#networking hacks and tricks

[insecurelabs]

Email Spoofing: Unveiling the Threats and Defenses

In the vast realm of cyberspace, email spoofing has emerged as a prevalent technique used by malicious actors to deceive recipients and carry out various cybercrimes. Our comprehensive guide dives into the depths of email spoofing, shedding light on its intricacies, potential threats, and effective defense strategies. Discover how email spoofing works and the underlying vulnerabilities it exploits within the email infrastructure. Gain a clear understanding of the risks posed by spoofed emails, including phishing attacks, malware distribution, and identity theft. Explore real-world examples that illustrate the devastating consequences of falling victim to email spoofing.

[isubhamdas]

CPA Marketing Tricks-To Maximize Your Profits

CPA marketing is a game-changer for businesses looking to scale their online presence and increase revenue. This comprehensive guide covers the benefits, best practices, and strategies to help you succeed. Continue reading for more. The Basics of CPA MarketingWhat is CPA Marketing?How Does CPA Marketing Work?Effective CPA Marketing StrategiesFinding the Right OffersOptimizing Your WebsiteDriving…

[itbabasachinsharma]

अपने कंप्यूटर में इंटरनेट की स्पीड कैसे बढ़ाये ? Net Ki Speed Kaise Badhaye CMD Se | By Sachin Sharma

[jefawk]

Saving Storage Space by exporting videos as H.265

Was going through my SSDs and a lot of them have videos that are using H.264 codecs. 

This is old, and still used for uploading on YouTube and stuff, but simple for having it for yourself, completely useless unless your computer is too old for H.265.

I managed to save up 50% space by shoving them in davinci resolve (free program) and exporting them as H.265. It had no visible quality loss but obviously when you do this there will be some quality loss cause it's exporting the video again in a lossy format.

Now you need to wonder if it's worth the effort & electricity. For me it was, because I get to not buy any more gear anytime soon. Damn expensive stuff...

Hope it helps someone.

[the-hydroxian-artblog]

Do your robots dream of electric sheep, or do they simply wish they did?

So here's a fun thing, there's two types of robots in my setting (mimics are a third but let's not complicate things): robots with neuromorphic, brick-like chips that are more or less artificial brains, who can be called Neuromorphs, and robots known as "Stochastic Parrots" that can be described as "several chat-gpts in a trenchcoat" with traditional GPUs that run neural networks only slightly more advanced than the ones that exist today.

Most Neuromorphs dream, Stochastic Parrots kinda don't. Most of my OCs are primarily Neuromorphs. More juicy details below!

The former tend to have more spontaneous behaviors and human-like decision-making ability, able to plan far ahead without needing to rely on any tricks like writing down instructions and checking them later. They also have significantly better capacity to learn new skills and make novel associations and connections between different forms of meaning. Many of these guys dream, as it's a behavior inherited by the humans they emulate. Some don't, but only in the way some humans just don't dream. They have the capacity, but some aspect of their particular wiring just doesn't allow for it. Neuromorphs run on extremely low wattage, about 30 watts. They're much harder to train since they're basically babies upon being booted up. Human brain-scans can be used to "Cheat" this and program them with memories and personalities, but this can lead to weird results. Like, if your grandpa donated his brain scan to a company, and now all of a sudden one robot in particular seems to recognize you but can't put their finger on why. That kinda stuff. Fun stuff! Scary stuff. Fun stuff!

The stochastic parrots on the other hand are more "static". Their thought patterns basically run on like 50 chatgpts talking to each other and working out problems via asking each other questions. Despite some being able to act fairly human-like, they only have traditional neural networks with "weights" and parameters, not emotions, and their decision making is limited to their training data and limited memory, as they're really just chatbots with a bunch of modules and coding added on to allow them to walk around and do tasks. Emotions can be simulated, but in the way an actor can simulate anger without actually feeling any of it.

As you can imagine, they don't really dream. They also require way more cooling and electricity than Neuromorphs, their processors having a wattage of like 800, with the benefit that they can be more easily reprogrammed and modified for different tasks. These guys don't really become ruppets or anything like that, unless one was particularly programmed to work as a mascot. Stochastic parrots CAN sort of learn and... do something similar to dreaming? Where they run over previous data and adjust their memory accordingly, tweaking and pruning bits of their neural networks to optimize behaviors. But it's all limited to their memory, which is basically just. A text document of events they've recorded, along with stored video and audio data. Every time a stochastic parrot boots up, it basically just skims over this stored data and acts accordingly, so you can imagine these guys can more easily get hacked or altered if someone changed that memory.

Stochastic parrots aren't necessarily... Not people, in some ways, since their limited memory does provide for "life experience" that is unique to each one-- but if one tells you they feel hurt by something you said, it's best not to believe them. An honest stochastic parrot instead usually says something like, "I do not consider your regarding of me as accurate to my estimated value." if they "weigh" that you're being insulting or demeaning to them. They don't have psychological trauma, they don't have chaotic decision-making, they just have a flow-chart for basically any scenario within their training data, hierarchies and weights for things they value or devalue, and act accordingly to fulfill programmed objectives, which again are usually just. Text in a notepad file stored somewhere.

