Sean Gallagher :verified: 🐀 :donor:

Security Research Engineer @Cisco Talos. Past: Natsec/Infosec Editor Emeritus @ Ars Technica. Ex Navy officer and actual battleship sailor. Verified cat furniture. Bird paparazzo. Still mostly s***posting as @thepacketrat@twitter.com. Also federating npub1lt6uc3tum0ljvvfrnnv6psnjq36x5yx38jvp4wpjte30ng4ffajq5j0dcz (npub1lt6…0dcz) and npub1pf348ynh3jkxgpx8tn2suer6wfexs953pl2ecjs8emhykpv3ca9sxmfla9 (npub1pf3…fla9)

Works at: Sophos
Works as: Principal Threat Researcher
Non-Infosec things: birds, pottery, shoulder cats, media criticism, natsec
Twitter: https://twitter.com/thepacketrat
blog: https://fancybearfriends.org
Work blog: https://news.sophos.com/en-us/author/sean-gallagher/

Public Key

npub1557n7au4g2pg7rv5zqghn2t2vgplr9nqx6v8fgh5ll3vawndmw5szymf0x

NIP-05 Address

thepacketrat_at_infosec.exchange@momostr.pink

Profile Code

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Publishing to

offchain.pub

relay.damus.io

nos.lol

Author Public Key

npub1557n7au4g2pg7rv5zqghn2t2vgplr9nqx6v8fgh5ll3vawndmw5szymf0x

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Published at

2026-05-13T18:07:39Z

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Last Notes

2025-03-04 16:48:36 UTC

I'm working on an update to my 2023 presentation about "the inevitable collapse of journalism as we know it"...because it happened.
http://thepacketrat.com/2025/03/04/everything-you-probably-avoided-knowing-about-the-collapse-of-mass-media-journalism-integrity-a-work-in-progress/

2025-01-19 04:20:45 UTC

I wrote a LinkedIn thing but I’m putting it here as well so you don’t have to go there:
The TikTok ban is, more than anything, a protectionist move veiled in national security language. It addressses a privacy concern by banning one service that is not a US-based concern, while not addressing the privacy and security issues that every other social platform (including this one right here) have failed to address on their own adequately. And considering that China managed to hack law enforcement hooks into nearly every telecom service in the US, it’s a bit like closing the door to a barn that has already burned to the ground.
We are in a period of extended remix disinformation, unrestrained personal data harvesting, and algorithmic mass surveillance and manipulation that extends beyond social platforms into internet retail, education, search and as-a-service platforms. Every click, purchase, interaction, and view is being monetized in some way by default. Our ability as individuals to counter this is extremely limited; even when we opt out of data collection, we don’t really opt out of data collection-we just opt out of reaping its “benefits” within the platforms themselves.
Using Privacy Badger from Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is one way to at least staunch some of the privacy bleed. But as we’ve seen, Google, Meta and others keep finding ways to gather data to ‘monetize’ in some way through their browsers and apps.
That data can be used for ill by a variety of players—including cybercriminals who use targeted malicious advertising on websites and search engines to deliver malware. It has been used in the past to target disinformation campaigns and manipulate political discourse.
True free speech is speech without manipulation, and being able to choose which conversations you want to be part of. Shutting down TikTok because of its China ties—an act that the incoming administration will likely seek to reverse in exchange for favors—is not the answer. It’s not even addressing the right question

2024-11-12 21:28:33 UTC

Please, G*d
“Cybersecurity is South Dakota’s next big industry,” Noem said last year. “South Dakota is in the middle of the country — and we’re landlocked, so foreign spy ships and subs can’t reach us. It makes a lot of sense for cybersecurity resources to be centered here.”
H/T to @npub15e8…ft9z https://cyberscoop.com/dhs-nominee-kristi-noem-cyber-grants-trump-admin/

2024-11-06 20:17:51 UTC

- reply

Seeing that right now on Meta.

2024-10-31 14:01:54 UTC

Here is a window into the last 6-8 months of my life. https://news.sophos.com/en-us/2024/10/31/pacific-rim-neutralizing-china-based-threat/

2024-10-10 02:06:57 UTC

Commandeered Facebook accounts are a disinformation spewing machine.
This showed up in my timeline yesterday and I felt compelled to respond. The account reposting this conspiracy meme belonged to a former shipmate. It’s bad enough when you see that relative reposting some crazy conspiracy content. But where do *they* get it from? Turns out it may be coming from their friends’ compromised accounts. Sometimes it’s not super obvious… but sometimes it is.
http://thepacketrat.com/2024/10/09/commandeered-facebook-accounts-are-a-disinformation-spewing-machine/