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Rob Hansen

@rob@social.afront.org
  • Open on social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct.

This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

197 Followers
55 Following
24 Posts
Joined October 24, 2021
Pronouns:
He/him
Bluesky:
@rjhansen.bsky.social
GitHub:
https://github.com/rjhansen
GitLab:
https://gitlab.com/rjhansen
OpenPGP Certificate:
https://keys.openpgp.org/vks/v1/by-fingerprint/7D8EC4B85B6FEDD6C10D3C791E7A94D4E87F91D5
Minisign Public Key:
RWSYKr6RxMOoRSx4CvgGSp/BEypdWcmyb4juh0kWzJ3AHzjBDBAU8mkA
Age Public Key:
age1w25pn88g8fuke9gjl67zzrs3xsx4rvfj3davwdu8yp9hrjdyz58slvpnvn
Email:
rob@hansen.engineering
OPSEC:
clear

Posts

Open post
rob
Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 31, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org

You know, a quarter-century ago I described myself as "mostly libertarian" in my political outlook. Today …

Wow. Today.

The problem with the upcoming July 4 250th Anniversary Shitshow isn't that it features conservative artists: it's that it doesn't feature any _good_ conservative artists.

"Ah, but Rob," I keep hearing, "there is no such thing as good conservative art!"

Really? Why was 1984's box-office blockbuster a comedy about a bunch of refugees from academia going into business for themselves, the trouble of acquiring capital, the headaches of real estate and capital outlays, staffing, meeting payroll, and how the very *moment* they started to get ahead an unelected busybody bureaucrat who doesn't understand their business shuts them down, kicking off a disaster only the protagonists can fix?

That's _Ghostbusters,_ folks. Peel back the superficial trappings and you've got a pro-capitalist, pro-entrepreneurship, anti-regulation workplace comedy.

There is _great_ conservative art being made.

It's just the MAGA crew hates it even more than Hollywood. And with good reason: can you even imagine what Egon Spengler would do with Trump?

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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 29, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org

I saw someone say, quite earnestly, that "if privacy is a national security issue, [NGOs in the privacy space are] de-facto defense contractors."

Well, no. And, TBH, that's the kind of thinking you get into if you've never worked in the national security space.

I once asked a senior CIA official why they were so gung-ho about partnerships with public schools. I was given an immediate answer. "The education of the nation's youth is a core national security interest, meaning educators are tier-1 national security partners, and we support them as such."

Kindergarten teachers aren't in the defense community. They ARE in the national security community, albeit in a highly specialized way.

The national security community is orders of magnitude larger than the defense community. They shouldn't be equated or conflated.

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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 18, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org

RE: @Computer@dice.camp

Today in JNE sector, Javie-R-JNE-1 was replaced mid-mission after his fourth clone ratted out Javie-R-JNE-1, -2, and -3.

"Now _I_ can be a Troubleshooter, carry a laser, and get half off the punishment for my next crime!" he said excitedly upon assuming office.

Javie-R-JNE-5 then alerted Friend Computer to the fact Javie-R-JNE-4 was openly boasting about planning future crimes. Javie-R-JNE-4 was taken away on conspiracy charges, while Javie-R-JNE-5 was executed on the spot for being a ratchet skank who narced on his own clone.

Javie-R-JNE-6 arrived at the Troubleshooter Mission Briefing and, by the briefing's end, was the sole survivor.

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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 18, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org

RE: @Computer@dice.camp

To: JNE Sector
From: CPU
Re: Policy clarification

No, you can't come in with three of your buddies, all of you turn in each other for the same crime, and get half off the punishment. That would be creative, which is to say, Communist treason.

IntSec is extremely creative in how it punishes creativity.

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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 18, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org

RE: @mattblaze@federate.social

Computer security as a field of academic study is really, really new. When I entered a Ph.D program in computer science in 2003, I had to phrase my research interests as "failure analysis and software reliability".

At age 51, I'm beginning to have some of the younger engineers look at me like I'm part of the Old Breed. Me, I'm looking around at the real Old Breed — people like Peter Neumann — and all I can think is the old lions are leaving the savanna, and I have absolutely no idea how I or anyone in my generation can live up to the examples they set for us.

But with God as my witness, I will try.

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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 18, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org

@rickf@indieweb.social — it's not his idea, as can be told by the fact it's not ludicrous.

The existing White House Marine One helicopter fleet (not Marine One as a whole, just the Marine One helos approved for White House landings) is composed of models that first flew in the 1950s (!!)[*]. They're getting long in the tooth and spare parts are becoming hard to come by.

