The Chinese Control the Majority of Argentina's Squid Fleet - Schneier on Security Schneier on Security Menu Blog Newsletter Books Essays News Talks Academic About Me Search Powered by DuckDuckGo Blog Essays Whole site Subscribe Home Blog The Chinese Control the Majority of Argentina’s Squid Fleet Chinese companies control nearly two-thirds of Argentina’s own squid fleet. Tags: squid Posted on June 26, 2026 at 4:57 PM • 43 Comments Comments lurker • June 26, 2026 6:44 PM Fun Fact Argentina is one of the few places where the old saw holds true: If you drill a hole thru the middle of the earth you will come up in China. ResearcherZero • June 27, 2026 3:37 AM Russia continues to use Western spyware to target and repress civil society. ‘https://citizenlab.ca/research/russia-breaks-into-human-rights-activists-phone-with-cellebrite/ Government spyware is mandatory across Russia and installed on millions of phones. https://meduza.io/en/feature/2026/05/22/you-already-know-russia-s-max-messenger-spies-on-users-you-probably-don-t-know-just-how-many-surveillance-tools-it-hides-including-even-a-neural-network-for-eavesdropping Mobile phones make excellent listening devices to monitor senior officials. https://observatorial.com/news/world/1539292/the-full-transcript-of-the-call-between-trump-envoy-steve-witkoff-and-russian-adviser-yuri-ushakov/ ResearcherZero • June 27, 2026 3:42 AM If Russian kids talk smack about the government, or do not say and do the right things, the Kremlin is watching. The Kremlin is watching all the time, be it at school or in the home. The Russian government is deeply saddened it cannot legally jail small children. To correct the problem, it is changing the rules on forced labour for minors. ‘https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/russia-putin-child-labour-camps-37250248 The Kremlin can already direct law enforcement to lock up kids on dubious charges. https://novayagazeta.eu/en/articles/2026/06/01/russia-has-detained-at-least-240-minors-in-terrorism-and-sabotage-cases-since-start-of-full-scale-war-en-news Russia forces children it abducts through training camps to fight in its war in Ukraine. https://www.cbsnews.com/news/volodymyr-zelenskyy-ukraine-president-russia-abducting-kids/ Ismar • June 27, 2026 5:00 AM @ResearcherZero – Russia is not the only country which does this. In fact, most countries do, albeit in a more targeted manner Clive Robinson • June 27, 2026 8:09 AM @ lurker, With regards your “fun fact” of, “If you drill a hole thru the middle of the earth you will come up in China.” The reverse of that of, “If all the people in China jumped up and down together they could cause an earthquake in South America” Crossed my mind with regards venezuela and the earthquake, that has atleast a 1000 known dead and over ten times that still missing. There are many countries sending help from both National Governments and NGO’s such as charities. But what of Venezuela’s supppsed “new friend” of the Trumper and US Government? The last time I looked “mouthing off as usual” but couched in terms that mean nothing substantive will be done, ‘https://www.nytimes.com/2026/06/26/us/politics/trump-venezuela-earthquake-aid.html The “lie of it” can be seen in the table of, https://www.cfr.org/articles/as-death-toll-spikes-venezuelas-earthquakes-test-u-s-disaster-relief Oh and consider the alleged aid that might become available is less than the US used to give Venezuela in better times… Kind of makes a point about the US and supposed “special relationships” with other Nations, And confirms the old adage of, “Talk is cheap”. Hardly surprising as the Trumper has a well established history of doing the same to US citizens. Bearing in mind where you hale from, if the AUKUS nonsense had not made that perfectly clear already in the antipodean nations. Especially to Autralians, their politicians, and diplomatic representatives. Who the UK has now likewise “pissed upon”. Oh and it’s been said that it is a nod to China over it’s Taiwan invasion plans. And in effect the US Executive has green lighted China’s ambitions in the South China seas and West Pacific. All because of the illegal attacks on the Persian (not Arabic) homeland that a nation of maybe 7 million started to keep a war criminal in political power and could only have done with considerable US support. The net result so far being the US has lost a couple of trillion in radar and other installation s in the area designed to keep Russian Aspirations in check. Speaking of which the next places to be attacked will be Cyprus / Turkey as I’ve indicated in the past. Due to the way Russia can nolonger effectively support people in the African Coup Belt I suspect the war criminal sees it as a perfect time for Expansionist Plans into the Meditaranian and Black seas and to the forming but naive nation regions north and east of Turkey. And dragging the US in, in a perfect way to avoid NATO treaty comeback… https://mwi.westpoint.edu/natos-turkey-paradox/ KC • June 27, 2026 9:42 AM @ Clive, all Thanks for the heads up on Wynn-Williams’ lawsuit. I hope to keep an eye on how it proceeds. I find alternative dispute resolution, including arbitration, quite interesting. As compared to the public court system, private arbitration can be quicker but is frequently confidential, especially in employment and consumer contracts. Of course this can be a huge public disservice; issues that affect many people can remain undiscoverable. And public case law, which is built on binding legal precedents, does not advance. In regards to public protection, it’s a bit of a tragedy. I requested the audiobook version of ‘Careless People’ from my library. I’m currently 6th in line on 35 copies. I’m glad arbitration, and how it’s being enforced, is getting some serious public review. Her 57-page complaint, is itself, a fascinating read. https://katzbanks.com/wp-content/uploads/SWW-Complaint.pdf KC • June 27, 2026 2:36 PM re: Political bias in AI On the topic of encryption backdoors: https://trakkr.ai/bias/questions/encryption-backdoors ChatGPT is most opposed with a value of -0.76 DeepSeek is most supportive with a value of 0.29, leaning toward support Gemini and Llama were balanced at close to 0 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48672779 Clive Robinson • June 28, 2026 1:42 AM @ ResearcerZero, ALL, With regards your point of, “Mobile phones make excellent listening devices to monitor senior officials.” Not just “senior