krisbolton

Top tier state-sponsored actors don't need backdoors, their skill, resources, and persistance mean they can penetrate almost any system. Ascrbing this to mandatory backdoors distracts from the fact we need to improve cyber resilence and build better offense.

Reading the Atlantic Council's recent paper on what the US can do to counter the system China has created which funnels exploits to their government shows how mistatched the West is versus China. Paper here: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/06/C...

I think it is valuable to the nation, some subjects are arguably more or less valuable, but its about talent at a macro level. If a nation doesn't invest in talent through PhD funding, talented people can and do go elsewhere, work in a diferent economy, contribute to a different society.

Obviously, that's only one avenue for talent. Some talented people never do a PhD, they may create start-ups etc instead. But its about fostering an ecosystem to develop and retain talent.

Lawfare has some good articles covering the different perspectives on the encryption debate from the last 10 years. https://www.lawfaremedia.org/search-results?prod_search-inde...

Personally I do wish they would intervene more, but if you consider how broad GDPR/DPA18 is I honestly don't think they can enforce it in the way a normal person would expect. Either it's a legislative issue (i.e., legislate better) or we accept these attempts at "balance". It's usually not the institutions weakness it's the legislation or the framework in which they exist.

Consider one example - you "process" (collecting, using, storing, viewing - literally anything) personal data in an electronic system without the latest security patch. Are you breaking GDPR/DPA18? Easily done, especially for sensitive data. "...taking into account the state of the art, the costs of implementation, ... the risk of varying likelihood and severity for the rights .. of natural persons ... the processor shall implement appropaite technical ... measures to ensure a level of security approapite to the risk" (DPA18 Art 32).

I imagine a large number of companies flout the above without realising. Especially when processing any information regarding health, criminal offense data, race, religion, philosophical beliefs etc, which is "special category data" and requires strong protections.

DPA18 Article 32 "Security of processing" - https://www.legislation.gov.uk/eur/2016/679/article/32

Well, that links to EFF's own "propaganda" - perpetuating privacy at all costs. Inevitably the place law and regulation should is somewhere in between, balancing risk and striving for an acceptable position all things considered within a democratic framework.

While not directly addressing undersea cable sabotage this is a comprehensive open access article with case studies on 'hybrid warfare' which provides context to these types of actions. 'Shadows of power beneath the threshold: where covert action, organized crime and irregular warfare converge' - https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/02684527.2024.2...

Do they know they're underperforming? While they may have imposter syndrome, it's a different thing to know you're actually under performing in the eyes of management. Have the difficult conversation and address the elephant in the room.

Critically, discuss your options and intentions with HR. It can get messy for everyone if you don't approach dismissal in the right way.

I've noticed it too - also in Europe. It could be a result of increased traffic from a recent Google search algorithm update which increased HN's ranking significantly. I understand HN infrastructure isn't enormous, so it would make sense. HN ranking discussion here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39423949

I presume you're correct. They're trying to create a digital equivalent of the red cross emblem and encourage others to make it the norm. It sounds unbelievable that it would be effective, but so does a white paint job and a red sticker on a vehicle.

Hello there. Some random bits that I found helpful: 1) start assignments as soon as they're given (or at least fully understand what is expected so you can plan time), then you won't be rushed and your work will be high quality. 2) learn how to write academically - sure, you know how to write but unless you've done it before you probably don't have the experience of condensing multiple pieces of referenced material into a paragraph. There will be books on this in the library. This goes hand-in-hand with achieving high grades, if you understand what a lecturer expects to see, you can do well. If you find yourself working hard and then getting a mediocre grade, its because you haven’t understood what’s expected. 2.1) visit the library and see what workshops they have on writing, referencing, research and any other university skill – take those! 3) learn how you learn, or at least actively use multiple methods if you’re unsure. Watch videos of topics covered in your lectures, read books and write notes from the books (actually use those little quizzes at the end of chapters to test your knowledge and work on areas of weakness), write flashcards and use them. 4) Read ahead on areas you think you might struggle with or areas you’ve not been exposed to before (you don’t know if you’ll find it hard and ‘waste time’ grasping the basics be under pressure and miss the opportunity to take advantage of lecture time. Or just read ahead because you’re interested. 5) Understand lecture time is a tiny amount of your time overall in university, it truly is down to you to learn. Its an active process – you have to be interested, engaged, plan and do additional work to understand and do well. 5.1) ask questions in lectures. Write questions to ask when you're doing assignments or reading around the subject. 6) Build a structure and keep to it – this is definitely a personal preference, it may not be your thing – whether its waking up at the same time everyday and going to bed at the same time, blocking periods for work, exercise, playing games, and doing it no matter what. When you’re so busy its important to ensure you control your time. It doesn’t have to be rigid, the goal is to provide structure so you can succeed, you can always choose to not follow parts of your plan. 8) Absolutely take advantage of the social life and various activities, clubs, societies etc, you can’t work all of the time!

This is brilliant, great work!

A free course on machine learning, focused on security and easing the non-mathematically gifted (myself) into useful and interesting ML projects. Working in a lot of academic research from my degrees in the area and from behind journal paywalls (where all the interesting stuff is). The first project may be a guided tutorial building an ML-assisted fuzzer.

It's a work in progress, so new content is added every two weeks. Currently introductory and foundational material. https://security.kiwi