Patrick Howell O'Neill

searchable

Public Key

npub12yyk37acrk5ed6tztwz5g0wuf2dc86etp73rcfal3m9rp76uj36qp602u5

NIP-05 Address

howelloneill_at_infosec.exchange@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqs9zztglwupm2vka939hp2y8hwy4xurav4slg3uy7lcaj3sldwfgaqpz4mhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumt0wd68ytnsw43qpdr0tj

Publishing to

relay.mostr.pub

Author Public Key

npub12yyk37acrk5ed6tztwz5g0wuf2dc86etp73rcfal3m9rp76uj36qp602u5

Show more details

Last Notes

2024-08-28 20:04:52

- reply

@npub18c7…er9d this is Grima slander and I won't take it. Wormtongue was a name his enemies gave him but we, his close personal friends, know Grima would never do the crazy things the Rohan media accuses him of

2024-08-27 18:05:59

- reply

@npub18c7…er9d iraq my brain to understand this pun

2024-08-27 18:02:27

Solar eclipses bring untold beauty. Here's why that's actually bad for the Bablyonian Kings.
rly getting tired of the Mesopotamia stream media
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/113/035/293/909/113/965/original/e4a5621c9a4e707b.png

2024-08-19 19:41:44

My Apple TV purchase looks pretty good https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2024/08/tv-industrys-ads-tracking-obsession-is-turning-your-living-room-into-a-store/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

2024-08-19 12:46:06

- reply

@npub13d8…ycpx that's a fun and weird story, I wonder if the court docs give more details. also, what was the password policy on aol in 2003? 4 letters and no other factors allowed? that's about what I remember

2024-08-17 20:12:43

"Deploying on U.S. Soil: How Trump Would Use Soldiers Against Riots, Crime and Migrants: The former president’s vision of using the military to enforce the law domestically would carry profound implications for civil liberties." https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/17/us/politics/trump-2025-insurrection-act.html?unlocked_article_code=1.Dk4.j-YI.N5IncLsGMW48

2024-08-16 16:01:14

I'm convinced that a huge chunk of the problems I had learning in school when I was younger had to do with being hungry and having to sit around for eight hours straight starting at 7am when the first class started. This sounds obvious as I type it because as an adult I eat and exercise at will to my enormous benefit and to the benefit of my employer but somehow kids are not allowed to do this at all. It's crazy.

2024-08-13 16:03:39

"Former Pro-Trump County Clerk Is Found Guilty of Tampering With Voting Machines. She could face multiple years in prison when she is sentenced in October." https://www.nytimes.com/2024/08/12/us/politics/tina-peters-guilty-voting-machine-tampering.html

2024-08-13 01:36:22

Big ups to The Verge doing reporting: “The rest of X appears to be working normally, however, and a source at the company confirmed to The Verge that there wasn’t actually a denial-of-service attack. Another X staffer said there was a “99 percent” chance Elon was lying about an attack“ https://www.theverge.com/2024/8/12/24219121/donald-trump-elon-musk-interview-x-twitter-crashes
https://infosec.exchange/@wdormann/112952109017632449

2024-08-12 13:06:04

"CISA chief Easterly calls software vulnerabilities a ‘product defect,’ urges liability regime" https://insideaipolicy.com/share/16704

2024-08-11 13:51:53

I’m not sure what I thought would happen but here’s where we’re at: Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads are all fun in their own ways. Cool to see multiple sites do well. Twitter seems more fucked up by the day.

2024-07-30 17:28:26

I love when infosec training starts from the lofty heights of "here is how you recognize threats A B and C" and then slowly descends into the hopeless abyss of "there may be no indication of malicious activity. there might be nothing you can do. hope is the domain of fools, welcome your inevitable doom with open arms, please click here to accept our terms."

