nathanpatin.bsky.social - Profile | ThreadSky | a Reddit-style client for Bluesky

ICYMI, this was confirmed by Maxar yesterday:

submitted 1 day ago • 37 comments

NEW: I helped Brian Krebs trace the background of one of Elon Musk's top loyalists, Branden Spikes, head of IT at X, who spent 2 mo at DOGE. Spikes and his ex-wife were involved with Russian diaspora websites and groups linked to pro-Kremlin KSORS players, Russian state media while he was at SpaceX.

submitted 3 days ago • 157 comments

Earlier today the LA Times had AI-generated counterpoints to a column from @gustavoarellano.bsky.social. His piece argued that Anaheim, the city he grew up in, should not forget its KKK past. The AI "well, actually"-ed the KKK. It has since been taken off the piece. www.latimes.com/california/s...

submitted 6 days ago • 45 comments

I was working with Claude to get belingcat's docker image for auto-archiver up and running and you'll never guess which video it had me to test pull. Url in the alt-text.

submitted 9 days ago • 16 comments

getting to vid chat w/ my gf while i was in Lebanon (first trip abroad!) in college was so nice! cut to it's 2025 and "cameras on" says your boss

submitted 9 days ago • 0 comments

Malaysian police now say the guy we identified has been caught and fined before, also for illegally dealing in wildlife! m.malaysiakini.com/news/735839 @alangbendahara.bsky.social

submitted 10 days ago • 1 comment

When I finally met Foeke in the flesh at Bellingfest last November I told him that his investigations were the ones I was most jealous of (you know, in a complimentary way). This is what I was talking about.

submitted 10 days ago • 0 comments

Come read my latest, in which together with @chrisosieck.bsky.social and Darcy White, we hunt down a wildlife trafficker dealing in endangered species.

submitted 25 days ago • 4 comments

New victim of Paragon spyware in Italy comes out. It's Mattia Ferrari, a priest who works for the immigrant support NGO Mediterranea Saving Humans, whose two co-founders were also allegedly hacked in the espionage campaign. www.fanpage.it/politica/cas...

submitted 13 days ago • 0 comments

@koltai.bsky.social delves deeper into Clothoff. The app notorious for generating non-consensual deepfake pornography now claims it is funding an organisation to support those affected by AI. The ownership of this organisation, or how it helps victims, is unclear. www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/02...

submitted 16 days ago • 4 comments

New: Clearview AI's CEO Hoan Ton-That has resigned. After he led the company through controversy and lawsuits, the company struggled to secure big federal contracts. Now, Clearview is focused on selling to the Trump border effort and the Pentagon. www.forbes.com/sites/davidj...

submitted 18 days ago • 0 comments

REVEALED: we identified the operator of an overtly racist X account, "GlomarResponder," as ICE Assistant Chief Counsel James Rodden, based on an overwhelming number of biographical details matched through publicly available documents, other social media activity, and courtroom observation.

submitted 18 days ago • 1018 comments

"This serves as a cautionary tale for our firm and all firms, as we enter this new age of artificial intelligence" -- not sure we needed _another_ cautionary tale, we've known about this since 2022 www.404media.co/lawyers-caug...

submitted 19 days ago • 0 comments

Join Bellingcat researcher @foeke.bsky.social in the hunt for a wildlife dealer… Learn how we tracked down the individual selling wild animals, sometimes rare and endangered, to their social media followers. www.youtube.com/watch?v=FkVs...

submitted 20 days ago • 8 comments

This Thursday @alexakoenig.bsky.social joins us talking about covering gender based violence sensitively with open sources. Join live at 11am EST/5pm CET to discuss the issue of obtaining consent and other ethical dilemmas you might be faced with when reporting remotely. discord.gg/Hb5zjnEe?eve...

submitted 20 days ago • 1 comment

Anyone Can Push Updates to the DOGE. gov Website "THESE 'EXPERTS' LEFT THEIR DATABASE OPEN." 🔗 www.404media.co/anyone-can-p...

submitted 23 days ago • 30 comments

Trump hiring freeze creating chaos at Yosemite National Park

submitted 24 days ago • 57 comments

Nice tip re: Cloudflare account ID

submitted 24 days ago • 0 comments

Incredible referencing guide for Google StreetView, and therefore for geolocation in general: license plates, sign posts, types of bollards, roof tiles, etc. Thanks @aric.bsky.social for sharing. plonkit.net/guide

submitted 28 days ago • 8 comments

My full lecture and Q&A about information disorder and what to do about it at Leiden University youtu.be/UfX5RLAcgLg?...

submitted 30 days ago • 17 comments

Our team has launched a tracker account for flights in and out of the US naval base and detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. The tracker is based on open data from ADS-B signals. Check it out here @gtmowatch.bsky.social

submitted 30 days ago • 82 comments

This automated account uses ADS-B data to log all detectable aircraft flying in or out of the US naval base and detention camp at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. Guantánamo Bay is a large navy facility and most flights are likely to be routine cargo and troop transports, not transport of detained people.