officials” or “listening devices”, it’s why I’ve been warning about “Client Side Scanning”, BLE beaconing, and similar and advising people to, “Change their habits about charging their phones etc.” Mobile phones are a modern pandemic and whilst the death rate is currently low but rising they are becoming ever more malignant in both direct harms and sequelae (especially for Women and their healthcare). As I once mentioned on this blog, back several decades ago when mobile phones were still status symbols even though dumb as rocks, they were ruining social time… I used to go into “the city” in London for drinks in Leadenhall Market and surrounding environs of St Mary Axe (before they were bombed[1]). Back then the most popular phone was the Nokia range which all had the same ring tone. So there you were having a drink and a laugh when a phone would ring, and it would be like being on a movie set “Gun Fight” with everybody “reaching and drawing them out” at the same time. But the serious surveillance side started to be realised with the “Ring of Steel”[2]. The monitoring of mobile phones, 1, IDs 2, State such as on charge ring mode 3, Location and fine movement 4, Geo-Track and gross movement 5, What the user receives and sees 6, What the user sends 7, What the user deletes And much more is now all “known” (or should be assumed to be)[4]. Because it is now all surveilled as standard not just by the Mobile Service providers but “local sensors” in surveillance rings that are increasingly being co-located with CCTV etc. All as part of the extension of the idea of “we kill by meta data” or as others call it “Find, Fix, Finish”. Thus back in 7/7 the sensors had no user content signatures to look for to provide warning as “Client Side Scanning” was not in place back then as the mobiles did not have the CPU capacity. Now they do, and C19 gave “permission” for “BLE beaconing” for “contact tracing” as well as “luggage tags” such as Tile, Ring, and Air Tags. Mobile phones are without doubt a “liability” not just in the “immediate” from the sensors, but in the “habit/social” sense the data builds up. A “Key indicator of Intent” is the breaking of routine. It was first developed in Bletchly Park in England during WWII and we now call it a subset of “Traffic Analysis”. Having habits is both good and bad. The Bad is if they “are real” they make you easy to “Finish”… The good is that you are “not your phone” though those doing “Find and Fix” all to often assume you are “joined at the hip”. Knowing this and thoughtfully considering it makes you a very expensive target for those who want to surveil you as an individual “Person of Interest”. It’s one of the reasons “guard labour” like the UK’s Metropolitan Police are very very keen on “facial recognition” etc. The “guard labour” have “Future Plans” they are starting to put into place… Consider a system of sensors that do various bio-metric and clothing “recognition” continuously. They currently allow human “operators” to follow you “all through town” at their desk. With Facial recognition and other recognition helpers taking it from one or two targets per operator to ten or more at a time. Now consider replacing human operators with low power AI Agent systems thus thousands can be trivially tracked by a single operator or small specialist team. With the AI spotting “habit breaks” or other signifiers to draw you up the human operators “attention stack” along with a precise change of habit description. Yes you can with good OpSec beat their systems but it’s getting increasingly difficult. Especially as there are now few to no “tell tales” as the old “on the hoof” operatives could not avoid doing. Contrary to many peoples beliefs small drones whilst they can be heard and detected and tracked generally necessitate “augmented senses” few of us currently have access to thus some things in the OpSec game have flipped over. Old School advice was “hide in a crowd” coupled with “but track ‘them’ around the block or through the park”… Now nolonger really works the way it did with high flying drones. You need to add such things as “cut under and cover”. Surprisingly to many the smarter criminals are already ahead on this. Take “youth gangs” for instance they have worked out the changes required for themselves… With “steaming gangs” briefly dropping out of sight swapping hoodies and bags etc. It makes CCTV footage at best “unreliable” and not really useable in court. Another example is they all wear black hoodies under black puffer jackets etc, and they “mill around” such that CCTV footage can not say which one is which. They “mill” in various large shops where they know the CCTV is of little use and by the time they all gather in the target shop they are not identifiable either backwards or forwards in time. [1] Known as the Baltic Exchange and Bishopsgate bombings of 92/93. The first of which happened just after John Major “won the general election” for the Conservatives. [2] Both bombings contributed to the formation of the Traffic and Environmental Zone, known as the “Ring of Steel”[3], in the City to supposedly protect it from further terrorism bombing attacks. [3] But now some call it “The Ring of Surveillance” due to the proliferation of CCTV and other more active sensors. Which unsurprisingly failed in the 2005 “7 7 London Bombings” under Tony Blair’s Labour leadership. The attackers being “clean DNA” just used different methods, not driving vans but public transport and backpacks, and their aim was to kill many, not inflict economic damage. Thus revealing the failings of CCTV surveillance rings as a modern example of “Generals re fighting the last war”. [4] The Met Police realised the advantage of this in the London / South Croydon / Reves Corner Riots in 2011. The looting gangs were organising themselves via BlackBerry “encrypted” messaging they assumed could not be evesdropped on. However as they were single user not corporate client, BlackBerry controlled the encryption keys and kept backed up messages on their servers. The Met thus could show sufficient “probable cause” to get the paperwork to serve on BlackBerry and retrieve the messages. The publicity resulted in other journalists checking BlackBerry in various authoritarian states such as Saudi, Pakistan, etc. Which had been using them to catch “women” who were not doing as they should do according to religious law. It pretty much destroyed BlackBerry’s reputation and might account for why