Ask HN: What is the most harmful project you've worked on? Following the recent "What is the most useless project you have worked on?" thread - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=39942397 - let's talk about projects that actually caused real damage, either accidentally or on purpose, that you've been a part of. Throwaways, welcome! |
Think of it as database dump pages similar to how sqlmap works when it pipes/passes through the data with dozens of SQL injection requests on an input field.
Took us a while to realize our tech stack was being used by Palantir Gotham and other high level projects in the end.
Quit my job right after realizing I was working for the personification of the devil by any meaning of implication of the word.
Lavender, the codename of the IDF "AI" that is being used to mass target rocket strikes on guilty-until-proven-otherwise-by-association-only civilians in gaza is literally the system I worked on, and I desperately regret ever working for them through a defense contractor.
If anybody from Palantir reads this: It's possible to get out, if you need help, shelter, migration, or anything, contact me.
Second worst would probably be one of the clients that was in the medical industry. Not because they were a scam or sold bad products or anything like that. More because the company itself was apparently toxic to work for, our contact ended up getting royally screwed over by them, and customer reviews were often not particularly positive.
I only used it for legitimate customers due to a hostname rename (in retrospect, we should have just kept the old hostname...), but it worked on like 95% of our customer domains and probably would have worked for lots more. You could setup authentication for internic, but it was optional, and clumsy, so most people didn't.