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Eleanor Saitta

@dymaxion.org
127 followers 216 following 67 posts

Thinking about security, failure, change, art, and living. Recruiting barbarians; complicate your narrative. Fractional CISO to startups via Systems Structure Ltd. HEL/NYC/LON

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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 18h
Apple has been doing better than Google there, yes. However, if you look at how many crappy apps grab an amazing amount of information and use it to feed things like stalkerware systems, the picture is less rosy. But yes, most malware still hits desktops because it's easier and gangs are lazy too.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 18h
I mean, if they didn't make it clear that it was super important, someone might look at what impact it actually had on the product, and no one's options want that.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 18h
(and yes, they probably shouldn't do that, but people do, and we also see attackers pivoting from compromised personal machines to work systems remarkably often)
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 18h
Part of this is tied to the weakest link security model that we've built everything on top of. If a user at one of my clients is ruining a game on their work laptop, code in mods for that game has the same blast radius as core os components. Phones are a little better, but still bad.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 18h
Sure. In a mature industry, we'd be able to distinguish between different domains better. Unfortunately as it stands there's a pressure that if it's ok for anyone it must be ok for everyone.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 19h
Oh, I understand the commercial issues entirely. But it's important to keep track of what it's a commercial constraint and what is a technical constraint. In my world, the number of people who are now dead because someone else mistook their business model for reality is not small.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 21h
Would bother to and can are unrelated statements. And also, if they're testing things you'd normally never bother with, correctness is less important; that doesn't translate to cases where correctness is required.
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Kevin Riggle @kevinr.free-dissociation.com · 30/09/2026
Not just an alert, this is a _pageable_ alert
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Quinn Norton @quinn.yoyodyne-it.eu · 29/09/2026
And yes I was reacting to that crazy thread. I'm not scandalized, none of this shit is special. Nothing about this scene has any veracity, even the things that happened. These are unserious, careless people and their lives are empty. This iteration has a bubble! How unnew that is, too.
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Quinn Norton @quinn.yoyodyne-it.eu · 29/09/2026
We really need to stop analyzing and pathologizing AI bros and the the crazy that comes out of the the Bay Area. They're assholes. Bog standard, just assholes. Selfish cunts. You never need more than two syllables to describe these people.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 29/09/2026
Come on, you can't just leave us hanging like that! Uh, I guess, unless you're into that
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 29/09/2026
It even generalizes! My acknowledgement of corporate personhood cutoff is May 9, 1886
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Oden @odense.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Automation, AI, learning gamification, XR/VR/AR info overlays/guidance, maybe some other methods, all lead to substantial cognitive offloading, and therefore lead to deskilling/p-zombification/whatever you want to call it. Quite convinced.
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emptywheel @emptywheel.bsky.social · 29/09/2026
Jamie Raskin calls out the shitty ads as a crime (this was cited by CNN and other stories). This is the kind of Xitter post that I beg of @raskin.house.gov or other MoCs to cross-post over here -- not least bc more people over here are likely to magnify it.
Rep. Jamie Raskin

@RepRaskin
This may be felony criminal theft and conversion of government property for political campaign purposes. 18 U.S.C. § 1641. It is a Hatch Act violation for any government employees who worked on it or used government resources to make it. It is blatantly unethical under numerous federal ethics provisions proscribing the use of government resources for political campaigns.
Quote
Yashar Ali 🐘
@yashar
·
Sep 24
The White House is currently airing this video as an ad during commercial breaks on Fox News. 

It looks and sounds like a political spot and includes a disclaimer stating that it is paid for by the U.S. government.