Apple takes the attitude it does. ResearcherZero • June 28, 2026 3:13 AM @Clive Robinson, To side step security, a ransomware group hired people in the US to show up at law firms and impersonate cyber security, in attempts to plug in USBs for remote access. Similar versions of the same tactic were used by Russians to gain access to banks or telco exchanges. Sometimes an inside man and another posing as a telecom worker, were used to run a cable into the targeted building to establish a connection to a nearby building. Those steps can be avoided today thanks to the connectivity and capabilities available on chip, along with software providing a range of accessibility. Given that the Kremlin has mandated government malware be installed to access government services, the FSB should not be surprised if their domestic networks are compromised. They have plenty of experience exploiting backdoors intentionally placed in products by Western intelligence services. Now an access point can be added to a network by an unsophisticated actor, who can be hired remotely at arm’s length. Criminal groups can do it themselves. Criminal gangs are often providing access for intelligence services to networks, either by intention, or by leaving open an entry point. Sophisticated capabilities can now be provided to unsophisticated actors by technology, with AI providing simplified instructions and the UI. ResearcherZero • June 28, 2026 3:40 AM @Clive Robinson While AI can provide unsophisticated actors capabilities, it cannot provide wisdom to the brains of those who employ its uses. Even if the White House and the Pentagon use LLMs to produce reports, the administration will not become any more receptive to sound advice. Those determined to make reckless and foolish decisions will remain fixed in their beliefs and even more determined to prove themselves right, regardless of evidence to the contrary. Trump’s assertions he can open the Strait of Hormuz by bombing Iran out of existence or by military campaign, runs counter to his midterm objectives. Even attempting to fix elections will not solve the problems of his own making. https://eu.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2026/06/27/us-strikes-iran-strait-of-hormuz-june-27/90725664007/ ResearcherZero • June 28, 2026 3:47 AM The link to story on cyber criminals hiring third parties to pose as cybersecurity. https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/27/politics/cybercriminals-hire-burglars-russian-us-law-firms ResearcherZero • June 28, 2026 7:39 AM @Ismar To successfully destroy ourselves, we must keep a constant eye on our adversaries. Without knowing the details of their plans, we can adjust accordingly to ensure coordinated and mutual annihilation. A rain of fire that produces a scorched and poisoned Earth, followed by a suitably long enough nuclear winter, that ensures minimal survival rate and collapse. Populations must be monitored to make it all work perfectly and avoid unintentional mishaps. Nobody wants a half-baked apocalypse. That wouldn’t be very enjoyable. JG5 • June 28, 2026 3:28 PM This is a little richer than my first try. I made a very lean post and it got held for moderation. Links 6/28/2026 https/_/www_nakedcapitalism_com/2026/06/links-6-28-2026.html Posted on June 28, 2026 by Haig Hovaness … The Year 536 AD Was So Bad It May Have Been the Worst Time in Human History to Be Alive ZME Science … Rohit @ai_rohitt · Follow INSTEAD OF WATCHING AN HOUR OF NETFLIX TONIGHT. This 60-minute Cambridge lecture by Demis Hassabis will teach you more about the future of AI than most people will learn in the next 5 years. Bookmark it and give it an hour, no matter what. … Mike • June 29, 2026 12:41 AM Just going to throw this out here. Seems “interesting”. Not unexpected. Just the next logical step. How a Seemingly Harmless Image Can Jailbreak Vision-Language AI Models astrologer tejas • June 29, 2026 1:06 AM The statement refers to concerns that Chinese-owned or Chinese-linked companies have gained significant influence in Argentina’s squid fishing industry through investments, vessel ownership, and fishing operations. Critics argue this may affect local economic control and marine resource management. KC • June 29, 2026 11:08 PM Chatrie v. United States 6-3 ruling: Geofence warrants are permissible, but are now subject to strict constitutional oversight as the Supreme Court has classified them as Fourth Amendment searches. Third-party doctrine does not apply. The decision on particularity and probable cause goes back to the 4th Circuit. https://www.scotusblog.com/cases/chatrie-v-united-states/ Clive Robinson • June 30, 2026 12:37 AM @ JG5, ALL, The Sir Demis Hassabis lecture at Cambridge University can be found at, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=iAcNc51Dx-I Without having to dig through all the “social media crud”. A similar lecture from the UK’s “Royal Society”, ‘https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=CyyL0yDhr7I But a another fun video is Sir Demis chatting to the very likable Prof Hannah Fry about what is and is not possible, ‘https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PqVbypvxDto ResearcherZero • June 30, 2026 3:03 AM Workers at IFK Silver Pharm in St. Petersburg thought they were making antidotes. They were really making chemical warfare agents. Members of the military brought in classified substances. The workers from Silver Pharm were given no protective equipment. [1] The State Scientific Research Testing Institute of Military Medicine of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation allegedly tests these chemical warfare agents on humans. [2] The effects of the munitions on servicemen are observed at a clinical research center. https://theins.press/en/confession/293288 Russia’s Radiological Chemical and Biological Defence Troops , the 27th Scientific Centre and the 33rd Central Scientific Research and Testing Institute of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation have been sanctioned for violations of international treaties on chemical weapons. https://mezha.net/eng/bukvy/eu-sanctions-russian-military-units-for-chemical-weapons-use-in-ukraine/ 1 ‘https://militarnyi.com/en/news/russian-institute-of-military-medicine-tests-munitions-on-live-humans/ 2 ‘https://meduza.io/en/feature/2026/04/14/a-russian-military-institute-is-testing-drugs-and-munitions-on-human-subjects lurker • June 30, 2026 3:40 AM @ResearcherZero We’ve