Mastodawn

jackcole

@jackcole@mstdn.social

259 Followers

325 Following

148 Posts

Retired scientist (cyber security research), father of 4, pilot, chemist, permanent law and languages student. #fedi22 #cybersecurity #AI #ML #flying #music #photography #languages #chemistry #electronics #law

My posts are automatically deleted after a week. If there was an older post for which you'd like information, photo, or cartoon, let me know.

jackcole 6h ago

Gift Articles 6h ago

Start Budgeting Now
https://www.theatlantic.com/economy/archive/2025/07/trump-tariffs-trade-war-ongoing/683476/?gift=IVLxLsZ35rUsJWMJqfF0aew73I79Xzo4OPwWv8oPPk0

Start Budgeting for Trump's Tariffs Now

Households will pay an average of $2,400 more for goods this year, thanks to Trump’s policies.

The Atlantic

jackcole 6h ago

I need a little help.. Just paid the server bills for the all VPS but since we moved mstdn to a dedicated server we have extra costs for 1 month

The dedicated server required a one-time setup fee of 100 bucks, we also had a little over 2 day overlap in running costs, this should be minimal hopefully

Next month costs will be a lot lower!

https://paypal.me/stuxOS
https://patreon.com/mstdn
https://ko-fi.com/mstdn
https://bunq.me/stuxhost
https://stux.me/donate
https://liberapay.com/mstdn

Stuxhost Geld mit PayPal.Me senden

Folgen Sie dem Link PayPal.Me/stuxOS und geben Sie den Betrag ein. Es ist bequem und sicher. Sie haben noch kein PayPal-Konto? Kein Problem.

jackcole 6h ago

Aaron In Minnesota 10h ago

Storms took out power for us early yesterday evening. Portable solar battery powered some fans and the refrigerator through the night and had enough juice left to brew some morning coffee as I got the panel setup to start recharging

#solarpower #battery

jackcole 6h ago

Keep 'em coming

Via Carl Quintanilla:

BOSTON (AP) - Judge blocks Trump administration's efforts to defund Planned Parenthood and orders that it keep getting Medicaid funds.

@apnews.com

jackcole 6h ago

ProPublica 9h ago

8 Things to Know About New Research on Earth’s Rapid Drying and the Loss of Its Groundwater
—

Decades of NASA satellite data reveal how quickly the planet’s underground stores of fresh water have been depleted and how their use is contributing to rising sea levels. Here are the key takeaways.
https://www.propublica.org/article/groundwater-fresh-water-depletion-research-science-advances-takeaways?utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=mastodon-post

#News #Science #Climate #Environment #ClimateChange #Water #NASA #Data

8 Things to Know About New Research on Earth’s Rapid Drying and the Loss of Its Groundwater

Decades of NASA satellite data reveal how quickly the planet’s underground stores of fresh water have been depleted and how their use is contributing to rising sea levels. Here are the key takeaways.

ProPublica

jackcole 7h ago

Almost a third of the prices going into the CPI at the moment are guesses based on other data collections in the CPI.

"The quality of CPI data continues to deteriorate."

https://www.apolloacademy.com/the-quality-of-the-cpi-data-continues-to-deteriorate/

#Economy #CPI #EconomicData

The Quality of CPI Data Continues to Deteriorate - Apollo Academy

To calculate CPI inflation, BLS teams collect approximately 90,000 price quotes every month covering 200 different item categories, and there...

Apollo Academy

jackcole 7h ago

#Trump #Tariffs

EU'S PLEDGE FOR $250 BILLION OF US ENERGY IMPORTS IS DELUSIONAL

https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/eus-pledge-250-billion-us-energy-imports-is-delusional-2025-07-28/

jackcole 1d ago

@petergleick But it's humerus adjacent.

jackcole 1d ago

🏳️‍🌈🖖🏽1d ago

New hat just dropped.

jackcole 1d ago

TheOldGuy 1d ago

×

BrianKrebs Jul 15

New, at KrebsOnSecurity.com: Marko Elez, a 25-year-old employee at Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), has been granted access to sensitive databases at the U.S. Social Security Administration, the Treasury and Justice departments, and the Department of Homeland Security. So it should fill all Americans with a deep sense of confidence to learn that Mr. Elez over the weekend inadvertently published a private key that allowed anyone to interact directly with more than four dozen large language models (LLMs) developed by Musk's artificial intelligence company xAI.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/07/doge-denizen-marko-elez-leaked-api-key-for-xai/

BrianKrebs Jul 15

From the story:

Philippe Caturegli, “chief hacking officer” at the security consultancy Seralys, said the exposed API key allowed access to at least 52 different LLMs used by xAI. The most recent LLM in the list was called “grok-4-0709” and was created on July 9, 2025.

