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Ex-Twitter exec blows the whistle, alleging reckless cybersecurity policies

cnn.com

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Re: Ex-Twitter exec blows the whistle, alleging reckless cybersecurity policies

#641

Post by nannal »

chadash wrote: post #73
nannal wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Consult with a security firm or specialist and they should be able to steer you in the right direction.

Two problems with this: 1) Like a car mechanic, these people get paid to sell you solutions and they are incentivized to sell you more. 2) Plenty or honest people have biases because of what they do. If you spend all day thinking about security you might be overly concerned about things that are actually not that risky. This isn’t to say that there aren’t great people working in the field. But it’s daunting from an o…

To answer points 1 & 2, you're more than permitted to think for yourself and establish if their recommendations are worth perusing. You could even get multiple opinions and see if there are any recurring themes that might suggest areas to look at first.

Re: Ex-Twitter exec blows the whistle, alleging reckless cybersecurity policies

#642

Post by semiquaver »

jjulius wrote: post #631
semiquaver wrote: post #630

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I didn’t intend any snark, it was an honest question. Apologies for having offended you.

Nah, I think it's my fault. I have realized this week that I'm dealing with a lot of tough shit and haven't been handling it well. I think I've taken to looking for arguments on HN (and other places) as an outlet and, in hindsight, I am pretty sure that was one of those moments. It's not fair to you, and I'm sorry. Hope ya have a great rest of the week. :)

Props for being vulnerable and introspective, which is not always easy.

Here’s hoping you overcome the things you are struggling with!

Re: Ex-Twitter exec blows the whistle, alleging reckless cybersecurity policies

#643

Post by jjulius »

semiquaver wrote: post #642
jjulius wrote: post #631

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nah, I think it's my fault. I have realized this week that I'm dealing with a lot of tough shit and haven't been handling it well. I think I've taken to looking for arguments on HN (and other places) as an outlet and, in hindsight, I am pretty sure that was one of those moments. It's not fair to you, and I'm sorry. Hope ya have a great rest of the week. :)

Props for being vulnerable and introspective, which is not always easy. Here’s hoping you overcome the things you are struggling with!

Cheers. :)

Re: Ex-Twitter exec blows the whistle, alleging reckless cybersecurity policies

#644

Post by jimmydorry »

Maursault wrote: post #585
jimmydorry wrote: post #533

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The algorythms are not public, and as the public square of present, Twitter essentially drives public discourse... especially when a large portion of the legacy media has been reduced to sourcing their stories and directly quoting from Twitter. Secondly, private messages between people are not public either. Opening that data up or allowing it to be read or manipulated by other entities will drive a lot of outrage an…

>The algorythms are not public, Seriously, so what? Twitter's IP does not affect national security. >and as the public square of present, Twitter essentially drives public discourse... This is being awfully kind to a platform that 77% of Americans have absolutely nothing to do with. >especially when a large portion of the legacy media has been reduced to sourcing their stories and directly quoting from Twitter. Ah, l…

>Twitter's IP does not affect national security

Governments and their respective departments (at all levels: federal, state, local, etc.) communicate with their constituents via social media, Twitter in particular as well as via the media outlets that will report on said statements from Twitter.

Change the algorythm such that those messages no longer reach people and you can bet the respective countries will pass legislation and puninitive measures against Twitter.

>This is being awfully kind to a platform that 77% of Americans have absolutely nothing to do with

Except I outlined some of the other ways people interact with Twitter, even without accounts. You seem to be incredulous that other forms of media rely on Twitter... You should look a bit closer next time you turn the TV on.

I just did and there was a segment about Russia playing titled "'Slower burn' of Russia's economy has begun". Guess where almost all of the footage they aired came from? Twitter. Guess how the reporters are finding people on the ground to interview? Twitter. Guess how analysts are keeping abreast of military developments (e.g. troop movement, statements released by governments, etc.)? Twitter.

>Absurd. No one cares what you say in private to a complete stranger you'll never meet.

Many service providers conduct customer service via DMs these days. My ISP's preffered lines of contact are Twitter and WhatsApp. Even if we take a step back, do you truly believe that there are no people sharing sensitive information between each other via private messages?

Re: Ex-Twitter exec blows the whistle, alleging reckless cybersecurity policies

#645

Post by mlindner »

titzer wrote: post #559
galangalalgol wrote: post #548

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate? I'm very curious how they develop software.

Without getting into details, AFAICT they do not use any typical high-assurance software stacks, such as Ada or Spark or such that might be typical in avionics, like Airbus software. The use off-the-shelf tools like C++ and LLVM.

You don't know what kind of tools they've developed internally and Ada/Spark is far from the end-all be-all of high assurance programming.

High assurance comes from the overall systems design and testing, not the software itself. Afterall, radiation can cause any piece of software, including those written in Ada, to completely skip instructions.

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