The soundtrack: as images of Trump flash across the screen,

2:30 PM · Sep 24, 2026
·
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 29/09/2026
I'd be tempted to put them in a social situation where there are pre-prepared elements where any of the abilities the characters have could be useful, but where there are also routes that involve none of them. This might have more to do with my feelings about the structure of the game, though.
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brainwane @harihareswara.net · 28/09/2026
I wrote the "how to navigate Legistar" guide I wish I'd had years ago when I started doing #NYC policy advocacy, complete with warnings about subtle bugs. Along the way, I point to #CivicTech tools intro.nyc and legislation.support, with explanations of what they can and can't do.
A screenshot of Legistar's page for Int 0078-2026, with red boxes around the file number, name, event history, bill text tab, and Alerts.

https://legistar.council.nyc.gov/LegislationDetail.aspx?ID=7861511&GUID=05BA3489-38FD-436D-9B55-B35A46A6CD96&Options=ID%7CText%7C&Search=1429
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 27/09/2026
Oh yay!
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Katie Martin @katie0martin.ft.com · 25/09/2026
I have blamed The agents That hacked Your website And which You probably Reasonably thought I controlled Forgive me I am rich And unaccustomed To taking responsibility
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Tom Roberts @tpgroberts.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
I do think you basically charge a few of them with the cybercrimes they're committing and the "alignment" problem does suddenly start to disappear.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 26/09/2026
Happy Stanislav Petrov day!
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 24/09/2026
I am so tired of dealing with these children. Can we go do adult engineering again?
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Aidan O’Brien @aidanobrien.bsky.social · 24/09/2026
This week we learned that the Irish government has proposed weakening Europeans citizens' fundamental right to privacy to favour AI companies. We also learned this week that 83% of Irish people under 25 want stronger government regulation of AI. Who *exactly* does our government work for?
AI: EU Member States plan "digital expropriation" of Europeans in the interest of Al companies
Artificial Intelligence / 21 September 2026
In a leaked document, the Irish Presidency proposes to EU Member States that the interest of OpenAl, Anthropic, Google, Meta and SpaceX to make profits should take precedence over the fundamental right to data protection. Use of personal data "in the context of Al" should automatically be lawful.
There seems to be wide informal agreement by many Member States. In particular, Big Tech would be able to use all personal data collected over the past decades with virtually no restrictions, as long as this happens "in the context" of Al. Schrems: "Under these proposals, the profits of Al companies would trump European's fundamental right to privacy. This is nothing but a digital expropriation of Europeans." All this is happening despite the key figures of Al corporations actively warn about the enormous risks associated with their own products.Transport costs and mental health also remain prominent concerns.
More than seven in ten adults believe Al will make it harder for young people to find secure employment over the next five years, while 83% support stronger government regulation of Al.
Just 17% of young adults said they believe the Government is doing enough to support them through the cost-of-living crisis.
"These findings should serve as a wake-up call," said Grace McManus, Policy and Campaigns Manager at NYCI.
"Too many young people feel that the chance to build a secure and independent life is slipping out of reach," Ms McManus said.
The polling was conducted by RED C, which surveyed a nationally representative sample of 1,010 adults, including a cohort aged 18-24.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 24/09/2026
Jihads Butlerian
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 24/09/2026
Oh yeah, not suggesting that's the answer either — more that it's ridiculous those are the only options.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 24/09/2026
If only there were some way to have conversations that weren't open to absolutely everyone, we say, having chosen the absolutely everything just be open to everyone machine
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 23/09/2026
I've got stuff planned on security metrics, early stage startup choices to make your life easier when you do start on security, and things we look for in pre-program reviews. I'm currently working on a piece on dealing with social engineering personally and professionally in the age of voice cloning
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 23/09/2026
As with the last one, this is primarily targeted at CEOs, COOs, and CTOs, not CISOs or other security folks, although I'm sure it may be a fun read for them too. If you're still an RSS person (Google reader mafia unite!) there's a feed there for future pieces.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 23/09/2026
Here's the second part of my essay on how to actually get security work done at your company when you've decided to start a security program: www.structures.systems/blog/how-to-... Please give it a repost so the folks who need it can find it. :-)
lnkd.in
LinkedIn
This link will take you to a page that’s not on LinkedIn
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 23/09/2026
The neoliberal hollowing out of everything everywhere all at once
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 23/09/2026
