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Taylor Hornby

@defusesec.bsky.social
196 followers 104 following 23 posts

PLURR ❤️. Helping secure the Zcash ecosystem, learning music production at soundcloud.com/earthrise5, writing and other stuff at defuse.ca, bqp.io

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Reposted by Taylor Hornby
borderless @borderless.bsky.social · 24/08/2026
this is the best understanding of our our current zeitgeist that i've come across. the 2020s is marked by complex system failure. it's worth reading and meditating on how.complexsystems.fail
how.complexsystems.fail
How Complex Systems Fail
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Deirdre Connolly¹ ² @durumcrustulum.com · 25/02/2026
The Joy of Cryptography! joyofcryptography.com
joyofcryptography.com
The Joy of Cryptography
The Joy of Cryptography
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Kevin Riggle @kevinr.free-dissociation.com · 25/02/2026
After a stern scolding from a cryptographer colleague, my copy of his followup now sports this warning label
A copy of Cryptography Engineering by Ferguson, Schneier, and Kohno with a sticker on it reading “Warning! Memetic Hazard. Artifact contains virulent information capable of infecting human thought. Artifact cannot be accessed without proper security protocols active at all times. ALL EXPERIMENTATION PROHIBITED. SCP#: pending. Class: Keter. Omega Threat: Y [ ] N [X]. WARNING: MAC-Then-Encrypt Considered Harmful”
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Colin Childs🍁 @phoul.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Holy fuck, enough of this. If you're in Arizona, contact your lawmakers. Allowing shitty regions to dictate the law for the entire Internet is going to ruin the one thing we still (kinda) have left. Fight this.
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Colin Childs🍁 @phoul.bsky.social · 18/02/2026
Also it's incredibly obvious, and has been from the beginning, that lawmakers are going to latch onto this hard as a way to erode privacy. Safety is almost always an excuse.
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Phil M0OFX @philpem.digipres.club.ap.brid.gy · 18/02/2026
"aes-js and pyaes provide a default IV in their AES-CTR API" *screams* blog.trailofbits.com/2026/02/18/car…
blog.trailofbits.com
Carelessness versus craftsmanship in cryptography
Two popular AES libraries (aes-js and pyaes) provide dangerous default IVs that lead to key/IV reuse vulnerabilities affecting thousands of projects. One maintainer dismissed the issue, while strongSwan’s maintainer exemplified proper security response by comprehensively fixing the vulnerability in their VPN management tool.
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Nadim Kobeissi @nadim.computer · 14/02/2026
MASSIVE rewrite of my Verification Theatre paper now on ePrint with added: - Three new bugs that are *inside* libcrux's verified core, - Comparison to Amazon's verified LibCrypto components, - Many additional sections, discussion and details! Huge rewrite! Go read it! eprint.iacr.org/2026/192
eprint.iacr.org
Verification Theatre: False Assurance in Formally Verified Cryptographic Libraries
Every formally verified system embeds a verification boundary: the interface between code with machine-checked proofs and code that is trusted without them. We study what happens when this boundary is...
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John Scott-Railton @jsrailton.bsky.social · 09/02/2026
The showed us cute missing dogs & we consented to turning our doorbell cameras into a mass human tracking system. Mark my words, Ring's Search Party will become the next Flock. Only instead of just being sketchy cameras installed in parking lots, it will be everywhere. That's their play.
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cat 😊 @cats.bsky.social · 03/02/2026
He came alive 😱
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Will Stancil @whstancil.bsky.social · 25/01/2026
Guys if you see observers thank them. There’s real stress and burnout in the ranks right now. People understand they are waking up every day to chase and monitor federal thugs who can execute them. But they keep doing it nonstop to protect their neighbors
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Yahia Lababidi @ysl.bsky.social · 18/01/2026
What is to give light must endure burning. — Viktor Frankl
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Steven (with a PH) @sjksalisbury.bsky.social · 17/01/2026
Seems unfair that you only get to use the bouncy slide to get off a plane when things have gone wrong. The bouncy slide should be a treat they give to the best passengers who did the flight correctly.
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Taylor Hornby @defusesec.bsky.social · 03/01/2026
The pink people on this website just need to all get together and stop playing prisoner’s dilemma games.
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henry @hdevalence.bsky.social · 28/12/2025