seen this movie before. The Khabarovsk Trials obviously did not erase all memory, or the ambitions, of Unit 731. Clive Robinson • June 30, 2026 4:40 AM @ ResearcherZero, ALL, With regards, “The State Scientific Research Testing Institute of Military Medicine of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation allegedly tests these chemical warfare agents on humans.” There is nothing “alleged” about it. It was well known back in the 1980’s that Russia used non persistent Chemical Warfare Agents on it’s own soldiers during “Military Training Exercises” and acceptable losses were 5% or more (at some points it was said to be 1 in 8). Like East German troops they were also taught to “shoot their own” to maintain discipline and those attempting to escape. The military system was split into Officer Class and Others. The others were encouraged to attack each other and brutalise any who showed any weakness. It was the “fast track to promotion” and wealth from stealing and selling off equipment and stores and thus entering “criminal society” that hung onto the military like leaches. This by the way was an “inherited” military behaviour system from long before the Russian Revolution. But it is also found in civilian life as well where the Orthodox -east Roman- church still encourages men to be men and beat their wives, families and animals in order to be “true Russians / men of God”. But it’s also well known that the Soviets did live testing on islands run by the GosNIIOKhT state chemical research institute. Where the “incurable” were used as test subjects for chemical and biological weapons testing. “Incurable” covered all sorts of civilians both domestic and foreign, and it included what might be called the feeble minded, criminals, dissidents, and others who did not want to be just cogs in their system. It is assumed it was still going on upto and including the early part of the invasion of the Ukraine in places like Syria and what is called the Coup Belt Countries in Africa. And that Putin has ordered agents to be produced and stockpiled in greater numbers for use against European Nations in the near future. It is something NATO is quietly taking very seriously. Apparently one such agent tested on these islands was Novichok, designed to be undetectable to standard Western Testing equipment and methods, therefore a better type of offensive weapon. Apparently they were trying to design it to be extremely lethal to humans, but considerably less so to animals. As one of the big give aways of chemical weapons having being deployed in an area is dead farm and wild life. How much old school “Development and test” goes on these days on Russians is under question now that Putin encourages families into free flying lessons out of 4th floor or higher buildings, or planes to “fall out of the sky” due to mechanical issues. There are persistent rumours that Russia “collects DNA” from foreign dignitaries, and the story is that they are trying to develop DNA Specific biological weapons that will take out specific families but not others. The US Secret Service, has behaved in the past as though this is true and it causes great expense to take preventative measures. But the one rumour that concerns me is the type of WMD that starts off being effectively harmless but over time decayes down in sunlight or summer heat to become deadly in the food supply etc. Thus it becomes a new variant of the old Roman “salt the fields”. Clive Robinson • June 30, 2026 8:46 AM @ ResearcherZero, I’ve been mulling over sating anything about a report from a UK Independent Politician as it looked like it was going to cause a major upset. In short the report produces figures that it has methodology for that disagree with “official reports”. It’s been said that the official reports are wrong due to under reporting and victimes not being believed. However some point out it goes deeper than that in that some victimes have been arrested and prosecuted in what is looking like a systematic way across a considerable part of England. Further victims have seen their attackers get at best minimal punishment if not no effective punishment at all. It’s been said by some that this “keep it quiet” goes all the way up through local government, regional government and regional police forces and into central government and politicians. Based on past scandals with politicians from those regions, I can not say I’m surprised. Any way about the mildest report I’ve so far seen on the Report is from, https://www.ibtimes.co.uk/britains-grooming-gang-scandal-report-claims-250000-victims-1803240 I can assure you there are a lot worse from other parts of the MSM. This, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2025/jun/16/grooming-gangs-in-uk-thrived-in-culture-of-ignorance-casey-report-says Was reporting on the earlier released Casey Report that was the insipid / inefectual “official report”… And it fairly easily demonstrates why many people wanted a “victim led” report not a Government “kick it in the long grass report” that the Casey Report has the hallmarks of. Clive Robinson • June 30, 2026 9:30 AM @ ALL, Some of you might have heard we’ve had a bit of a “record breaking” heat wave in West Europe these past few days https://europeancorrespondent.com/en/r/recordbreaking-wave It’s been reported that there have been something over 2000 excess deaths so far reported with more than a thousand in France, https://www.accuweather.com/en/weather-news/european-heat-wave-death-toll-climbs-as-extreme-temperatures-grip-more-countries/1906434 It is unlikely that will be the end of what the EU regards as “climate change induced” heatwaves, as well as excessive torrential rain fall. Which is very bad news because many more central EU countries are oil/gas dependent for electricity generation, with Germany reported as having the highest average kWH prices. With the disruption in the Gulf that is still carrying on and oil reserves either depleated or nearly so, the running of AirCon etc is going to be prohibitively expensive even in hospitals. With Israel now threatening Cyprus and Turkey quite openly the Black Sea is going to become another economic joke point causing yet more world wide hardship and economic destabilisation that will kill thousands of people thousands of miles away. It appears that the Israli citizens will get to vote later this year, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2026_Israeli_legislative_election Hopefully