We've come to an icky time in security when the concern about using outdated, unpatched software starts to become overshadowed by the fear of downloading some backdoored update.

The CEO of The Onion set the publication's goal for 2026 to have more subscribers than The Washington Post. At the rate the latter is going, that won't take long.

"For reasons we don't like or understand, our work has become increasingly important."

"Look, we're an independent company, we don't use AI to write headlines and make art, and we're one of roughly three publications who are up for the fight. Unlike other places, The Onion is quadrupling down on being a pain in the ass, politically. Are you?

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/ben-collins-28263a52_its-been-a-big-year-for-us-at-the-onion-ugcPost-7400218696058810368-7nVB?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAAAliaMB3BQO-WOS-eUh-XU4HAd5h8pTzkI

It's my fediversary! Three years ago today I said goodbye to several hundred thousand followers at the nazi bar and joined this community. No regrets! Thanks for making me want to stick around :)

Largest study of its kind shows AI assistants misrepresent news content 45% of the time – regardless of language or territory. An intensive international study was coordinated by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and led by the BBC.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/2025/new-ebu-research-ai-assistants-news-content

Not at all shocking. We all know about fake news. But what about fake news that isn't made for human consumption, but rather for digestion solely by LLMs, and designed to influence how they represent the news to others? Newsguard had a report about it earlier this year, regarding a Russia-based news network.

https://www.newsguardrealitycheck.com/p/a-well-funded-moscow-based-global

Happy DDoS-a-Versary to me. Today's Mirai-based botnets are now launching attacks that are 20x the size of that first big Mirai attack.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2016/09/krebsonsecurity-hit-with-record-ddos/

Not long after I published that story, the Mirai botmasters turned up the heat and got me evicted from Akamai's network. I remember the next day interviewing different DDoS protection companies about their pricing and having to pick my jaw up off the floor each time. Many thanks to Akamai for all the attacks that they very much did protect me from over the years. And also thanks again to Google Shield for helping to keep my little site online ever since.

BTW, that Sept. 2016 attack, and the quick leaking of the botnet's source code by its 20-something overlords led me to pretty much cancel everything and spend 24/7 the next four months tracking these guys down. As I did that, I kept interviewing people who had just talked to the FBI. I published the longest story I'd ever written on Jan. 18, 2017, the same day the FBI raided the homes of the alleged authors. Who ended up being convicted and sentenced to helping the FBI catch cybercriminals, which is a really cool and rare success story.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2017/01/who-is-anna-senpai-the-mirai-worm-author/

Was thinking the other day for no reason at all about software that I've actually enjoyed using over the years, and I had to think really hard on that. I'm probably showing my age and romanticizing things, but Winamp definitely meets that bar. As does the IRC client mIRC. Probably what I liked most about these programs is while they got frequent updates, their basic functionality remained the same, familiar, and very usable. You know, the opposite trajectory of most modern software. Also, they were so familiar I could use them with my eyes closed.

Is there any software that fills you with positive thoughts/associations? Why?