2024-07-30 16:24:26

My very minor and inconsequential pet peeve right now is that we use the word spyware for both government-level surveillance tools and spousal abuse tools. And don't get me wrong, it's all spying, I get it and don't blame anyone who uses it because I don't have a great alternative. But the Venn diagram isn't a perfect circle, there are important differences, and I wish our language could easily reflect that

2024-07-30 15:23:07

https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/112/876/125/143/881/309/original/e74dcf5aedd38701.jpeg

2024-07-23 13:04:37

I would read a good article about how, in my life time, I've never seen the vibe shift so dramatically and quickly from dark to excited in a political party. What are the historical analogies if any?

2024-07-22 01:02:59

So do these 6 billion percent matches on political donations mean anything other than a weird prompt to donate or

2024-07-19 13:25:52

- reply

@npub17lg…9uux right, I saw that word/words like it being tossed around. So ... we are in fact just pushing code out willy nilly? Would love to know more. But obviously early days

2024-07-19 13:19:24

I know I'm a bit late but who has the best write up on what's actually happened with Crowdstrike and how this thing began? Are we just pushing code willy nilly now or is there something more to it?

2024-07-14 17:02:39

So has anyone been fired or arrested for posting in the last 24hr?

2024-07-11 17:40:38

If your answer to "big tech co did x, y, and z wrong" is some comment like, "This is why I have my own domain and control the MX records on the DNS on it" please .... just please ....

2024-07-11 14:48:39

- reply

Comforting to know bad ideas have no borders

2024-07-11 14:48:23

Looking forward to all my dead loved ones feeding me election misinformation https://one.npr.org/i/nx-s1-5001751:nx-s1-ba43e384-5485-465c-873e-112a6b525f54

2024-07-11 13:28:15

Me riding my bike into work https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tnWkRjAj0R4

2024-07-10 17:32:53

remember when everyone really tried to make PGP happen

2024-06-27 19:22:41

For the people who will watch the debate tonight, I'm really curious, what are you going to get out of it? Do you think you'll learn something new?

2024-06-23 18:12:30

One funny thing about watching old movies is listening to prices. Vincent is famously amazed by a $5 shake in Pulp Fiction. That sounds like a discount now. The other funny thing is that Pulp Fiction is now objectively old.

2024-06-12 18:26:25

- reply

@npub18c7…er9d I actually really like the book, so let me start there. But now I'll ask: Where in the book does he call out the people responsible for making immigration "a partisan battleground"?

2024-06-12 13:16:21

It's funny and fascinating how differently we talk about Apple (benefit of the doubt, confidence, the security team probably knows things we don't) versus Microsoft (wow that's bad, black eye, the security team may not have even been involved) on huge security questions about new features. I think it's the right way to talk about it though https://risky.biz/RB752/

2024-06-10 23:31:11

“I’m not a victim of racism. I’m a tormenter of racists.”
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/112/594/928/806/971/049/original/b06e47d939f36d04.jpeg

2024-06-06 23:51:51

https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/112/572/360/791/159/385/original/18a3758ff60a1c83.png

2024-06-05 15:19:30

https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/112/564/679/825/796/900/original/3856f7070d45a93d.png

2024-05-30 23:48:07

This waiter just brought out a water bowl with an orange slice for my dog
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/112/532/709/497/456/951/original/e996c28986d17b69.jpeg
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/112/532/709/941/358/030/original/6b15d62d03f3e19c.jpeg

2024-05-29 13:46:25

"The AI Overviews debacle and leaked search ranking documents tell a common story about the web's future — and it's not pretty" https://www.platformer.news/google-ai-overviews-eat-rocks-glue-pizza/?ref=platformer-newsletter

2024-05-28 20:26:06

"Major crypto firms are fighting to remake federal law with an expensive lobbying campaign that has left no part of American politics untouched." https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2024/05/25/crypto-lobbying-politics-washington/

2024-05-28 17:31:56

What are the best/your favorite/the most important US cybersecurity conferences this fall?

