Mastodawn

Thomas Rid May 12, 2023

I wrote something. On the other forbidden literature problem. That of the national security establishment in and around Washington, DC. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2023/05/leaked-documents-security-clearance-defense/674031/

Don’t Read This If You Have a Security Clearance

An absurd Department of Defense policy bars employees from looking at leaked documents—even when they’ve already been made public.<strong> </strong>

The Atlantic

Thomas Rid Jan 25, 2023

Looks like there might be inversely proportional relationship between the fear of AI-generated writing and the ability to ask fresh and original questions.

Thomas Rid Jan 23, 2023

Last week I was a student for five days, five hours per day—with ChatGPT fully integrated into teaching. Here's what we learned, just in time for Spring Term (which starts tomorrow. Class was Malware Analysis, taught by @jags https://alperovitch.sais.jhu.edu/five-days-in-class-with-chatgpt/

Five Days in Class with ChatGPT – The Alperovitch Institute

Thomas Rid Dec 22, 2022

Drew Harwell Dec 21, 2022

Journalist profiles on the Washington Post's website can now include Mastodon links. Here's what it looks like: https://www.washingtonpost.com/people/drew-harwell/

Thomas Rid Dec 22, 2022

Alex Stamos Dec 20, 2022

This claim is false.

Law enforcement has the ability to get stored communications from companies like Twitter under 18 USC 2703(d). This is a famous "d-order" that has to be signed by a judge.

Companies can demand reimbursement under 2706. You can argue that 2703 should have a higher standard, but if the government can get to user data should it be free or should the companies ask for a nominal cost?

This is absolutely nothing to do with content moderation.

Thomas Rid Dec 21, 2022

Quinta Jurecic Dec 21, 2022

Latest ~~~Twitter Files~~~~ is a step up from the others insofar as it actually has some new-ish and somewhat interesting information ... albeit information that's really just filling in some details about reporting that the Washington Post already did https://theintercept.com/2022/12/20/twitter-dod-us-military-accounts/

Twitter Aided the Pentagon in Its Covert Online Propaganda Campaign

Internal documents show Twitter whitelisted CENTCOM accounts that were then used to run its online influence campaign abroad.

The Intercept

Thomas Rid Dec 17, 2022

Let me say this as somebody who consumes news and scholarship for a living, and a lot of it (as Hopkins prof): the notion that journalism—investigative reporting and professional fact-checking—could or should be replaced by some technology is simply dumb. Stupid. Makes no sense.

Thomas Rid Dec 13, 2022

Show thread

jnazario Dec 13, 2022

@jtk @ridt excellent point, john! i recall a long chat around he turn of the century with a sysadmin (because the cybersecurity role hadn't really been invented at the time) from NCAR about the kinds of intrusions they were seeing, we knew each other from the SANS community and USENIX Sec. probably why stoll's "cuckoo's egg" resonates with me so much - it was familiar territory. i cut my sysadmin and security chops in a late 90s uni environment, a lot of computing power that was poorly secured and heavily abused.

Thomas Rid Dec 13, 2022

Still always a bit stress-inducing here to send a DM and then press the (wrongly named) "Publish!" button.

Thomas Rid Dec 13, 2022

Long-shot threat intel history question: I'm looking for some of the "unsung heroes" of the early days of threat hunting and clustering. People who had an outsize impact on the discipline but aren't recognized publicly to the extent they deserve. Pre-APT1. Think of Joyce Lin as an example. Either public or private sector, or both. Private responses very welcome. This is for a history book.