Jonathan Anderson
@trombonehero.bsky.social
Associate Professor. Computer Security. Sometimes grumpy (but I repeat myself).
Pinned
We need to make online security a mandatory subject in our schools. It's not just about protection of personal devices and data, but one person's brief lapse in judgement can bring down a school, a payroll system, or a hospital.
2/2
2/2
Counterpoint: if one person’s brief lapse in judgement can bring down the whole org, we’re building our systems all wrong.
In these turbulent times, amidst great polarization and misinformation, we can all take solace in the wise words of the late Tim Horton:
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet”
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet”
November 9, 2025 at 8:17 PM
In these turbulent times, amidst great polarization and misinformation, we can all take solace in the wise words of the late Tim Horton:
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet”
“Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet”
“There are too many similarities between the iPhone and Meta’s glasses to name them all here, just as one could strain to name infinite similarities between a table and an elephant if we chose to ignore the context that actually matters to a human being.”
Essentially every time we write about abuse of Meta's Ray-Ban AI glasses, Meta tries to convince us the glasses are no different from an iPhone. Here's a helpful guide for Meta PR about the difference between AI glasses and phones 😊
www.404media.co/whats-the-di...
www.404media.co/whats-the-di...
What’s the Difference Between AI Glasses and an iPhone? A Helpful Guide for Meta PR
Meta thinks its camera glasses, which are often used for harassment, are no different than any other camera.
www.404media.co
November 7, 2025 at 9:27 PM
“There are too many similarities between the iPhone and Meta’s glasses to name them all here, just as one could strain to name infinite similarities between a table and an elephant if we chose to ignore the context that actually matters to a human being.”
Software patents… probably something like “Method for adding the colour orange to a website”
GoDaddy hit with $170 mln patent verdict over web-design tech reut.rs/4hPvky6
GoDaddy hit with $170 mln patent verdict over web-design tech
Internet domain registrar GoDaddy owes a patent owner $170 million for violating its rights in website-building technology, a Delaware federal jury said in a verdict made public on Friday.
reut.rs
November 7, 2025 at 8:00 PM
Software patents… probably something like “Method for adding the colour orange to a website”
Just found a new deadlock illustration
November 7, 2025 at 7:57 PM
Just found a new deadlock illustration
"JSONH is same as HJSON but different." 😆
Things I Don't Like in Configuration Languages https://lobste.rs/s/zhzxfg ##programming
Things I Don't Like in Configuration Languages
medv.io
November 6, 2025 at 3:18 PM
"JSONH is same as HJSON but different." 😆
When people deliberately scam your users, and you can detect it, you should… I dunno… stop it?
Or, apparently, charge scammers EXTRA for the privilege of access to your users.
Or, apparently, charge scammers EXTRA for the privilege of access to your users.
Meta earns $3.5 billion every six months from showing Faceboon and Instagram users 15 billion “higher legal risk” scam ad impressions a day, internal documents state.
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
That haul vastly exceeds how much the company expects regulators
To fine it for running scam ads.
www.reuters.com/investigatio...
www.reuters.com
November 6, 2025 at 1:13 PM
When people deliberately scam your users, and you can detect it, you should… I dunno… stop it?
Or, apparently, charge scammers EXTRA for the privilege of access to your users.
Or, apparently, charge scammers EXTRA for the privilege of access to your users.
It’s not like it was protecting anything important
November 4, 2025 at 12:00 AM
It’s not like it was protecting anything important
A great example of why, when someone cites work as “from MIT” or “from Harvard” instead of “peer-reviewed by X”, your spidey senses should tingle…
Some guy got in an argument with me about the impact of AI malware. He cited a MIT paper claiming "80% of ransomware attacks are AI powered". I glanced over it and burst out laughing, but couldn't be bothered to debunk it. My friend on the other hand, could. He roasted it so hard that MIT deleted it
Security Community Slams MIT-linked Report Claiming AI Power...
