TikTok: Still a Fucking Headache

Oh, joy. Another “solution” to the TikTok problem that isn’t one. Apparently, Oracle and Walmart are trying to convince everyone this deal – where they *sort of* own TikTok but not really – is going to magically fix all the enterprise security risks. Newsflash: it won’t. The article basically says that even with US ownership (and let’s be real, how much control does anyone *really* have?), data privacy concerns remain a massive clusterfuck.

The biggest issue? China still has influence. Supply chain risks are STILL there. And the whole thing is built on a foundation of questionable security practices and potential backdoors. They’re talking about “security reviews” like that’s going to suddenly make everything okay. Please. It’s just shifting responsibility, not eliminating it. Companies using TikTok for marketing or internal comms are still playing with fire – data leakage, espionage, the whole nine yards. Don’t even get me started on the potential for influence operations.

Basically, if you thought this deal meant you could stop worrying about TikTok being a security nightmare, you’re an idiot. It’s just a slightly more complicated security nightmare now. And it’ll probably still be a pain in my ass to analyze logs from compromised systems because of this shit.

Source: TikTok Deal Won’t End Enterprise Risks

Speaking of backdoors, I once had to clean up a system where some “genius” decided to use Telnet for *everything*. No encryption, no authentication beyond a password that was shorter than my error messages. Of course it got compromised. And guess what? The attacker left a little note: “Thanks for making this so easy.” TikTok is just Telnet on a global scale, except instead of one system, it’s potentially millions. Don’t be the Telnet guy.

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