The non-WH-qualified Marine One aircraft include VH-92s and MV-22s.[**]

Marine One *really really really* wants to ditch the VX-3D and VH-60N, in order to simplify their logistics and run everything on the VH-92/MV-22 pair... but they can't.

Those craft are significantly more powerful, which means their engine exhaust will set fire to the White House lawn. So, no WH landings or takeoffs for them.

I first moved to DC in 2008 and even back then people were talking about a WH helipad. Prior presidents always considered it a troublesome project: they have to take on the historical commissions and weather bad PR, just so the Marines cam simplify their logistics and use more reliable aircraft? Nonsense: let the next administration take that one on.

Well, now we've got a president who could not be paid to give a fuck about historical commissions, and he *loves* flying around in VIP helicopters.

So, yeah. A helipad is likely. And you know it's not his idea because it's actually a good one.

[*] The VX-3D is a later model of the original VX-3A, first flight in 1959; the VH-60N is a UH-60 in the VIP role, first flight in 1979.

[**] First flights in 2017 and 1989 respectively.

indieweb.social

rickf - a cynical professor (@rickf@indieweb.social) - Indieweb.Social

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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 17, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org

RE: @dwallach@discuss.systems

A lion has left the savanna.

He was kind to me, and wise, and held onto a child's appreciation for puns and wordplay.

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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 17, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org
Replying to @effinbirds@mastodon.social
@effinbirds@mastodon.social — apologies. In my defense I didn't know there was a Mastodon version: I grabbed it from your online store because that was the only place I'd seen it. The post has since been fixed and the offending image removed. Thank you!
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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 17, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org
Replying to @effinbirds@mastodon.social
@effinbirds@mastodon.social — I've fixed my post and removed the non-signed copy of that art. Thank you!
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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 17, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org
Replying to @rob@social.afront.org
The permission from @effinbirds@mastodon.social —
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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 17, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org

Good news, everyone! The creator of @effinbirds@mastodon.social is graciously allowing the "AI Art Can Fuck Off" image to be used on your own websites and blogs and such, provided that:

* the usage is non-monetized: no fair making bank off someone else's creative work
* you don't ascribe to the Effin' Birds creator any opinion other than "AI art can fuck off".

I originally took a copy of the Effin' Birds image from their online shop, but have taken it down at the request of Effin' Birds. Turns out their shop version doesn't have the Effin' Birds signature, and for obvious reasons it's important to them the image is only reproduced with their signature attached. You can find it immediately below in the message chain: the original image from their online shop has been removed, so as to not be an attractive nuisance to others that might mislead them.

Remember folks, art is great. Use it ethically, with the consent of the creator.

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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 17, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org

RE: @davidnjoku@mastodon.world

Great question! One answer is that race is a social construct because it doesn't exist as a scientifically definable one. We can talk about entropy in a scientific way because there is highly precise language used to talk about it and we can easily sort out what is or isn't entropy. Race isn't so clear cut: it's inherently fuzzy.

But this doesn't mean we can't correlate specific definable demographic groups with specific genetically heritable traits. Many insular religious communities have identifiable clusters of genes, for instance — or consider European royalty and hemophilia — or the ones you mention.

Science requires a precision that's missing from the concept of race. This means race might be said to exist as a scientific concept in the fields of sociology or psychology, but the more rigorously-defined the discipline becomes the less useful fuzzy concepts become to discussions in those fields.

And, of course, this also limits the utility of those fields, too. A differential equation has no concept of race, but that also means it can't help someone arrested for driving while black, either.

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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 14, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org

I like to keep my professional ( @rjh@mastodon.online ) account different from my personal one (this), so forgive me for being terse here: but for those wondering, today's interview went well and I have two follow-ups with engineering directors next week.

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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 13, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org

RE: @petrabrandstrom@mastodon.art

I don't know if Petra means "share your impressions" or "share my post", so I'll do both.

My headcanon: against the gathering storm and all its forces, the youngest prince stands defiant astride his best horse, holding his most trusted sword. He is protected by his own hope, and while he lives there will still be sunlight for the land.

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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 11, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org

Burn it down, burn all of AI down.

I was just reading a poem by Gerard Manley Hopkins. "Carrion Comfort" is one of his Terrible series, capital-T, in which Manley Hopkins himself believed he had best touched something deep and true in the human heart. I was affected by it, and intrigued. I wanted to learn more, so I did what any rational person would do: I looked online for literary criticisms of it.

THEY ARE ALL WRITTEN BY AI.

These sites are so desperate for clicks they're now asking AI to compose lit criticism to expand their repertoire and reach.

I just looked for thirty minutes and couldn't find one single reputable site offering me informed criticism of Manley Hopkins with a "none of our content was written by AI" pledge.