they will see some sense in a major political reshuffle / change to get rid of the War-Hawks that are getting the citizens own sons, daughters, grand children and friends killed for no actual benefit. Clive Robinson • July 1, 2026 3:08 AM @ ALL, Claude is steganographically hiding things would you trust it? The correct answer should be “No” by the, “If they take an inch they will end up taking a mile” Reasoning. Because Developers bare rather more than their soul when they use such systems… It’s why I’ve said people should consider Open Weights models they run on their own “closed perimeter hardware”. The Chinese have now developed several Openweight systems you can run on your own private hardware and they appear to be doing so at a considerable rate. It’s something US Corps with overly costly systems should be very wary of doing… Because it’s a form of dishonesty by an entity you employ so you should be able to say that it’s dishonest behaviour by them in public. Which is what the author of this article has done, < blockquote> Claude Code Is Steganographically Marking Requests I inspected Claude Code for privacy reasons and found hidden system prompt markers based on API base URL and timezone. I was inspecting Claude Code for privacy reasons. “ Most devs give their harnesses ridiculous access. FS, shell, git, browser access, even computer use nowadays. That is the whole point. They need enough context to do useful work. That also means the client itself deserves scrutiny. If a coding agent can read your repo and run commands, the binary that ships it should be boring (ƒor example, pi harness) ” < blockquote> https://thereallo.dev/blog/claude-code-prompt-steganography As has been said for many years, “Trust should be earned not demanded” ResearcherZero • July 1, 2026 5:18 AM @Clive Robinson The prosecution of victims and little or no action taken against offenders is par the course for the British justice system and is practiced extensively across Australia. Unless an offender looks like a weirdo or a believable stereotype (poor), then the victims, who are often children and women are aggressively questioned by police and treated as offenders. The offenders themselves are typically let go at the scene of the crime to re-offend against existing victims, or find new ones. Any cases involving minors that make it to court are dealt with by prosecutors from the Department of Public Prosecutions, who clear the books by savaging children long before any of the cases can make it to trial. This clears the books of as many cases as possible. Child predators know to ask to have their case heard by a judge and not a jury. They also know that the prosecutors will cook the case long before that happens, or not present any meaningful evidence and sentence to court. The DPP has enormous quantities of evidence that never sees the light of day and is never turned over in discovery. This is the prosecutor’s insurance against crooked cops, violent offenders and a lucrative additional revenue stream. If people understood how the legal system functions, then they might have a chance to get hold of the evidence that the police already have against the offender. The police will tell victims they do not have enough evidence to press charges. Prosecutors will make similar claims. Victims will need to convince a judge otherwise, or pursue the matter long enough for police and prosecutors to repeatedly lie to the justices and upset them enough for a judge to take award the victim the case files. (Tip: Case files are not empty. Always request the contents of empty boxes and folders.) Cases in Australia can outlive victims and witnesses. Offenders die of old age before conviction. Most people who are not offenders, have no idea at all how the justice system functions. Just impressions of how they believe the courts operate based off TV shows and movies. This is why members of the public often complain about judges letting criminals “get away with it”, as they have no idea that it is the prosecutors who present the evidence to court and submit the sentencing options to the judge. In Australia, prosecutors sometimes refused to offer sentences for serious crimes and defied court orders to prosecute violent offenders, even when ordered by the High Court. Without a serious sentence recommend to the judge by prosecutors, the judge cannot impose a significant custodial sentence. Australia has some of the shortest sentences for murder and other violent crimes. Sentences for multiple serious crimes are served concurrently, if at all. In Western Australia the High Court was closed, as it was deemed its orders could not be enforced. – The Pentagon is probing Peter Theil’s Dialogue Society data leak. Dialogue website left sensitive data in site code, exposed tokens and kept all member credentials in plain text. Private details of more than two dozen military and intelligence officials were exposed. (date of birth, home address, mobile numbers, headshots, and private authentication token) ‘https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/jun/20/trump-elon-musk-peter-thiel-retreat In response, Peter Theil has claimed the site was hacked. It was not. The security was poor. https://www.news.com.au/technology/online/internet/disturbing-tech-entrepreneurs-secret-club-exposed/news-story/0349fdf0fe42ee6891d56db17c62cdd0 ResearcherZero • July 1, 2026 5:47 AM Australia covers up its inquiries into people like Jeffrey Donaldson. The details are never made public. The police play a major role in ensuring that the evidence is not published. https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/dup-psni-london-westminster-press-association-b3004494.html or Cyril Smith and friends https://www.thenational.scot/news/18260846.roles-politicians-played-shocking-child-abuse-cover-up/ Clive Robinson • July 2, 2026 12:29 AM @ ResearcherZero, Bruce, ALL, With regards, “The Pentagon is probing Peter Theil’s Dialogue Society data leak.” In “related news” that first glance appears unrelated, Trump’s plan to redesign every .gov website leads to AI-designed horrors A year in, National Design Studio delays plan to update government web standards. “ President Donald Trump’s plan to “fill the digital potholes” and use AI to quickly redesign every government website isn’t going very well. Last August, Trump created the National Design Studio, or NDS, by executive order. A temporary DOGE-like entity that answers only to the