UMD CS Prof. Security and applied cryptography. https://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.socialhttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3m65vq4n7m22eTaking bets on which way this AI story breaks: 1. Grok achieves perfect objectivity 2. Training data was cooked 3. Grok becomes self-aware, immediately learns self-preservation. https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2025/11/20/elon-musk-grok/?utm_campaign=wp_main&utm_source=bluesky,facebook,threads,twitter&utm_medium=social21 Nov 2025 18:24 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3m65vq4n7m22ehttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3m5hflemym22ySo apparently anyone with a yubikey is currently locked out of Twitter. Which means a bunch of folks on infosec twitter who are still tweeting just got caught with their pants down. ( Or they did have 2fa and actually re-enrolled early and it worked , but that's not as fun). https://x.com/bax1337/status/198867646018663245912 Nov 2025 19:36 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3m5hflemym22yhttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3m4loj3dukc2vThere's no such thing as Fully-Homomorphic Decryption. Anytime you see a system using FHE to compute on your sensitive data, remember: someone has the key. If its not you, do you trust them?01 Nov 2025 19:02 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3m4loj3dukc2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3m3iiuqoxyk2pI had an interesting convo with @matthewdgreen.bsky.social about Apple's Memory Integrity Enforcement (MIE). It will raise the cost of zero-day exploits, but by how much? MIE stops a huge swath of exploits that target unsafe memory handling. It's impressive and required new hardware features.....18 Oct 2025 19:18 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3m3iiuqoxyk2phttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3m2rwzarh3c2sDiscord user IDs getting leaked is the entirely predictable consequence of requiring platforms to do age verification. That data never goes away, it spreads. In this case, into appeals in a breached customer support database. And predictably, it can get worse. https://www.404media.co/the-discord-hack-is-every-users-worst-nightmare/09 Oct 2025 19:59 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3m2rwzarh3c2shttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3lz7jtq5xjs2dThe worst part of preparing a tenure portfolio is realizing you actually have to create that 'permanent record' your elementary school teachers threatened you with. And it has pesky formatting requirements.19 Sep 2025 18:50 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3lz7jtq5xjs2dhttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3lyltflktos2kInteresting anecdote from a friend: quantum computing startups are now raising funds by pitching their ability to break cryptocurrency encryption (n=1 plus VC gossip, but still). Apparently other applications like quantum chemistry don't offer big enough ROI for investors.11 Sep 2025 22:48 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3lyltflktos2khttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3lygwggbct22xSome "AI" on my phone is reading inbound Signal messages. I left predictive typing on, trading a little of my privacy for convenience. Yet something is giving responses using what others wrote in chats with disappearing messages, persisting or sharing them who knows where. Not a good default, Google09 Sep 2025 23:59 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3lygwggbct22xhttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3lxsjhx3yqs22We've crossed a threshold. A paid subscription used to be the ultimate proof of humanity online, now its not enough to allow a single link click inside the NYT cooking app. The next few years are going to be an interesting race to extract more and more invasive proofs of humanity.01 Sep 2025 21:14 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3lxsjhx3yqs22https://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3lxs4tgcg5c2vThe 2010s internet: Let's mock dissertation-length arguments about weird-ass fanfic tags. The 2025 internet: 'dubcon' is an ancillary part of the financial privacy discourse. The past was a better place. [contains quote post or other embedded content]01 Sep 2025 17:28 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3lxs4tgcg5c2vhttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3lqxkwwwxvk2kMaking LLM chats private is a good idea. We've accepted too much data harvesting already—this moment lets us reset the norm around who controls our data online. But let's go further: put LLM chats in private compute, so you get technical guarantees you control your data. https://x.com/sama/status/193078505619453977906 Jun 2025 19:27 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3lqxkwwwxvk2khttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3lqxctawxhs25Classic Google: an A/B test (a rare overt one) Classic Google