William Knowles

Information Arbitrageur (InfoSec, OSINT, SOCMINT, Alternative Data, FinTech) and OG cypherpunk.

[paris martineau @parismartineau]

the current director of national intelligence is a guy who two years ago received a trophy declaring he “Fucks Only The Young” at an (oddly dildo focused) event he organized dedicated to the conspiracy that Bed Bath and Beyond never actually went bankrupt

[Katherine @Johnmartin764]

When the sheriff gives you a ticket but also drops the exact blueprint on how to speed without getting caught.

[Tom Nichols @RadioFreeTom]

“Our conclusion: the Iran War is worse than a failure. It's a strategic calamity with no notable achievements and potentially trillions in direct and indirect costs to the US and global economy.”

[s1r1us (mohan) @S1r1u5_]

this is insane, if you have a money-printing machine and can max out tokens, then sure, it is worth keeping an agent in the loop and feeding it every single file.

a better harness, cheaper models, and a strong group of security researchers can produce the same results, or even better ones, at a fraction of the cost.

[AndrewMohawk⁽ⁿᵘˡˡ⁾ @AndrewMohawk]

@S1r1u5_ It also really depends on what "critical" vulnerabilities means and what they had previously tried. Its possible the MUCH cheaper models could find most of these and/or that a few "criticals" are in places that are things like unreachable code so really dont have any impact!

[The Washington Post @washingtonpost]

Exclusive: A convicted Jan. 6 rioter who later said that he regretted his participation in the U.S. Capitol attack has been hired by the Trump administration to work inside a Pentagon office that manages highly classified military operations. https://t.co/3OtllgCSWP

[unusual_whales @unusual_whales]

The building that houses the agency responsible for containing the spread of invasive pests in the United States has a bed bug infestation, per NOTUS

[MACH37 @MACH37cyber]

The perimeter isn't a firewall anymore. It's your entire supplier ecosystem.

@ChuckDBrooks' latest in @Forbes makes the case: AI is supercharging supply chain attacks.

https://t.co/aH1AyXHjaY

[Rachel Tobac @RachelTobac]

WHOA @Google let me know they saw my tweet below last year & built a tool to defend against this exact call spoofing + AI voice clone attack!
As of today, fake call detection on Android alerts when someone is impersonating your contact.
Demo & thread of how it catches attackers:

[William Knowles @c4i]

@Dianna143327 Having been in the printing business in a previous lifetime, there was always 1-2 guys missing a finger thanks to his letterpress.

[Nicki 🫧🪷 @nickimoraa]

I got a call from my son’s principal saying he had “gained unauthorized access to school systems.” My heart nearly stopped. I pictured police reports, expelled students, ruined college applications.

When I arrived, the IT director was there too. My son looked terrified.

Turns out he’d discovered a security flaw in the school’s online portal while trying to submit homework. Instead of exploiting it, he’d documented every vulnerability and emailed the school repeatedly. Nobody responded.

[Steven Murdoch @sjmurdoch]

For 19 years, GPS satellites have secretly broadcast a “numbers station” in their public signals. We decoded 12M messages: a 2011 flash where 31 of 32 satellites flipped in hours, “ghost” substrings repeating years apart, and a “TEXT” prefix spreading now. https://t.co/xz3svmqiDa

[John Schindler @20committee]

"The 38-year-old scion of one of the country’s biggest home-building empires possesses zero experience whatsoever in intelligence or even national security. He makes Gabbard look well prepared by comparison. Pulte is wholly unqualified for the job."

https://t.co/GQUU8e0MGi

[Paul Rees. ex Rucksack. @HannahIamthest1]

Did you know that one of the greatest practical jokes ever pulled beyond Earth belongs to astronaut Owen Garriott.

In 1973, Garriott was part of the crew aboard Skylab, America’s first space station. The prank he played on Mission Control officer Robert Crippen earned a permanent place in astronaut humor.

Before the mission, Garriott brought a tape recorder into space. On it, his wife had recorded several short lines. One day, when Robert Crippen made radio contact with Skylab from Houston, Garriott was ready with the recording.

The exchange went something like this:

“Skylab, this is Houston. Please respond.”

A cheerful woman’s voice came over the line.

“Good morning, Houston. This is Skylab.”

After a brief pause, Mission Control asked carefully:

“Who is speaking?”

“Hi, Robert,” the voice replied. “This is Helen, Owen’s wife.”

For a few seconds, Crippen tried to process what he had just heard. Then he finally managed to ask:

“What are you doing up there?”

“I just thought I’d bring the boys something to eat,” the voice answered from orbit. “Everything is fresh.”

Mission Control fell silent for nearly a full minute.

Then the connection was cut.

Apparently, even a trained flight controller needed a moment to recover from that one.

🤣🤣🤣🤣

[TSA @TSA]

Not quite what we meant when we said you can bring a rotisserie chicken but close enough...

[gCaptain @gCaptain]

U.S. Begins Dismantling Major Ocean Observation Network https://t.co/bErbMeUoK9

[Marc Polymeropoulos @Mpolymer]

Have no idea if this is true. But even if a fraction of it is true, it certainly looks to be a dysfunctional IC. Exactly what we want during time of......war. Great. Not really. I would imagine that neither entity (CIA and ODNI) are innocent here.... of leaks, backstabbing, given their bosses hate each other. The winner? Nobody. Well, maybe our adversaries. The loser? Policymakers, who need solid collection, analysis, and covert action capabilities....and thereby the American people lose too. Who are less safe with such dysfunction. And our allies look at this and shake their heads. Finally- where is congressional oversight on all of this? HPSCI and SSCI are failing at their jobs, in spectacular fashion.

[John Schindler @20committee]

I never thought anybody could make Tulsi look well-prepared to head the US IC, but here we are!

[William Knowles @c4i]

@RetroCoast I’ve heard them being called Ear, Nose, and Throat guns as you can stuff them just about anywhere without the fear of them not going to battery.

[CIA @CIA]

Artifact of the Week: Air America ID Card.

Learn more:
https://t.co/4xIl0QZ3tr