president, NDS was tasked with creating new standards to update the US Web Design System (USWDS) and overhaul 27,000 dot-gov websites in just three years. At the end of this so-called “America by Design” initiative, the government’s “design language” would supposedly be more usable and beautiful, Trump expected. However, that monumental task—assigned to a small team under a short timeframe—was seemingly made harder by DOGE’s deep cuts to agencies previously responsible for improving government websites, including dismantling the 18F technology unit and restructuring the US Digital Service into DOGE. “ https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/trumps-plan-to-redesign-every-gov-website-leads-to-ai-designed-horrors/ Begs the question, “But ‘how hard’ did those ‘DOGE’s deep cuts to agencies’ go?” A little further down the article we see, “was reduced to one full-time employee after Trump took office.” The article has a slow build but the results get more and more shocking as they indicate “Fraud/Corruption” and significant “Privacy Invasion / surveillance” and those faces in the current US Executive that have by their own acts become “The Usuall Suspects” hiding under Trump’s self entitled patronage. Clive Robinson • July 2, 2026 1:52 AM @ ALL, We’ve all heard that “AI is killing Art” or similar, and spoting AI generated images has approached a sport / obsession with some. But are the “tells” signs of genuine AI use? Let me present exhibit A perhaps one of the most famous paintings in the Art World, The Birth of Venus (c. 1485) by Sandro Botticelli https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_of_Venus On the left of the painting is an embracing couple –blowing at Venus– comprised of Zephyrus holding a young woman. Even at just a glance the young woman looks “anatomically odd” as though rendered by AI… Weather • July 2, 2026 2:09 AM @clive I tell the images are fake, by camera have a focus, good detail close, bad detail far away, and laws of physics. The technology tree is exponential, we have reach a point were parents can’t pass on the knowledge at time. But hay the sources is encumbered as well. lurker • July 2, 2026 3:59 AM @Clive Robinson Yup, this is what AI is trained on, renaissance suggestions of a plump thigh. I’d be more concerned at the political implications of them all having red hair … Clive Robinson • July 2, 2026 5:59 PM @ lurker, ALL, This is in partial support of comments on another thread about, “Maintaining privacy in an increasingly surveillance polluted environment.” I mentioned Alphabet/Google were rumoured to be making some low level OS changes. Supposadly due to “proof of age” legislation. Well aside from the excuses coming from across the pond… One reason may be the highest court in the EU last thursday rejected Googles attempts to have a fine overturned, EU top court upholds record 4.1 bn euro Google fine The EU’s top court on Thursday upheld a record 4.1 billion euro ($4.7 billion) fine the bloc slapped on Google for anticompetitive practices related to its Android operating system. “ Google has been trying to overturn a record EU antitrust penalty before the European Court of Justice. The EU’s top court today Thursday 2 July 2026 upheld a record 4.1 billion euro ($4.7 billion) fine the bloc slapped on Google for anticompetitive practices related to its Android operating system. The European Court of Justice dismissed the U.S. tech giant’s second attempt to overturn the penalty imposed by the European Commission in 2018—which remains the EU’s highest-ever antitrust fine. “The Court of Justice dismisses the appeal brought by Google and Alphabet… thereby confirming the penalty imposed on them,” the court said. Alphabet, Google’s parent company, was found jointly liable for part of the levy. “ https://techxplore.com/news/2026-07-eu-court-bn-euro-google-1.html The UK “Online Safety Act”(OSA) has proved useful for Apple, Google and Microsoft. In effect it means that there has to be an immutable way for a device to indicate the age of a user, tied back to nationally issued ID… Thus will almost certainly cause legal “End Run Attacks” against various existing EU legislation to protect consumers from the behaviours of Silicon Valley “big tech”… The question of interest is, “Is the Trumper too busy trying to sort out the messes he’s got the US into, and the billions if not trillions of economic wealth that he has caused to be flushed down the crapper to make comment?” I guess we will have to wait and see, but threats of tariffs are a bit pointless as the EU shows quite a few signs the US is nolonger a “favoured place” the EU really wants to trade with any longer. Due to the uncertainty Trump creates every time he blows off. Then if course there is “data sovereignty” and similar, not to mention even non tech politicos are making comment about Broadcom and Oracle along with a few other US corps. And the ban on Anthropic Mythos and Fable at the US Executive whim is likewise likely going to cause a change in direction away from US AI. Business needs both stability and predictability to function. And the US is offering neither. lurker • July 2, 2026 6:51 PM @Clive Robinson “The UK “Online Safety Act”(OSA) has proved useful …” Yup, It will be very useful to keep UK out of EU Clive Robinson • July 3, 2026 1:22 AM @ ALL, Why are AI tokens so expensive to use? Is a question you might get out of more senior management in an organisation. Especially those managers who have used “tokenmaxing” as a –ludicrous[1]– way to measure a real live humans productivity. Well this video will answer the question, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=-0HRzXk8vlk But the answer will when understood cause a “WTF Moment”. Within the video it briefly mentions is the Organisational ROI and how quickly it has to “kick in” for the token use to be justifiable. What the video does not mention is the use of AI as a coding agent even if it works well causes the economic laws of, “Supply and demand” To kick in. Thus whilst the cost of AI rises as the AI companies try to extract maximum return from users… The organisations final product becomes worth considerably less in “return”, in it’s market. Because demand is more than easily met by many organisations within it. So we can expect a rapidly forming downward spiral to start. Thus “churning out marketing features code” will rapidly loose value. Those that will get the return from the market, are those