5 ms·

Are you a journalist or high profile target? If not, this notification isn't for the average person.

by ipaddr 3y ago

gxs 3y ago
Why is it hard to see that while he may not be a target for any sort of state sponsored attack, it’s a bellwether of apples stance on security. I really, really don’t think he meant he was switching to Apple because he’s a CIA spy stationed in Moscow.
- spxneo 3y ago
  > CIA spy stationed in Moscow. Чёрт побери!
scrollaway 3y ago
Right it’s unthinkable you’d find high profile targets on hacker news. All you’ll find here are founders of highly funded startups and software developers at boring companies such as Google, Microsoft and Apple. No point getting into these people’s phones if you’re a state actor for sure /shrug
consumer451 3y ago
You don't need to be a journalist. I think many tech workers are oblivious to how juicy and obvious a target we are. Most of us publish a detailed target on our own back via LinkedIn, or our company's website About Us and Clients pages. Long ago, I co-founded a tiny startup. We had some high profile clients. I was dumb enough to put those clients on our site. I also used to be dumb enough to have a public social media profile, in my name. I was already somewhat security aware, but one day I almost fell for a spear phishing email. Someone created a gmail account 1 character different from my gf's gmail. They sent me a well worded, but simple email along the lines of "Hey baby, check this out!" and URL shortened link. She happened to be next to me, and I said to her "Hey, what's this?" "What? I didn't send that!" I then opened it in a VM and saw that it resolved to something.ru. It was a combo of identifying the juicy client of ours, seeing my name as co-founder, finding me on FB, finding my gf in my profile, getting her email, etc. I then got to learn fun new terms like threat modeling. Is it possible that someone might think that you have ssh access to a server on an interesting network? You are a target.
ziddoap 3y ago
Or if you are adjacent to a high profile target, working in the same company as a high profile target, working at a company that is contracted to a high profile target, friend of a friend of a high profile target.... And so on. Sure, the average person probably doesn't need this (although as another comment pointed out, HN isn't quite representative of the average)... But the net is a hell of a lot wider than just journalists.
- standardUser 3y ago
  Years ago I worked for a non-profit in an office building in San Francisco. My office neighbors were Google, the US Secret Service and, I shit you not, China Daily (a major news outlet run by the Chinese Communist party).

Are you a journalist or high profile target? If not, this notification isn't for the average person.

by ipaddr 3y ago

Are you a journalist or high profile target? If not, this notification isn't for the average person.

gxs 3y ago

Why is it hard to see that while he may not be a target for any sort of state sponsored attack, it’s a bellwether of apples stance on security. I really, really don’t think he meant he was switching to Apple because he’s a CIA spy stationed in Moscow.

spxneo 3y ago
> CIA spy stationed in Moscow. Чёрт побери!

scrollaway 3y ago

Right it’s unthinkable you’d find high profile targets on hacker news. All you’ll find here are founders of highly funded startups and software developers at boring companies such as Google, Microsoft and Apple. No point getting into these people’s phones if you’re a state actor for sure /shrug

consumer451 3y ago

You don't need to be a journalist. I think many tech workers are oblivious to how juicy and obvious a target we are. Most of us publish a detailed target on our own back via LinkedIn, or our company's website About Us and Clients pages. Long ago, I co-founded a tiny startup. We had some high profile clients. I was dumb enough to put those clients on our site. I also used to be dumb enough to have a public social media profile, in my name. I was already somewhat security aware, but one day I almost fell for a spear phishing email. Someone created a gmail account 1 character different from my gf's gmail. They sent me a well worded, but simple email along the lines of "Hey baby, check this out!" and URL shortened link. She happened to be next to me, and I said to her "Hey, what's this?" "What? I didn't send that!" I then opened it in a VM and saw that it resolved to something.ru. It was a combo of identifying the juicy client of ours, seeing my name as co-founder, finding me on FB, finding my gf in my profile, getting her email, etc. I then got to learn fun new terms like threat modeling. Is it possible that someone might think that you have ssh access to a server on an interesting network? You are a target.

ziddoap 3y ago

Or if you are adjacent to a high profile target, working in the same company as a high profile target, working at a company that is contracted to a high profile target, friend of a friend of a high profile target.... And so on. Sure, the average person probably doesn't need this (although as another comment pointed out, HN isn't quite representative of the average)... But the net is a hell of a lot wider than just journalists.

standardUser 3y ago
Years ago I worked for a non-profit in an office building in San Francisco. My office neighbors were Google, the US Secret Service and, I shit you not, China Daily (a major news outlet run by the Chinese Communist party).