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Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

bbc.com

101–110 of 220 posts

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#101
post #75

Isn't the automatic reaction of a Windows desktop/laptop user to lock their workstation (Ctrl-Alt-Del, Enter, Enter) if they leave for any reason? Edit: that was a great Chaos Monkey to reiterate security hygiene. Or was it a Mini Chaos Monkey? https://netflix.github.io/chaosmonkey/

My Mac takes so long to come back to a usable state after sleep that I only lock when I’ll be away for a long period of time.

Is there a power setting that makes it not suspend when it's idle? I'm not sure about MacOS, but on my Linux desktop there's a toggle in the power settings to make turn that behavior off, so I can lock my screen without having to worry about suddenly losing the ability to ssh into it.

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#102

"Nuclear agency" makes it sound like the NRC or DoE. This was U.S. Strategic Command, i.e. the nuclear weapons agency.

... who left their computers unlocked?! Shouldn’t someone be raked over the coals for leaving a computer unlocked at an agency like that, even if it was just their marketing department?

There are toddlers running amok in government! At least this time we're not talking about the President

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#103
post #96
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a wholesome response! For most companies and organizations, this is absolutely understandable. WFH is challenging, and balancing childcare even more so. In this case, though, it begs the question - why does US Strategic Command even have a Twitter account? Are they going to post fun and engaging tweets about the nuclear football? Twitter seems like something this agency should not be doing.

I can see orgs like this making social media accounts just to claim the space/username and prevent squatters or false messaging. As for why would e.g. US Strategic Command ever need to actually post something? I'm at a loss to be honest.

If they collaborated with Russian Strategic Command to re-enact the Zero Wing meme, it would be comedy gold. Beyond that, no clue

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#104
post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What a wholesome response! For most companies and organizations, this is absolutely understandable. WFH is challenging, and balancing childcare even more so. In this case, though, it begs the question - why does US Strategic Command even have a Twitter account? Are they going to post fun and engaging tweets about the nuclear football? Twitter seems like something this agency should not be doing.

I think the culture of being engaged with the public is more of a good thing than a bad thing, regardless of how 'useful' it is.

Personally, I think my brain gets tired of having to filter non-stop PR. Actual engagement would be fantastic though so as much as that exists I’d claim provides a good potential.

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... who left their computers unlocked?! Shouldn’t someone be raked over the coals for leaving a computer unlocked at an agency like that, even if it was just their marketing department?

Oh please. This is a social media manager who’s working from home that we’re talking about here. On the basis of these facts alone I can be relatively confident that the U.S. nuclear posture wasn’t seriously in jeopardy.

On the other hand, if the child had been a little bit older and thought it would be funny to tweet, "we have launched a nuclear strike on North Korea," or something, I'd imagine that we might be looking at this differently.

I don't blame the social media person, but I am pretty surprised that the US Strategic Command allows their Twitter account to be operated from an insecure location.

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#107

Isn't the automatic reaction of a Windows desktop/laptop user to lock their workstation (Ctrl-Alt-Del, Enter, Enter) if they leave for any reason? Edit: that was a great Chaos Monkey to reiterate security hygiene. Or was it a Mini Chaos Monkey? https://netflix.github.io/chaosmonkey/

Most computers I've seen on government networks use a smart card to sign in (I'm sure it depends on which government network).

Pull the smart card out, and the device locks. Most people do a good job of taking the card with them, from what I've seen. Although it can be a pain in the ass when you have to resize windows or enter the card pin ~3 times to get logged back in.

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

... who left their computers unlocked?! Shouldn’t someone be raked over the coals for leaving a computer unlocked at an agency like that, even if it was just their marketing department?

Oh please. This is a social media manager who’s working from home that we’re talking about here. On the basis of these facts alone I can be relatively confident that the U.S. nuclear posture wasn’t seriously in jeopardy.

This is a genuine question, I'm really curious. What if the kid typed something that implies "US is firing nukes to {insert random non-Western country}". What is the probability of something like that escalating?

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#110

Isn't the automatic reaction of a Windows desktop/laptop user to lock their workstation (Ctrl-Alt-Del, Enter, Enter) if they leave for any reason? Edit: that was a great Chaos Monkey to reiterate security hygiene. Or was it a Mini Chaos Monkey? https://netflix.github.io/chaosmonkey/

Here's the thing: sometimes the lock screen on Windows 10 doesn't work and you can get back to the desktop simply by swiping up even when you think you should have to re-enter your password or PIN. Note that I have face ID disabled because I got really fed up of my computer unlocking itself just because I'd gone back to my desk to pick up something I'd forgotten when I locked it and walked away. This always seemed in…

By default it locks five minutes after the screen goes black. Is that what you're talking about?
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