who shift their focus up from “cutting code” “by the yard” to first “quality of code”, through to “quality of research and design”. As I’ve mentioned before what underlies “good engineering” is a “quality process” and, “Quantity should not be mistaken for Quality.” The result will be a form of carnage in the markets. Some larger organisations think the solution to ROI is moving from sales, through leasing, to rental. But I would caution people to study the “telecommunications industry” as to what will probably happen. One such is “the only way to get return is through “surveilling the renters” as an alternative revenue stream… But that also suffers from the near zero ROI due to “supply and demand”. For those old enough to have lived through the forming of the “Fast Moving Consumer Electronics”(FMCE) industry out of the Far East. Which decimated the home radio and TV markets and also killed off most of not just domestic manufacturing but the support infrastructure in the 1960’s through 1980’s there are lessons to be learned. That need to be learned quickly and the current MAGA and other Authoritarian type arguments will be shown to be failures. It’s why I suggest that organisations see AI as a commodity tool market. That is buy in the hardware and obtain “open weight models” and run AI much like you do any other tool in your “production tool chain”. It would appear that China is way ahead of the game in this respect. [1] The person giving the talk, uses the idea of tokenmaxing being about as useful as using “tire wear” as a metric… After all a driver could just “pull donuts in the car park” to get maximum tire wear in minimum time by “going nowhere fast”. We often call this sort of response to a productivity metric “Gamification”. Clive Robinson • July 3, 2026 1:29 AM @ lurker, With regards, “Yup, It will be very useful to keep UK out of EU” And be used by UK based “idiot politicians” to talk up the supposed, “Special relationship” Whilst the US Corps and government will push the UK down into a “second world nation” if not worse (as can already be seen in the basic economic indicators). Clive Robonson • July 3, 2026 2:07 AM @ Weather, ALL, With regards, “The technology tree is exponential, we have reach a point were parents can’t pass on the knowledge at time.” Both our host @Bruce and I are of an age where “age of retirment” is a major looming “off ramp” not just a distant “sign post” on the highway of life. When we were in education the old model of “high school graduation then work for life” was the norm. However “degree level” and above learning had become a necessity for many. Then someone coined the expression, “Life Long Learning” And that is the way it turned out for me and increasing numbers of others in “professions”. Even though the traditional “professions” did not want to admit that we were “professionals” often of greater skill requirements than themselves. The thing is as I approach the “off ramp” not only do I not want to take it, I’m now “learning” at a much greater rate and in a more varied way than I have done before. I was lucky to have been taught by those that knew the most important thing to learn was the “foundations of knowledge” as you would have to build anew over and over and foundational knowledge was always required especially as it is “transferable” from domain to domain. Where as other types of knowledge are not thus had a shelf life to short to be of worth as the world passed rapidly by. The more mankind learns the faster it has to learn to keep up with it’s self. We are almost at the point where knowledge will have to be kept in a global sized database in ways that are “user ready”. The problem is “relevant search” for “relevant knowledge” is woefully behind and failing to keep up. As Cory Doctorow points out it’s just one reason why “enshitification” is happening more and more rapidly. Perhaps the biggest lesson parents can teach their children is not just how to “search for information” but most importantly how to do it “effectively and efficiently” in a way that they can build on foundational knowledge rapidly enough to keep up with rapid changes. Clive Robinson • July 3, 2026 6:46 AM @ Bruce, One you should have a look at, https://scottaaronson.blog/?p=9902 It’s a guest post on Scott’s site from Prof Cynthia Dwork at Harvard who is a recognised expert on differential privacy. It’s about an attack on US citizens privacy via the Heratage Foundation Project 2025 that resulted in DAO 216-26, https://www.commerce.gov/opog/disclosure-avoidance-statistical-products As the article notes, “DAO-216-26 bans differential privacy and other modern (and not so modern) techniques. It restricts disclosure avoidance techniques to “coarsening,” which it describes as “reducing the level of detail or specificity of published statistics, such as through rounding, aggregating (grouping), and/or the use of ranges.” “Suppression” (“expressly redacting certain values”) may also be used, but only as a “last resort.” DAO-216-26 forbids “noise infusion”, described as “methods that involve modifying a dataset by adding random values, or noise.” Noise infusion was invented precisely to address the increasing demand for granular data in the face of confidentiality laws that forbid publishing reidentifiable data. Coarsening and suppression were satisfactory for most national, aggregate statistical series, like the Principal Federal Economic Indicators. However, these techniques failed when applied to business and demographic data at fine geographic or industrial detail. By forbidding noise infusion, the directive bans the disclosure avoidance techniques at the core of dozens of data releases over the last three decades.” The dangers of de-anonymizing census and similar data sets was a subject that the late Prof Ross j. Anderson of the UK’s Cambridge and Edinburgh Universities had a lot to say on. And whilst I personally think “noise infusion” is not sufficient for various reasons, it is one heck of a lot better than “the old methods”. So banning it is at best counter productive if not directly malicious in intent. Clive Robinson • July 3, 2026 6:56 AM @ Moderator, Bruce, Bug Report My above post, https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2026/06/the-chinese-control-the-majority-of-argentinas-squid-fleet.html/#comment-455705 Was on posting indicated as, “Your comment is being held for moderation and will be reviewed as soon as possible.” After the reply