Oh no, you're thinking, yet another cookie pop-up. Well, sorry, it's the law. We measure how many people read us, and ensure you see relevant ads, by storing cookies on your device. If you're cool with that, hit “Accept all Cookies”. For more info and to customize your settings, hit “Customize Settings”.

Review and manage your consent

Here's an overview of our use of cookies, similar technologies and how to manage them. You can also change your choices at any time, by hitting the “Your Consent Options” link on the site's footer.

Manage Cookie Preferences
  • These cookies are strictly necessary so that you can navigate the site as normal and use all features. Without these cookies we cannot provide you with the service that you expect.

  • These cookies are used to make advertising messages more relevant to you. They perform functions like preventing the same ad from continuously reappearing, ensuring that ads are properly displayed for advertisers, and in some cases selecting advertisements that are based on your interests.

  • These cookies collect information in aggregate form to help us understand how our websites are being used. They allow us to count visits and traffic sources so that we can measure and improve the performance of our sites. If people say no to these cookies, we do not know how many people have visited and we cannot monitor performance.

See also our Cookie policy and Privacy policy.

This article is more than 1 year old

UK's National Cyber Security Centre bungles simple Twitter Rickroll

They're from the government, and they're here to help

The National Cyber Security Centre has ineptly tried – and failed – to Rickroll someone taking the piss out of them on Twitter.

A question and answer session organised by the NCSC on Twitter featured, for reasons nobody understands, “sociotechnical security experts” responding to the great unwashed’s inane queries on the controversy-stricken microblabbing website.

“What the fuck is a sociotechnical security expert and where do I get this made up qualification?” asked one user, who goes by the in-joke handle of Bobby ‘Tables.

“Great question!” replied the NCSC. “Here’s a useful link”.

As the picture below shows, this did not go to plan.

The NCSC's Rickroll fail

How not to rickroll someone on Twitter

For anyone who’s been living under a rock (or waiting for a ZX Spectrum Vega+), Rickrolling is when you trick somebody into clicking on a link to Rick Astley’s Never Going To Give You Up. The key part is that it has to be a trick. Revealing the link’s destination before your target clicks it is an epic fail, as da yoof say.

Evidently the NCSC was trying to play a harmless prank. That’s not a problem – but if the monolithic state infosec organisation’s “sociotechnical security experts” don’t understand how straightforward social media sites work, what hope for national web security when they’re let loose on real technology? ®

Tablenote

Little Bobby ‘Tables has a long and entirely dishonourable history amongst those who break databases for business or pleasure. Some joker registered a firm with Companies House back at the end of last year with this name:

; DROP TABLE "COMPANIES";-- Ltd

Similar topics

Similar topics

Similar topics

TIP US OFF

Send us news


Other stories you might like