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    Foreign hackers breached a US nuclear weapons plant via SharePoint flaws

    (www.csoonline.com)
    433 points zdw | 13 comments | 21 Oct 25 15:51 UTC | HN request time: 1.222s | source | bottom
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    crmd ◴[21 Oct 25 19:41 UTC] No.45660666[source]▶
    One of the first things I do after getting an inquiry from a recruiter or friend referral is lookup the MX record for the company’s email domain. It is an anonymous one-command check to see if they’re a Microsoft shop.

    If they are, it’s enormous personal red flag. MSFT is very popular so I’m only speaking about my own experience, but I have learned over the course of 20 years that an MSFT IT stack is highly correlated with me hating the engineering culture of an organization.

    I know I am excluding a lot of companies with great engineering culture where I would thrive and who just happen to use Outlook/Sharepoint/Teams, etc. but it has had such better predictive power of rotten tech culture than any line of questioning I have come up with during interviews that I still use it.

    I don’t mean any disrespect to MSFT-centric engineers out there - it’s not you it’s me.

    replies(11): >>45660852 #>>45660872 #>>45661217 #>>45661616 #>>45662254 #>>45662313 #>>45662719 #>>45663474 #>>45663495 #>>45665083 #>>45675213 #
    1. supportengineer ◴[21 Oct 25 20:57 UTC] No.45661616[source]▶
    If a company provides a Mac laptop, that to me is a green flag, if it provides a Windows laptop, that is a red flag.

    The best company I ever worked at, provided every software engineer both a Mac laptop and a Linux desktop as standard equipment.

    replies(4): >>45663223 #>>45663296 #>>45665628 #>>45668411 #
    2. dataflow ◴[21 Oct 25 23:46 UTC] No.45663223[source]▶
    What if they provide both?
    replies(1): >>45663546 #
    3. FireBeyond ◴[21 Oct 25 23:55 UTC] No.45663296[source]▶
    My employer provides a Mac laptop with the Office suite. Red flag, green flag, or yellow?
    replies(1): >>45664145 #
    4. gubicle ◴[22 Oct 25 00:24 UTC] No.45663546[source]▶
    My calculations tell me that would be a yellow flag.
    replies(1): >>45663606 #
    5. SapporoChris ◴[22 Oct 25 00:34 UTC] No.45663606{3}[source]▶
    My knowledge of colors tells me red and green make brown.
    replies(2): >>45663815 #>>45665485 #
    6. Yokolos ◴[22 Oct 25 01:06 UTC] No.45663815{4}[source]▶
    What does a brown flag tell us?
    replies(1): >>45664498 #
    7. nicoburns ◴[22 Oct 25 02:02 UTC] No.45664145[source]▶
    Word, Excel, and arguably PowerPoint are still the best tools im their respective classes, so if you mean those then very much a green flag.

    If they're also making you use Outlook or especially Teams then they're going to start losing "points".

    8. mrheosuper ◴[22 Oct 25 03:03 UTC] No.45664498{5}[source]▶
    proceed with caution
    9. pezezin ◴[22 Oct 25 06:23 UTC] No.45665485{4}[source]▶
    #ffff00 is a pretty bright yellow color.
    10. bflesch ◴[22 Oct 25 06:43 UTC] No.45665628[source]▶
    Both are a red flag
    replies(1): >>45667490 #
    11. qwertytyyuu ◴[22 Oct 25 11:28 UTC] No.45667490[source]▶
    being provided a laptop is a red flag...? unless you get hp or cheap dell, then yeah red flag
    replies(1): >>45680753 #
    12. esalman ◴[22 Oct 25 13:00 UTC] No.45668411[source]▶
    My workplace let's me choose Mac or Dell laptops.
    13. bflesch ◴[23 Oct 25 11:47 UTC] No.45680753{3}[source]▶
    No for me both Microsoft and Mac devices are a red flag.