Month: July 2025

Visa and Mastercard are getting overwhelmed by censorship gamer fury

Posted on by Robin Edgar

In the wake of storefronts like Steam and itch.io curbing the sale of adult games, irate fans have started an organized campaign against the payment processors that they believe are responsible for the crackdown. While the movement is still in its early stages, people are mobilizing with an eye toward overwhelming communication lines at companies Read more about Visa and Mastercard are getting overwhelmed by censorship gamer fury[…]

Automata Dev Warns That Letting Credit Card Companies Censor Internet is an attack on Democracy

Posted on by Robin Edgar

As a fight with credit card companies over adult games leads to renewed concerns about censorship on Steam and even on indie platforms like itch.io, a recent warning by Nier: Automata director Yoko Taro calling censorship a “security hole that endangers democracy itself” has become relevant again. The comments came last November when the Manga Read more about Automata Dev Warns That Letting Credit Card Companies Censor Internet is an attack on Democracy[…]

UK’s Stupid and Dangerous New Age Verification Requirement Thwarted in the Simplest Ways Imaginable

Posted on by Robin Edgar

TL;DR – use a VPN or take a picture of yourself in Death Stranding Earlier this week, the United Kingdom’s age assurance requirement for sites that publish pornographic material went into effect, which has resulted in everything from Pornhub to Reddit and Discord displaying an age verification panel when users attempt to visit. There’s just Read more about UK’s Stupid and Dangerous New Age Verification Requirement Thwarted in the Simplest Ways Imaginable[…]

The Viral ‘Tea’ App Just Had a Second Data Breach, and It’s Even Worse

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Last week, the two-year-old social media app Tea, which functions as a Yelp-style platform where women can anonymously rate and review real men who cannot access the app nor respond, experienced an intense moment of virality that rocketed it to the top of the most-downloaded list on Apple’s App Store. But within days, it faced Read more about The Viral ‘Tea’ App Just Had a Second Data Breach, and It’s Even Worse[…]

Cyberattack on Russian airline Aeroflot causes the cancellation of more than 100 flights

Posted on by Robin Edgar

A cyberattack on Russian state-owned flagship carrier Aeroflot caused a mass outage to the company’s computer systems on Monday, Russia’s prosecutor’s office said, forcing the airline to cancel more than 100 flights and delay others. Ukrainian hacker group Silent Crow and Belarusian hacker activist group the Belarus Cyber-Partisans, which opposes the rule of Belarusian President Read more about Cyberattack on Russian airline Aeroflot causes the cancellation of more than 100 flights[…]

Samsung adds to digital waste problem as it disables custom ROM (OS) support in One UI 8

Posted on by Robin Edgar

While the vast majority of Samsung Galaxy device owners don’t tinker with the software on their phones, there’s a community of Android enthusiasts that love rooting devices, unlocking the bootloader to run custom ROMs and kernels. That has so far been possible on Samsung devices outside the United States. However, new evidence has surfaced that Read more about Samsung adds to digital waste problem as it disables custom ROM (OS) support in One UI 8[…]

‘Boiling frog’ effect makes people oblivious to threat of climate crisis, shows study

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Surveys show that the increasing number of extreme climate events, including floods, wildfires and hurricanes, has not raised awareness of the threats posed by climate change. Instead, people change their idea of what they see as normal. This so-called “boiling frog effect” makes gradual change difficult to spot. Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University in Pennsylvania Read more about ‘Boiling frog’ effect makes people oblivious to threat of climate crisis, shows study[…]

Starlink down LIVE: Elon Musk red-faced amid satellite internet’s global blackout

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Elon Musk’s satellite internet Starlink was last night hit with a global outage preventing tens of thousands of users from accessing the web. According to DownDetector, reports of issues began to surge around 8pm GMT, with tens of thousands of worldwide users reporting issues at the peak of the outage. The difficulties persisted for several Read more about Starlink down LIVE: Elon Musk red-faced amid satellite internet’s global blackout[…]

Congress introduces bill to ban AI surveillance pricing

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Two Democratic members of Congress, Greg Casar (D-TX) and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI,) have introduced legislation in the US House of Representatives to ban the use of AI surveillance to set prices and wages. During Delta’s Q2 earnings call last week, Delta’s president Glen Hauenstein said that the airline has already rolled out AI-controlled dynamic pricing Read more about Congress introduces bill to ban AI surveillance pricing[…]

US clouds crush EU clouds in the EU and that won’t change soon

Posted on by Robin Edgar

European cloud infrastructure companies make up just 15 percent of their own market, and the huge investment the US giants can wield makes their dominance “an impossible hill to climb” for any would-be challengers. Details shared by Synergy Research on regional markets show that Euro cloud operators continue to grow, but none comes remotely close Read more about US clouds crush EU clouds in the EU and that won’t change soon[…]

Majority of 1.4M customers caught in Allianz Life data heist

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Financial services biz Allianz says the majority of customers of one of its North American subsidiaries had their data stolen in a cyberattack. Lawyers acting on behalf of US-based Allianz Life filed a breach notification with Maine’s attorney general on Saturday, saying the intrusion began on July 16 and was detected a day later. Official Read more about Majority of 1.4M customers caught in Allianz Life data heist[…]

Google Assistant Is Basically on Life Support and Things Just Got Worse

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…] Google Home is at the center of what I would describe as a reputation shitstorm. According to way too many people on Reddit, Google Home is so broken that some people are actually unable to even turn their smart lights on and off properly. And it’s not just lights; if Reddit complaints are anything Read more about Google Assistant Is Basically on Life Support and Things Just Got Worse[…]

