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Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

nytimes.com

251–260 of 635 posts

Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#251
post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In the SV tech community, Dropbox, Uber, Snapchat, Spotify, AirBnB, Lyft, Netflix, Pinterest, Robinhood to name several. Outside the tech community, probably Amazon, Microsoft, and Instagram (most people don't know Facebook owns Instagram).

Why is there a difference between inside and outside the tech community?

The economic success, brand awareness, and hipness of a company with the general public is only somewhat correlated with average level of engineering talent at a company. Different successful companies take different approaches to hiring - some focus on hiring a lot of reasonably competent engineers, while others focus on only hiring the best (and generally pay them a lot).

Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#253

Said this yesterday in the other Facebook thread, and I'll say it again. Working for Facebook is a morally bankrupt position. If you are an engineer you have plenty of job opportunities available to you and there is no excuse for you to continue contributing your labor and time to a wholly malignant organization. At a certain point one has to ask how we as an industry will start dealing with those who continue to tak…

So is working at Google, Amazon and probably 90% of the big corps of the world in many sectors - from oil to finance to pharmaceutical to telecommunications and so on. And we can include the government. If you're a subcontrator or sold in body rental (modern IT slavery) you're also in the same position as an employee, so you're enabling their evils. Also, if one of those companies is a client of your company you're also enabling them (or a client of a client of your company? How many layers of separation should exist between you and Walmart before you stop being an accomplice in enabling their abuse of workers?).

Your point? Should we stop working in IT and go back to the fields?

Also, I fear that HN somewhat forgets the world is not SF, in Europe going to work for Facebook/Google/Amazon is a enormous bump (we're speaking 2-4x) of salary for many people, which in some cases means you can buy an house after 3-4 years even with the crazy rents back in your home country - and that's HUGE. Why should those people spend their time slaving as a subcontractor for yet another TLC/bank trying to squeeze their customers dry at the first occasion while getting 25% the salary and zero benefits? Are those less evil?

What needs to happen is that people keep applying pressure so facebook is forced to adapt its business model even if it hits their bottom line - which is already happening apparently.

Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#254

The security update was written by.. a VP of product management[1]. I would have thought they'd have a bigger bench for their security team. [1] https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/09/security-update/

Like a dedicated security UI person? Or a security writer? What kind of role are you imagining?

I'd expect a notification about a breach to come from

* CSO * VP of security * CEO/CTO

Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#255

Said this yesterday in the other Facebook thread, and I'll say it again. Working for Facebook is a morally bankrupt position. If you are an engineer you have plenty of job opportunities available to you and there is no excuse for you to continue contributing your labor and time to a wholly malignant organization. At a certain point one has to ask how we as an industry will start dealing with those who continue to tak…

I've got several infosec friends at Facebook right now, all new hires, trying to preserve our democracy from attacks. I don't consider them morally bankrupt at all.

Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#256

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What you call being "excited about working at 12am" I call "accepting being a corporate slave".

I don't think you can so glibly dismiss enthusiasm as Stockholm syndrome. Passionate people push the world forward, and mocking passion is a recipe for mediocrity and stagnation.

I think I see the disconnect. Yes, passionate people move the world forward, but that's not every person, or every coder, or even every Facebook employee. Plenty of engineers just want to make a steady paycheck and live their comfortable life outside of work.

If Facebook's a grind, then that's something the employee has to figure out.

Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#257
post #28

On the one hand, every time another scandal or breach is revealed about centralized networks, I want to post this and have everyone recognize the root problem and the solution: https://Qbix.com (see the video) On the other hand, I feel like I’m shamelessly promoting/shilling my own company. How to do it in a classy way? I really believe that there is a problem people are not recognizing enough to do something about i…

I wish you all the best but it boggles my mind as to why engineer types tend to think decentralized versions of exceptionally popular consumer platforms will ever take off.

Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally understand, instead you can use WhatsApp Or Instagram has great messaging, and if you’re brave oculus can do great VR chat!

Thanks! VR chat looks like the wild west, not sure if I'm ready for that.

I suspect they were being facetious - every option in that list is owned by Facebook.

Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#259

Recently talked to 2 friends working for fb. According to them, the culture there is very toxic. For a master's degree, once get in, you need to get promoted in 22 months (I might misremember the actual number.) or you will have to leave. Debugging is never counted as a real work, so for quick promotion, nobody wants to solve bugs unless a bug becomes too obvious. And they also complained about no work-life balance.…

What, exactly, is wrong with the expectation that people make senior level eventually? What exactly is wrong with being able to work at any time? I worked there for years, and if I was landing code at 12am, it was because I was excited about what I was doing. It was wonderful being able to work with people from all over the world on high-impact projects, and fixing important bugs was definitely high-impact. People wh…

Either you were excited about what you were doing or you got an 11pm page from chuckr and consequently had a lingering doubt about your expected lifespan...

Re: Facebook Network Breach Impacts Up to 50M Users

#260

Said this yesterday in the other Facebook thread, and I'll say it again. Working for Facebook is a morally bankrupt position. If you are an engineer you have plenty of job opportunities available to you and there is no excuse for you to continue contributing your labor and time to a wholly malignant organization. At a certain point one has to ask how we as an industry will start dealing with those who continue to tak…

Some of my favorite and most ethical friends work everyday at FB to protect against these kinds of attacks and others. You're making an incredibly global statement about an organization where a more tailored statement would carry your water a lot better.
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