Grok, the generative AI chatbot developed by xAI and integrated into Twitter/X, relies on these and other LLMs (a query to Grok before publication shows Grok currently uses Grok-3, which was launched in Feburary 2025). Earlier today, xAI announced that the Department of Defense will begin using Grok as part of a contract worth up to $200 million. The contract award came less than a week after Grok began spewing antisemitic rants and invoking Adolf Hitler.

Mr. Elez did not respond to a request for comment. The code repository containing the private xAI key was removed shortly after Caturegli notified Elez via email. However, Caturegli said the exposed API key still works and has not yet been revoked.

@briankrebs spectacular.

@briankrebs i really really hope that we can refer to this sort of bullshit when anybody tries to hock something with "military grade" in its description, or "government security" or any of the other phrases that they think to use in an effort to say 'the government does it so obviously that means its the best and most secure and most efficient and overall the most well thought out possible option'

@Viss @briankrebs I would venture to suggest that government grade security meant a lot more than it does now that these private sector imbeciles are fucking around inside government.

F4GRX SÃ©bastien Jul 15

@Viss @briankrebs like this?
https://mas.to/@carnage4life/114852988446373872

Dare Obasanjo (@carnage4life@mas.to)

Anthropic, Google, OpenAI and xAI have all been granted contracts worth up to $200M by the U.S. Department of Defense to accelerate its adoption of “advanced AI capabilities to address critical national security challenges.” It seems your AI calling itself “MechaHitler” isn’t a dealbreaker for defense contracts. https://www.cnbc.com/2025/07/14/anthropic-google-openai-xai-granted-up-to-200-million-from-dod.html

mas.to

John Maxwell Jul 19

@Viss @briankrebs I've worked in both private industry and government. Government averages much better.
[edit to add] Speaking in the context of good practices and running a secure shop.

John Maxwell Jul 19

@Viss @briankrebs - The failure mode in this case was one that government can't directly protect against: We elected greedy stupid assholes to run the government.
The very same people who fuck up private companies.

@briankrebs the idiot's feud with Musk may actually be the best chance of these characters being forced back out of government systems given their almost guaranteed conflicts of interest/ loyalty to Elon not Donny

Keith Ivey Jul 15

@fencepost @briankrebs Considering that the feud with Musk didn't stop xAI from getting that $200 million contract with DoD, I wouldn't hold my breath.

Gene Pasquet Jul 15

@kcivey @fencepost @briankrebs maybe the feud is a sham? After all Palpatine did run both sides of the clone war so as to divert eyes and accumulate even more power for himself...

@etenil @kcivey @briankrebs given the egos and issues of the individuals involved? Maybe I'm wrong but I think it's more likely that they'd be challenged by checkers than it is that they're playing 3d chess.

Dear Doge Moron Marko Eliz,

Dogs sniff each others asses, so have another colleague sniff your code (as well as everything you touch).... It should smell the same. By the way, I have read about your racism. Disco your sessions, return your devices, data, and property, and go away. Play with tinker toys.

▓▒▒░░ ʝσɳω ░░▒▒▓Jul 15

@briankrebs "Doge denizen". I love it

Kevin Cheek Jul 15

@briankrebs Incident Response is woke

"the exposed API key still works and has not yet been revoked"

okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin Jul 15

@briankrebs
"It's ok. The NPC don't know what a private key does." -BigBalls

okanogen VerminEnemyFromWithin Jul 15

@briankrebs
Ten guesses how Caturegli knew exactly which and how many systems the key worked on.
He stopped counting at 52....

👊🇺🇸🔥Jul 15

@briankrebs America is going out with quite the whimper at the hands of the least intelligent people it has to offer. I'd almost feel proud if it were a bunch of geniuses born and raised here that were carrying out the country's destruction. Instead, it's Brick from the movie "Anchorman" with a bad spray tan, and a South African immigrant that lived here illegally in the 90s, and has now hired some random douchebros off the side of the road to dismantle Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, the Department of Education... basically everything being tracked on https://www.project2025.observer/

Project 2025 Tracker

Track the progress on Project 2025

"...hired some random douchebros off the side of the road..." 🙂 you do have a way with words, concepts too! Thanks for the black laughter.

funnymonkey Jul 15

@briankrebs This. Is. Sensational.

