Lesley Carhart Mar 14, 2025

Cybersecurity is political. Period, end of story. If you could vote and didn’t bother because it was boring you’re just as responsible for loss of key research, ISAC funding, international collaboration, and federal jobs.

Same if you kept using X.

We warned you.

https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/13/politics/johns-hopkins-layoffs-usaid-funding/index.html

Johns Hopkins laying off more than 2,000 workers after dramatic cut in USAID funding

Johns Hopkins University announced Thursday that it will be cutting more than 2,000 jobs after it lost $800 million in funding from the US Agency for International Development amid the Trump administration’s effort to significantly downsize the federal government.

CNN
Show threadPhillip Mar 14, 2025
@hacks4pancakes @chillybot “I don’t do politics” my ass. Everything is political, and pretending that it isn’t is either malicious intention, or just plain ignorance.
Show threadMichael T BabcockMar 14, 2025
@phillip @hacks4pancakes @chillybot I'm tired of explaining to people that everything is political. You can be ignorant of it, that's fine. Doesn't make you less responsible in a democracy though. I'm sure *someone* in WWII Germany didn't know about the roundups. Are they innocent as a result? Sigh.
Show threadPhillip Mar 14, 2025
@mikebabcock @hacks4pancakes @chillybot A democracy only works if the people living in it are educated and aware. Otherwise we fall into the oligarchy we have now
Show threadMichael T Babcock
@phillip @hacks4pancakes @chillybot there's a lot more to it than that. You need to approach democracy the way we do network security and assume bad actors. For instance right now, the USA is realizing the problem with assuming congress can stop a run-away executive -- they don't *have* to do so. They can just sit on their hands and watch. I'd want a requirement for congress to review all presidential acts in the future as a result.
Mar 14, 2025 at 4:43pmWeb
Show threadVärldens bästa Kille™Mar 15, 2025

@mikebabcock @chillybot @phillip @hacks4pancakes this is very true.

Also one has to understand that the bad actor doesn’t give a fuck about what one should/ought to/is expected to/is allowed to do.

All that matters is what the bad actor can do. Rules and reason mean nothing, that’s what makes the actor bad.