People who don't care about anything other than what's incentived always have a structural advantage over folks who do. Removing judgement from e.g. promotion processes fixes some things but makes this problem worse.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 22/09/2026
Historical question — why did we as an industry decide that penetration tests needed to be outsourced, but that we didn't need outsourced application security tests or code reviews in the same way?
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Pavel @spavel.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
"Higher velocity = more good" is a misunderstanding premised on the idea that every piece of work on your Jira board is there because it adds value in some way. Once you understand that the majority of developer tickets are actually negative-value, you will become enlightened.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 21/09/2026
Given the degree to which we have failed to stop climate change (esp. with the AI bubble and the expanding Ukrainian-Iranian war), when does our responsibility shift from our survival to trying to leave the least bad parts of our cultural and political heritage to the survivors of the great dying?
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Anna Phylaxis @quatoria.bsky.social · 21/09/2026
if you want a thriving arts scene, the single most important criteria is that broke ass artists MUST be able to afford to live there and rent studio space. if you don’t have that, your arts scene is dying, man
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bubbe yaga @ellearmageddon.bsky.social · 16/12/2023
just a periodic reminder that sex worker rights, trans rights, and abortion rights are all the same issue. you’re either for bodily autonomy, or you’re against it.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 18/09/2026
desk illin' works too
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 18/09/2026
I mean, a lot of folks seem to think his wife did most of his best work
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Jer Thorp @jerthorp.bsky.social · 18/09/2026
Friends! Can I ask you a favour? My 🐦 + 📊 course starts next week. I'm super excited but registration is worryingly low. Can you share this with your weirdo nature + art + code friends? jerthorp.me/learning
jerthorp.me
LEARNING | jerthorp
Online courses and wokshops about birds, data and creative coding. Binoculars to Binomials is for coders who are interested in cultivating an observational practice, and for birders who want to dive ...
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 18/09/2026
Note though that this isn't my field, and some asshole is probably trying something, but I really don't think it's gonna do much.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 17/09/2026
I mean, I guess there are Car People (vintage) and Cat People (consumer enthusiast). But I think that's kind of the larger point of @techconnectify.bsky.social's thread — that at some level there's no reason the market should go this way.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 17/09/2026
That said, people buy a new car what, every five or so years? So there isn't the continuity of experience with the evolution of the market unless you're a Car Person.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 17/09/2026
There's a deep layer of learned helplessness, taught by the experience of using so many enshitified platforms. Vehicles are a consumer good that's I think more responsive to consumer demand than the platforms have been, for all that they'd like to be rentier platforms.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 17/09/2026
There's been a lot of in-silico modeling work done, but nothing done using LLMs. I have heard about text mining of the corpus of pharmaceutical literature to look for potential old or overlooked ideas that night have new utility, but that's as close as it gets and it has nothing to do with mrna
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 17/09/2026
See my reply to that post. If they'd implemented editing, I'd have done so.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 17/09/2026
But Charlie, this is social media! What else would we do, talk to each other?
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 17/09/2026
Universal systems literacy is the educational challenge of this century, in the same way that statistical literacy was the challenge of the 20th and written literacy the challenge of the 19th. We are unfortunately on track to do no better in this century than previous ones did in theirs.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 17/09/2026
Universal systems literacy is the educational challenge of this century, in the same way that statistical literacy was the challenge of the 20th and written literacy the challenge of the 19th. We are unfortunately on track to do no better in this century than previous ones did in theirs.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 17/09/2026
To clarify, it's been adopted by the Commission, not the Parliament, so there's still a long fight ahead before it becomes law. That said, I'm not hopeful about the chance of getting the age ban (and likely backdoor identification) components removed.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 17/09/2026
In the same Europe that's so incredibly horny for eliminating end to end encryption, if you believe for a minute that the union's intelligence organizations will be able to resist the temptation to de-anonymize all social media accounts, I have a bridge to sell you in Crimea.
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Eleanor Saitta @dymaxion.org · 17/09/2026
None of those features require age bans. In theory, age verification is supposed to be non-identifying, but it's very likely that in practice this will be a backdoor to ending online anonymity.
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