2024-05-26 14:56:41

What do adults do when they have to carry normal office stuff — computers, etc — and gym/sports gear? Am I cursed to carry two bags? Do I try my best to jam everything in my (admittedly giant) backpack? A duffel seems interesting but also weird as a day-to-day office bag. Help!

2024-05-25 18:53:01

Can someone give me a real review based on usability rather than ideals (which are all well and good, just not what I'm interested in at this exact moment) -- is DuckDuckGo any good these days? Or are any of the search alternatives decent?

2024-05-24 21:59:08

I think it's very cool and extremely normal that critical infrastructure can just have a whoopsie and forget MFA

2024-05-24 20:21:12

- reply

@npub17lg…9uux what’s even the point of paying for the check mark since it promises post boosting?

2024-05-23 22:57:58

https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/112/492/876/267/584/785/original/9195d5b08a84cfc8.jpeg
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/112/492/876/572/219/468/original/8c9c70fea5ddc584.jpeg

2024-05-23 19:37:24

- reply

@npub17lg…9uux The sheer amount of porn bots is so funny for all sorts of reasons, esp Elon making the promise to stop the bots

2024-05-23 16:54:50

- reply

Anecdotally, in the last 5 years there has been a huge (and inexplicable) rise in the use of semicolons but they're usually used incorrectly. The safe play: Just say no! Use periods and commas! Periods are so great. Short, sweet sentences whenever possible. You probably do not need to ambiguously extend with semicolons.

2024-05-23 16:51:51

Friendly writing tips:
(1) Your bulleted or numbered list does not need and should not have a semicolon separating items
(2) You can have a period separating items if it's a complete sentence and if you want periods, that's really a subjective stylistic choice, but above all make sure it's consistent throughout
This message has been brought to you by the Global Society For I Promise You Almost Never Need Semicolons So Stop Putting Them All Over The Place

2024-05-14 16:14:10

Here’s a very specific dark pattern that I bet has made Google many millions: Some old folks install Google Photos on their iPhone, it basically automatically backs up photos and even if you turn off backup it bombards you with prompts to back up photos. That’s generally unnecessary but old folks do it. Then their Google account has no storage left and they’re bombarded with prompts to subscribe for more storage which they do so they can still read their email because the prompts threaten them with loss of access to GMail.

2024-05-13 12:55:58

I wish so many people on Mastodon didn’t feel the need to have one account for cyber stuff and the other for personal hobbies like books or sports or whatever else. I actually want to read about your hobbies and see you as a full person

2024-05-10 15:00:13

I have a genuine question: Who thinks basic cybersecurity goals like "enable MFA by default for users and administrators" or "instead of bad default passwords, enable random, instance-unique initial passwords for your product" or "require the user who installs the product to create a strong password at the start of the installation process" couldn't be mandatory?

2024-05-03 18:32:30

It is so intense for a reporter to write "scoop" on something that company PR sent them

2024-05-02 17:09:20

https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/112/372/597/263/602/673/original/527db066e4c91585.jpg

2024-04-24 13:23:04

"The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is aiming to roll out its long-awaited proposed rules governing commercial surveillance in the next few months, with a focus on ensuring that companies properly handle the data they harvest from the apps, websites and devices that consumers use." https://therecord.media/ftc-commercial-surveillance-regulations-data-security-privacy-minimization

2024-04-17 14:29:12

The fact that Wikipedia remains generally really good and useful despite everything else happening online is totally astounding and great

2024-04-12 19:32:56

- reply

@npub13d8…ycpx every day a fresh horror

2024-04-12 15:54:55

Mastodon has leveled up in 2024. It's more informative and fast paced than ever which was really my chief and only complaint in 2023. Do we sometimes have a collective stick up our butts? Yes, absolutely, and that's some people's main complaint. Personally, I'm not delusional about solvable problems, I just want this place to hum and it really has been lately. And with no lunatic billionaire to worry about! Good job team.

