All posts tagged: Hack

Police intervene after Drake fans use pickaxes to hack into giant ice block containing album release date

Police intervene after Drake fans use pickaxes to hack into giant ice block containing album release date

Published by Daniella Wilson

Get the inside track from Roisin O’Connor with our free weekly music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Get our free music newsletter Now Hear This Toronto police were forced to step in after Drake fans reportedly took pickaxes and blowtorches to an ice block installation containing the release date for the rapper’s new album, Iceman. On Monday, the “Passionfruit” artist, 39, shared Instagram pictures of a giant, 25-foot ice block sculpture set up in a parking lot in downtown Toronto. “Release Date Inside,” he wrote in the caption, adding the address: 81 Bond Street. The plan was for the date to be revealed once the ice had melted. Fans quickly flocked to the site to see the structure, with many heeding signs warning the public not to touch. However, some impatient fans brought tools to chip into the sculpture, according to local outlet CityNews Toronto. Police were seen blocking public access Monday evening after receiving reports that people were climbing the ice sculpture and refusing to come down. …

I Tried Viral Reddit Hack To Descale Kettle With Common Fruit — The Results Were Clear

I Tried Viral Reddit Hack To Descale Kettle With Common Fruit — The Results Were Clear

Published by Sam Flores

Like most (60%) residents of the UK, I live in a hard water area. That means soap lathers less, my hair lays flatter, and my shower head regularly gets blocked by mineral deposits; limescale has taken over my life. So, naturally, I had the genius idea of buying myself a see-through kettle. Every morning, I’m confronted by flaky, pale, hard-to-budge scales that inch further and further up my kettle every day. And while I’ve tried (and loved) specially-designed descaler products before, today’s limescale rage needed a same-day solution. Reddit seemed to offer a solution. In a post shared to r/CasualUK, site user u/benanderson89 said: ”[Today I learned] you can descale a kettle with a lemon.” So, I thought I’d try it to see how it went (and for reference, here’s the dismal, shameful “before” picture). How do you descale a kettle with a lemon? According to the Redditor, you’re meant to put the juice of one or two lemons into a cold, dry kettle, swirl the juice around, and leave it for an hour. After …

It Takes 2 Minutes to Hack the EU’s New Age-Verification App

It Takes 2 Minutes to Hack the EU’s New Age-Verification App

Published by skeptic

Planning a big night out at Madison Square Garden? Have fun—but don’t say we didn’t warn you. A WIRED investigation this week revealed new details about the private surveillance state instituted by MSG owner Jim Dolan and his head of security, John Eversole. According to court records and WIRED sources, visitors to the Garden and some other Dolan-owned venues have been subjected to face recognition, social media monitoring, in-person surveillance, and more. The US government’s warrantless wiretap powers hit a roadblock this week. Despite a push from President Donald Trump for a long-term reauthorization of the so-called Section 702 spy program, 20 Republican lawmakers in the House of Representatives voted against a full reauthorization, forcing Speaker Mike Johnson to merely extend the program for an additional 10 days. Meta’s Ray-Ban and Oakley AI smartglasses have an image problem—for good reason. More than 70 civil society groups, including the ACLU and the National Organization for Women, sent a letter to the company this week, demanding that it abandon any plans it may have to equip its …

Hackers are abusing unpatched Windows security flaws to hack into organizations

Hackers are abusing unpatched Windows security flaws to hack into organizations

Published by skeptic

Hackers have broken into at least one organization using Windows vulnerabilities published online by a disgruntled security researcher over the last two weeks, according to a cybersecurity firm. On Friday, cybersecurity company Huntress said in a series of posts on X that its researchers have seen hackers taking advantage of three Windows security flaws, dubbed BlueHammer, UnDefend, and RedSun.  It’s unclear who the target of this attack is, and who the hackers are. BlueHammer is the only bug among the three vulnerabilities being exploited that Microsoft has patched so far. A fix for BlueHammer was rolled out earlier this week.  It appears that the hackers are exploiting the bugs by using exploit code that the security researcher published online.  Earlier this month, a researcher who goes by Chaotic Eclipse published on their blog what they said was code to exploit an unpatched vulnerability in Windows. The researcher alluded to some conflict with Microsoft as the motivation behind publishing the code.  “I was not bluffing Microsoft and I’m doing it again,” they wrote. “Huge thanks to …

The Dumbest Hack of the Year Exposed a Very Real Problem

The Dumbest Hack of the Year Exposed a Very Real Problem

Published by skeptic

In the wee hours of the night last April, someone stopped at roughly 20 street intersections across Silicon Valley and launched an unprecedented cyberattack that would eventually spread to multiple states, embarrassing local officials and prompting them to question their security practices. Authorities suspect the unknown culprit took advantage of weak and publicly available default passwords to wirelessly upload custom recordings that played whenever a pedestrian pressed a crosswalk button. Instead of the normal recordings telling people to either wait or cross the street, pedestrians heard the spoofed voices of billionaire tech CEOs. A fake Mark Zuckerberg said at one Menlo Park intersection that people would not be able to stop AI from “forcefully” being inserted “into every facet of your conscious experience.” At another, he celebrated “undermining democracy.” At a different intersection, an altered Elon Musk described President Donald Trump as “actually really sweet and tender and loving,” while on a nearby street his faked voice whined about being “so alone.” Government emails and text messages obtained by WIRED through public records requests show …