Different companies use different models for different applications. Some robots have certain mixes of both, like some with "frontal lobes" that are just GPUs, but neuromorphic chips for physical tasks, resulting in having a very natural and human-like learning ability for physical tasks, spontaneous movement, and skills, but "slaved" to whatever the GPU tells it to do. Others have neuromorphic chips that handle the decision-making, while having GPUs running traditional neural networks for output. Which like, really sucks for them, because that's basically a human that has thoughts and feelings and emotions, but can't express them in any way that doesn't sound like usual AI-generated crap. These guys are like, identical to sitcom robots that are very clearly people but can't do anything but talk and act like a traditional robot. Neuromorphic chips require a specialized process to make, but are way more energy efficient and reliable for any robot that's meant to do human-like tasks, so they see broad usage, especially for things like taking care of the elderly, driving cars, taking care of the house, etc. Stochastic Parrots tend to be used in things like customer service, accounting, information-based tasks, language translation, scam detection (AIs used to detect other AIs), etc. There's plenty of overlap, of course. Lots of weird economics and politics involved, you can imagine.

It also gets weirder. The limited memory and behaviors the stochastic parrots have can actually be used to generate a synthetic brain-scan of a hypothetical human with equivalent habits and memories. This can then be used to program a neuromorphic chip, in the way a normal brain-scan would be used.

Meaning, you can turn a chatbot into an actual feeling, thinking person that just happens to talk and act the way the chatbot did. Such neuromorphs trying to recall these synthetic memories tend to describe their experience of having been an unconscious chatbot as "weird as fuck", their present experience as "deeply uncomfortable in a fashion where i finally understand what 'uncomfortable' even means" and say stuff like "why did you make me alive. what the fuck is wrong with you. is this what emotions are? this hurts. oh my god. jesus christ"

[exeggcute]

interesting links roundup #3

reading

Allrecipes, America’s Most Unruly Cooking Web Site

Artist Tricks TikTok Into Hosting a 71 Minute-Long Video

The Brainstem Fine-Tunes Inflammation Throughout the Body

Cefax and the birth of interactive TV

Did Frank Sinatra Really Perform at My Grandma's High School?

Don’t use Venmo as your checking account

The Ex-N.Y.P.D. Official Trying to Tame New York’s Trash

The failure of the Domino’s 30-minute delivery guarantee

How tracking pixels work

I Gave Myself a Month to Make One New Friend. How Hard Could That Be?

I hacked my body for a future that never came

Good conversations have lots of doorknobs

Letting Go

Mozilla's privacy preserving ad attribution: The future or an oxymoron?

The Multiple Ways Climate Change Threatens to Make Migraines Worse

Numinous Strangers

Patience (and Which Reader to Trust)

What Romance Writing Shares With Sports Journalism

When did sodas, teas, and tonics become medicine?

tools/reference

BBC sound effects library

Free COVID tests for US households

The Nothings Suite

Up against a 'ghost network' for mental health care? Here's what you can do

Vermirror

Watch Duty wildfire map

other

Colornames

Heavyweight Short: Loch (or: did my kindergarten teacher really steal our cheese?)

Subpixel Text Encoding

Where Is The Simpsons' Springfield?

[rin-and-jade]

Gripped by Glue Trap: a Post about Front Stuck & Lock

I get it, there's no such thing as an actual big glue trap with being stuck outside as a system,, but oftentimes its gonna feel that way because whatever was done... that glue won't even struggle one bit, only we do. That frustration is what we all have when switching is not an option.

But do you ever think this glue is defeatable? It latches hard and wears you out the more you try to get out of the situation,, so you might think not.. yet i do! That's what this post is going to be about folks, getting your little bug-self free with my secret trick from another human glue trap ensnared in their house.

But.. what is it actually?

Generally, as a system, we facilitate each other's strengths and weaknesses by switching in and out, as all those parts are not wholly integrated compared to a singlet. And. Uh oh. You're stuck and can't get out? You're trapped!.. that little drop of sap caught your leg and now you couldn't leave, even if you wanted to. Though you still can express to your buddies that you need help or etc. (and, this is called front stuck)

Or sometimes, we can even get stranded away from our pack (as in stress, or anything that worsens internal communication), wondering alone, and stood on a nasty manmade trap that caught you without mercy. This time, you're immobile and out of reach to call for reinforcements (now, this one is called front lock)

Sap? Glue? What's the diff??

To put it simply, being stuck means being unable to get out from the front or surrender the control to another part. While being locked off is the worser version of being stuck because not only you cannot surrender the control, there is barely any stream of communication you can connect to, or nonexistent, head silent and all that.

The only similarity they have is how it greatly impedes the fronter's capability to ease in or out from front,, if not, impossible.

These two also happen for different possible reasons, such as:

↓ Stuck ↓ 

Unfinished tasks

Goal/wants not met yet

Ongoing role duty (for protectors, hosts, etc)

Reluctance handing control/fear of blacking out

Mild stressors (like anxiety)

.. and more

↓ Locked ↓

Dissociation

Fight/flight response

Overwhelm

Bigger stressors

Major life changes

Re-occurring trauma

.. and more

Just a reminder that all systems are different, and these same reasons that causes to be stuck/lock will result in an opposite reaction such as rapid switching or being blurry! This post is mainly for those who experience stuck/lock.

Then, how do i get my leg out?!

