22 votes

Craig Newmark, of Craigslist, is giving away $300 million to improve cybersecurity infrastructure

7 comments

  1. [2]
    drannex
    Link
    Note: $300m = 200m + 100m initial from earlier this year.

    “I think a lot about this,” said Newmark. “I’ve started to fund networks of smart volunteers who can help people protect infrastructure, particularly [for] the small companies and utilities across the country who are responsible for most of our electrical and power supplies, transportation infrastructure, [and] food distribution.”

    “I think a lot about this,” said Newmark. “I’ve started to fund networks of smart volunteers who can help people protect infrastructure, particularly [for] the small companies and utilities across the country who are responsible for most of our electrical and power supplies, transportation infrastructure, [and] food distribution.”

    Note: $300m = 200m + 100m initial from earlier this year.

    11 votes
    1. bl4kers
      Link Parent
      This is pretty ambiguous. Is critical American infrastructure publicly-owned or private? Either way it seems weird to let Joe Shmoe the rich man cover budget deficits, delayed upgrades, or the like

      primarily invest in projects to protect critical American infrastructure from cyberattacks

      This is pretty ambiguous. Is critical American infrastructure publicly-owned or private? Either way it seems weird to let Joe Shmoe the rich man cover budget deficits, delayed upgrades, or the like

      3 votes
  2. [4]
    Eji1700
    Link
    We've got to do a serious ground up effort on protocols sadly, and I don't think that's likely to happen. I don't think you can slap much on top of the mish mash of "I'll fix it later" nonsense...

    We've got to do a serious ground up effort on protocols sadly, and I don't think that's likely to happen. I don't think you can slap much on top of the mish mash of "I'll fix it later" nonsense that's been created, but that's kinda how tech works.

    And likewise, with how people work, I don't think we'll see significant change until something significant happens.

    8 votes
    1. [2]
      drannex
      Link Parent
      I hope you don't mind, but I am dragging your comment from a thread I posted earlier (and removed, as it's a dupe), it's just a good take and ties into this.

      I hope you don't mind, but I am dragging your comment from a thread I posted earlier (and removed, as it's a dupe), it's just a good take and ties into this.

      @drannex: "I mean, I get it, every nation is spying on each other, but this seems worrying."

      It's also annoying because for a long time the US was the leader in "lol we've got the tech and you don't" and we used that to hit other nations systems. Regardless of how you feel about that or who deserved it or what you think about our alphabet agencies doing stuff like that, we KNEW how trivial it was to compromise their stuff.

      And yet we've done basically nothing at a legislative level to actually ensure our own shit is in order. Now everyone has teams and teams of talented coders with slush funds to buy 0 days from the few they don't find, and they're screwing us over just as badly. Hell that's implying they need 0 days rather than "hi i'm from IT help desk, need your PW and 2FA so I can get your email back online"

      Should an ACTUAL world war kick off and not instantly devolve into nuclear annihilation, I suspect we're going to see a ton of digital infrastructure across the world implode.

      12 votes
    2. skybrian
      Link Parent
      Some protocols get a lot more attention and are in better shape than others. I think https is pretty good these days. The migration from http to https took many years, but it's mostly done....

      Some protocols get a lot more attention and are in better shape than others. I think https is pretty good these days. The migration from http to https took many years, but it's mostly done.

      Wireguard seems pretty good.

      Sure, there's a lot more to be done, a long tail of crap, but I think if we look at specific cases, it leaves more room for optimism. There are more "right answers" than there used to be.

      5 votes
  3. infpossibilityspace
    Link
    It's a wild state of affairs when the creator of Craigslist has a better read of the cybersecurity landscape than the future chair of Senate Homeland Security who wants to cut/eliminate funding...

    It's a wild state of affairs when the creator of Craigslist has a better read of the cybersecurity landscape than the future chair of Senate Homeland Security who wants to cut/eliminate funding for it...

    https://www.politico.com/news/2024/11/14/rand-paul-kneecap-cisa-00189698

    3 votes