Steven Harris | OSINT & Cyber Security Specialist | Investigator | Teach OSINT @SANSInstitute | @OSINTCurious | linktr.ee/nixintel

Joined February 2019
952 Photos and videos
Nixintel retweeted
In 2012 the UN unanimously affirmed that rights enjoyed offline must be protected online, especially free speech. Fourteen years later, the democracies that championed that principle are racing to gut it. My piece on "Digital Sovereignty" in @ForeignAffairs
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If AI destroys humanity it will be because it was allowed to run docker compose down with the --volumes flag on some vital piece of infrastructure that causes devastating secondary effects.
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Nixintel retweeted
đŸ“Č Saviez-vous que dans iOS 27, Apple a prĂ©vu une liste de pays oĂč le chiffrement des messages RCS (SMS) est interdit ? Chine 🇹🇳. CorĂ©e du Sud đŸ‡°đŸ‡·. France đŸ‡«đŸ‡·. Le reste du monde dĂ©ploie l'E2EE, le chiffrement de bout en bout entre iPhone et Android. Une avancĂ©e majeure pour la confidentialitĂ© de vos SMS. En France, c'est bloquĂ©. Les opĂ©rateurs sont prĂȘts techniquement. Ce n'est pas un problĂšme d'infrastructure. C'est un choix politique. Les raisons sont multiples, la France ayant toujours une longueur d'avance pour affaiblir votre sĂ©curitĂ© et s'assurer de pouvoir garder un oeil sur vous. Mais l'une des pistes probables : La PNIJ - la Plateforme Nationale des Interceptions Judiciaires. Un outil qui permet Ă  l'État d'accĂ©der Ă  vos communications. Le chiffrement de bout en bout sur ces millions d'Ă©changes quotidiens lui couperait l'accĂšs. DĂ©finitivement. Alors notre gouvernement fait tout pour que vous restiez exposĂ©s.
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Nixintel retweeted
I just open sourced my "Is this slop?" simple test
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Nixintel retweeted
How, exactly, will Europe compel Signal to leave that market, when it has forced Apple and Google to permit app sideloading? Signal could just ignore Europe's orders, keep its European users, and pull out all of its personnel.
Observation: if and when some form of #ChatControl is mandated by the European Union, then US-based @signalapp (which already rejects European interoperability proposals, and locks-up data where third parties cannot access it) will withdraw from the EU market. Will that be bad?
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Nixintel retweeted
We're being pressured to accept digital surveillance by default, under the banner of child safety. The proposals stink, and should be fought tooth and nail - because we've already seen the inevitable resulting mission creep in the "Online Safety Act":
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Nixintel retweeted
This is what people don't realize. North Korea and China already do this with their phones. Every minute on your phone is watched, every image you download or share is hashed and compared against government blacklists and every message you send is scanned. We are copying that model.
Um genuinely how is this supposed to be enforced unless kernel-level spyware is implemented on every device? It would mean every second is watched, recorded, and reported. This is the ultimate 'big brother', just short of actually reading people's thoughts.
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I'm appalled but not surprised by the UK government's announcement today. The measures they propose will amount to permanent, automated monitoring of UK citizens' phones without a warrant or any recourse or protection from state overreach. Once implemented, these powers will be hard to unravel but easy to extend. Western democracies used to recoil from the way the USSR and DDR used to surveil their citizens but this is every bit as sinister. Will there be technical ways to subvert it? Probably, but we shouldn't have to. The bigger issue is that UK and European citizens clearly lack sufficient legal protections from the overreach of their own governments and the technocratic class who seem to increasingly regard internet freedom and digital privacy as a problem to be solved. Local elections, jury trials, and now internet privacy are liberties that the government has tried to do away with because they are an administrative inconvenience for technocratic government. I am encouraged by the ideas of @prestonjbyrne and his legislative proposals to improve and secure the basic rights of UK citizens. Give him a follow.
Our statement on the UK government’s demand that all content on all devices sold or used in the country be scanned, on the presumption of nudity, using a dystopian combination of age verification and content scanning. This proposal will not safeguard children. It endangers us all. signal.org/blog/pdfs/2026-06

