#cryptography

This is big but not unexpected: Meta built a multi-channel influence operation to pass age verification laws.

https://github.com/upper-up/meta-lobbying-and-other-findings

The original Reddit posts were removed, but they are archived:

https://web.archive.org/web/20260313090844/https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1rshc1f/i_traced_2_billion_in_nonprofit_grants_and_45/

https://web.archive.org/web/20260313125244/https://old.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/1rshc1f/i_traced_2_billion_in_nonprofit_grants_and_45/

This is your daily reminder that if you're a cryptographer and work for Meta - including taking their grant money - you need some serious 4d chess creativity to look at yourself in the mirror.

#security #privacy #cryptography #meta #surveillance #politics #censorship #lobbying #ageverification

Second #cryptography question: How widely accepted or controversial is the advice to use XSalsa20-Poly1305 in Latacora's "right answers" series? It's been a while since I've done serious cryptographic work, and the "Use AES" advice was pretty burned into my brain.

https://www.latacora.com/blog/cryptographic-right-answers/

Corporate wants you to find the difference between these two pictures:

1. Nobody ever got hacked by a side-channel attack, so why did we spend all this effort hardening against side channels?

2. Nothing bad happened in Y2K, so why did we spend all that effort fixing date bugs?

#cryptography #subtoot