Notices by Cindʎ Xiao 🍉 (cxiao@infosec.exchange)

@vyr yes I am an AFAB cis woman and I have sideburns that go nearly to the bottom of my ear

having pointed thin baby hair sideburns is pretty popular among korean women. for example here is IU, one of the most popular celebrities in south korea

(edited with non potato quality pic)

RE: https://eldritch.cafe/@HauntedOwlbear/116862684402113085

Seriously infosec ppl we actually have no excuse. Here, take my collection of places to find free, public domain images, you'll discover some amazing art:

• US National Gallery of Art, open access collection (info): https://www.nga.gov/artwork-search?download=1

• Old Book Illustrations (@oldbookillustrations): https://www.oldbookillustrations.com

• Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

• Public Domain Review (@publicdomainrev)'s Image Archive: https://pdimagearchive.org

• New York Public Library, public domain digital collection: https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/search/index?filters=%5Brights%3DpublicDomain%5D

• Biodiversity Heritage Library's Flickr account: https://www.flickr.com/photos/biodivlibrary/

• Art Institute of Chicago, open access collection (info): https://www.artic.edu/collection?is_public_domain=1

• Metropolitan Museum of Art, open access collection (info): https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search?searchField=All&showOnly=openAccess&sortBy=relevance

• Getty Museum, open content collection (info): https://www.getty.edu/art/collection/search?open_content=true

#infosec #noAI

this is an actual image which appears in the annual report of canada's top cyber agency

mentalment je suis là

@chillybot all ur files are now catte.jpg
(oh wait that's @da_667)

@cR0w @chillybot @da_667 ur system is compromised

@cwebber Thanks! It's very good that it's hosted by an actual immigration lawyer practicing in Canada. There is a ton of misinformation and generally very poor understanding by most Americans (and honestly Canadians too) of our immigration system, and I think a lot of people are not really aware of paths that are open to them that may be easier (or even in general how the various visa, permanent residency, and citizenship paths work)

@cwebber Would you be able to share who is running the webinar? I ask because the likelihood of LGBTQ Americans being able to successfully use the asylum pathway to come to Canada is extremely low, and for a lot of people, there may be another temporary visa pathway or permanent residency pathway that's more suitable. I think it is important to not give people a false sense of hope, and to offer realistic pathways.

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@mttaggart/116371937587992264

I think the way I would put it is:

1) The point of the AI project is ideological; the goal is to reshape industries such that we are dependent on AI companies' products, and to destroy free and open knowledge such that we are dependent on these products for thought and reasoning. We see an injection of AI into cybersecurity, while simultaneously drawing money and resources away from (boring) efforts that would actually broadly improve cybersecurity.¹ We see an injection of AI into knowledge acquisition, while simultaneously polluting the landscape of the internet as a useful source of knowledge. Both are in service of the same ideological project, and working towards the same goal.

2) The touted usefulness of AI for programming and cybersecurity is directly funding the project to expand it everywhere else, where it is causing massive harms to civil society, individuals' mental health, and the information landscape. You or your company paying for these products is keeping investment money flowing and extending the runway, for AI companies to reach that point of "indispensability". There is no divorcing your cool shiny toy from the creation of AI deepfakes that destroy democracy, or the AI psychosis that destroys lives. This is because the AI companies are pursuing an ideological project that ultimately has nothing to do with improving people's work or their lives; the leaders of these companies have loudly and publicly said that very clearly. You are laundering the reputation of these companies and keeping them alive, when the only moral option is to destroy them.

I've said this elsewhere, but: Maybe you, who are reading this, is offended by this framing, because you use and enjoy the AI tools. But it's also likely that you, and many other technologists, take moral abdication almost as a point of pride, where the only thing that matters is "capability". In that case, I don't understand the defensive response. Why are you uncomfortable being described as the thing you're bragging to be?

#fuckAI

¹ The stark contrast: The breathless and brainless promotional posts about Glasswing came into my feed at the same time as the posts about the final gutting of CISA. https://www.securityweek.com/white-house-seeks-to-slash-cisa-funding-by-707-million/

RE: https://cloudisland.nz/@daisy/116312358923253621

I think the pro-AI people asking for "nuance" or "less polarization" are deliberately ignoring, at this point, the massive amounts of time, money, political capital, etc. being poured into the pro-AI project. Maybe it feels like you're being attacked on Mastodon, but we all know that the reach of this social network is very small. It's the case, right now, that billion-dollar companies and powerful political interests are on your side.

Therefore my hater energy will increase. Opposition to those trying to impose a sense of technological inevitability is important. And I personally have no problem speaking my mind.

RE: https://flipboard.com/@bbcnews/top-stories-hc55lmo2z/-/a-_tO-agcvR3usl5DZvWi0Zw%3Aa%3A3199692-%2F0

This is not just about forced language assimilation, it is also providing the basis for complete cultural erasure, forced detention, and mass internment, far beyond what has already been happening in East Turkestan (Xinjiang) and Tibet

"The law also provides a legal basis to prosecute parents or guardians who may instil what it described as "detrimental" views in children which would affect ethnic harmony and it calls for "mutually embedded community environments" which some analysts believe could result in the break up of minority-heavy neighbourhoods."