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Nixintel retweeted
I need the government to lock up criminals, defend the nation, build infrastructure, collect the bins, and a few other services - basic research etc. I’m not an anarchist or anything. What I don’t need from the government is moral instruction. I don’t need them to tell me how to raise my kids. I don’t need them to nudge me into better dietary choices. I certainly don’t need them hamfistedly backdooring my devices to check I’m not doing anything they don’t like. GTFO of my life, thank you. You’re not smarter than me, you aren’t qualified to manage me, please leave me alone.
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Nixintel retweeted
Americans are not merely "accusing" Europe of imposing its laws beyond its borders. Europe *is* imposing its censorship laws beyond its borders. This is an established fact. I've seen these letters and forwarded them to Congress. Here's one such letter.
Who’s “we”? EU countries don’t need anyone’s permission to apply their own laws. Another highly consistent argument from those most bent on accusing Europe of imposing its laws beyond its borders.
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Nixintel retweeted
It's 31 years ago to the day that this was broadcast - for my money one of the most joyous bits of TV ever committed to celluloid. It is, of course, Mr Sting's appearence on The Smell of Reeves and Mortimer. Chitter chatter chit
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Nixintel retweeted
"Ultimately, middle powers cannot choose whether or not to live in a hierarchical world. They must choose which hierarchy gives them the most room to maneuver." For most middle powers, the choice "should be an easy one." foreignaffairs.com/guest-pas

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Nixintel retweeted
MrBeast plans to trap 1000 vibe coders in a room without Claude first person to center a div manually wins $1 million
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The humans AI combo is where the magic is. A skilled person with good AI tools is an absolute wrecking crew. Oh a 10x engineer you say? HOLD. MY. BEER. You don't get that kind of whoopass by gutting your workforce and hoping a clanker figures it out. 5
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Nixintel retweeted
ExpressVPN, @torproject, Tuta, Mozilla, @EFF and Mullvad, alongside 13 other organizations advocating for digital privacy rights, have published an open letter. In the letter, they express serious concerns regarding the age verification measures planned for implementation across the internet following the introduction of a new child protection law. The organizations argue that forcing users to prove their age across most websites and online services could severely undermine privacy, anonymity, and the open nature of the internet. The central message of the letter is that protecting children should not come at the cost of jeopardizing the freedom, security, and privacy of all internet users. The signatories are calling for more balanced, privacy preserving solutions to be developed instead. The 19 organizations that signed the letter are: 1- Big Brother Watch 2- Defend Digital Me 3- Electronic Frontier Foundation 4- ExpressVPN 5- Gamers Voice 6- Global Partners Digital 7- Index on Censorship 8- Internet Society 9- Mozilla 10- Mullvad 11- IPVanish 12- NO2ID 13- Open Rights Group 14- Privacymatters 15- Proton 16- Stop Killing Games 17- Tor Project 18- Tuta 19- VPN Trust Initiative
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But in order to access *any* information, they want to know who you are. Uninstalled.
May 21
There’s a new AI tool to access government information. GOV.UK Chat draws on tens of thousands of pages of GOV.UK guidance. It lets you ask questions and get clear, reliable answers in seconds. You can find Chat in the free GOV.UK app. Download for iOS on the App Store apps.apple.com/gb/app/gov-uk
 Download for Android on the Google Play Store play.google.com/store/apps/d
 Find out more at gov.uk/app
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Nixintel retweeted
Welcome to @quiztime and it’s #MondayQuiz What is happening here this Wednesday at 3pm? 📼reply just to me with an answer đŸ€ reply to all for collaboration 🌈have fun
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Nixintel retweeted
There are a lot of so called investigators these days who have no investigative experience. What they are good at doing is creating viral threads with missing context and inflaming tensions on hot-button issues. You'll see threads that say things like "follow the money" from people who have never followed the money in their lives. But because they have large online followings, their followers amplify their shoddy research and think they are somehow contributing to justice in the world.
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Another consequence of long term UK defence spending cuts...
Doppelschlag gegen die Biertradition in Ostwestfalen. Herforder vor dem Aus, Paderborner vor dem Verkauf. #Herforder #Paderborner #Warsteiner #Bierkrise Tradition wird abgewickelt: Die Herforder Brauerei soll Ende August schließen, die Paderborner Brauerei noch in diesem Jahr verkauft werden. Betroffen sind ĂŒber 200 ArbeitsplĂ€tze. Knapp 100 Menschen in Herford und rund 120 Menschen in Paderborn stehen vor einer ungewissen Zukunft. Versprechen gebrochen: Besonders bitter ist der Vorwurf der Gewerkschaft NGG. Die BeschĂ€ftigten hatten seit 2021 auf Geld verzichtet, um ihre Standorte zu sichern. DafĂŒr sollte es Schutz bis Ende 2028 geben. Jetzt kommt der Schnitt trotzdem. FĂŒr Ostwestfalen stirbt damit ein weiteres StĂŒck Industrie und Biertradition. Erst verzichten die BeschĂ€ftigten auf Geld, dann verlieren sie trotzdem ihre Zukunft. Vielen Dank fĂŒr den wichtigen Hinweis! Quelle: Radio Lippe / NGG radiolippe.de/nachrichten/li

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