yeah. let’s serialize pointer offsets, send them over the network to other people, then fix them up when they get back. what’s the worst that could happen. live a little
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Jay 🦋 @jay.bsky.team · 22/12/2025
Happy solstice! ❄️🌲
candle on wood
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Least Authority @leastauthority.bsky.social · 26/11/2025
We recently discovered an unauthorized, modified version of one of our audit reports shared online via a deceptive URL. While we quickly resolved the issue, it served as a reminder of the importance of authenticity and provenance in security reporting. leastauthority.com/blog/lessons...
leastauthority.com
Lessons Learned from a Typosquatted Audit Report - Least Authority
We identified and addressed a typosquatting issue promptly, but the incident reinforced why authenticity and provenance matter deeply in security reporting.
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Courtney Milan @courtneymilan.com · 24/11/2025
I think it’s pretty clear at this point that one of the main impacts of LLMs is to disrupt thinking: to make it so that far too many people never properly learn how to do it, and then to control the output so there are thoughts that people never learn how to think.
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Clément Canonne @ccanonne.github.io · 21/11/2025
In case you aren't already aware of one of the nerdiest, nich-est online games: TeXnique, where the goal is to type LaTeX formulae as quickly as possible. texnique.xyz It is "fun."
An example, here asking to recreate in LaTeX the definition of a pseudorandom number generator
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Forward Canada @forwardcanada.bsky.social · 20/11/2025
Alberta: Please speak up against Bill 9 and the Notwithstanding Clause while the legislation is being debated in the Legislature. Here's two initiatives that send messages to elected officials & will keep you informed of next steps: transactionalberta.ca savethecharter.ca #ableg #abpoli #CanPoli
transactionalberta.ca
URGENT: Stop Alberta's Government From Overriding Charter Rights of Trans Youth
Healthcare is a right, protected by evidence, compassion, and core Canadian values.
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Taylor Hornby @defusesec.bsky.social · 18/11/2025
soundcloud.com/earthrise5/h...
soundcloud.com
Hallucinate (2025 Version)
Listen to Hallucinate (2025 Version) by Taylor Hornby #np on #SoundCloud
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Taylor Hornby @defusesec.bsky.social · 12/11/2025
If you like future-bass-ish electronic music, I just posted a new track! soundcloud.com/earthrise5/t...
soundcloud.com
The Brightest Light
Listen to The Brightest Light by Taylor Hornby #np on #SoundCloud
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Sarah McAnulty, Ph.D. @sarahmackattack.bsky.social · 11/11/2025
First drum lesson tonight. Haven’t taken a music lesson in uhhh… 20 years?? Looking forward to sucking at this. As the saying goes, “Sucking at something is the first step toward being sorta good at something”-Jake the dog
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Soatok @soatok.bsky.social · 06/11/2025
If you ever wondered, "What does it take to implement a base-256 <-> base-B codec in constant-time when B isn't a power of 2?" Well, I have some oddly specific good news for you: codeberg.org/fediverse/fe...
codeberg.org
FEP-521a: Consider base-64-url, not base-58-btc, as the required codec
Converting to/from base-256 (raw "binary" octets) and base-N is easy to do in constant-time if N is a power of 2. See: RFC 4648 for power-of-2 codecs. 58 isn't a power of 2, which makes implementing ...
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Novelty Cistern @noveltycistern.bsky.social · 05/11/2025
i hate it when something is described as "inscrutable." you have no idea the types of things im able to scrute
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str4d @str4d.xyz · 13/10/2025
> In honor of spooky month, share a 4 word horror story that only someone in your profession would understand Circuit missing a gate.
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SwiftOnSecurity @swiftonsecurity.com · 08/10/2025
>ducted fans >im a turbofan >her: eww i want jet >turbofans are jets >i am a fucking jet aircraft I will be alone forever
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Popehat @kenwhite.bsky.social · 08/10/2025
These people are evil. Never stop saying so. Don’t be intimidated into shutting up.
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SwiftOnSecurity @swiftonsecurity.com · 08/10/2025
You have never been cyberd until you've been cyberd by a cyber security professional
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Jay 🦋 @jay.bsky.team · 04/10/2025
Friend gave me a John O’Donohue book recently. It’s quite good. “To Come Home To Yourself”
To Come Home To Yourself 

