Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account • Hacker News Board

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#141

Post by NovemberWhiskey » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 9:00 PM UTC

gnulinux wrote: post #109

NovemberWhiskey wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

Escalating in a 'national security relevant' way? Basically none, I would think.

Bear in mind we're talking about the same Twitter that only last year lost control of an administrator account resulting in a Bitcoin scam tweeted from one former U.S. President and one future one.

It would be embarrassing, but yeah that's it.

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#142

Post by scarecrowbob » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 9:01 PM UTC

jeffreyrogers wrote: post #116

I don't see how this is as big a deal as people make it out to be. The person in charge of this account probably has nothing to do with anything that remotely matters. You wouldn't worry about your 401k if the asset manager's twitter account posted some gibberish.

I do some work for gov website that is more or less a PR blog.

Although you can't do anything to the systems that this agency deals with via the back end to this website, the scope of abuses that someone could engage in if they had these credentials is quite broad, ranging from "Agency XYZ endorses PQR" to "Agency XYZ will begin action against LMN".

Or, if you can't see the implications of that ability, consider that there's an entire cult of folks in the US that has some pretty questionable beliefs based on the mere assertion of "clearance" by an anon poster on a chan board... imagine how damaging it would be if those assertions could be "demonstrated" via an agency account?

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#143

Post by whoisthemachine » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 9:04 PM UTC

lostmsu wrote: post #119

ziddoap wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Isn't the automatic reaction of a Windows desktop/laptop user to lock their workstation Having attempted to encourage this as a habit for my users for about a year, and not a single one doing it, I've had to come up with other solutions that takes it out of their hands. (It's not business-critical for us, however we try to encourage good security habits all around). So no, I don't think it is an automatic reaction f…

Windows had "Dynamic lock" for a while now, which would automatically lock PC when a Bluetooth device goes out of range (e.g. typically smartphone or smartwatch). Can't it be required by a group policy?

It also has a timed lock, which I have seen applied as a group policy.

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#144

Post by mzkply » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 9:13 PM UTC

mudetroit wrote: post #140

I keep wondering why the US Strategic Command needs a social media presence. Is that just me?

They're a large organization like any other and need HR, finance... and comms teams to announce decisions, policy changes, etc.

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#145

Post by sp332 » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 9:13 PM UTC

fireeyed wrote: post #134

Why does every US Government agency needs a Twatter account ? There is a whole agency with in these agencies called Public Relations that have been in existence since WWII. They have websites that cost million of $$ to build and maintain. The imbeciles who man the US Military playing with their twatter accounts. I could only arrive at one conclusion: Too much tax payer money wasted on hiring extra imbeciles to run th…

Yeah, the Twitter account manager made the tweet.

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#146

Post by bartread » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 9:18 PM UTC

gregmac wrote: post #71

bartread wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Having used Windows 10 basically since it came out, on many different devices, I've never experienced this, and I lock my PC every time I step away (or at least I did when I was working in an office). I also can't find anyone discussing it, though admittedly the search terms for this are difficult (mostly all I can find is people complaining their screen doesn't auto-lock after timeout). Can you provide anything else…

Not really, only to say that it's happened to me several times, and isn't something I've been able to reproduce.

It happens infrequently enough that the first handful of times I thought I must have just forgotten to lock the machine. Eventually I realised that wasn't so and I wasn't just imagining it because, of course, by this time I'd become ultra-paranoid about locking the thing.

I'm running a ~2 year old Dell XPS equipped with a touchscreen. It's a decent machine for my needs but nothing special or exotic, and certainly I can't see any reason why this would be an issue.

I don't know what else to tell you other than I wish I was making it up.

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#147

Post by thelean12 » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 9:19 PM UTC

fireeyed wrote: post #134

Why does every US Government agency needs a Twatter account ? There is a whole agency with in these agencies called Public Relations that have been in existence since WWII. They have websites that cost million of $$ to build and maintain. The imbeciles who man the US Military playing with their twatter accounts. I could only arrive at one conclusion: Too much tax payer money wasted on hiring extra imbeciles to run th…

I'm sure plenty of people would/did complain about the website as well.

"They have news conferences and can release memos. Why would you need a website!? What a waste of money!"

Considering you also mockingly call it "twatter", I'm guessing you might just be out of touch.

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#148

Post by whack » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 9:22 PM UTC

The responsible agency is rightfully embarrassed by this oversight, and has now taken stringent measures to ensure something like this never happens again

- Henceforth, all tweets can only ever be sent from a remote-desktop server that has to be hosted in a security-clearance-5 site

- In order to access the remote-desktop, 2 government employees, who both have 10+ years of government experience, will need to jointly log into the server together. The 2 users will need to alternate keypresses and mouse-clicks, in order to prevent either one from abusing their power

- Both employees will need to be using a computer that comes equipped with a built-in webcam, that has been security cleared by the NSA. This webcam should be running NSA custom-built software that continuously monitors the faces of both employees, and locks the computer if it detects anything suspicious or anomalous

- To prevent the possibility of misuse or bias, all tweets will need to be pre-cleared by the CIA's department of information warfare

In other news, why does it cost the government so much money, and take so long, to get anything done!? Stay tuned for more.

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#149

Post by de_Selby » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 9:22 PM UTC

pbourke wrote: post #125

de_Selby wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it standard practice to tweet about it when launching a nuclear attack?

Well it was until January 8th or so.

Fair point.

Re: Child tweets gibberish from US nuclear-agency account

#150

Post by bartread » Tue, Mar 30, 2021, 9:22 PM UTC

iudqnolq wrote: post #110

bartread wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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?

No, not at all. I've had it happen after leaving the machine much longer than that. The thing is it happens quite infrequently, and isn't behaviour I can reproduce on demand, so I've not been able to reliably isolate the set of conditions that cause the problem.

As I said in another comment, the first few times I thought I must simply have forgotten to lock the machine. But of course then I became paranoid about locking the machine and so when it continued to happen from time to time I realised something really wasn't quite right.

Like I say though, it's just not behaviour I can reproduce on demand - super annoying.

It's most likely some quirk of my machine configuration, or possibly a driver issue (though I tend to like to keep things up to date), but I have a super-unadventurous Dell XPS so it doesn't make a whole lot of sense.