Internet Archive is now an official US government document library

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The US Senate has granted the Internet Archive federal depository status, making it officially part of an 1,100-library network that gives the public access to government documents, KQED reported. The designation was made official in a letter from California Senator Alex Padilla to the Government Publishing Office that oversees the network. “The Archive’s digital-first approach Read more about Internet Archive is now an official US government document library[…]

CRISPR Gene Editing in Mosquitoes Halts Malaria Spread

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Mosquitoes kill more people each year than any other animal. In 2023, the blood-sucking insects infected a reported 263 million people with malaria, leading to nearly 600,000 deaths, 80% of which were children. Recent efforts to block the transmission of malaria have been stalled because mosquitoes have adapted resistance to insecticides and the parasites within Read more about CRISPR Gene Editing in Mosquitoes Halts Malaria Spread[…]

29-million-person study shows air pollution fuels dementia and Alzheimers

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Air pollution isn’t just bad for your lungs—it may be eroding your brain. In a sweeping review covering nearly 30 million people, researchers found that common pollutants like PM2.5, nitrogen dioxide, and soot are all linked to a significantly higher risk of dementia. The most dangerous? PM2.5—tiny particles from traffic and industry that can lodge Read more about 29-million-person study shows air pollution fuels dementia and Alzheimers[…]

Steam cracks down on some sex games to appease US prim payment processors

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…]In a Tuesday update to the “Rules and Guidelines” section of Steam’s Onboarding Documentation, the company added a new rule prohibiting “Content that may violate the rules and standards set forth by Steam’s payment processors and related card networks and banks, or Internet network providers. In particular, certain kinds of adult only content.” On its Read more about Steam cracks down on some sex games to appease US prim payment processors[…]

Posted in Sex

Copilot Vision on Windows 11 next MS spy but now sends data to Microsoft servers

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…] Copilot Vision is an extension of Microsoft’s divisive Recall, a feature initially sort of exclusive to the Copilot+ systems with a neural co-processor of sufficient computational power. Like Recall, which was pulled due to serious security failings and subject to a lengthy delay before its eventual relaunch, Copilot Vision is designed to analyze everything Read more about Copilot Vision on Windows 11 next MS spy but now sends data to Microsoft servers[…]

After $380M hack, Clorox sues its service desk vendor Cognizant for simply giving out passwords

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Hacking is hard. Well, sometimes. Other times, you just call up a company’s IT service desk and pretend to be an employee who needs a password reset, an Okta multifactor authentication reset, and a Microsoft multifactor authentication reset… and it’s done. Without even verifying your identity. So you use that information to log in to Read more about After $380M hack, Clorox sues its service desk vendor Cognizant for simply giving out passwords[…]

WeTransfer faces open source competition by Sendox after controversy over terms of service

Posted on by Robin Edgar

The collective The New Digital announces the public beta of Sendox: an open source file sharing platform that puts privacy and digital sovereignty at its core. Sendox has been developed as a transparent and independent alternative to services like WeTransfer. “We believe that digital freedom and autonomy are not luxuries, but fundamental rights,” said Frank Read more about WeTransfer faces open source competition by Sendox after controversy over terms of service[…]

WhoFi: Unique ‘fingerprint’ based on Wi-Fi interactions allows reidentification of people being observed

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Researchers in Italy have developed a way to create a biometric identifier for people based on the way the human body interferes with Wi-Fi signal propagation. The scientists claim this identifier, a pattern derived from Wi-Fi Channel State Information, can re-identify a person in other locations most of the time when a Wi-Fi signal can Read more about WhoFi: Unique ‘fingerprint’ based on Wi-Fi interactions allows reidentification of people being observed[…]

More nanoplastics in tiny part of sea than micro- and macroplastics in all world’s oceans

Posted on by Robin Edgar

“This estimate shows that there is more plastic in the form of nanoparticles floating in the this part of the ocean, than there is in larger micro- or macroplastics floating in the Atlantic or even all the world’s oceans!,” said Helge Niemann, researcher at NIOZ and professor of geochemistry at Utrecht University. Mid-June, he received Read more about More nanoplastics in tiny part of sea than micro- and macroplastics in all world’s oceans[…]

Goodbye plastic? Scientists create new supermaterial that outperforms metals and glass

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Scientists at Rice University and the University of Houston have created a powerful new material by guiding bacteria to grow cellulose in aligned patterns, resulting in sheets with the strength of metals and the flexibility of plastic—without the pollution. Using a spinning bioreactor, they’ve turned Earth’s purest biopolymer into a high-performance alternative to plastic, capable Read more about Goodbye plastic? Scientists create new supermaterial that outperforms metals and glass[…]

Hackers exploit a blind spot by hiding malware inside DNS records

Posted on by Robin Edgar

[…]The practice allows malicious scripts and early-stage malware to fetch binary files without having to download them from suspicious sites or attach them to emails, where they frequently get quarantined by antivirus software. That’s because traffic for DNS lookups often goes largely unmonitored by many security tools. […] Researchers from DomainTools on Tuesday said they Read more about Hackers exploit a blind spot by hiding malware inside DNS records[…]

Microsoft warns on-prem SharePoint users of a zero-day, won’t patch it though

Posted on by Robin Edgar

Microsoft has warned users of SharePoint Server that three on-prem versions of the product include a zero-day flaw that is under attack – and that its own failure to completely fix past problems is the cause. In a July 19 security note, the software giant admitted it is “… aware of active attacks targeting on-premises Read more about Microsoft warns on-prem SharePoint users of a zero-day, won’t patch it though[…]