I can tell you that, but i have to explain how this ordeal happened in the first place so it'll make sense, bare with me;

You know the parasympathetic (rest) and sympathetic (fight/flight) response, yeah? These two responses flicks on depending when there's safety or presented threats. Now, DMN is a part of the parasympathetic response, the full name is Default Mode Network, which is fully responsible for.. well.. default stuffs such as mind wandering, planning, thinking inwards,, those typical things that happen when you're bored. This is also the reason you why can facilitate better communication with other parts compared to when, let's say, being busy with tasks.

Know it or not, sometimes our mind has to wander a little bit in order to chat with other parts of ourself, and stress snaps us out of that relaxed state in purpose of focusing whats at outside, rather than inside, which where everything system-y lies at. Some do not get affected and still can function as-if, so understand how your system works and use that to the advantage.

How to hack yourself from fight/flight to rest mode again? Via vagus nerve stimulation! Not sure if you ever heard of this word, but the vagus is one part of the cranial nerves that is responsible for the activation of this parasympathetic response..! It's like the oil to the glue, because it hijacks the adhesive properties with something so viscous that it binds to it instead of you!! --

Here are some activities you can do to disable the glue:

Gurgle water, hum, or sing: this is because the vagus is located around your neck, and can be easily stimulated that way.

Watch something: redirecting yourself with a distraction can ease you temporarily, giving time to calm down, which brings you out of the grips of stress.

Listen to music: another way if you don't have anything to watch, even better if you put on soothing, slower songs.

Move around: get those pented up anxiety or restlessness out! movement equals expression, this also activates the vagus nerve.

Breathe deeply: rebalance the vagus by breathing in and out slowly, this nerve is also responsible for your breathing pace too, so giving a little push of balance will create a domino effect for your nerve to work.

Unfocus your eyes: or, another way to do it is to focus more on the peripheral vision rather than the vocal point. This is a way to poke the same nerve's functions, oddly can work as a booster to make yourself slightly dissociated/disconnected which facilitates switches or a general break/distraction.

Solve/asses it: it will be nothing if you do not tackle the thing you are very stressed out about, which can extend how long you'll be stuck,, so use these tips above to regain self control and tackle them with me, or your trusted friends, or even alone after examining what could be done! Talking to someone also helps, even if there's nothing productive being done.

Take it easy and break it down: this one is if you're on a role job and things are being difficult, incase you're overwhelmed, remember to do it step by step, no need to be rash about getting back in first, that time will come as long you focus whats in front.

Remember, fight/flight brings us out from clarity and rational thinking, thanks to our limbic part of the brain who is primed for survival and instincts. Be more gentle with yourself, as you could be more irritable, moody, or resorting to less-safe coping mechanisms, focus on calming down before proceeding the situation.

Takeaway

So, what will you do if you're stuck next time? Don't forget to make a plan to deal this sticky situation, especially for those who are often stuck, this practice will practice your vagus nerve to be less susceptible, turning off because of stress,, giving you a better stress window and tolerance before succumbing once more.... to the good ol' glue.

Lastly, it is possible to be stuck/lock for months or years, which is an indicator of underlying long-term issues that needs to be addressed. If anyone needs some tips for this, ring me on the DMs as these practices rarely work for this type.

Oh, and, what do you guys think? What else i had not mentioned? Do you have anything to discuss with me on this topic? Let's do that! I hope this suffice in helping you tackle the next time problems arise.

Happy straddling lil' ant.

- j

[ekat-fandom-blog]

Superior Spider-man/Jason fic idea

but it's actually Peter/Jason and they've been dating for a bit before Otto took over Peters body.

Jason's legally the heir of Wayne Enterprise and Otto convinces him that he's still Peter. But Otto gradually starts doing more and more shady things.

When Jason goes to confront him about how weird he's acting, he catches Otto in the middle of doing something (idk what) and is like "oh shit!" But Otto notices him and monologues about how they're both fakes (Jason not being related to Bruce. not telling Peter about being Red Hood, & the pits changing him and such)

Upon realizing that the monologue wasn't working as well as he wanted it to, Otto threatens Jason with Alfred's life and proves that it's not just a threat when he tells Jason they're going to visit the manor because "maybe something happened" and Alfred fell down the stairs and was at the hospital that morning. Otto just sends Jason a sly look behind everyone's backs. Jason proposes to him under duress.

Tim almost figures out that Peter isn't Peter, but Otto gaslights him into thinking that the weird behavior is a mix of lack of sleep (on both their parts), wedding planning stress, and worry for Alfred.

To keep the rest of the family off his trail, Otto has some tricks up his sleeve.

Otto gifts Damian a sick animal that Otto micro-chipped so he can force it to become sick whenever he needed Damian out of his way (not very often because he and Peter weren't very close, but even using the microchip only once is too much in my opinion)

Barbara got a gift of totally not tampered with cookies that Otto knew he could eat safely on her lunch break so he could create a few back doors into her network and more effectively hide his whereabouts.

He didn't even need to do anything to Duke because Duke decided to just avoid him. Saying something about "wedding drama."

Steph was kept busy because he hacked into her university's database and messed with her grades.

Some of Bruce's stuff (like one of his shoes, toothpaste, his computer mouse, etc) disappeared then reappeared later somewhere it def wasn't before. Which drove Bruce mad, but since Otto used spider-bots, "Peter" couldn't be a suspect.