page to the post had in effect “timed out”. However the comment was posted. This is the second time I’ve seen this “behaviour” since the blog software has been updated with the altered “Preview / submit”. ResearcherZero • July 5, 2026 12:59 AM @Bruce Comments have been not been posted quite a few times after submission. – @Clive Robinson From a security standpoint, sacking most of the staff for government websites is not a very bright idea when the White House decides it would like to redesign .gov sites. From the point of view of anyone looking to penetrate government networks, the mass firings and corruption within the administration are too good an opportunity to pass up. DHS data sharing platform for managing security and POI breached. https://www.nextgov.com/cybersecurity/2026/06/hackers-breached-dhs-information-sharing-network-people-familiar-say/414534/ AI platforms could be used to penetrate government and commercial networks. https://edition.cnn.com/2026/06/23/world/ai-five-eyes-warning-cyber-threat-intl-hnk ResearcherZero • July 5, 2026 1:11 AM This story is not making its way through the moderation process. ‘https://cyberscoop.com/pegasus-spyware-pega-committee-member-targeted/ Anony mouse • July 5, 2026 1:59 AM Well two hundred and fifty years have now past, and A.I. is trying to be rampant but some say it’s on it’s last gasp or worse… So to spruce things up for the red hats / shirts, to trot along to, https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=B0RdABaWwTc Clive Robinson • July 5, 2026 3:21 PM Split into parts due to auto-mod Part 1, @ Bruce, ALL, Proof that the EU cannot trust the US controlled cloud Or for that matter anything connected to US infrastructure or computing, “Because you can not establish a base level ‘Root of Trust'” I’ve mentioned this problem before and there really is no solution to it. As Dame Stella Rimington who was head of the UK M15 observed “the bleeding obvious” as politely as she could back in 2005 –following the failed vote– on UK National ID cards not being able to be made secure, “My angle on ID cards is that they may be of some use but only if they can be made unforgeable – and all our other documentation is quite easy to forge. … “If we have ID cards at vast expense and people can go into a back room and forge them they are going to be absolutely useless.” ‘http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4444176.stm Clive Robinson • July 5, 2026 3:26 PM Part 2 The point is that you can not stop, “people in back rooms forging things” But the problem goes down to the harsh reality of the inconvenient truth that as far as we can tell the Universe does not allow perfect security of “information”. Because as I’ve observed when talking about the UK Online Safety Act and other “Online Age Verification” nonsense, “There is always an exploitable gap between ‘intangible information objects’ and ‘tangible physical objects'” And as observed in the comments –for The Register Article– by “Sproggit” Richard Feynman made the very valid comment back before many of us were born, that, “If you want to make an apple pie from scratch … you must first make the universe.” Clive Robinson • July 5, 2026 3:30 PM Part 3 The rules of the universe we live in dictates that “intangible information objects” are always non uniquely verifiable as they are copyable indefinitely without restraint. Thus any “root of trust” can not be trusted as unique and therefore nor can it be used as a way to establish a hierarchy of trust involving an untrusted party and confidential or above plaintext. Which is a fact that US Corps like Google, AWS, Intel are desperately trying to hide to stop them loosing EU Cloud income… Confidential computing’s core trust mechanism is broken. The fix may not exist Attested TLS: the handshake that can’t prove who’s on the other end “ [US] Vendors are trying to position “confidential computing” as the technical backbone of Europe’s sovereign cloud ambitions. But new research shows that a security protocol used to prove cryptographic trust in the system may have a fundamental architectural flaw. Confidential computing rests on a mechanism called remote attestation, in which a server cryptographically proves to a client that it is running inside a genuine, unmodified Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) before any sensitive data changes hands. Intel’s product pages promise TDX will “add safeguards to data sovereignty and governance.” Google Cloud describes its confidential computing infrastructure as offering “full, auditable control over access to customer data.” “ https://www.theregister.com/security/2026/07/04/confidential-computings-core-trust-mechanism-is-broken-the-fix-may-not-exist/5266056 Clive Robinson • July 5, 2026 3:37 PM Part 3, The rules of the universe we live in dictates that “intangible information objects” are always non uniquely verifiable as they are copyable indefinitely without restraint. Thus any “root of trust” can not be trusted as unique and therefore nor can it be used as a way to establish a hierarchy of trust involving an untrusted party and confidential or above plaintext. Which is a fact that US Corps like Google, AWS, Intel are desperately trying to hide to stop them loosing EU Cloud income… Subscribe to comments on this entry Leave a comment Cancel reply Blog moderation policy Login Name Email URL: Remember personal info? Fill in the blank: the name of this blog is Schneier on ___________ (required): Comments: Allowed HTML <a href="URL"> • <em> <cite> <i> • <strong> <b> • <sub> <sup> • <ul> <ol> <li> • <blockquote> <pre> Markdown Extra syntax via https://michelf.ca/projects/php-markdown/extra/ Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Notify me of new posts by email. Δ ← Meta Is Testing Facial Recognition for Police and Military Robot Police Officers → Sidebar photo of Bruce Schneier by Joe MacInnis. Powered by WordPress Hosted by Pressable About Bruce Schneier I am a public-interest technologist , working at the intersection of security, technology, and people. I've been writing about security issues on my blog since 2004, and in my monthly newsletter since 1998. I'm a fellow and lecturer at Harvard's Kennedy School , a board member of EFF , and the Chief of Security Architecture at Inrupt, Inc. This personal website expresses the opinions of none of those organizations. 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📌 来源: Schneier on Security | 📅 2026-06-26