John Scott-Railton
1.6K posts

John Scott-Railton
@jsrailton
Chasing digital badness. Sr. Researcher @citizenlab @UofT @munkschool. Fmr.Ed. @SecPlanner. Tweets mine. Other platforms @jsrailton too.
شامل ہوئے Ocak 2011
2.8K فالونگ164.7K فالوورز

@jsrailton The point is that sometimes less is more, yet people love to overextend—and that doesn’t always mean they’re making a point. They’re just using words and space.
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Articles hit at the sweet spot for people using LLMs to turn tweets into essays.
Not only was our attention span already precarious, but suddenly long text = takes more time to read it than it did to write it.
Now, we need need a summary feature to fix this.
Nikita Bier@nikitabier
We’re rolling out summaries for Articles now. Just tap the Summarize button if you want to know if it’s worth your time to read it (or if your attention span is 12 seconds).
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NEW: French sailor reveals position of aircraft carrier with his fitness app.
Run tracking app @Strava shows Charles de Gaulle as it steams across the Med.
#stravaleaks strike..again!
Story by @lemonde. 1/


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7/ But wait, isn't the movement of something like an Aircraft Carrier not a big secret...yes..sort of.
And this particular deployment isn't a secret.
But consider:
(a) this case is diagnostic of an unauthorized use problem
(b) navies know the traditional ways they are watched with satellites etc.
But they can only do deceptive maneuvers etc when they know what they are focused on.
And they do deception to confuse these systems all the time. They know when satellites pass, know what to show on their deck etc etc.
(c) Strava emits some useful signals:
For example, someone is probably not jogging around the deck when a carrier is doing flight ops or prepping for them.
It also indicates things about what might be happening based on that persons role: when they are jogging, they aren't manning their other role in the Combat Information Center...etc etc
x.com/jsrailton/stat…
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@lemondefr @Strava 6/ Many such cases.
Unbelievable sloppiness around location data & private devices.
Reason that militaries that are in a lot of active big conflicts learn to keep personal phones away from sensitive locations.
x.com/Helene_G_du_P_…
Hélène du .P Menagé (Fernández)@Helene_G_du_P_M
@jsrailton @Strava @lemonde During a NATO training exercise in Norway we located the positions of US troops who were playing the enemy by triangulating their Tinder locations in the middle of the Arctic forest where there were no nearby towns or cities.
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@jsrailton @Strava @lemonde The amount of rust on that ship is unsat!
Once over dust, twice over rust!
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However, those satellites only pass at specific times, known to navies. Very limiting.
*Long history of navies purposefully making maneuvers to deceive satellite observers.*
Everything emitted is a signal. But you can only defend against the ones you know about
The bigger issue is that fitness trackers & other mobile location data are a flow of high time & location precision that is not controlled for.
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@jsrailton @Strava @lemonde there is literally free global aircraft carrier tracking provided by EU funding:
browser.dataspace.copernicus.eu/?zoom=16&lat=3…

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It's true. But it's also true that every signal about the movement of a ship is useful.
Satellites, shipspotting, AIS transponders etc..
Each gives something. But is also dependent on other things like satellite pass timing etc. And those are things that are adjusted for and taken into consideration.
This is simply another data flow that is undesirable and seemingly impossible to stop...
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@jsrailton @AsiaLens @Strava @lemonde “Reveals position” of a giant vessel in a tiny and busy body of water…
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@vxunderground They use PR firms. So the news agencies know these firms so whenever they need a quote or a clip on cyber they ask who the firm has and they go “here is Joe McCybersecurity”
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I am genuinely impressed by mainstream media outlets ability to find absolute nobodies in cybersecurity. It's remarkable. I am often left speechless.
There has been dozens occasions, especially as of recent, where some media outlet will be like, "Today as a special guest is world-renowned cybersecurity expert and ethical hacker Joe McCyberSecurity".
I'm like, who the fuck is Joe McCybersecurity? I've been doing cybersecurity and malware stuff for a long time and I've never once seen or heard of Joe McCybersecurity. If he is world-renowned, I would THINK I would have seen them or heard of them.
The camera then pans over to Joe McCybersecurity and it is the most generic cookie cutter white dude in a cheap suit and the tag below him will say something like, "Joe McCybersecurity, Ethical Hacker, CEO of Cybersecurity McJoe Industries"
I'm like, "Cybersecurity McJoe Industries? What the fuck is that?". I look it up and it's a generic WordPress website hosted on GoDaddy with an expired SSL cert.
Joe McCybersecurity then babbles incomprehensible nonsense for about 60 seconds until the TV host goes "woaw" and it cuts to a commercial.
Absolute cinema.
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Most companies do value your privacy!
As a product they can sell.
Olivia Solon@oliviasolon
“We value your privacy”
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