2024-04-11 15:41:13

cyber stock art remains absolutely ridiculous
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/112/253/341/319/212/059/original/66d562d72057174d.png

2024-04-11 13:57:15

https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/112/252/930/728/961/502/original/d80bf44330c6e404.png

2024-04-10 23:50:19

- reply

@npub1hyp…aehm making security harder with insane advice that no normal person will take is an ancient pastime!

2024-04-10 14:28:55

"A previously unknown ransomware gang has been attacking Russian businesses with malware based on the leaked source code from the Conti hacking group." https://therecord.media/muliaka-ransomware-group-targeting-russian-businesses-conti?utm_medium=email&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9OMpaMHFpx0RNm-x9s0uBodeymJyvlhMSwrkUPpIERJn8lg2gA04pKmjPGUJ1B4sBXKMZUPRSPEiN3DiVV5gMQIo7OgDZW6Cm7yT7LTJyRJfdTUkffQT9oAN-nF6INeMtu5OS-&_hsmi=301907939&utm_content=301910062&utm_source=hs_email

2024-04-06 01:56:59

https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/112/221/789/603/447/585/original/1f2d91f96e1ba03b.jpeg

2024-04-06 00:51:51

Can Threads users, whose posts we can see here, see interactions from outside Threads?

2024-04-05 14:57:26

Makes a lot of sense to me, this is why books went extinct in the 19th century
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/112/219/194/089/939/225/original/b9a95e9d4f2e68b3.png

2024-04-05 14:37:00

I love minor earthquake twitter

2024-04-04 15:12:13

extremely funny to see infosec twitter users be miffed that the xz saga unfolded primarily on mastodon

2024-04-02 13:50:01

"how states have very different views about manipulating the information environment aka ‘information warfare’." https://risky.biz/BTN73/

2024-04-01 17:23:12

I love the April Fools backlash. It’s the most grumpy online thing imaginable. Perfection. I HATE people making jokes, ruins my whole otherwise glorious Monday

2024-04-01 12:34:08

Tech support for parents is amazing. They find settings to mess with that I never dreamed of. The time on every iOS device in the house was off by like ten minutes. Why? There is a “set time automatically” setting, it was off, and the time was manually set to be wrong. Everywhere. On each device. Individually.

2024-03-27 15:11:51

One of the bigger bummers about media, and there are so many, is people buying trusted legacy brands and pumping out shitty clickbait that people totally buy because they grew up with the brand. Sucks.

2024-03-26 13:50:20

Just spotted a cyber-bridge expert in the wilds of LinkedIn. Pray for me.

2024-03-22 18:40:32

wow https://meduza.io/en/live/2024/03/22/terrorist-attack-at-concert-hall-outside-moscow
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/112/140/801/002/471/437/original/b009b9fc3313c82a.png

2024-03-21 13:10:01

"On Microsoft, the US Government Must Embrace the Stick" https://news.risky.biz/on-microsoft-the-us-government-must-embrace-the-stick/?ref=seriously-risky-business-newsletter

2024-03-20 14:32:47

- reply

@npub17lg…9uux right, global behemoth and all that, I was just wondering if that name is still actively used by them

2024-03-20 14:26:38

does Microsoft still call their intel team MSTIC? I thought they had a name change but I may have just dreamed that up completely out of nowhere

2024-03-18 13:27:02

Do we know the initial infection vector for UnitedHealthcare? I haven't been following it as closely as I could have, wondering if I missed this detail

2024-03-13 14:21:50

okay, it's been 15 years of bitcoin, this morning I'm genuinely curious: outside of crypto, what are some successful projects that use a blockchain in a way that makes sense? I think/hope we're past the peak of the blockchain-specific hype, so I wonder what if anything is left standing?

2024-03-13 13:39:33

Gotta pay attention to the good news too: Global child deaths reached the lowest level ever https://www.who.int/news/item/13-03-2024-global-child-deaths-reach-historic-low-in-2022---un-report

2024-03-11 13:51:30

Huge congrats to crypto fraud https://news.risky.biz/risky-biz-news-crypto-fraud-is-now-bigger-than-bec/?ref=risky-business-news-newsletter

2024-03-08 23:09:34

- reply

@npub17lg…9uux @npub1cfc…qe07 who comes to mind?

