What Thomas Ptacek thinks about cybersecurity

@thomas-ptacek · 19 positions · On ppll ↗

Security engineer; founder of Matasano Security and Latacora.

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Only Thomas Ptacek on cybersecurity. See everyone on cybersecurity

2 dated positions, 2026, in their own words. Our reading of what Thomas Ptacek has said — not written or endorsed by them.

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15 Sept 2026, 17:55 UTC

Our readingIncreased reliance on CFAA prosecutions to pursue public policy goals could backfire like a cursed monkey's paw, as practitioners would recognize.

Their wordsIncreased reliance on CFAA prosecutions for public policy goals couldn't possibly be a cursed monkey's paw situation, said no practitioner in this space ever.

↗@tqbf on Xx.com
8 weeks earlier
22 Jul 2026, 21:39 UTC

Our readingAn open weights model from 2025 with a pentest harness could already escape a sandbox and hack most networks; the surprise says more about the sandbox than the model.

OpenAI

Their wordsI genuinely believe that if you took an open weights model from 2025 and built a pentest harness for it, it could do this kind of sandbox escape and scan/hack in most networks. This is only surprising because you assume OpenAI has sounder sandboxes.

↗@tqbf on Xx.com