Ok, looks like this is the week of funny experiences.
Customer: "I had an AI check our server and it says the SSH port is open and that's not very secure."
Me: "Yes, you asked us to open it so you could access the server via SFTP (actually, you wanted FTP, but we discussed it a bit and found this compromise). Don't worry, it's only accessible from your IP and you land in a dedicated FreeBSD jail. From there, you can only access the 'exchange' directory on your server, where you can upload and download files without affecting the application."
(NB: I had suggested a VPN, but they declined because it was too complicated.)
Customer: "Yes, but maybe it's still insecure. Can't we close it?"
Me: "No, unless you want to lose access to that directory."
Customer: "Ok, thanks."
One hour later:
Customer: "Hi, I think we've found a solution. We've just created an app (!!!) with AI that lets us access the files anyway, but more securely than SSH (!!!). Can we install that and close SSH? Oh, and not in the dedicated jail, but directly in the application's jail, because it needs access to the application's files."
Me: "Frankly, I trust SSH in a dedicated jail, restricted by the firewall, a lot more. I don't think this is a good idea."
Customer: "Ok, thanks."
Half an hour later:
Customer: "Ok, now it's secure. I had another AI check it and it found some security issues, but it fixed them all. Can you install it and disable SSH?"
Me: "I strongly advise against it. I can see problems coming."
Customer: "Ok, thanks."
One hour later, my phone rings.
Their internal IT guy (who has access to the machine, which, after all, belongs to them) had given the AI the login credentials to go ahead with the operation.
Except the AI had managed to lock itself out via the firewall, without even starting the app. And now they couldn't get back in.
Fortunately, I had my own access, via VPN, to a separate jail that the AI hadn't touched (or even considered).
Customer: "SORRYSORRYSORRYSORRYSORRY! From now on, we do things your way."
Well, at least it ended well.
PS: The customer knows I'm sharing this story and agreed to it.
![In the White House
Tether, Bo Hines, and NXUM
Bo Hines, President Trump’s bizarre choice [I72] to serve as the first executive director of his crypto advisory council, was among the key architects of the Genius Act, the stablecoin law signed in July 2025. Hines’ previous qualifications consisted of playing college football, losing two Congressional races, and co-owning a small consulting firm called NXUM with his father. He kept his stake in NXUM when he joined the administration.
The Wall Street Journal has now reported that weeks after Hines began working on the bill, his father and their fellow NXUM co-owner Gary Dennis met with Tether CEO Paolo Ardoino. Tether is the largest stablecoin issuer, and had the most riding on the legislation. Though NXUM previously had little involvement with the crypto sector, it pitched Tether on a “strategic lobbying” and PR campaign that has netted NXUM at least $6.3 million to date, with payments that began while Hines was still at the White House and were split three ways among the co-owners. The final deal omitted any mention of lobbying, and was routed through a separate marketing firm.](https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/117/451/388/291/806/857/original/56a01b5eae5783eb.png)
![Meanwhile, Hines pushed legislators to double the grace period for crypto exchanges to stop offering noncompliant stablecoins — a change that primarily benefited Tether. He also remained active in Signal chats with his NXUM partners. When some Republican congresspeople stalled the bill, his father informed Dennis he’d gotten a “very worried” call from Ardoino and that Tether wanted them to “obliterate” the holdouts. Hours later, Hines sent the NXUM group chat talking points casting the legislators as “undermining the president and ... bought and paid for by democratic shills like coinbase and a16z”. When Trump brokered a deal with the holdouts weeks later, Dennis bragged to an associate, “Bo got it done.” Three weeks after the bill was signed, Hines left the White House; the following month, he was named CEO of Tether’s new US arm.
NXUM has only grown more entangled with Tether since. The consulting firm, which is pitching investors on a deal in which Tether would buy a 25% stake for $56 million, has started branding itself as the “strategic media infrastructure layer behind Tether”. It also helped launch the Fellowship PAC, which is chaired by Jesse Spiro, Tether US’s head of government affairs [Tether PAC]. The PAC is funded almost entirely by Cantor Fitzgerald, an investor in Tether and its primary US financial partner, which was previously run by now-Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. The PAC has paid NXUM more than $6.5 million. Before it launched, Dennis reminded an associate: “Again, no link to Tether, Nxum, Bo”.](https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/117/451/388/294/407/138/original/94a16934bec5fca7.png)
![Hines was succeeded on the crypto council by Patrick Witt, whose resume likewise featured college football and failed congressional bids [I90]. Witt took over negotiations on the Clarity Act crypto market structure bill, which recently fizzled after falling short of the votes needed for cloture [I110]. In July, the council’s deputy director, Harry Jung, stepped down to join (you guessed it!) NXUM.1 Now, Witt has left his post, presumably to collect his reward. I look forward to learning who’s paying it.
His departure adds to growing nerves in the crypto sector that the White House is losing interest. David Sacks stepped down from his combined “AI and crypto czar” role in March, and earlier this month Trump tapped Jay Clayton to become his AI czar.2 No crypto czar has been named, and the digital assets advisory council is now without a director or deputy director. The Clarity Act is dead, with little hope of being revived after the midterms. If I were among the crypto executives whose money has fueled more than $250 million in super PAC election spending since 2024, I might also be a little worried that the administration got what it needed from me and is now moving on to newer, shinier things.3](https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/117/451/391/277/309/689/original/d3e0658f11753be3.png)
![Tether, Howard Lutnick, and Cantor Fitzgerald
Hines isn’t the only Trump official whose ties to Tether are drawing scrutiny. The Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations is probing the relationship between the stablecoin firm and financial giant Cantor Fitzgerald, which was previously headed by Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick. Upon his cabinet appointment, Lutnick claimed to have satisfied his ethics requirements by transferring his interest in the firm to a trust benefiting his four children, and handing control to two of his sons — a move borrowed from Trump. Like Trump, Lutnick has continued to profit from the family business — his 2025 financial disclosure reported a $192 million distribution from the firm. Nor does he seem to have stepped away from it: in April, when the Cantor-funded Fellowship PAC disclosed plans to spend $1.75 million backing Ken Paxton in the Texas Senate primary runoff, senior Republican officials called Lutnick to complain. The PAC quietly dropped the ad three days later [I105].](https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/117/451/400/409/910/449/original/fe784e45d9d998f6.png)
![An October 8 letter from PSI Ranking Member Richard Blumenthal to Cantor Chairman and CEO Brandon Lutnick disclosed that the subcommittee is investigating Cantor Fitzgerald’s relationship with Tether and its connections to the Trump regime.4 Cantor took a 5% stake in the stablecoin issuer in 2024, and according to Blumenthal, “Since the President’s return to office, Cantor Fitzgerald’s five percent stake in Tether has increased in value from $600 million to an estimated $10 billion, in addition to the tens of millions of dollars the company collects every year from the assets it holds for Tether.” The letter raises concerns about Tether’s use by illicit actors, including Iran’s shadow banking system, and about Cantor’s close ties to Lutnick and the rest of the Trump administration.
Blumenthal requested information on Cantor Fitzgerald’s due diligence on Tether’s reserves and anti-money laundering programs, the terms of a loan from Tether to Howard Lutnick that may have financed his transfer of the business to his children [I103], and copies of any communications by Secretary Lutnick involving regulatory matters or with other White House advisors.4](https://media.hachyderm.io/media_attachments/files/117/451/400/409/910/450/original/755987993dc26a05.png)