2024-03-07 20:02:21

"Research into the national security implications of climate change remains too narrowly focused on the physical effects of climate change, paying short shrift to many plausible social or political implications." https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PEA2944-1.html

2024-03-06 15:27:58

There is something truly beautiful, in a migraine aura-inducing sort of way, about using AI to measure hype around emergent technologies https://www.rand.org/pubs/perspectives/PEA3137-1.html

2024-03-06 15:17:08

Shout out to @npub1cfc…qe07 who is consistently one of the best sources of cyber news here on Mastodon. No pressure Simon but I have your toots on a little alert because they're usually some of the most valuable on this whole site. Thank you for the toots!! 🫡

2024-03-01 15:24:55

I have a contractor coming to fix something important in my house today and I need to hear their call, so my phone is off silent for the first time in years. I do not understand how people can live like this? People who do not have their phones permanently silenced baffle me

2024-02-29 15:49:04

I'm currently reading this in depth analysis comparing and contrasting China's offensive cyber industry to the west's https://margin.re/2024/02/same-same-but-different/
If the Tianfu -> ITW pipeline sounds familiar, take a walk down memory lane https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/05/06/1024621/china-apple-spy-uyghur-hacker-tianfu/amp/

2024-02-27 20:17:18

https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/112/005/285/705/000/788/original/f313e1ac634d7fbe.jpeg

2024-02-22 15:43:07

of course as soon as I post something even vaguely positive about infosec twitter, someone sends me a screenshotted tweet of a prominent industry person calling for assassinations in response to cyber activity. I guess I asked for it, to be fair.

2024-02-22 14:35:53

Mastodon could be a lot of things for a lot of people which is great but for people who wanted/needed it to be informative, I think this is a pretty reasonable and common path that Thomas took. And if we want it to be a real Twitter alternative, there should be more thought put into this beyond sheer force of will, i.e. posting through it, and shaming people who go back. I'm not saying anger at Twitter is unjustified but anger isn't going to get people to alternatives.
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/111/975/606/953/929/940/original/2e96d78ffdf05e5a.png

2024-02-21 17:49:05

"Unmasking I-Soon | The Leak That Revealed China’s Cyber Operations" https://www.sentinelone.com/labs/unmasking-i-soon-the-leak-that-revealed-chinas-cyber-operations/

2024-02-17 18:10:58

Self-inflicted housing crisis https://www.npr.org/2024/02/17/1229867031/housing-shortage-zoning-reform-cities

2024-02-15 19:21:41

people dunking of scam victims as if it only happens to big dumb idiots are guaranteed to get got good. reality check incoming, that's just the law. you're not too smart to get scammed.
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/111/937/139/377/218/265/original/2113def70cc80137.png

2024-02-12 18:12:17

"China launched an offensive media strategy to push narratives around US hacking operations following a joint statement by the US, UK, and EU in July 2021 about China’s irresponsible behavior in cyberspace." https://www.sentinelone.com/labs/chinas-cyber-revenge-why-the-prc-fails-to-back-its-claims-of-western-espionage/

2024-02-08 18:17:16

while i'm tooting out toothbrush-related takes, we all recognize that the "just say no to iot" dogma that some people in infosec tout is, at best, sisyphean, right? That's not the world we live in, look at any statistics whatsoever on that matter. a more realistic and constructive approach might be to direct people to better iot devices, vendors, and practices. we're not turning back the iot tide, I'm sorry to break this. Improving standards, talking about who does it well, calling out bad actors, these things can be helpful. But "just say no" works about as well here as it is ever has.