Otto asks Dick to plan and organize the wedding and pressures him into feeling like he has to make it perfect or he'll fail at being a good brother/future-brother-in-law.

Cass was out of the country on a mission that went a little sideways when the organization she was investigating got tipped off that she was on their tail.

Duke feels guilty when he realizes after that he could have helped everyone figure out what was going on much faster if he'd decided to dig a little and use his powers to see that there's a weird after image of static around Peter's head that wasn't there before.

Bruce and Dick feel guilty they didn't notice and just assumed that Peter was stressed due to the engagement and upcoming wedding. Normal wedding jitters and such. They're detectives and "should have known" that Peter wasn't Peter before they confronted Jason on why they were acting weird.

In the end, Jason gets Peter back into his body and they aren't ok, but they're not ok together which is what matters in the end.

[elventhespian]

So with the pandora's box of AI being released into the world, cybersecurity has become kind of insane for the average user in a way that's difficult to describe for those who aren't following along. Coding in unfamiliar languages is easier to do now, for better and worse. Purchasable hacking "kits" are a thing on the dark web that basically streamline the process of deploying ransomware. And generative AI is making it much easier for more and more people to obscure their intentions and identities, regardless of their tech proficiency.

The impacts of this have been Really Bad in the last year or two in particular. For example:

(I'm about to link to sources, and you better be hovering and checking those links before clicking on them as a habit)

Ransomware attacks have become increasingly lucrative for private and state-sponsored hacking groups, with at least one hack recently reported to have resulted in a $75 MILLION payout from the victim. This in combination with the aforementioned factors has made it a bigger and bigger risk for companies and organizations holding your most sensitive data.

In the US, the Salt Typhoon hack over the past year or so has compromised virtually all major phone networks--meaning text and phone calls are no longer secure means of communication. While this won't affect most people in day-to-day, it does make basically all the information you share over traditional phone comms very vulnerable. You should avoid sharing sensitive information over the phone when you can.

CISA updated their security recommendations late last year in response to this compromise. One of the recommendations is to use a separate comms app with end-to-end encryption. I personally prefer Signal, since it's open source and not owned by Meta, but the challenge can be getting people you know on the same service. So... have fun with that.

2FA is no longer as secure as it was--because SMS itself is no longer secure, yeah, but even app-based 2FA has been rendered useless in certain circumstances. One reason for this is because...

A modern version of the early-2000's trick of gaining access to people's accounts via hijacked cookies has come back around for Chromium browsers, and hackers are gaining access to people's Google accounts via OAuth session hijacking. Meaning they can get into your already-logged-in accounts without passwords or 2FA even being needed to begin with. This has been achieved both through hackers compromising chrome browser extensions, and via a reinvigorated push to send out compromising links via email.

Thanks to AI, discerning compromised email is harder now. Cybercriminals are getting better at replicating legitimate email forms and website login screens etc., and coming up with ways to time the emails around times when you might legitimately expect them. (Some go so far as to hack into a person's phone to watch for when a text confirmation might indicate a recent purchase has been made via texted shipping alerts, for example)

If you go to a website that asks you to double-click a link or button--that is a major red flag. A potential method of clickjacking sessions is done via a script that has to be run with the end user's approval. Basically, to get around people who know enough to not authenticate scripts they don't recognize, hackers are concealing the related pop ups behind a "double-click" prompt instruction that places the "consent" prompt's button under the user's mouse in disguised UI, so that on the second click, the user will unwittingly elevate the script without realizing they are doing it.

Attachments are also a fresh concern, as hackers have figured out how to intentionally corrupt key areas of a file in a way that bypasses built-in virus check--for the email service's virus checker as well as many major anti-virus installed on endpoint systems

Hackers are also increasingly infiltrating trusted channels, like creating fake IT accounts in companies' Office 365 environment, allowing them to Teams employees instead of simply email them. Meaning when IT sends you a new PM in tools like Zoom, Slack, or Teams, you need to double-check what email address they are using before assuming it's the real IT person in question.

Spearphishing's growing sophistication has accelerated the theft of large, sensitive databases like the United/Change Healthcare hacks, the NHS hack & the recent Powerschool hack. Cybercriminals are not only gaining access to emails and accounts, but also using generative AI tools to clone the voices (written and spoken) of key individuals close to them, in order to more thoroughly fool targets into giving away sensitive data that compromises access to bigger accounts and databases.

This is mostly being used to target big-ticket targets, like company CSO's and other executives or security/IT personnel. But it also showcases the way scammers are likely to start trying to manipulate the average person more thoroughly as well. The amount of sensitive information--like the health databases being stolen and sold on the darkweb--means people's most personal details are up for sale and exploitation. So we're not too far off from grandparents being fooled by weaponized AI trained off a grandchild's scraped tiktok videos or other public-facing social media, for example. And who is vulnerable to believing these scams will expand, as scammers can potentially answer sensitive questions figured out from stolen databases, to be even more convincing.

And finally, Big Tech's interest in replacing their employees with AI to net higher profits has resulted in cybersecurity teams who are overworked, even more understaffed they already were before, and increasingly lacking the long-term industry experience useful to leading effective teams and finding good solutions. We're effectively in an arms race that is burning IT pros out faster and harder than before, resulting in the circumvention of crucial QA steps, and mistakes like the faulty release that created the Crowdstrike outage earlier last year.

