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Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

economist.com

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Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#101

Post by throwdingding »

Raed667 wrote: post #83
GloriousKoji wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't mix personal data and work but they sure can present enough gray areas. Things like digital copies of paystubs, ESPP details, and W4 can only be accessed while employed and on the company network. I leaned that one the hard way a year later when doing taxes.

The scary wake-up call for me when I heard the story of someone who informed their manager of their 2-week notice. And instead of having 2 weeks to sort everything out, they got locked out immediately.

Our business has to do this for security reasons upon learning an employee is no longer going to have an ongoing relationship. However, we explain this to the employee ahead of time, and the two weeks are still paid - the employee just doesn't get to touch sensitive information anymore.

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#102

Post by MikePlacid »

folkrav wrote: post #82
smoldesu wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, the running joke in the industry was that you could fire 90% of Twitter's workforce and the company would still run fine. Judging by how few features they've shipped in the past few years, I'm still convinced that's the case.

We'll see when they actually start shipping stuff. Things tend to go smooth when nothing gets deployed...

Right in the article: blue check mark changes. And how a lot of people had nothing better to do on their own projects than to help a person in charge to complete changes.

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#103

Post by horsawlarway »

fzeroracer wrote: post #61
smoldesu wrote: post #8

The "hacking" hook is simply that their Macbook went into MDM lockdown mode. That's completely normal for companies at-scale, and I can understand why they'd want to lock the devices before laying people off. If the opposite had happened, they'd be writing an article about how Twitter failed to protect their files and angle it as a "they're running out of staff" article. I still don't really understand what there is…

Normal according to who, exactly? Like where is your reference point for 'normal'? I've worked for companies at scale and have never dealt with these sort of problems before because usually there's an understanding that employees when laid off aren't going to do anything bad (unless you're perhaps cutting them out of severance and spiting them, which...). Do you have any reference points or reasons why you believe th…

Across basically every company I've worked for - this is normal. And many of those companies are not 3k+ employee tech companies. Think 10 to 100 engineers.

It's actually a requirement for many compliance certifications in the US - previously employed staff are not allowed access to your systems.

If you're in an office - you can wait until you grab the employee and put them in a conference room to fire them before cutting access (as long as security is there to escort them out afterwards). When everyone is remote - that is not an option.

ex: item number 1 for SOC 2 compliance is

----

Access controls

—logical and physical restrictions on assets to prevent access by unauthorized personnel.

----

When an employee is terminated - they are unauthorized personnel.

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#104

Post by kadoban »

Raed667 wrote: post #31

This is why I tell everyone I ever work with: "Don't have any personal document on your work laptop that isn't backed somewhere personal" You never know when that bank statement, or rent agreement or whatever will suddenly become inaccessible. Edit: I know we're not supposed to mix personal data with work. But who hasn't downloaded some docs because you need them filled or printed or something.

Anything you do on work hardware, it the US is pretty much free range for them to snoop into as much as they want.

Putting that kind of stuff on your work laptop is just unthinkably weird to me. Why would anyone do that?

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#105

Post by amrocha »

smoldesu wrote: post #50
VHRanger wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Nonsense. Presumably any private equity firm would also have came to a conclusion of reducing headcount. They wouldn't have done so in a single week based on ridiculous analysis. And wouldn't have done so in a way to destroy the morale of remaining workforce.

I mean, the running joke in the industry was that you could fire 90% of Twitter's workforce and the company would still run fine. Judging by how few features they've shipped in the past few years, I'm still convinced that's the case.

Literally never heard anyone say this before

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#106

Post by spaceywilly »

fzeroracer wrote: post #61
smoldesu wrote: post #8

The "hacking" hook is simply that their Macbook went into MDM lockdown mode. That's completely normal for companies at-scale, and I can understand why they'd want to lock the devices before laying people off. If the opposite had happened, they'd be writing an article about how Twitter failed to protect their files and angle it as a "they're running out of staff" article. I still don't really understand what there is…

Normal according to who, exactly? Like where is your reference point for 'normal'? I've worked for companies at scale and have never dealt with these sort of problems before because usually there's an understanding that employees when laid off aren't going to do anything bad (unless you're perhaps cutting them out of severance and spiting them, which...). Do you have any reference points or reasons why you believe th…

When I was laid off security walked me from a conference room near the exit to my car. I was not even allowed to collect my stuff from my desk, had to have a friend bring it to me after.

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#107

Post by zimpenfish »

cuttysnark wrote: post #34
smoldesu wrote: post #8

The "hacking" hook is simply that their Macbook went into MDM lockdown mode. That's completely normal for companies at-scale, and I can understand why they'd want to lock the devices before laying people off. If the opposite had happened, they'd be writing an article about how Twitter failed to protect their files and angle it as a "they're running out of staff" article. I still don't really understand what there is…

> don't really understand what there is worth talking about here. Elon Musk, previously adored by many for futurist technology advocacy and largely forgiven for quirky-billionaire-behavior is now on the "bad guy list". This is "public opinion", from my perspective. It is now common to hear people saying: "He didn't really build that" "His family had money" "His family had a mine" "He's a fascist" "He's a racist becau…

> It is now common to hear people saying: "He didn't really build that" "His family had money" "His family had a mine" "He's a fascist" "He's a racist because of where/when he was born"

To be fair, that's been going on at least 2-3 years. Way before he got involved with Twitter.

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#108

Post by kelnos »

duxup wrote: post #18
infamouscow wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Corporate media produces nothing of intellectual value. It merely continues to exist because their business model, advertising, allowed them pivot into being drama generating entertainment machines.

> Corporate media People like to read that stuff.

Do they, or are they emotionally manipulated into reading it?

There's a difference between "wanting" and "liking" something. The reason doomscrolling on social media is a thing is because people want their fix. Whether or not they truly like it is another matter. Most would probably admit they don't, if they really sat down to unpack everything about it.

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#109

Post by amrocha »

that_guy_iain wrote: post #99

> One day I created a tool that made it faster to download things from your work email that you might need if you were looking for a job: performance evaluations and that sort of thing. > I posted the tool on Slack so that my colleagues could also benefit from it if they needed to. One hour and four minutes later I was fired. "I built a tool to allow people to copy corporate data so they could find a job easier." To…

lol

He wrote a JS script that clicks a a button in your inbox. That's not "bypassing security" in any way.

Re: Twitter engineer: I thought I’d been hacked. It turned out I’d been fired

#110

Post by themitigating »

smoldesu wrote: post #8

The "hacking" hook is simply that their Macbook went into MDM lockdown mode. That's completely normal for companies at-scale, and I can understand why they'd want to lock the devices before laying people off. If the opposite had happened, they'd be writing an article about how Twitter failed to protect their files and angle it as a "they're running out of staff" article. I still don't really understand what there is…

Notoriously overstaffed based on what? The fact that you've heard this repeated in different ways over a long period of time?
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