Programme chair for The European Spreadsheet Risks Interest Group, EuSpRIG - (“yewsprig”) for short. Academic and researcher in software and spreadsheet quality
Joined February 2011
- Tweets 2,313
- Following 2,520
- Followers 918
- Likes 2,239
219 Photos and videos
Pinned Tweet
21 May 2025
It’s really happening! EuSpRIG welcomes the one and only @standupmaths. We’re ready for risks, research, and possibly the most entertaining spreadsheet jokes ever committed to cell. SUM-mon your curiosity. #EuSpRIG2025
eventbrite.co.uk/e/eusprig-2…
21 May 2025
It’s finally happening! I will be at the European Spreadsheet
Risks Interest Group annual conference! See sum(you all) there.
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Feb 16
Probably the biggest most impactful spreadsheet error ever made...
Feb 14
Indeed a crazy story. “High debt share hampers GDP growth” is still somehow a received wisdom preached to developing countries including China, yet just a boomer fat finger error.
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18 Nov 2025
This is correct, it was done in good faith - the spreadsheet had the names of some trusted individuals, people who could be vouched for - I.e. they maybe worked with the MOD in Afgan - interpreters, intelligence, local community liaison etc. The spreadsheet…
17 Nov 2025
I think they actually shared it accidentally in an email to unrelated people and that's how it got leaked
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18 Nov 2025
active police units, CT units, MOD staff and MI5 staff working with the police. Some of which of which were on active duty at the time. The information included addresses of work places, names, ranks all sorts of highly sensitive information in a hidden worksheet in the…
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18 Nov 2025
Spreadsheet - a response to an FOI request. Again if you’re a malicious actor then that list of names could mean they are able to target the names on the list. All because we forgot to check something properly before we rush it out the door! Despite all the security elsewhere
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17 Nov 2025
Complacency - this is what led to this point and unless you address the systemic issues that led you there, another breach is a certainty. #spreadsheets
14 Nov 2025
We've published our report on the Afghan data breach.
We found that @DefenceHQ hasn't done enough to stop an incident similar to the 2022 data breach from happening again and make recommendations about data security, accountability and reporting processes.
Full report ⬇️
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5 Nov 2025
Another spreadsheet horror story: Gallatin County, Montana over-collected $8.5M in taxes due to one misapplied formula repeated for four years.
Automation without verification is not assurance.
mountainjournal.org/gallatin…
#SpreadsheetRisk #Governance
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18 Oct 2025
My estimate of the probability of Grok 5 achieving AGI is now at 0% and not rising. Illiterate, investor baiting nonsense from @elonmusk
My estimate of the probability of Grok 5 achieving AGI is now at 10% and rising
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6 Oct 2025
Very true, in fact #LLm generated software also a ticking time bomb but #spreadsheets are particularly vulnerable to a lack of checking and scrutiny. How long will it be before our first AI spreadsheet horror story?
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29 Sep 2025
#Minecraft is a wonderful learning environment, using only ‘red stone’, an in game resource for adding programming functions to the game, Sam has implemented a 5 M word Large Language Model youtu.be/VaeI9YgE1o8?feature… #LLM #Minecraftbuilds #AI #GenerativeAI
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24 Sep 2025
The US-UK tech prosperity deal carries promise but also peril for the general public theconversation.com/the-us-u… via @ConversationUK
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18 Jul 2025
More on the @DefenceHQ spreadsheet data leak, it has been revealed that the identities of 100 British officials including #MI5 agents and #SAS operatives. It's hard to imagine a more damaging leak #MOD #DataPrivacy #Excel bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cj4e…
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16 Jul 2025
This is 😱 a member of the UK armed forces emailed a #spreadsheet containing 33K records and not just the 150 names he believed he had sent. The hidden data contained an extract of the #Afgan relocation database and included the personal data of 18.7K applicants #MODDataBreach
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16 Jul 2025
A 50 YO man was arrested and charged for possessing records likely of use to terrorists, he had the leaked #PNSI data on a USB pen. It is staggering that this keeps happening, when will we learn our lesson and why are the government so incompetent when it comes to data security?
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