You may have heard that Peter Neumann passed away yesterday at the age of 93.

[ireneista@adhd.irenes.space]

@cstross @mattblaze yeah we were kids but we read it a bit too, and it definitely gave us important perspective

[eigen@mattstodon.panar.ooo]

@mattblaze I'm unfamiliar with him/his work; could you maybe provide a tiny summary or pointer to his confrontations with unreliability? That sounds like an interesting topic

[karunr@infosec.exchange]

@mattblaze sorry to hear that. The Risks newsletter inspired me to get into cybersecurity

[davebiff@mas.to]

@mattblaze His RISKS digest was always interesting (and often alarming). RIP

[benbradley@mastodon.online]

@eigen @mattblaze It's surely "somewhere in here." I think reading some will give you an idea. I recall an election result off by 4096 (or some power of 2) votes. I read comp.risks off and on for years, then decided to stop as I was having vague nightmares.
https://catless.ncl.ac.uk/Risks/

[mkoek@mastodon.nl]

@eigen @mattblaze found this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_G._Neumann

[megatronicthronbanks@mastodon.social]

@mattblaze https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/17/obituaries/peter-g-neumann-dead.html

[stuartyeates@cloudisland.nz]

@futuresprog @mattblaze

Had a few things published in RISKS in a former life.

[jayalane@mastodon.online]

@mattblaze I felt so strongly when a feature I implemented was featured in the risks digest! (We emailed forgotten password in plaintext back to the user; it was the 90s!) I loved reading that and his authoritative assessment of it all.

[edbruce@infosec.exchange]

@cstross @mattblaze I was working mainly DoD stuff then and loved all talk of digitizing the up to then mostly analog systems. Many of the issues was all the analog safety feedback mechanisms not being implemented at all in the digital controllers.

[bzdev@fosstodon.org]

@mattblaze Peter will be missed. BTW, for some years, I worked in the same building as Peter, but in a different group. He was always pleasant and, of course, highly competent.

[not2b@sfba.social]

@mattblaze I subscribed to his RISKS forum back in the early 80s (yes, I am old).

[oclsc@mstdn.ca]

@mattblaze I hadn't heard. His long life and contributions should be celebrated!

[beachbum@mastodon.sdf.org]

@mattblaze I am so sorry for your loss. May he rest in peace and his memory be a blessing.

[cigitalgem@sigmoid.social]

@mattblaze I consider PGN one of my mentors. Such an interesting fella. He will be missed...terrible puns and all.

[mattblaze@federate.social]

Peter’s NYT obituary: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/05/17/obituaries/peter-g-neumann-dead.html?unlocked_article_code=1.jVA.pDm5.QUlwAMJBQtDV

[darwinwoodka@mastodon.social]

@mattblaze a giant gone. Damn

[bzdev@fosstodon.org]

@davebiff @mattblaze Peter once told us about an incident where an X-ray machine killed a patient. Its snazzy GUI got a lot of testing for sequences of inputs, but when used by a technician, the inputs came in much faster. There was a race condition resulting in an inappropriate configuration. Peter mentioned the lack of sanity checks - the patient complained about feeling warm and the technician ignored that, passing it off as babbling.

[koehntopp@infosec.exchange]

@cigitalgem @mattblaze
RISKS Digest was most likely my initial exposure to IT security, back in the late 80s.
What a legend.