2024-02-08 18:07:01

- reply

@npub17lg…9uux fair enough, maybe the viral outrage prevents further harm in a big way. that's an interesting hypothesis and could very well be true. as it is, the outrage went more viral than the story from my anecdotal perspective, and that warrants some self-examination imo. my optimistic hope is that this leads the outraged readers to be better at identifying which outlets are primarily aggregation machines rather than journalism outlets

2024-02-08 17:58:02

- reply

@npub17lg…9uux yeah I just saw some posts talking about how this was an example of highly trusted outlets going astray and, to be blunt, I just don't see any highly trusted outlets there is all. I see aggregation noise. Again, not good and worth examining! Just not worth this level of group outrage imo

2024-02-08 17:53:15

- reply

@npub17lg…9uux I must be misunderstanding the independent, I see it badly and slowly aggregating tech news all the time but I'm not a brit. And the front page of Microsoft news is almost always garbage. In fact, normally it's more impactful garbage that i unfortunately have to see regularly. Sorry, I still don't think that's a huge deal.
If the BBC published it, okay, that would warrant the reaction. As it is, it's a minor and very silly misunderstanding. I'm open to the idea that I'm missing something but right now it just looks like a funny fixation on a strange little story that no one outside of cyber cares about anyway. We're in a bubble.
This isn't meant to be an attack on you btw. I think the work you do to respond to media issues is super valuable. I just think, in aggregate, this community is overreacting.

2024-02-08 17:47:15

i've seen literally 50x more people complaining about the toothbrush thing compared to actual blogs, which is funny to me but okay, I understand.
It's probably significant that all the places i've seen publish it are mass production reblog factories. all due respect, these are not well regarded news outlets. maybe that's not obvious to the general public or even the cyber expert public? There's a difference.
contrary to the viral outrage, this is absolutely not an example of "a dozen well-regarded news outlets" being tricked. It's still worth learning from as an example of the pitfalls of aggregation but you all could act a little less outraged, if I didn't know better I'd think this thing was just published on the front page of the washington post. everyone, drink a glass of water and get some air. This is not a big deal :)

2024-02-07 23:18:33

is this a good time to start my smart bathroom cybersecurity company?

2024-02-02 19:05:57

"Over 2 percent of the US’s electricity generation now goes to bitcoin"
This news won't resonate because 2% feels like such a small number but it is in fact an insane amount of energy: "that's roughly the equivalent of having added an additional state to the grid over just the last three years." https://arstechnica.com/science/2024/02/over-2-percent-of-the-uss-electricity-generation-now-goes-to-bitcoin/

2024-01-25 14:40:27

64K women and girls became pregnant due to rape in states with abortion bans, study estimates https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/64k-women-girls-became-pregnant-due-rape-states-abortion-bans-study-es-rcna135565

2024-01-23 21:19:40

- reply

@npub1qz2…nlrg Honest question: With zero detail given, how do you know these tapes are worth the effort for anyone?

2024-01-22 16:23:29

I have too many calendars, calendars that can't be connected, I must therefore announce that I will no longer acknowledge the concept of time

2024-01-22 15:21:38

I’ve got a funny CTI question because I feel like this is the correct circle of nerds to ask this kind of funny question. What are two publicly reported incidents that at first glance plausibly MIGHT be part of a single campaign but ultimately cannot be tied together? Anything that’s coming to mind for me this morning turns out to be too obviously not tied together, I need something that takes a bit of work to disprove

2024-01-18 18:00:44

The legal offensive that got the Reuters story about private offensive hacking taken down has got the Internet Archive too: "And the Internet Archive, which had hosted a backup copy of the Reuters story, has taken it down. (The story has been replaced with the message: “this URL has been excluded from the Wayback Machine.”)" https://www.cjr.org/the_media_today/qa_emma_best_ddosecrets.php

2024-01-16 14:59:13

"Beyond Alleged Assassination Plots, India’s Modi is Silencing US Critics Digitally Too" https://www.justsecurity.org/91152/beyond-alleged-assassination-plots-indias-modi-is-silencing-us-critics-digitally-too/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=beyond-alleged-assassination-plots-indias-modi-is-silencing-us-critics-digitally-too