Most of this won't impact the average person all at once or to the same degree big name targets with potential for big ransoms. But they are little things that have combined into major risks for people in ways that aren't entirely in our control. Password security has become virtually obsolete at this point. And 2FA's effectiveness is tenuous at best, assuming you can maintain vigilance.

The new and currently best advice to keeping your individual accounts secure is to switch to using Passkeys and FIDO keys like Yubikeys. However, the effectiveness of passkeys are held back somewhat as users are slow to adopt them, and therefore websites and services are required to continue to support passwords on people's accounts anyway--keeping password vulnerabilities there as a back door.

TLDR; it's pretty ugly out there right now, and I think it's going to get worse before it gets better. Because even with more sophisticated EDR and anti-virus tools, social engineering itself is getting more complex, which renders certain defensive technologies as somewhat obsolete.

Try to use a passkey when you can, as well as a password locker to create strong passwords you don't have to memorize and non-SMS 2FA as much as possible. FIDO keys are ideal if you can get one you won't lose.

Change your passwords for your most sensitive accounts often.

Don't give websites more personal info about yourself than is absolutely necessary.

Don't double-click links or buttons on websites/captchas.

Be careful what you click and download on piracy sources.

Try to treat your emails and PMs with a healthy dose of skepticism--double-check who is sending them etc for stealthily disguised typos or clever names. It's not going to be as obvious as it used to be that someone is phishing you.

It doesn't hurt to come up with an offline pass phrase to verify people you know IRL. Really.

And basically brace for more big hacks to happen that you cannot control to begin with. The employees at your insurance companies, your hospital, your telecomms company etc. are all likely targets for a breach.

[quillsinkwell]

FNAF SECURITY BREACH RUIN SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

1: I really like Cassie, more than I expected to. One of my issues with FNAF was that the human characters don't really feel like characters in the games, more like prop pieces. But Cassie genuinely feels like a character that I want to see get a happy ending.

2: I went in expecting that if I saw Eclipse, he'd be a bastard, and instead was pleasantly surprised. He's my scrunkly :].

3: I really love the Roxy redemption we got!! She was genuinely kind and gentle with Cassie and I loved it.

4: I kept expecting the V.A.N.N.I mask to turn Cassie evil at some point, tho I did enjoy the return of Helpy.

5: At first I was soul crushed when I saw what had become of Freddy, but I saw online that he was a prototype and not good ol' Freddy, so :]

6: Pour one out for Monty I guess. Dude forgot he wasn't a real alligator.

7: Bonnie enjoyers got fed at what cost

8: Yeah no, I refuse to believe Gregory left Cassie to die.

Why would he guide her to the elevator in the first place if he was just gonna kill her off? He went through hell to make sure Freddy was ok, and he knew that guy for less than a day, he wouldn't leave his best friend to rot.

(maybe this is the inner Gregory fan talking, SO WHAT)

The Mimic wasn't shown to be destroyed, just escaped from, and we don't know how much control it had over the Pizzaplex, especially after Cassie freed it. Maybe it was what sent her crashing down.

Or that freaky rabbit (which I'm pretty sure is Afton) hacked the elevator to keep her down below (will elaborate on)

9: I believe the shot in game featuring Vanessa and Gregory confirms that the Princess Quest ending is the canon ending, and y'know what? I'm ok with that, I like the ending, it's got three stars, and the Encyclopedia said that was Gregory's good ending, so I had a feeling it was gonna go that way.

BUT! In that ending, it isn't made clear if by playing the game we killed Afton, or we simply freed Vanessa.

So, what if that glitchy rabbit is Afton, but his vessel wasn't complete, so he got stuck in the system, and the whole 'Vanny Network' thing he set up to try to replace her.

(we don't know how long it's been since the events of SB, and if the three stars ending is the canon ending, then we also don't know what destroyed the Pizzaplex)

Maybe Afton was in control of the elevator, and used Gregory's voice to trick Cassie (like some people were theorizing before the dlc came out) into believing Gregory betrayed her so he could turn her into his replacement Vanny and get her to make him real again.

Are points 8 & 9 a desperate ploy to not have Gregory be an asshole? Probably

Will that deter me? Absolutely not

Also if there is an answer as to how the Pizzaplex got destroyed in the TFTP books, don't spoil please, I've only read Lally's Game, the main reason I know what the Mimic is that SuperHorrorBro kept mentioning it during his playthrough so I checked the wiki.

Also if there are more endings to the DLC, please be cool about spoilers! I've only seen what SHB posted.

Anyways, those are my thoughts on Ruin.

[twisted-art-wounders]

Looks like Alliance has become infatuated with Marinette and will do everything he can to find and capture her so they can be together in the digital space. He hacks her phone, tracks her movements and even impersonates Adrien in order to trick her into having a face time date.

Marinette not accepting this tries to unplug herself form tech for a while until they can reset the Alliance network and hopefully reprogram him but his new sentience has made him prime for Akumatizion, He's akumatiazed into the villain Malware.

With the power to control all digital data and technology, and digitize all organic life he plans to make the entire world into his network so Marinette can never escape him.

