Paul Cantrell
If anyone out there is working for the federal government and is managing systems in the crosshairs of the ongoing coup attempt, I am begging — begging — you:
Let them fail.
Don’t stop them from breaking it when they do something stupid.
Don’t help them learn the system when they shouldn’t even have access to the system..
Don’t set up self-healing guardrails for systems left unattended after you’re locked out or fired.
Don’t save them from themselves.
LET THEM FAIL.
1/
Paul Cantrell
If you’re in some federal agency and “DOGE” comes coup-knocking on your door, and if your system is something they actually want to keep at least partially functioning — the procurement system, for example — then the single most effect thing you can to do •help the coup succeed• is to make sure nothing catches fire while they ransack the place.
This coup ends if and only if it create noticeable and immediate chaos in the lives of people who curently support it.
2/
Paul Cantrell
When you’re working on a system (business or human!) for years, it becomes your baby. You want to protect it. You want it to survive even if you’re kicked out. Like sailors on a ship, protecting the ship above all.
But if the ship falls into enemy hands, keeping it afloat might just be the opposite of what you want to do.
Look up “USS Lexington (CV-2).”
3/
Paul Cantrell
That a dramatic historical comparison, and look: I’m not necessarily suggesting you should actively destroy federal computer systems, which clearly should be legal. But at the very least, don’t teach them to •pilot• the ship before they chuck you overboard.
Let them fail.
4/
Michael Busch
I understand the point.
But then I think about the consequences of systems failing: people endangered by degraded weather forecasts, by the power grids destabilizing, by ATC going down, by VA and NIH hospitals not being able to buy supplies.
Which is what happens when arsonists are allowed to mess things up.
Don Whiteside
@inthehands “Never interrupt your enemy when he is making a mistake.”
Napoleon Bonaparte
Paul Cantrell
@michael_w_busch
I understand that, and this is grim, but: this is what we •need• to let happen. With the least human harm possible, yes, but it needs to happen. Unfortunately. The alternative is worse.
Parade du Grotesque 💀
And make sure you have up to date backups safely stashed "somewhere"... Even if it's just a couple of boxes in your basement.
Your RPO is going to be very bad, but better that than restarting from scratch.
Paul Cantrell
Maybe, maybe you'll even have the chance to pull a Citroën:
Maybe you can slow down whatever BS they’re pulling. Maybe you can install a deadman switch in the software so that it stops working if authorized people aren’t present. I don’t know.
But for heaven’s sake, don’t train in the fascists.
/end
Thomas Traynor
@inthehands Backups of the data, databases & schemas, all scripts, all SOPs, security settings, emails and chats and any locally stored documents are stored on a secured and encrypted device and located off-site.
When they crash and burn and you get control at least you have a provably clean backup.
Also, treat all servers, desktops, laptops, external drives as compromised and procure new hardware.
Advanced Persistent Teapot
@inthehands for SREs: take note. You know what to do to achieve reliability. You are well placed to assist with plausibly deniable UNreliability.
Jen
@michael_w_busch @inthehands as I understand it, a lot of those terrible things are already happening, or are going to happen very soon. It's all such an unmitigated disaster for so many people that going nuclear may be the only viable option.
I do wholeheartedly agree with everyone suggesting backups, even if they're technically illegal due to being on a drive in someone's basement. "Finding" them could be the only route to functionality.
Court Cantrell prefers not to
*watching the Enterprise go down in flames after Kirk destroys her to prevent the Klingons from taking the ship*
Kirk: My God, Bones. What have I done?
McCoy: What you had to do. What you always do. Turn death into a fighting chance to live.
#EverythingIveEverNeededToKnowILearnedFromStarTrek
#StarTrek
#StarTrekIII
Lars Marowsky-Brée 😷
@inthehands It's even a known strategy in dependable computing: fail-fast.
Paul Cantrell
@davecb
Ah, yes, the famously helpful and anti-fascist US police
Paul Cantrell
@cian
I mean, yes, the sudden failure of some systems causes abrupt failure — like, yes, DO keep people in federally funded hospitals on life support, please — but (1) that scenario (people being pulled off life support) is already happening •on purpose• with the closure of USAID, and is the kind of thing we're trying to prevent, (2) in the scenario you describe, if bond payments did stop, I strongly suspect pressure to kick “DOGE” out and return the competent people would rise faster than the world financial system would collapse; it would just be a large nasty market shock and (3) even a 2008-level recession or worse is preferable (even in terms of raw human harm) to the US going fully authoritarian.
Cian O'Connor
@inthehands
Here's the thing. There are certain parts of the system that if they failed could have far reaching effects.
For example, let's say the part that ensures bond payments get made on time failed. Well that would probably cause a collapse of the world's financial and trading system.
I'm sure Musk would get the blame - but kind of a high price to pay imo.
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