submitted 30 days ago • 12 comments

New: Elon Musk, the world's richest man, has been unleashed on federal agencies. ProPublica is attempting to document who is working with him and what they are doing. https://buff.ly/4aO1jLq First byline at new job!

submitted 31 days ago • 21 comments

“All the archived ICE press releases soaring to the top of Google search results were marked with the same timestamp and read: ‘Updated: 01/24/2025’”

submitted 31 days ago • 1 comment

A teen DOGE staffer recently given access to government systems worked at a startup known for hiring convicted hackers. Someone using a Telegram handle associated with him also solicited a cyberattack-for-hire service in 2022. All raising questions about his vetting. www.wired.com/story/edward...

submitted 32 days ago • 1275 comments

I'm hearing a lot from the media NGO sector about the impact of USAID cuts. A lot of small investigative media organisations across the globe are facing imminent closure as the funding they've budget for has vanished overnight, and the funder community has no capacity to absorb the shock.

submitted 31 days ago • 32 comments

Recent SkySat from February 4 and 5 shows there's some recent clearing activity in this same area at the rectangular parcels of land at around 19.9138, -75.2172 — possible preparation for more tents.

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment

NEW: There's now a third person who has come forward saying they were targeted on WhatsApp with spyware made by Paragon. And just like the two others, he has been critical of the current Italian government, led by far-right Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni. techcrunch.com/2025/02/05/n...

submitted 32 days ago • 1 comment

The downing of flight MH17 in 2014 inspired a movement of online researchers to search for answers... Now, you can see how the Bellingcat team helped uncover those answers in a new three-part documentary series on National Geographic.

submitted 32 days ago • 22 comments

Another mercenary spyware firm, #Paragon, caught assisting govts to spy on civil society, including journalists We @citizenlab.ca provided #WhatsApp with info that helped the company understand & shutdown the vector Victims notified by #whatsapp; more to come www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

submitted 36 days ago • 1 comment

Thousands of datasets have disappeared from data.gov. Determining what's gone, why it's gone, and whether it moved elsewhere will to take time. Things are definitely being purged but archivists working hard to determine exactly what has happened to a given dataset www.404media.co/archivists-w...

submitted 38 days ago • 24 comments

so, once again, neo-Nazis from Blood & Honour — ie a group banned in 🇩🇪, 🇫🇷 and 🇪🇸, designated a terrorist organization in 🇨🇦 and sanctioned under 🇬🇧 Treasury counter-terrorism sanctions — are openly organizing a two-day concert in Hungary stress on “once again” www.bellingcat.com/news/2025/01...

submitted 38 days ago • 10 comments

Thrilled this collab piece is out. This is not just a story about the awful content on MrDeepFakes, but also about the apps that the site promotes (DeepSwap) and its ties to shady Chinese companies that may be harvesting users' data.

submitted 40 days ago • 0 comments

A play in two acts

submitted 40 days ago • 1 comment

Excellent free resource: recent satellite imagery of Gaza at about 50cm resolution. geomolg.ps/L5/index.htm... The southern portion was taken in early December (my best guess is ~Dec 5, give or take a few days), the northern part ~a few days earlier. (Thanks @fdov21.bsky.social for the tip)

submitted 41 days ago • 2 comments

someone forgot to scrub the author metadata in OPM memos... www.404media.co/opm-memos-to...

submitted 41 days ago • 25 comments

Typical workday

submitted 43 days ago • 1 comment

When exchanging your @signal.org contact info over an insecure channel (like a text message or DM), it's a good idea to generate a Signal link (URL) from the app, then you should RESET that link after you connect with the other person on Signal. Thanks to @micahflee.com for reporting.

submitted 44 days ago • 52 comments

lol at “I would print the answers here, but that would spoil the test for any A.I. systems being trained on this column.” www.nytimes.com/2025/01/23/t...

submitted 44 days ago • 0 comments

#prochoice was one of the hashtags on Instagram I found had been hidden (while #prolife wasn’t). www.nytimes.com/2025/01/23/t...

submitted 44 days ago • 2 comments

@drunkbinary.bsky.social howdy, looking at @PassiveTotal mentions on Twitter after Microsoft completely pulled the plug entirely last month and saw you were looking for a replacement way back in 2023; did you find anything comparable?

submitted 45 days ago • 0 comments

Trump just called Saudi Prince Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) a “fantastic guy” MBS ordered the brutal murder of US-based journalist, Jamal Khashoggi What Trump didn't mention is that MBS is funding the construction of a new Trump Tower in Serbia This story has been ignored by most media outlets

submitted 45 days ago • 137 comments

Conor Fitzpatrick, known in the cybercriminal world as "pompompurin," had his sentence vacated after an appeals court found the initial sentence was too lenient, and he violated the terms of his plea deal when he logged onto Discord to talk about the deal being "so BS" cyberscoop.com/conor-fitzpa...

submitted 46 days ago • 0 comments