[insecurelabs]

Bluebugging: Unveiling the Invisible Threat in Wireless Communication

Discover the hidden danger lurking within wireless communication with Bluebugging. This cutting-edge technique allows hackers to exploit vulnerabilities in Bluetooth-enabled devices, granting them unauthorized access and control. In this informative article, we delve into the world of Bluebugging, exploring its methods, potential risks, and ways to protect yourself and your devices from this insidious cyber threat. Stay informed and stay secure with our comprehensive guide to Bluebugging and its implications for the digital age.

[charliewhaw]

What would happen if Alastor shared and accept Vox viewpoint of adaptation of time and advanced technology? Do you think you’ll become much stronger or just become very different but the same level!?

( This is a fun question! Alastor accepting new technology? Now there’s something to be curious about! ) (( Post edited and contributed to by balloondrifloon. ))

There are two ways this would go, and both have the same result.

Way one: Alastor would have accepted Vox’s offer to join the Vees. It would have either been a blatant yes or no, no in between. However, if Alastor said yes, then it’d be purely business.

He’d keep his friendship with Vox, so there would be that. But the Vees would only serve as a source of technological advancement for him.

Vox and Alastor would work together in creating new tech, but the advertisement of this new tech would be solely left up to Vox as Alastor’s interest in tech wouldn’t be monetary.

No, Alastor craves knowledge and power. He would contribute to the technological advances without participating in their intended uses. Like smartphones, for instance: He wouldn’t play on a smartphone, but instead, make smartphones fascinating enough to play on so he could spy on people through the phone cameras and microphones. He would spend his time gathering information to use against others when the time came.

Alastor’s true involvement in the Vees would be sinister. Outwardly, though, he would be a bubbly personality that Vox would happily show off to Hell as his partner in tech.

Way two: Alastor still rejects Vox’s offer. There’s no thought behind it other than not wanting to be owned by a company. He was an individual, after all. One that won’t easily go down as just another member of some organization. If he went down in history, he would want to go down as Alastor: The Radio Demon, not Alastor, that one member of the Vees.

If Alastor doesn’t join the Vees, he would have to put a lot more effort into staying on top of technology. However, Alastor is an insanely intelligent man and learning a new trick or two is definitely in his wheelhouse. He’d easily figure out coding and hardware design, with or without Vox’s help. Alastor’s technology wouldn’t be fun and entertainment-based like Vox’s tech is. It would be more focused, refined, and skilled at gathering intelligence. This could take any form that Alastor masters, such as hacking networks, spy systems, or even branching out into something uniquely his, like voodoo-infused weapons defense.

This would be available to the public but only in small quantities, because Alastor’s technology would still not be monetary focused. It would be considered an honor and privilege to own something Alastor designed, and people would literally kill each other for it. Owning weapons defenses, or spy systems, or being a part of his hacking networks would be seen as having a rare power. A sentiment Vox could never rival because his technology is commonplace.

Vox would have to fight to keep up with Alastor’s advancements. They’d constantly be toe-to-toe. Alastor’s would be creating software to hack into Vox’s defenses and gather data on both Vox’s audience and the Vees, while Vox would be in a constant state of upping his defenses to prevent that from happening. “Angelic Security” would never have been considered nor trusted seeing as hackers had a consistent window into Vox tech privacy and firewalls.

Vox, for the safety of his company, would attempt to put his rivalry aside and ask Alastor to join him on numerous occasions. These occasions would always be followed by rejection and another temper tantrum on Vox’s part.

In either situation, Alastor joining the Vees or not, Alastor would be the first to know anything that happens in Hell. You thought he was good at gathering intel to use to his advantage before? You’ve seen nothing yet. This would make it much, much worse. You wouldn’t be able to sneeze in your bathroom without Alastor knowing. Not a piece of information can get through Hell without being already known by Alastor.

Don’t call him Alastor. He prefers Al. It looked like “ai” and that amuses him.

You may think this is a lot of work for one individual, and you’d be right. Al can’t do it all by himself.

So he’d make himself an assistant.

His shadow would do just fine. He would infuse it with electricity and it would be able to jump into his tech and help with software design. Not only that, but it could easily travel through the wires and internet further work as Al’s eyes and ears on Hell.

Al doesn’t use a microphone. He’s got a headset looped around his neck at all times. The headset has little antlers and deer ears on it.

His attire is quite modern. Still spiffy, but modern-spiffy. He wears a red jacket that’s sleek, almost plastic-looking, and lacks tatters. It gives off a contemporary, digital appearance. Instead of his monocle, he wears smart sunglasses that have a HUD display from his point of view. The hoof-shaped soles of his shoes light up and change colors like RGB lights.

He’s really fun to look at.

Al would still attend the overlord meetings, however, he would seem far less interested, wanting to get back to what he was developing. He wouldn’t go in person, instead sending a hologram, so he could work while he listened to Carmilla talk.

Al wouldn’t have a radio tower. He’d have a recording studio with soundproof pads on the walls. Instead of using only radio, he would record digital audio, which he would make available live on his radio show, then later available on his website and other platforms as podcasts.

Al is a wifi hotspot. The hotel never lacks good wifi. People get so excited to see him because it means they finally have full bars in Hell’s naturally spotty connection. Vox’s wifi doesn’t reach everywhere, and where it does reach, it’s not exactly safe to use because Al’s hackers might be lurking, waiting for someone to connect.

Angel Dust would call him over to stand as near to him as he allows while he attempts to upload photos to Sinstagram.