May all that is unforgiven in you
Be released.

May your fears yield
Their deepest tranquilities.

May all that is unlived in you
Blossom into a future
Graced with love.
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Memento (artemis) Morty 🌙 @mementomorty.bsky.social · 02/10/2025
Be the Mothman you wish to see in the world
an illustration that shows a caterpillar, then a moth, then The Mothman

text: GIVE YOURSELF TIMEA
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💖 Birdhism Jen @birdhism.com · 29/09/2025
I found more joy in life this way.
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Paul Byrne @theplanetaryguy.com · 27/09/2025
Saturn, rising behind its largest moon Titan. This scene is a composite of images taken by the Cassini spacecraft on 31 March 2005. At the time, Cassini was 7,000 km from Titan and 1.2 million km from Saturn. Credit: NASA/JPL/SSI/Ian Regan/Val Klavans
In the foreground is Saturn's giant moon Titan, its hazy, peach-coloured atmosphere extending into space. Behind is Saturn itself, its upper hemisphere crossed by the shadows of its vast ring system.
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Faine Greenwood @faineg.com · 11/08/2025
ChatGPT is probably the biggest honey pot of willingly-turned over highly confidential information that has ever been created in human history.
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qntm @qntm.org · 23/09/2025
There are * 0 valid JSON strings of length 0 * 10 valid JSON strings of length 1 * 183 valid JSON strings of length 2 * 1,116,690 valid JSON strings of length 3 * 1,241,178,737,201 valid JSON strings of length 4 * 1,382,769,886,828,373,987 valid JSON strings of length 5 * ... I have up to N = 350
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Taylor Hornby @defusesec.bsky.social · 11/09/2025
phrack.org/issues/72/19...
phrack.org
.:: Phrack Magazine ::.
Phrack staff website.
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Matthew Green @matthewdgreen.bsky.social · 06/09/2025
I hate that I can’t use the emdash anymore. Thanks AI.
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Zcash Foundation @zfnd.org · 28/08/2025
The Zcash Foundation is committed to transparency and openness with the community and our stakeholders. Today we released our Q2 2025 report, highlighting our engineering work and other key activities from this quarter. zfnd.org/the-zcash-fo...
zfnd.org
The Zcash Foundation’s Q2 2025 Report
The Zcash Foundation is committed to transparency and openness with the Zcash community and our other stakeholders. Today, we are releasing our Q2 2025 report, which provides an overview of the work…
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Matthew Green @matthewdgreen.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
Oh look, the iOS vulnerability is yet another weird subcase of image decompression, who could possibly have predicted.
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Taylor Hornby @defusesec.bsky.social · 24/08/2025
If you need to test a subwoofer... soundcloud.com/earthrise5/e...
soundcloud.com
Excursion
Listen to Excursion by Taylor Hornby #np on #SoundCloud
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Soatok @soatok.bsky.social · 09/08/2025
Improving Geographical Resilience For Distributed Open Source Teams with FREON In a recent blog post, I laid out the argument that, if you have securely implemented end-to-end encryption in your software, then the jurisdiction where your ciphertext is stored is almost irrelevant. Where…
soatok.blog
Improving Geographical Resilience For Distributed Open Source Teams with FREON
In a recent blog post, I laid out the argument that, if you have securely implemented end-to-end encryption in your software, then the jurisdiction where your ciphertext is stored is almost irrelevant. Where jurisdiction does come into play, unfortunately, is where your software is developed and whether or not the local government will employ rubber-hose cryptanalysis to backdoor your software.
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Daira-Emma Hopwood @daira.bsky.social · 10/08/2025
This cannot stand. I ethically cannot comply with this fascist violation of our fundamental rights. The only way to defeat it is mass protest.
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SwiftOnSecurity @swiftonsecurity.com · 09/08/2025
Look I went on /r/ChatGPT and some of this stuff is genuinely sad to read and upvoted hundreds of time by people deeply emotionally connected or feeling assisted by 4o, not even relationship stuff. Damn.
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Michael Freeman @afreeparticle.com · 26/06/2025
This is the idealized model of an animal. You may not like it, but this is what peak performance looks like. 🎢⚛️🧪
Figure from a paper with three cubes:

a) A cube with a rectangular cube connected labels "mouth" and "anus"
b) A cube with double the edge length The tube inside spirals around.
c) Another cube with all linear dimensions doubled, including straight tube.

Caption:
Fig. 1. (a) Idealized model of an animal. (b) Model from (a) increased in size while keeping the gut surface : gut
volume ratio constant. (c) Model from (a) increased in size with identical effects on the surface : volume ratio
for the whole body and for the gut.
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Joseph Lorenzo Hall, PhD @josephhall.org · 30/07/2025
TIL that the ITU has an annual "X.509 Day", wheeee www.itu.int/md/T25-TSB-C...
A document announcing the "Fourth ITU-T X.509 Day (2025) event" on September 5, 2025, from 13:00 to 16:00 (Geneva time). It details ITU-T X.509 as a foundational standard for public key infrastructure and digital certificates, outlining its history and applications. The event's objectives include reviewing X.509 progress, assessing post-quantum cryptography readiness, exploring decentralized PKI, discussing cross-border digital identity, strengthening AI trust, showcasing real-world adoption, and identifying future directions.
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Matthew Green @matthewdgreen.bsky.social · 26/07/2025
My favorite thing about social media is the weird people who emerge when you’re talking about basic privacy, and accuse you of having things to hide. Hey crazy person: *of course* I have things to hide. We all do. Being human means being embarrassed about personal stuff.
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str4d @str4d.xyz · 24/07/2025
This is also why "accept Zcash / crypto as an alternative" is necessary but not sufficient: as long as credit card companies are a major channel for a site's revenue, they are a major source of coercion. "If you sell NSFW content via any payment rail, you can't use ours" is the barrier to overcome.
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str4d @str4d.xyz · 24/07/2025
If you're a seller who wants to accept Zcash to both improve your customers' privacy and provide resilience against coercion by credit card companies, I will happily answer any questions you have.
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Bayleaf 🍃 @iceghost.bsky.social · 12/07/2025
My goal for the rest of 2025 is to make my art worse
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