights via Google Trends. 

Pwede bang i-maninipulate yang data na yan?

Say mag search ako ng 1000 times about Candidate X, tataas ba ranking ni Candidate X sa Google Trends?

Theoretically possible, pero mahirap ito i-manipulate. Bakit? Sa aking opinyon kase e magaling si Google (vs. you). Why?
1. Alam ni Google kung ano yung organic (legit na search) vs automated/suspicious/fraudulent na search (core business po nila ang internet Search)
2. Maraming data points/factors ang kinoconsider si Google bago nila ilagay sa Google Trends
3. Gumagamit si Google ng Machine Learning (ML) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) para maanalyze ito ng maayos
4. Google Search data is considered BIG DATA. Big data refers to data sets that are too large or complex to be dealt with by traditional data-processing application software.

Sure ka ba sa pinagsasabi mong explanation sa taas Menard?
Guys and gals, USD 147 Billion ang revenue ng Google Ads nung Y2020 (source), pag ganyang kalaki value/revenue poprotektahan yan ni Google kase nga cash cow nila yan. Malaking pera ang mawawala sa kanila pag yan e namanipulate lang ng basta basta.

Ok balik naman tayo PH 2022 Election connection nya.

Hindi lang sya (Google Trends) ang basehan, pero isang good indicator ito. Pero syempre hindi ito fool proof.

Naglista ako ng mga caveats (warning/disclaimer/reminder) about Google Trends in relation sa PH 2022 Election:
1. Take note Google Trends is all about Google Search data. Hindi kasama si Facebook. At malaki ang share ni FB sa internet time/consumption ng mga Pinoy.
2. Malaking data yung Facebook Search and Insights (c/o FB/Meta ibang kumpanya po ito at hindi under Google). Pero hindi ako sure kung meron ganitong data na available (publicly at free) si Facebook.

3. On Facebook data. Proven na na-mamanipulate ito ng mga bad actors (Kaway kaway daw tayo kila Cambridge Analytica (CA)). Tapos _HINDI_ readily accessible/ hindi open yung FB data sa lahat (Google Trends data is more accessible imho).

4. In my observation: Yung Google Search Data mabilis nilang nacocorrect/rectify (ng Google) kase me vested interest si Google na dapat malinis ang google searches and results (against fraud, blackhat SEO, illegal products na bawal sa adsense, etc). Bakit? kase malaking financial loss sa Google pag namanipulate yung results na yan.

5. Ang kaibahan nitong Google Trends sa Facebook data (as the Cambridge Analytica incident showed us) matagal sila (FB) mag-ayos at maglinis ng data, at minsan mas like nila na manipulated (or pedeng ma-manipulate) yung data kase mas malaki ang kita nila dun.

6. Internet penetration/user base/usage priority sa Pinas. Hindi pa rin lahat ng Filipino voters ay mayroong good internet access. At kung me internet access man, ginagamit kaya natin ito sa research/google search? (Imho: baka mauuna muna mag Facebook, Tiktok at games  (priority ng paggamit ng internet) ang mga normal user PH user, tapos yung research at google searching nasa dulo ng priority).

Sa ganang akin, hindi pa tapos ang laban, need nating magtulungan at i-convert itong search, click at engagements na ito sa actual na BOTO sa Mayo 9.

Kagaya ng sinabi ni Sen. Kiko Pangilinan sa page nya  “LET’S TURN SEARCH AND CLICKS INTO VOTES!”

IPANALO NA NATIN ITO!

In my honest opinion, isang indicator lang ang Google Trends and this is positive at good news para sa ating mga #Kakampinks. Pero huwag tayong kampante. Tuloy tuloy pa rin dapat ang efforts sa campaign hanggang sa dulo.

Tandaan: Ang ating presidente: LENI ROBREDO!!! Bise Presidente: KIKO PANGILINAN!!!

#LeniKiko2022
#LeniKikoAllTheWay
#SaGobyernongTapatAngatBuhayLahat
#10LeniRobredo
#7KikoPangilinanVicePresident

References:

• https://www.facebook.com/officialkikopangilinan/posts/556491882503364
• https://websitebuilder.org/blog/how-many-google-searches-per-day-are-there/
• https://www.researchgate.net/publication/347183968_Google_Trends_as_a_Predictor_of_Presidential_Elections_The_United_States_Versus_Canada
• https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/18/how-does-google-make-money-advertising-business-breakdown-.html
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_data
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Facebook%E2%80%93Cambridge_Analytica_data_scandal
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cambridge_Analytica

Maybe I will do a 2nd part post containing my open letter response too Again be aware and don’t be a victim.