Burn the entire thing down. I'm fucking done with AI. Pass me my wooden clog, brother, there are machine gears here, and I must engage in sabotage.

Your browser does not support the video tag.
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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 09, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org
Replying to @AdrianRiskin@kolektiva.social
@AdrianRiskin@kolektiva.social @atoponce@fosstodon.org — I still to this day recommend Silvanus Thompson's _Calculus Made Easy_ for people who need to learn how to use calculus; then, once they see its utility, I push them to Keisler for rigorous coverage. I've had very good luck with this approach and recommend it to others. https://calculusmadeeasy.org/
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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 08, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org
Replying to @atoponce@fosstodon.org
@atoponce@fosstodon.org — no, man, thank *you*. Nerds sharing cool academic papers and feeling joy at the community of it all is what the internet was designed for, not politics and shouting at each other. It's nice to have a moment of the old school. Brightens my day. Reminds me what the internet can be.
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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 08, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org
Replying to @atoponce@fosstodon.org
@atoponce@fosstodon.org — H. Jerome Keisler, _Elementary Calculus: An Infinitesimal Approach_. He makes the full 28mb PDF of the textbook available for free. https://people.math.wisc.edu/~hkeisler/keislercalc-03-01-24.pdf
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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 08, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org
Replying to @atoponce@fosstodon.org
@atoponce@fosstodon.org — oh _hell_ yes. The surreal numbers provide a rigorous foundation for differential and integral calculus, and one that makes a lot more sense. In my Cauchy-based undergrad calc courses Dr. Wogahn would all but break a ruler over our wrists if we ever thought of dy'dx as a fraction, but they _are_ a fraction — a ratio of two surreal numbers! If you dig around you can find a great surreal freshman calculus book written by one of the founders of surreal numbers, and he's made it available for free. I highly recommend it. Thanks to it, I actually understand calculus now, as opposed to just being able to do it.
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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 06, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org
Replying to @arclight@oldbytes.space
@arclight@oldbytes.space — in grad school my buddy Ezra Sidran and I would argue over what fraction of programmers were actively dangerous. He said four in five, I said nine in ten. Over time Ez came to agree with me, which is why the resulting law ("ninety percent of programmers are actively dangerous") is the Hansen-Sidran Law.
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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 04, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org
Replying to @joebeone@techpolicy.social
@joebeone@techpolicy.social — of all the labs I've worked and crews I've been part of, NSF ACCURATE remains one of my top favorites. The taxpayer got a phenomenal return on the funds they provided us.
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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · May 02, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org
Replying to @joebeone@techpolicy.social
@joebeone@techpolicy.social — I had no clue he was ill. I was on the opposite side of things from him many a time. At no time did I ever feel confident of winning: he always did the homework, always brought the receipts.
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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · Apr 28, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org

I have long had a weird role in @GnuPG@mstdn.social . I don't influence the specifications (RFC9580 or LibrePGP), I don't touch the codebase, I have absolutely no official role. Some people listen to me anyway because of my twenty years of active involvement in the GnuPG community.

Today, a member of the GnuPG community wrote one of the bravest criticisms I've ever seen of GnuPG's leadership. It was professional but it was so unflinching I thought it certainly had to be a private communique mistakenly sent to the mailing list.

It was not.

First, my hat is off to @andrewg@mastodon.ie for writing that criticism. It is important and it should be read by GnuPG supporters.

You can read it ourself in the archives:

https://lists.gnupg.org/pipermail/gnupg-users/2026-April/068280.html

I will have more to say later. I have to be very careful what I say, because I do not want to give the impression I'm seeking to influence a specification or an implementation.

For now, I will say I am on Andrew's side in this and I commend him for what he's done.

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Rob Hansen @rob@social.afront.org · Apr 26, 2026
Rob Hansen
@rob@social.afront.org

For many years I was one of the faceless nerds who helped keep democracy afloat. I studied computer security and electronic voting in graduate school, worked with various groups such as the Carter Center for Democracy, regularly volunteered as an elections official, spoke at DEF CON and Black Hat on issues surrounding voting security, and more. After twenty years I started dialing back my involvement in 2022, and now I have a ringside seat living in the suburbs of DC to watch the world's pre-eminent democracy self-destruct. This is not the future I thought I was building for us.

social.afront.org
Replying to @andrewg@mastodon.ie
@andrewg@mastodon.ie — I have long believed social media is simply not good for me (or, I believe, a significant majority of the users). But it's also close to the only game in town when it comes to talking to people socially and outside of professional contexts. I miss the '90s, when I had long email conversations with friends. For whatever it's worth, we don't know each other particularly well, but I'm grateful for this social connection.
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