Experts push back on new claims about AI-driven ransomware, warning that hype and sponsored research are distorting how the threat is understood.
socket.dev
October 31, 2025 at 10:34 PM
A great example of why, when someone cites work as “from MIT” or “from Harvard” instead of “peer-reviewed by X”, your spidey senses should tingle…
Fascinating details and analysis
Or IOW, if this valuation is right, Apple's top-end bug-bounty for top-tier security research, despite their popular image as being generous, is still about an order of magnitude below than the offensive market
October 30, 2025 at 1:36 AM
Fascinating details and analysis
It’s like the Jaffa Cake decision, but with lower stakes
Fans of VAT food and drink cases will enjoy this decision, where the Tax Tribunal was entertained with two days of argument on whether Ferrero Nutella chocolate biscuits (pictured) are “covered in chocolate”. caselaw.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ukftt/tc/202....
October 28, 2025 at 5:34 PM
It’s like the Jaffa Cake decision, but with lower stakes
Reposted by Jonathan Anderson
Reminder that the majority of the world doesn’t bother with daylight savings.
October 27, 2025 at 3:22 PM
Reminder that the majority of the world doesn’t bother with daylight savings.
🌝
'Astronomers' is an anagram for 'moon starers.'
October 27, 2025 at 3:26 PM
🌝
Maybe Doug Ford’s plan was… good, actually? (contra @thelineca.bsky.social)
WSJ EDITORIAL BOARD: “.. It’s striking that Mr. Trump is so worried about a TV spot featuring a President who left the White House nearly 37 years ago. .. Perhaps Mr. Trump fears he’s going to lose the tariff case, and maybe he also knows his tariffs are unpopular ..”
www.wsj.com/opinion/reag...
www.wsj.com/opinion/reag...
October 27, 2025 at 3:24 PM
Maybe Doug Ford’s plan was… good, actually? (contra @thelineca.bsky.social)
DANGIT, missed an opportunity for alternative research funding
Two weeks ago, we at WIRED published a video showing how a hacked casino card shuffling machine can be used for undetectable cheating in poker. Now it turns out the mob and a couple of NBA stars were already (allegedly) using exactly this trick to make millions. www.wired.com/story/how-ha...
How Hacked Card Shufflers Allegedly Enabled a Mob-Fueled Poker Scam That Rocked the NBA
WIRED recently demonstrated how to cheat at poker by hacking the Deckmate 2 card shufflers used in casinos. The mob was allegedly using the same trick to fleece victims for millions.
www.wired.com
October 24, 2025 at 7:02 PM
DANGIT, missed an opportunity for alternative research funding
I was today years old when I learned that our Department of National Defence has a prize for hard #scifi
IDEaS fictional intelligence contest: Polar paradigms 2045: Defending Canada’s sovereignty - Canada.ca
Think like an enemy. Disrupt like an innovator. Write like the future depends on it. This contest is a launchpad for game-changing ideas, arming military leaders with bold, mind-bending insights they ...
www.canada.ca
October 23, 2025 at 9:39 PM
I was today years old when I learned that our Department of National Defence has a prize for hard #scifi
Reposted by Jonathan Anderson
POV: you can't sleep because Amazon is down.
Design thinking that inserts brittle dependence into our lives.
While extracting fees for life.
Don't be these guys.
Design thinking that inserts brittle dependence into our lives.
While extracting fees for life.
Don't be these guys.
October 21, 2025 at 9:57 AM
POV: you can't sleep because Amazon is down.
Design thinking that inserts brittle dependence into our lives.
While extracting fees for life.
Don't be these guys.
Design thinking that inserts brittle dependence into our lives.
While extracting fees for life.
Don't be these guys.
"The resulting game [...] has tied the fates of the world’s biggest semiconductor and cloud companies—and vast swaths of the U.S. economy—to OpenAI, essentially making it too big to fail. All of them are now betting on the success of a startup that is nowhere near turning a profit [...]"
Playing off the egos of tech giants, Sam Altman’s dealmaking blitz has tied Silicon Valley’s massive fortunes to his own startup.
How Sam Altman Tied Tech’s Biggest Players to OpenAI
The CEO’s dealmaking blitz has convinced Silicon Valley’s giants to tether their fates to his company, essentially making it too big to fail
on.wsj.com
October 21, 2025 at 1:03 PM
"The resulting game [...] has tied the fates of the world’s biggest semiconductor and cloud companies—and vast swaths of the U.S. economy—to OpenAI, essentially making it too big to fail. All of them are now betting on the success of a startup that is nowhere near turning a profit [...]"
