Vern McCandlish's Avatar

Vern McCandlish

@malanalysis

A #DFIR, #infosec, #dadjokes, #scifi, #books, #rpg, #ttx, #malware, elder #genx, and #gaming nerd. AKA an elder geek. Retired #leo. Retired from #infosec in #OT now too. Kindness first is useful but telling off toxic folks is on my response spectrum too.

3,970
Followers
4,426
Following
1,461
Posts
26.06.2023
Joined
Posts Following

Latest posts by Vern McCandlish @malanalysis

Some people silently process things before they speak.

Some people talk their way through things to process them.

Invariably they will marry the other one.

06.03.2026 01:37 πŸ‘ 6 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1
Preview
ICE detains reporter Estefany RodrΓ­guez in Nashville - Nashville Banner Reporter Estefany RodrΓ­guez, detained by ICE with no arrest warrant, may face deportation. Her attorneys seek immediate review of the legality of her case.

ICE has arrested and detained a Nashville journalist who reported stories critical of ICE. She’s married to a U.S. citizen and has been seeking asylum here after fleeing death threats in Colombia because of her journalism there.

They’ve already sent her to Louisiana.

05.03.2026 23:41 πŸ‘ 12243 πŸ” 7402 πŸ’¬ 292 πŸ“Œ 337

His own God heard this and was like, where is that Mariah Carey meme? I need that right now.

06.03.2026 01:19 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

It implies that we are visitors in someone else’s country.

05.03.2026 23:24 πŸ‘ 3415 πŸ” 681 πŸ’¬ 145 πŸ“Œ 12

The use of AI to identify targets (without subsequent specific human confirmation) should be considered a war crime.

And by that I don't mean "we should make a rule" I mean that straightforward application of the existing rules would tell you that it is a war crime.

05.03.2026 14:33 πŸ‘ 1996 πŸ” 546 πŸ’¬ 46 πŸ“Œ 22

The Venn diagram of folks that last year were saying we were over reacting and this year are saying nobody thought something like this could happen is a circle.

05.03.2026 17:58 πŸ‘ 3 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

β€œNobody thought something like this could happen here.”"

Yes we did.

05.03.2026 17:38 πŸ‘ 27 πŸ” 6 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 2

Was the requestor wearing a good business suit?

05.03.2026 17:54 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

Additionally what so many of the "No one's talking on Bluesky" people are actually saying is "I am lost and confused when there's not an algorithm to shove content into my eyeballs with no effort on my part"

05.03.2026 15:36 πŸ‘ 1670 πŸ” 222 πŸ’¬ 53 πŸ“Œ 7

Does FidoNet or CompuServe BB posting count as social media?

Asking for a friend, an old friend.

05.03.2026 01:15 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

if i was the head of product for Bluesky, I would prioritize β€œpeople can block the entire Trust & Safety team with a single button” as a P0 bug.

i would also not be emailing random users to complain to them if any accidentally replicated the bug.

04.03.2026 22:36 πŸ‘ 97 πŸ” 11 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 4

Losing an embassy is only a political disaster if it comes from the Benghazi region of Libya. Otherwise it’s just sparkling property renovations.

03.03.2026 19:58 πŸ‘ 87 πŸ” 28 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 0

Yeah, Tillis voted for Noem and these other shitbirds and he owns part of this mess. But for people who still have a shred of a conscience, that's going to make them more invested in righting what's gone wrong. We should all encourage that.

03.03.2026 18:03 πŸ‘ 2282 πŸ” 372 πŸ’¬ 61 πŸ“Œ 9

Not wading back into yesterday's netiquette seminar, but if I may offer what might be a piece of helpful advice?

If you post something that gets more than five idiotic responses from people who don't follow you, turn off replies except to followers, and turn off quote skeeting.

03.07.2025 17:53 πŸ‘ 328 πŸ” 41 πŸ’¬ 14 πŸ“Œ 34

Reminded me of this: xkcd.com/154/

There is always an @xkcd.com to reference on topic.

03.03.2026 16:21 πŸ‘ 7 πŸ” 1 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Preview
Cyber Command disrupted Iranian comms, sensors, top general says U.S. Cyber Command conducted online attacks against Iranian communications systems that the country’s top general said set the stage for the joint bombing campaign with Israel.

U.S. Cyber Command conducted online attacks against Iranian communications that the country’s top general said set the stage for America’s historic joint bombing campaign with Israel.

therecord.media/iran-cyber-u...

02.03.2026 21:23 πŸ‘ 8 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 1

Announcer's voice: "We are breaking into our regularly schedule programing here on BootlickerTV to bring you exclusive new content from the floor of the U.S. Senate..."

03.03.2026 16:06 πŸ‘ 2 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I'm sorry, if you're going to make a big show about how you've got a Department of WAR helmed by a Secretary of WAR and staffed by WARfighters, it's totally inane to then claim that your massive bombing of a foreign country constitutes something other than a war.

03.03.2026 15:37 πŸ‘ 12274 πŸ” 2656 πŸ’¬ 269 πŸ“Œ 111
My first science video in 3 years!
My first science video in 3 years! YouTube video by Physics Girl

PHYSICS GIRL IS BACK!!!

youtu.be/B3m3AMRlYfc

03.03.2026 15:29 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
Post image
01.03.2026 16:04 πŸ‘ 82 πŸ” 26 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 2

Easy way to determine whether someone is a bloodthirsty hack or not is to ask them how Ahmadinejad was a military target

01.03.2026 18:46 πŸ‘ 930 πŸ” 190 πŸ’¬ 16 πŸ“Œ 0

I am very prolific with my blocks there and LinkedIn. Here I just mostly mute as an opsec issue since who we block here is publicly searchable.

01.03.2026 16:45 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

Oh, I missed all that. I am guessing I had pre-blocks and mutes in place but will check again later.

01.03.2026 16:43 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

I thought I understood and was not intending to contradict. I will delete to avoid confusion. I am sorry for poorly communicating that.

01.03.2026 16:20 πŸ‘ 0 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

If I may add

Black folks fully are fucking tired of yall

01.03.2026 15:36 πŸ‘ 18 πŸ” 4 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0

This Iran situation is demonstrating one thing more clearly than anything else: most people have absolutely no capacity for holding difficult truths in tension with one another.

01.03.2026 16:06 πŸ‘ 43 πŸ” 10 πŸ’¬ 1 πŸ“Œ 0

world-altering decisions are being made by a cabal of gambling addicts hell bent on self enrichment no matter the cost to humanity, we should look into that.

01.03.2026 14:15 πŸ‘ 11783 πŸ” 3826 πŸ’¬ 147 πŸ“Œ 177

folks we’re going to see some wild litigation between the world’s worst people

01.03.2026 16:03 πŸ‘ 1969 πŸ” 317 πŸ’¬ 16 πŸ“Œ 14

The Internet is not a great place to Do Nuance but this is one of those places where nuance is really called for.

A lot of enlisted folks enlisted out of economic need, did not sign up yesterday, & really cannot just walk off the job without severe consequences.

AND enlistment is not heroism, AND

01.03.2026 15:04 πŸ‘ 760 πŸ” 149 πŸ’¬ 18 πŸ“Œ 11

That is an excellent analogy. It is very sad, but excellent.

01.03.2026 16:02 πŸ‘ 4 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0