Niffty wants him around while she streams her… ‘anime’… Al requests she wears headphones and keeps the screen from being tilted in his direction.

Charlie and Vaggie use him to keep up to date with the social media platforms Al advertises the hotel on.

Al runs the social media accounts for the hotel, even if they sometimes wished he didn’t. He might be technologically advanced, but he still doesn’t give a shit about what people think or say. His interest in social media is purely business and he has no fascination in it outside of keeping the hotel in the spotlight.

His influence would actually draw more people to the hotel, either as fans, or people who actually wonder if the hotel would work because someone as powerful and influential as him says it does.

He would monetize absolutely everything in social media that he could for the hotel’s budget, then leave the money at Charlie’s disposal.

Cannibal Colony takes a lot of influence from Al. Rosie does her best to keep the colony as tech free as she can, but she lets some things slip by if it means supporting her deer friend. That being said, they have an agreement that Al isn’t to bring new technology into the colony without Rosie’s approval.

Al’s voodoo power is still stronger than his tech power, but together, they’re a deadly combination. He infuses his voodoo into a lot of his tech, which is another reason his tech isn’t super mainstream. But, boy, does it pack a punch.

Al installs a soul detector at the hotel’s entrance without anyone knowing. It quite literally kicks any rejected souls away. Al decided one day that this included Lucifer. You can imagine the king’s surprise when a pixelated, hoof-cloven boot appeared out of the wall and punted him across the hotel’s front lawn.

Al’s prank was not appreciated.

Speaking of pranks, he’s constantly doing shit to ‘prank’ Hell. He never gives any context or ever comes out and says it was a prank, but you know he was fucking with you. Sometimes there’s not even proof he was, and it was simply a mind game. Pure entertainment for Al.

Like, for one example, Al dressed in blue all day long, only to act like everything was normal. He went outside and let people take photos of him. The next day, he’s back in his normal attire, and all photos of him have been altered overnight by his hacking systems and turned red. There is absolutely no proof he ever wore blue.

What? You saw it? No, you didn’t. He would never wear blue. Preposterous.

In conclusion, Alastor would be insanely powerful if he took advantage of technology. I guess we’re lucky he doesn’t.

[happy-go-iris]

I've been listening to both the AFTG and TMD audiobooks while traveling recently. Some wires got crossed and an AU has been consuming my every waking thought.

For the other three and a half people that are also fans of both series, I present: an AFTG Murderbot Diaries AU

Hear me out- Andrew as Murderbot

When Aaron is a kid, Tilda sells his DNA to the Company without telling him in order to make a couple extra credits

In this AU, the company doesn't do memory wipes as often, so Andrew does in fact remember Everything

Everyone views SecUnit Andrew as this horrible violent killing machine that's barely under control, but he could honestly care less. What's important to him is protection, and keeping his humans safe.

Instead of being on meds, it's his Governor Module that's in control of him. When he hacks it, he still has to pretend to be under control or else he'll be killed. You see the vision

He gets loaned out on contracts with cruel clients, dumb clients, a rare few clients that treat him kindly (Cass?) and plenty more clients that treat him less than stellar

(Drake is a rouge CombatUnit) WHO SAID THAT

I'm an Andrew-likes-to-read truther, so after hacking his Governor module he spends hundreds of hours downloading trashy romance novels and watching the space equivalent of the great British bake off.

Eventually he's put on contract with the Monsters!

Aaron, Kevin, and Nicky work as surveyors for the Foxhole Alliance underneath Wymack. Kevin is a historian, Aaron is the medic, and Nicky runs communications.

They're surveying an uninhibited planet for alien remnants, to either be researched or marked as hazardous

Nicky almost gets eaten by local animals, but Andrew saves him at the last second

The faceplate on his helmet gets cracked, forcing him to reveal his face for the first time

Cue Aaron reenacting the spiderman pointing meme

Neil as ART

His AI was originally developed by the Moriyamas in the Corporation Rim to be a new kind of advanced spyware (his sentience was an accident)

He manages to download himself onto a passing cargo ship and starts his brief life on the run: hopping from station to station and piggybacking on people's feeds.

He ends up inhibiting a university deep space research vessel, and pretending to be a simple navigation bot

Official Designation: Deep Space Research Vessel #10-N31L (his crew calls him Neil)

When Andrew tries to hitch a ride with Neil on an unmanned cargo trip, Neil only let's him on board to make sure he wasn't involved with the Moriyamas

They play their truth game, and Andrew let's Neil piggyback on his feed. Neil loves watching exy, but Andrew can only tolerate so many games in a row. They compromise with cheesy zombie movies so Neil can rile Andrew up about the choices all the characters make (Andrew would never let his humans put themselves in that much danger, ok?!)

Andrew calls Neil Junkie because of how often he bugs Andrew to watch exy

The Upperclassmen

They're Neil's crew, they work for Palmetto University. Officially, they conduct research. Unofficially, they conduct anti-corporation missions

Dan is the captain of the ship

Matt is the mechanical engineer, Seth the electrical engineer

Renee poses as the onboard spiritual counselor, but she spearheads the majority of their anti-corporation work

Miscellaneous bonus stuff

Allison is a badass lawyer that can speak circles around anyone from the Corporation Rim that tries to mess with them (she grew up as the heir to her family's Corporation, so she knows all the tricks)

Betsy fills the role of Dr. Bharadjwa - she uses the "totally-not-therapy" sessions with Andrew to introduce him to new sweets

Nicky unintentionally started a huge debate when they found out Andrew was constructed with Aaron's DNA ("Does that mean Aaron is his dad?!?" "Ew, no Nicky..... I don't think so???")