“OK, so it didn’t ‘solve’ those problems, but it did FIND solutions, and searching for stuff is REALLY HARD!”
An OpenAI executive said GPT-5 found solutions to 10 "previously unsolved" math problems when in reality all it did was find online references to places where people had already solved them
techcrunch.com/2025/10/19/o...
techcrunch.com/2025/10/19/o...
OpenAI’s ‘embarrassing’ math | TechCrunch
No, GPT-5 did not solve a bunch of previously unsolved math problems.
techcrunch.com
October 20, 2025 at 7:04 PM
“OK, so it didn’t ‘solve’ those problems, but it did FIND solutions, and searching for stuff is REALLY HARD!”
Reposted by Jonathan Anderson
"But when the team looked at the employees’ actual work output, they found that the developers had completed tasks 20% slower when using AI than when working without it. Researchers were stunned. “No one expected that outcome. We didn’t even really consider a slowdown as a possibility.”
🎁link
🎁link
October 19, 2025 at 10:51 PM
"But when the team looked at the employees’ actual work output, they found that the developers had completed tasks 20% slower when using AI than when working without it. Researchers were stunned. “No one expected that outcome. We didn’t even really consider a slowdown as a possibility.”
🎁link
🎁link
Reposted by Jonathan Anderson
em dashes are the perfect way to textually represent dramatically putting on/taking off my glasses
October 20, 2025 at 4:07 PM
em dashes are the perfect way to textually represent dramatically putting on/taking off my glasses
Reposted by Jonathan Anderson
This photo accompanying a news story about the heist at the Louvre is perfection.
October 19, 2025 at 9:56 PM
This photo accompanying a news story about the heist at the Louvre is perfection.
Don’t mess with a cat’s feeding schedule!
Also, designers of appliances: if you MUST include internet connectivity in your silly little widget, think about how you’ll handle network failures… if you can’t handle that, maybe you’re not up for building the thing.
Also, designers of appliances: if you MUST include internet connectivity in your silly little widget, think about how you’ll handle network failures… if you can’t handle that, maybe you’re not up for building the thing.
This remains the funniest way to hear about an internet outage, though.
October 20, 2025 at 10:46 AM
Don’t mess with a cat’s feeding schedule!
Also, designers of appliances: if you MUST include internet connectivity in your silly little widget, think about how you’ll handle network failures… if you can’t handle that, maybe you’re not up for building the thing.
Also, designers of appliances: if you MUST include internet connectivity in your silly little widget, think about how you’ll handle network failures… if you can’t handle that, maybe you’re not up for building the thing.
Now THAT’S some pedantic redactin’
Learned that an anonymous outside expert on submersibles did an interview with the OceanGate Titan investigation, and they released a transcript, with all the names redacted. The first line of his first answer? "I'm sure you're familiar with my film Titanic."
October 17, 2025 at 1:14 AM
Now THAT’S some pedantic redactin’
Lovely convocation this evening… so happy to see my former PhD student (now Dr Jadidi) cross the stage!
www.cbc.ca/player/play/...
www.cbc.ca/player/play/...
A new MUN president, and almost a thousand new graduates, take the stage
It’s the moment nearly a thousand students at Memorial University have been waiting for: convocation day. But they also shared the spotlight with the university’s new president. As CBC’s Zach Goudie r...
www.cbc.ca
October 17, 2025 at 12:52 AM
Lovely convocation this evening… so happy to see my former PhD student (now Dr Jadidi) cross the stage!
www.cbc.ca/player/play/...
www.cbc.ca/player/play/...
No way…
Windows 10 goes out of support today. My fave useless fact about w10 is that the iconic blue desktop background is a *photograph* - not CGI.
Tiny 'making of' vid here - youtu.be/_2RacX9DgWM...
Tiny 'making of' vid here - youtu.be/_2RacX9DgWM...
October 16, 2025 at 1:31 AM
No way…