The "we are 56 ethnicities all living in harmony" image that China tries to project to the world has been a lie for a long time

mentally im here

me doing pre bedtime prep routine 1 million hours early for the gold medal men's hockey game tmr

#hockey #olympics2026 #hnom #canada

@ProPublica Your employee union is raising very valid concerns right now, about management's refusal to guarantee AI guardrails in their contract.

https://social.coop/@dphiffer/115687141981028270

As a reader-funded publication, your funding relies on maintaining the trust you have with your readers. If you refuse to guarantee that you will avoid using AI to generate text, images, and video, and if you refuse to guarantee that you will label AI-generated content, how can you expect to maintain reader trust?

@dphiffer It was dismaying to see this donation request post (https://newsie.social/@ProPublica/115686546158657305) from the ProPublica account, right after seeing your post.

I left them a reply linking to your post here. Full support to you and thank you for posting this to Fedi.

JD....bro.......😭😭😭😭😭

(new signalgate screenshots from
https://media.defense.gov/2025/Dec/04/2003834916/-1/-1/1/DODIG_2026_021.PDF)

I wanted to note a detail of the ICE raid on the Korean battery plant in Georgia. I think this is important for professionals assessing the risk of travelling to the US for short-term business. This includes conferences, trainings, trade shows, and meetings with colleagues:

Many of those reportedly entered the US using B1 visas — issued for business purposes, such as attending meetings or signing contracts — or through the Electronic System for Travel Authorization visa waiver program for short-term stays. US immigration officials said that was the central issue in the raid.

(https://www.koreaherald.com/article/10570143)

The South Korean nationals working in Georgia were largely given visas suitable for training purposes, such as the B-1 visa, and many there were working as instructors, according to a South Korean official.

(https://www.wsj.com/us-news/u-s-arrests-hundreds-in-raid-at-hyundai-plant-construction-site-in-georgia-4e150feb / https://archive.is/JfSCF)

For Canadian citizens, because I honestly think many of us don't even think about this or are aware of this: When we go to the US for short-term business travel, we are admitted under B-1 status.

For people from other countries under the Visa Waiver Program, such as most European countries, and many other Western countries: As I'm sure you're aware, you enter the US for short-term personal or business purposes under an ESTA.

We don't know yet whether the people in this case overstayed their visas (even though B-1 allows 6-month stays with an extension of up to 1 year, and ESTA/VWP allows repeated non-contiguous 90-day stays for up to 2 years). We also don't know yet whether they conducted activities outside of what was allowed by their visa (even though the business activities allowed by both are quite broad). However, even a small risk of mistaken arbitrary detention by ICE may be unacceptable.

#canada #hyundai #lg #southkorea #korea #georgia #ice

@hacks4pancakes I find that a lot of Canadians are pretty ignorant about our immigration system and barely know the difference between a work permit and permanent residence. That said though, for any infosec workers who are American citizens: it may be easier to get a visa / permanent residence than you think. The Canadian immigration system still overwhelmingly favours "skilled" workers, and the recent immigration cuts specifically target international students and temporary foreign workers.

For any other Canadians reading this thread: check out the Migrant Rights Network as a great org doing work to educate people about our immigration system, to combat anti-immigrant rhetoric in Canada, and to advocate for "unskilled" workers.

https://migrantrights.ca

#canada

@molly0xfff I've just signed up for an annual subscription. Thank you for the work you do!

With the news that people are moving to Xiaohongshu due to uncertainty about the future of TikTok and the changes to Meta's content policies, and that people are now really interested in learning Mandarin: I would encourage you to check out the active Chinese-language communities right here on the fediverse as well, such as the public forum at https://ovo.st/club/board (@ board @ ovo.st ), and the instance https://m.cmx.im/about. Or, perhaps, you can follow my recent favourite fediverse account, @labor, which collects news about modern Chinese labour issues that you will never find on Chinese social media platforms.

In general I think there is a huge lack of understanding among western users about how much Chinese social media and Chinese tech companies are intertwined with the government, a lack of understanding or engagement with Chinese social issues which are heavily censored on all Chinese social media platforms, and a mistake belief that "well, Chinese social media can't be much worse than the American ones". I had to mute the discourse around TikTok for my own sanity because there was so much complete misunderstanding around privacy, censorship, and the nature of these companies. It's like seeing people say "we don't want to use apps run by (american) fascists, so we will flock to an app that shares all its data with a fascist government, and actively censors all topics unfavourable to that government". It makes no sense.

Of course, I think it is good that people are engaging with Chinese people, finally, as people, and not as just abstractions. I think it is also good that people have an incentive to learn my native language. I just wish people would use that to engage with and listen to the Chinese people who have been posting here, all along.

#china #tiktok #xiaohongshu #rednote #socialmedia #fediverse