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Infosec Decoded Season 5 #25: Resistance Lab

With Doug Spindler and sambowne@infosec.exchange

Recorded Tue, Apr 1, 2025

Politics

Resistance

THE RESISTANCE LAB

Nazis Come for Colleges

FBI raids home of prominent computer scientist who has gone incommunicado

A prominent computer scientist who has spent 20 years publishing academic papers on cryptography, privacy, and cybersecurity has gone incommunicado, had his professor profile, email account, and phone number removed by his employer, Indiana University, and had his homes raided by the FBI. No one knows why.

The American Association of University Professors reminds Indiana University about due process

Three Yale professors are leaving for Canada. They all blame President Donald Trump

75% of US scientists who answered Nature poll consider leaving

Alabama Won’t Say Alireza Doroudi’s Name. We Must.

The Iranian PhD student is one of several abducted by ICE in the past month—a pattern we cannot become numb to.

Americans are beginning to fear dissent. That’s exactly what Trump wants

'A hostile state': Why some travellers are avoiding the US

When the physicists need burner phones, that’s when you know America’s changed

At international academic conferences recently, one sees an interesting trend. Some American participants are travelling with “burner” phones or have minimalist laptops running browsers and not much else. They are concerned about what might happen when they return home.

‘Can I travel?’: U.S. green-card holders cancel trips, on edge after detentions

Queer and trans people are arming themselves. Should I?

Capitulation

NASA Wipes Graphic Novels About Women Astronauts From Its Websites

Brands spend nominal sums on X ads to keep Elon Musk happy

"It’s not because the brand safety risk has gone away. But the far greater risk is that a comment [from Musk] in the press sends your stock price tumbling, and instead of a multimillion-dollar risk you’re facing a multibillion-dollar risk."

Other Politics News

Big questions surround AOC as insiders ponder the future of progressivism

Trump says he’s considering ways to serve a third term as president

Musk gives away $1m cheques ahead of Wisconsin's Supreme Court election

Measles outbreak worsens as Texas cases rise 20% in 3 days

Infosec

Microsoft uses AI to find flaws in GRUB2, U-Boot, Barebox bootloaders

Microsoft used its AI-powered Security Copilot to discover 20 previously unknown vulnerabilities in the GRUB2, U-Boot, and Barebox open-source bootloaders. The newly discovered flaws impact devices relying on UEFI Secure Boot, and allow attackers to execute arbitrary code on the device. Exploiting these flaws would likely need local access to devices.

AI Experts Say We’re on the Wrong Path to Achieving Human-Like AI

The majority--86% of 475 respondents—said that simply scaling up current approaches to AI will not be sufficient to yield AGI.

Microsoft's killing script used to avoid Microsoft Account in Windows 11

For the moment, you can still manually add the BypassNRO registry value.

DOGE Plans to Rebuild SSA Codebase in Months, Risking Benefits and System Collapse

Safely rewriting that COBOL code would take years—DOGE wants it done in months.