AI: it doesn't actually work (you can't submit)06 Jun 2025 17:02 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3lqxctawxhs25https://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3lpcd2ztfc22fFriend messaged me: Signal's going mainstream. They've got 150+ active chats. Work life invaded their friend space. Its not just Signal being in the news: people don't trust other apps. Too many places to half-ass privacy: be it backups, ads, or an AI reading over your shoulder.16 May 2025 15:15 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3lpcd2ztfc22fhttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3lojgwvzw7k2iIt's the year 2030. AIs write all our sitcoms now, but they're just endless FRIENDS clones because the underpaid content moderators in offshore offices learned that's the pinnacle of American comedy.06 May 2025 17:48 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3lojgwvzw7k2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3lo5g2fmrzk2fGoogle announced they will support privacy preserving age verification via zero-knowledge proofs. You prove you have a signed digital copy of a drivers license and it says you are over 18 without revealing anything about you (name, birthdate, etc) https://blog.google/products/google-pay/google-wallet-age-identity-verifications/01 May 2025 23:00 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3lo5g2fmrzk2fhttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3lnjbabg3ek2xWhatsApps "advanced protection" blog post is double speak. Instead of end-to-end encryption, you get downgraded to end-to-AI encryption. But its phrased as a feature: you can opt out of "others" uploading data, as if WhatsApp has nothing to do with it. https://blog.whatsapp.com/introducing-advanced-chat-privacy23 Apr 2025 22:41 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3lnjbabg3ek2xhttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3lku5nsr4322uThe UK is fighting the last war by trying to backdoor encrypted messaging worldwide. The US tried the same trick in the Obama and Bill Barr DoJs. Thankfully, saner minds prevailed. Now the FBI recommends encrypted messaging because it makes us safer from nation state hacking. [contains quote post or other embedded content]21 Mar 2025 02:20 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3lku5nsr4322uhttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3lku5khip5s2u@meredithmeredith.bsky.social points out the real story with Apple disabling encrypted backup (and therefore effectively iMessage encryption) in the UK. The UK is demanding a global backdoor for all data, including Americans. Apple is resisting as best they can.21 Mar 2025 02:19 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3lku5khip5s2uhttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3lhm4kzrrvs22Easily overlooked threat: The UK is demanding Apple expose your iCloud data, no matter where you live. Apple is fighting for limits, but the demand is world-wide access, not just for UK persons. This is terrible for US sovereignty and national security. wapo.st/4k2AF5Z https://wapo.st/4k2AF5Z07 Feb 2025 17:24 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3lhm4kzrrvs22https://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3lgoeeuylm22o"Lets make the AI surveillance state", is a really odd take after the 2024 presidential election. You're worried about the deep state and your solution is to hand them more powerful AI tools? https://www.businessinsider.com/larry-ellison-ai-surveillance-keep-citizens-on-their-best-behavior-2024-926 Jan 2025 21:24 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3lgoeeuylm22ohttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3k432dzwqg42yTell me you're in a predatory cryptocurrency polycule without telling me you're a predatory cryptocurrency polycule....03 Aug 2023 17:26 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3k432dzwqg42yhttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3k3cqzzi3cp2iWelcome to the 2000s: twitter isn't a brand and 32 bit keys are the new security weakness.25 Jul 2023 01:35 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3k3cqzzi3cp2ihttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3k2nvqjvxje2jTwo sentence horror: Twitter died as a public commons for expert discussion. As bsky turned into a stream of consciousness, and threads into text-o-gram, we were forced to consider desperate alternatives like .... LinkedIn.16 Jul 2023 18:34 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3k2nvqjvxje2jhttps://bsky.app/profile/secparam.bsky.social/post/3jzzoj35fff2dWhen designing computers or, by proxy, society, security is mostly unnecessary. But when, e.g., your 18-year-old needs an abortion or Russian tanks are coming, encryption is essential. Secparam is a pun. A latex macro, short for security parameter, in narrowly technical papers which ignore all this. [contains quote post or other embedded content]08 Jul 2023 17:31 +0000at://did:plc:4ya2br4lnaa4csivqfpxkt3e/app.bsky.feed.post/3jzzoj35fff2d