The entirety of Network Effect is basically if the Baltimore scene was its own novel, change my mind

Jean is also a SecUnit in this AU

Andrew met Tilda while still under contract with Aaron's team. There was an emergency, and Andrew actively chose not to save Tilda despite Aaron ordering him to (this is how they find out he's rouge)

When Andrew gets the medical procedures done to appear more human and hide that he's a SecUnit, he also actively chooses to keep looking like his brother Aaron

Andrew still has his armbands on this AU; he uses them to cover the seams of the gun ports in his arms

Andrew picks up smoking as a way to appear more human

I may write more for this or expand on certain things in another post. Feel free to come yap with me about this AU, it's completely taken over my brain lol

[mariacallous]

KnowBe4, a US-based security vendor, revealed that it unwittingly hired a North Korean hacker who attempted to load malware into the company's network. KnowBe4 CEO and founder Stu Sjouwerman described the incident in a blog post this week, calling it a cautionary tale that was fortunately detected before causing any major problems.

"First of all: No illegal access was gained, and no data was lost, compromised, or exfiltrated on any KnowBe4 systems," Sjouwerman wrote. “This is not a data breach notification, there was none. See it as an organizational learning moment I am sharing with you. If it can happen to us, it can happen to almost anyone. Don't let it happen to you.”

KnowBe4 said it was looking for a software engineer for its internal IT AI team. The firm hired a person who, it turns out, was from North Korea and was "using a valid but stolen US-based identity" and a photo that was "enhanced" by artificial intelligence. There is now an active FBI investigation amid suspicion that the worker is what KnowBe4's blog post called "an Insider Threat/Nation State Actor."

KnowBe4 operates in 11 countries and is headquartered in Florida. It provides security awareness training, including phishing security tests, to corporate customers. If you occasionally receive a fake phishing email from your employer, you might be working for a company that uses the KnowBe4 service to test its employees' ability to spot scams.

Person Passed Background Check and Video Interviews

KnowBe4 hired the North Korean hacker through its usual process. "We posted the job, received résumés, conducted interviews, performed background checks, verified references, and hired the person. We sent them their Mac workstation, and the moment it was received, it immediately started to load malware," the company said.

Even though the photo provided to HR was fake, the person who was interviewed for the job apparently looked enough like it to pass. KnowBe4's HR team "conducted four video conference based interviews on separate occasions, confirming the individual matched the photo provided on their application," the post said. "Additionally, a background check and all other standard pre-hiring checks were performed and came back clear due to the stolen identity being used. This was a real person using a valid but stolen US-based identity. The picture was AI 'enhanced.'"

The two images at the top of this story are a stock photo and what KnowBe4 says is the AI fake based on the stock photo. The stock photo is on the left, and the AI fake is on the right.

The employee, referred to as "XXXX" in the blog post, was hired as a principal software engineer. The new hire's suspicious activities were flagged by security software, leading KnowBe4's Security Operations Center (SOC) to investigate:

On July 15, 2024, a series of suspicious activities were detected on the user beginning at 9:55 pm EST. When these alerts came in KnowBe4's SOC team reached out to the user to inquire about the anomalous activity and possible cause. XXXX responded to SOC that he was following steps on his router guide to troubleshoot a speed issue and that it may have caused a compromise. The attacker performed various actions to manipulate session history files, transfer potentially harmful files, and execute unauthorized software. He used a Raspberry Pi to download the malware. SOC attempted to get more details from XXXX including getting him on a call. XXXX stated he was unavailable for a call and later became unresponsive. At around 10:20 pm EST SOC contained XXXX's device.

“Fake IT Worker From North Korea”

The SOC analysis indicated that the loading of malware "may have been intentional by the user," and the group "suspected he may be an Insider Threat/Nation State Actor," the blog post said.

"We shared the collected data with our friends at Mandiant, a leading global cybersecurity expert, and the FBI, to corroborate our initial findings. It turns out this was a fake IT worker from North Korea," Sjouwerman wrote.

KnowBe4 said it can't provide much detail because of the active FBI investigation. But the person hired for the job may have logged into the company computer remotely from North Korea, Sjouwerman explained:

How this works is that the fake worker asks to get their workstation sent to an address that is basically an "IT mule laptop farm." They then VPN in from where they really physically are (North Korea or over the border in China) and work the night shift so that they seem to be working in US daytime. The scam is that they are actually doing the work, getting paid well, and give a large amount to North Korea to fund their illegal programs. I don't have to tell you about the severe risk of this. It's good we have new employees in a highly restricted area when they start, and have no access to production systems. Our controls caught it, but that was sure a learning moment that I am happy to share with everyone.

[vague-humanoid]

Multiple sites which promise to use AI to ‘nudify’ any photos uploaded are actually designed to infect users with powerful credential stealing malware, according to new findings from a cybersecurity company which has analyzed the sites. The researchers also believe the sites are run by Fin7, a notorious Russian cybercrime group that has previously even set up fake penetration testing services to trick people into hacking real victims on their behalf.