tahewettFeb 22
Jerry 🦙💝🦙

This article, which I found in @zackwhittaker’s most excellent newsletter that you should absolutely subscribe to, is extremely interesting: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2026-02-19/vpn-used-by-us-government-failed-to-stop-china-state-sponsored-hackers

It’s behind a paywall and I totally do NOT recommend you use a website like removepaywall.com (using option 3) to view it without having to pay. That would be just unethical. Don’t do that.

Feb 22 at 5:11pmWeb
Show threadSimon Zerafa (Status:   😊)Feb 22

@jerry @zackwhittaker

Unfortunately, using the Remove Paywall Firefox/ LibreWolf / Waterfox Extention would also be fairly naughty.

I cannot recommend using this extension 😥

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-GB/firefox/user/18797418/

User Profile for Remove Paywall – Add-ons for Firefox (en-GB)

The profile of Remove Paywall, Firefox extension author. Find other extensions by Remove Paywall, including average ratings, tenure, and the option to report issues.

Show threadStomataFeb 22
@simonzerafa @jerry @zackwhittaker I always totally do NOT recommend adding "https://www.removepaywall.com/search?url=%s" as a search engine
RemovePaywall | Free online paywall remover

Remove Paywall, free online paywall remover. Get access to articles without having to pay or login. Works on Bloomberg and hundreds more.

Show threadJerry 🦙💝🦙Feb 22
@Stomata @simonzerafa @zackwhittaker these seem like terrible things that no one should be doing right away
Show threadSimon Zerafa (Status:   😊)Feb 22

@jerry @Stomata @zackwhittaker

That search engine setting works well in Librewolf, but I cannot recommend it as it's naughty 😕

Show threadGreg BellFeb 22
@jerry @Stomata @simonzerafa @zackwhittaker want to point out a tradeoff here in using some of these popular 'archive' services https://mathstodon.xyz/@11011110/116104534242592536
0xDE (@[email protected])

I recently posted about archive.today (also archive.is, archive.ph, archive.fo, archive.li, archive.md, and archive.vn) using its archive links to launch a ddos attack against a blogger they accused of doxing them: https://mathstodon.xyz/@11011110/116028203974257264 That attack triggered #Wikipedia (at least, the English part) to discuss banning archive.today links, and the ensuing discussion turned up evidence that (as part of the same dispute with the same blogger) archive.today had also tampered with its archived content to falsify certain names in old archived links: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Requests_for_comment/Archive.is_RFC_5#Evidence_of_altering_snapshots This led to a quick close of the discussion and a consensus to remove all archive.today links from Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Archive.today_guidance For the same reasons I have removed all archive.today links from my blog, where I had been occasionally using them as a convenient way to access paywalled content. I suggest that others remove their links as well, lest you unwittingly become part of additional ddos attacks and falsification.

Mathstodon
Show threadJerry 🦙💝🦙Feb 22
@ferrix @Stomata @simonzerafa @zackwhittaker unethical sites acting unethically...
Show threadRuchira S. DattaFeb 23
@ferrix @jerry @Stomata @simonzerafa @zackwhittaker Yes, good point.
Show thread🦩 Plastic Garden Fauna 🦩Feb 23

@ferrix @jerry @Stomata @simonzerafa @zackwhittaker

Was a concensus reached about which state actor or billionaire was funding this slow-burn undermining of Wikipedia?

Last thing I'd read on this the party responsible for the DDOS attacks (and operator of the archive.'s) was a ruZZian national who did not wish to be outed.

Show threadbituur esztreymFeb 22
@simonzerafa @jerry @zackwhittaker
oh hell no. definitely "too rude to air on the fediverse"..
Show threadLisa Lorenzin (she/her)Feb 22
@jerry @zackwhittaker Pulse Secure's problems started way before Ivanti. I was at NetScreen when we acquired Neoteris in 2003 - back then, the SSL VPN product was *fantastic*. The Juniper acquisition was the beginning of the decline - Pradeep didn't give a shit about anything that didn't run JunOS, so ScreenOS and Secure Access were among the many red-headed stepchildren that came into the product portfolio by acquisition and then were completely neglected.
When we found out the (rebranded) Pulse Secure line was being sold, I was initially excited at the chance to be something other than a wart - but Siris was chasing that 10x return and when they couldn't get it by generating more revenue, they started cutting headcount. Many of the developers, QA, and support engineers who understood the products were let go long before the Ivanti acquisition... which compounded the problem of an aging codebase and increasingly complicated set of bolt-ons as Siris chased the latest buzzwords.
This whole China debacle was *entirely* predictable and *entirely* avoidable. The incentives in the security industry are just fucked. (@haroonmeer absolutely nailed this back in 2019, btw: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GHuQC1qLnJ4 )
Keynote address: The security products we deserve

YouTube
Show threadJerry 🦙💝🦙Feb 22
@llorenzin I definitely recall pulse secure being a security problem before ivanti too. I didn't have the inside scoop, but it wasn't hard to guess what was going on. I guess the story is (maybe) highlighting that things went from bad to worse when Ivanti and PE came along. @zackwhittaker @haroonmeer
Show threadLisa Lorenzin (she/her)Feb 22
@jerry @zackwhittaker @haroonmeer oh, yeah - no shade to the original article, just trying to add some context. That whole mess just makes me sad.
Show threadRuchira S. DattaFeb 23
@llorenzin @jerry @zackwhittaker @haroonmeer Thank you for that context (and thus for telling us the company and product being referred to).
Show threadcarbon offsets are BS ☕️🥬Feb 22

@jerry @zackwhittaker

> In addition to excising private equity-owned VPNs from their networks, some factor private equity ownership into their risk assessments of key technologies.

I jumped ship from LastPass as soon as they were bought by a PEF and that decision has been validated many times over since then.

Show threadJerry 🦙💝🦙Feb 22
@plasma4045 @zackwhittaker PE acquisitions are great for the people who get the PE money, not so great for employees or their customers.
Show thread☀️LightOfNight🌙Feb 22
@jerry @zackwhittaker longtime fan!
Show thread🦩 Plastic Garden Fauna 🦩Feb 23

@jerry @zackwhittaker

What do you call 200 Private equity owners chained together at the bottom of the ocean?

Show threadeuroplus Feb 23
@OvertonDoors @jerry @zackwhittaker Titan escapees?
Show thread🦩 Plastic Garden Fauna 🦩Feb 24
@europlus @jerry @zackwhittaker ... a good start ...
Show threadAvi Rappoport (avirr)Feb 23
@jerry @zackwhittaker https://archive.is/RsAbD
Show threadeuroplus Feb 23
@jerry @zackwhittaker gee, *barely* dodged a bullet on doing something dodgy to avoid paywalls there…phew!