Week Notes 2026-38
Date Published: 2026-07-29
🕒 Current
I started at a new position as a Software Engineer II at STCU!
📚 Read
AI Deciphers 108-Year-Old World War I German Radio Code
AI has cracked one of the top unsolved ciphers. This is an interesting shift. I'm curious to see how long it will take for more, possibly all, of the unsolved ciphers to be cracked.
Discord age verification rolls out today with changes spurred by user backlash
This topic has had a lot of heat on it since it was initially announced. While there are still concerns about this shift to websites enforcing age verification using details that could eventually be compromised, the changes are better than where they started.
Initially it was going to be required that users upload their government ID, which has personal security issues. The new plan is to use external verification from Stripe, where you enter credit card details and stripe confirms it is owned by an adult.
In general this seems to me like a concerning shift when it comes to personal data privacy.
📅 Events
I really enjoyed Shawn Hafen's (Cybersecurity Manager, STCU) talk about AI governance and network monitoring. He even did a demo on popping a reverse shell with an AI project found on GitHub.
Additionally the hands on AI workshop was fun. The task was to process logs using AI to gather information surrounding a security event. I didn't bring my computer, but I enjoyed seeing the solutions.