@andrewfordlyons.net
Technologist for the humans and misanthrope for the machines. Works on digital safety and information security for media and good orgs. Opinions are my own and subject to drift. NOTE: My skeets are ephemeral and self destruct after a while.
Hacking internet-connected civilian security cameras for recon has become a standard operating procedure of modern warfare. First for Russia and Ukraine, now for Israel and Iran.
Your insecure internet-of-things surveillance system is now their targeting system.
www.wired.com/story/from-u...
It's like the US is some 12 year old kid.
A photo of Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., speaking at a rally in support of the Kids Online Safety Act on Dec. 10, 2024, in Washington, D.C., overlaid with the headline, "Congress Is Considering Abolishing Your Right to Be Anonymous Online."
"The laws will lead to more data being collected on kids, which predatory companies can then use to target them in more invasive ways," writes @taylorlorenz.bsky.social. interc.pt/4s5Rr7u
The government of Viktor Orbán in Hungary - repeatedly cited by American nationalist conservatives as their greatest ideological inspiration - has escalated to taking Ukrainian hostages. www.nbcnews.com/world/ukrain...
China about to do to the US what America did to Russia until Trump back off on Ukraine?
Leaders of #Iraq and Iraqi #Kurdistan publicly oppose US plans to support cross-border incursion by Iranian Kurdish peshmerga into western #Iran
"Iraqi territory must not be used as a launching point for attacks against neighboring countries”
#IranWar
Israel gave Putin a huge gift in getting the US to start this war.
What's it about those institutions where they are influencing things that keeps them from being prestigious?
Okay listen, if you're going to take part in False Equivilance Friday, you can put it behind the paywall. Sorry, I don't make the rules.
Labour.
This is not only incredibly weak, its false equivalence between Farage and Polanski is dangerous. One of them is a threat to liberal democracy, the other one is not. The text is a prime example of how radical centrism and the profound arrogance of self-declared liberals legitimize the far right
One law firm received “discreet enquiries" from wealthy expats stuck outside UAE due to the conflict. If they're away too long can't avoid tax. They “really value the ability to move and work wherever they want, when they want, and when something like the Iran war disrupts it, they don’t like it.”
the lads would be snorting and hooting about this for years if it was an MP they didn't like advocating for a position they didn't like
New post just out:
"Sovereignty for sale"
The UK is uniquely exposed to the power of US tech monopolies - from Palantir to AI and cloud services.
Why is it so dangerous? What are other countries doing? And what should we do?
(£/free trial)
open.substack.com/pub/samf/p/s...
Find Jesus apparently.
We are governed by religious zealots.
"The sinking of the Dena seems to be part of Hegseth’s new policy of ignoring 'stupid rules of engagement' and 'punching them while they’re down,' and it raises questions of what the Trump administration would say if a country like Iran attacked an American ship it knew was unarmed."
It's not even an implication anymore they're just saying it.
BBC Verify has pieced together verified videos, satellite imagery and expert views after a deadly attack near a primary school in Minab, souther Iran, which suggest the area was hit more than once "by multiple simultaneous or near-simultaneous strikes".
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Wild theocracy shit in the oval office today.
How they went after Wikileaks is now how they're coming after any media they don't like. And everyone had been warned it would happen.
Putting your data in Switzerland isn't some kind of magical thing, folks.
She's the new "Special Envoy for The Shield of the Americas" which they came up with an hour ago or something. www.newsweek.com/what-is-shie...
High comedy. For a while, it appeared Kristi Noem didn’t realize she was fired?
What are you doing up there, girl?
CBS has been on a journey. It went from where Edward R. Murrow once took on Joe McCarthy in 1954, to essentially becoming a vehicle for a new McCarthyism in 2026.
"Looking at the organizations who pushed it and probably wrote most of it it shows a lack of self-awareness and critical thinking that is kinda cute. Like a baby right before it learns object permanence."
Stunning.
Humans are in the loop. Always have been. It's who they are and where their interests really lay that are the problem.
There have been so many damned declarations on ethical AI, go find one not co-signed by fascists, folks. Here's a hint: are they instigated and led by women, POC, domain experts from the global south? These are indicators of a declaration to consider. Next: read them.
I'm a bit more interested in the paragraph that comes before it. We don't need to worry about the robot uprising. We've got a lot of humans who will prompt themselves into doing crazy shit.
So the new MAGA talking point is that people will like MAGA wars because, unlike previous wars that MAGA opposed, war crimes are now much more acceptable?