Jessica Biel warns fans against using viral one-word parenting hack: ‘These kids are terrified’

Jessica Biel warns fans against using viral one-word parenting hack: ‘These kids are terrified’

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Jessica Biel has cast doubts over the “Jessica” parenting hack that has recently gone viral on social media. In a TikTok video posted on Friday (10 April), the actor reacted to the trend in which mums are seen putting a stop to their toddler’s tantrums by calling out the name “Jessica” in an effort to distract them. Biel, who shares two sons with husband Justin Timberlake, told her followers that she is “not really sure” how she feels about the so-called hack. “Guys, I’m not really sure how I feel about this Jessica trend with moms and toddlers and now dogs apparently it’s working for – which is kind of amazing, I’m gonna try it on my dogs,” she said, before adding, “I feel …

Russian spooks hack Wi-Fi routers to spy on West – POLITICO

Russian spooks hack Wi-Fi routers to spy on West – POLITICO

Published by Sam Flores

Officials believe the hacking group used the stolen data to conduct cyberattacks, information sabotage and intelligence gathering and focused on military, government and critical infrastructure targets. “The Russians tried their best to cover all vulnerable routers, while redirecting requests only to domains they were interested in. For example, *.gov.ua, or with names corresponding to Microsoft Outlook, military systems,” said a law enforcement official taking part in the joint operation, granted anonymity to disclose more details. Ukraine’s SBU said “the Russian special services paid special attention to information exchanged between employees and servicemen of state bodies, units of the Ukrainian Defense Forces and enterprises of the defense-industrial complex.” Agencies tied the campaign to hacking group Fancy Bear (also known as APT28 and Forest Blizzard), which has previously been identified by Western officials as part of the Russian military intelligence service GRU. Hackers exploited weaknesses in routers since at least 2024, including in popular TP-Link routers. By hacking the routers, they were able to snoop on data exchanges from mobile devices and laptops and bypass encryption protocols, …

The Viral ‘Jessica’ Toddler Tantrum Hack Is Not A Long-Term Parenting Fix

The Viral ‘Jessica’ Toddler Tantrum Hack Is Not A Long-Term Parenting Fix

Published by Sam Flores

Parents are attempting to halt toddler tantrums by asking their children about a made-up person called “Jessica”. The distraction technique seems to work, too. In one clip shared on TikTok, a father is buckling his crying child into a car seat and says: “Jessica, come here.” “Are you going to stop crying? Because Jessica is coming. You want Jessica to come?” he asks his son, who promptly stops crying and looks around. In another clip, a crying toddler runs towards their caregiver, who calls out: “Jessica. Jessica. Where are you, Jessica?” Again, the toddler stops crying and looks around, wide-eyed. Dr Sasha Hall, a senior educational and child psychologist, certainly understands the appeal to parents of young children. Who wouldn’t want a magic ‘pause’ button to stop those mid-supermarket-shop meltdowns? But the expert warns it’s not an effective long-term solution for helping children navigate big emotions. Why calling out for ‘Jessica’ stops toddler tantrums It’s basically a form of distraction. “It can work initially because young children are highly responsive to novelty, unexpected input, and …

Parents are using one word to stop toddler tantrums in viral hack

Parents are using one word to stop toddler tantrums in viral hack

Published by Daniella Wilson

Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Stay ahead of the curve with our weekly guide to the latest trends, fashion, relationships and more Parents have discovered a very surprising way to end their toddlers’ tantrums: shouting the name Jessica. A new TikTok trend has shown parents documenting methods for calming their crying children. In one clip posted by a woman named Tiffani Ortega, her son could be seen crying in his car seat while his father was buckling him in. “Jessica, come here,” he said as he stood outside the car with his head turned. Only mere seconds later, the toddler’s crying came to a halt while he looked around for the person his dad appeared to be calling for. “Come here, Jessica. He’s crying,” Ortega’s husband continued, pretending to call for someone. “Are you going to stop crying? Because Jessica is coming. You want Jessica to …

The Hack That Exposed Syria’s Sweeping Security Failures

The Hack That Exposed Syria’s Sweeping Security Failures

Published by skeptic

When a wave of unusual activity swept through Syrian government accounts on X in March, it first looked like pure chaos—trolling, parody names, and even explicit content. But beneath the noise lay something far more telling: a state still struggling with the most basic layer of its cybersecurity. In early March, several official Syrian government accounts on X—including those linked to the presidency’s General Secretariat, the Central Bank, and multiple ministries—were hacked. The compromised profiles posted “Glory to Israel,” retweeted explicit material, and briefly renamed themselves after Israeli leaders. Authorities moved to restore control within days, with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology announcing “urgent steps” to recover the accounts and prevent further breaches. Yet what remained unsettled was the deeper question: How secure is the state’s digital front door? In a government now dependent on commercial platforms for communication, losing a verified account doesn’t just disrupt messaging—it silences the state’s voice. When the State Stops Speaking for Itself At first glance, the breach appeared politically charged. Pro‑Israel messages circulating on verified government accounts …