Is he the one they call, sorry, who calls himself, "Big Balls"?
🙂

Bill, organizer of stuff Jul 15

@Su_G @briankrebs No. This is "tiny balls" Elez.

@wcbdata @briankrebs

Oh, thanks for clarifying, my mistake! 😂

⚯ Michel de Cryptadamus ⚯Jul 15

@briankrebs who ever would have guessed a #DOGE bro wouldn't have the best security hygiene?

https://cryptadamus.substack.com/p/the-crypto-grifters-of-doge

The Crypto Grifters Of DOGE

How many crypto grifters does it take to screw up the machinery of state?

The Cryptocalypse Chronicles

Wade McGillis Jul 15

@briankrebs lol

Could we make it easier? Maybe adverserial hackers would enjoy a refreshment & shoulder massage as they're led comfortably into every aspect of government infrastructure?

@briankrebs WTF!!!

日本語まあまあ Jul 15

@briankrebs the banal, incompetent face of evil, eh?

mastodonphan Jul 15

@briankrebs We shall now refer to him as Dorko E-loser.

Felix 🇨🇦 🇩🇪 🇺🇦Jul 15

@briankrebs 52 different LLMs , eh? I wonder what they're different in.

@fst @briankrebs have you ever heaed abaout AlphaGo zero. tl;dr: it learned playing Go by playing against itself.

let me introduce xAi, where it learns facts and history by talking to itself

Felix 🇨🇦 🇩🇪 🇺🇦Jul 15

@briankrebs This!

“If a developer can’t keep an API key private, it raises questions about how they’re handling far more sensitive government information behind closed doors,” Caturegli told KrebsOnSecurity.

Dźwiedziu Jul 15

@fst
What closed doors?

@briankrebs Fun thing about chatbots is how naive they are. If you just ask politely enough and it will tell you info that you shouldn't have access to.

@briankrebs this myth of the private sector geniuses needs to end. Musk should surely be evidence enough that it’s often just smoke and mirrors, chutzpah and paid PR. Ok. And gullible fans and investors.

PalidMask Jul 15

@briankrebs Absolute comedy

Dźwiedziu Jul 15

@briankrebs
> However, Caturegli said the exposed API key still works and has not yet been revoked.

> While still at Treasury, Elez resigned after The Wall Street Journal linked him to social media posts that advocated racism and eugenics. When Vice President J.D. Vance lobbied for Elez to be rehired, President Trump agreed and Musk reinstated him.

If you're a racist, you're stupid by definition.

(Does not rule our being harmful and dangerous.)

What could possibly go wrong?

Simon Zerafa Jul 15

Does Musk deliberately employ total fucking idiots or is this a side-effect of other selected for employee attributes? 🤦‍♂️🙄

CryptoMoose Jul 15

@simonzerafa @briankrebs both, at the same time!

Emma-Martin has moved Jul 15

@simonzerafa Yes. 😀 @briankrebs

@briankrebs Hi. Do you block VPN connections? I get an 403 error on your site.

Kristin (vis.social Admin)Jul 15

@briankrebs If there was ever a time to insist on paper bank statement, it is now.

Alexander Dyas Jul 15

@briankrebs Alt text - man learning how to smile

Scott D. Strader 😐Jul 15

@briankrebs Why is absolutely everything so very very stupid.

GhostOnTheHalfShell Jul 15

It’s nice to know that I would be overlords not only enjoy hiring and competent white people to cabinet positions and government largely because they’re over government and they intend to destroy it and replace it with their own ideas.. (ahem), but they’re chosen foot soldiers also live in a world of arrogance, and with it comes indifference and incompetence.

Michael Vilain Jul 15

@briankrebs Perfect opportunity for some nation state actor to do some rubber hose breaking of cryptography to gain access to such systems. And the body can be kept alive duct taped to a chair, fed intravenously, and continuously interrogated for information until the KGB finds a suitable building where he will fall out a window.

Kevin Ashworth Jul 16

@briankrebs I say, jail for life for Marko. But very early release if jail for life for Elon can come out of this.