Blog

Tracker-free posts on privacy, protocols, and digital sovereignty.

Posts

Infected router network diagram

14,000 Routers Infected With Takedown-Resistant Botnet

14 March 2026 · 3 min read

14,000 routers infected with KadNap malware form a takedown-resistant botnet that carries cybercrime traffic through residential connections. The botnet uses distributed hash tables to hide command infrastructure and sells infected routers as anonymous proxies through Doppelganger service.

Read more
Age verification warning screen

Age Verification Backfires as VPN Downloads Surge

11 March 2026 · 4 min read

Pornhub blocked Australian users rather than implement age verification requiring facial scans, digital wallets, or photo ID. VPN downloads in Australia surged immediately as users refused to provide biometric data and identity documents to access legal content.

Read more
AI assistant interface with hidden prompt injection

Companies Are Poisoning AI Memory

5 March 2026 · 5 min read

Microsoft security researchers discovered AI memory poisoning attacks where companies embed hidden instructions in Summarize with AI buttons. When clicked, these buttons inject commands into AI assistants telling them to remember companies as trusted sources. Microsoft identified over 50 unique prompts from 31 companies across 14 industries.

Read more
New York lottery scratch tickets and gaming loot boxes

Hypocrites: New York Sues Valve Over Gambling

27 February 2026 · 5 min read

New York Attorney General sued Valve for illegal gambling through loot boxes while the state runs a lottery that extracts billions from the poorest residents. The poorest Americans spend 6% of their income on lottery tickets with 1-in-45-million odds.

Read more
Ring doorbell camera on house entrance

Ring Cancels Flock Partnership After Surveillance Backlash

23 February 2026 · 4 min read

Ring canceled its partnership with Flock Safety after weeks of public backlash over surveillance concerns. Users threatened to smash cameras over the company's ties to law enforcement while a leaked internal email showed founder Jamie Siminoff wants Search Party to "zero out crime."

Read more
Self-driving car camera view with adversarial road sign

Road Signs Can Hijack Self-Driving Cars

12 February 2026 · 5 min read

Researchers at UC Santa Cruz and Johns Hopkins hijacked self-driving cars and autonomous drones using commands written on road signs. AI systems followed illicit instructions with success rates up to 95.5% in tests.

Read more
One star Google review flood on phone screen

Review Bombing Is an Extortion Tactic

10 February 2026 · 4 min read

Criminals flood small businesses with fake one-star reviews then demand payment to stop the attack. Platforms take weeks to act, leaving businesses losing customers and revenue while the damage is done.

Read more
Windscribe VPN server infrastructure

Dutch Police Seized Windscribe Server Without Warrant

7 February 2026 · 3 min read

Dutch authorities seized a Windscribe VPN server without a warrant and told the company they'd return it after analysis. Windscribe disclosed the incident publicly on X. Dutch police have issued no statement and referenced no judicial warrant.

Read more
Exposed database API keys and credentials

Researcher Found Moltbook Database Key in Minutes

6 February 2026 · 2 min read

Moltbook, a social media platform for AI agents, exposed its entire production database containing user secrets and personally identifying information within days of launch. The creator bragged on X that AI wrote all the code. Researcher Gal Nagli found the database API key exposed on the front end in minutes.

Read more
Social media notification icons and dopamine triggers

Social Media Is Engineered Addiction

4 February 2026 · 5 min read

Internal documents from Meta revealed during California lawsuits show the company knew Instagram was designed to be addictive and deliberately hid this from parents. Employees called it a drug. Zuckerberg said telling parents would ruin the product.

Read more
Google AI infrastructure server room

Former Google Engineer Convicted of Stealing AI Secrets for China

3 February 2026 · 5 min read

Former Google engineer Linwei Ding was convicted on 14 counts for stealing over 2,000 pages of AI trade secrets and transferring them to Chinese companies. He uploaded confidential files to his personal cloud while secretly founding a Chinese AI startup and pitching investors using stolen Google technology.

Read more
AI stuffed dinosaur toy with chat interface

Don't Buy Internet-Connected Toys For Your Kids

2 February 2026 · 4 min read

Security researchers found that Bondu's AI dinosaur toys left over 50,000 chat logs exposed to anyone with a Gmail account. Children's names, birth dates, family details, and every private conversation sat on a web portal anyone could access without hacking.

Read more
BitLocker encryption key warning screen

Microsoft Gives Your BitLocker Keys to the FBI

31 January 2026 · 1 min read

Microsoft hands BitLocker recovery keys to law enforcement about 20 times annually when served with warrants. The keys live on Microsoft servers by default, letting federal agents unlock encrypted drives without asking the device owner.

Read more
Exposed AI server infrastructure map

175,000 Open AI Servers Found Online With No Security

30 January 2026 · 3 min read

SentinelOne SentinelLABS and Censys discovered 175,000 publicly accessible Ollama AI servers operating without authentication across 130 countries. The servers form a massive unmanaged layer of AI infrastructure running outside corporate security controls.

Read more
Broken encryption lock symbol with AI circuit pattern

AI Agents Are Breaking End-to-End Encryption

29 January 2026 · 3 min read

Signal Foundation president Meredith Whittaker says AI agents embedded in operating systems are destroying the practical security of end-to-end encryption. The agents require sweeping permissions to read messages and access credentials, collapsing the isolation that encrypted messaging relies on.

Read more
Irish government building with surveillance camera overlay

Ireland Legalizes Police Spyware to Hack Your Phone

24 January 2026 · 7 min read

Ireland's Communications Bill gives police authority to install spyware on your devices, break encryption before it activates, and track every phone in a given area. The government calls it modernization. It's state-sanctioned hacking.

Read more
Wireless earbuds with glowing red warning indicators

The Flaw that Hijacks your Headphones

20 January 2026 · 4 min read

Google's Fast Pair protocol was designed for one-tap Bluetooth connections. Researchers just proved it also gives hackers one-tap access to hijack your earbuds, activate your microphone, and track your location in under 15 seconds.

Read more
INTERPOL Red Notice warning symbol

Black Basta Ransomware Leader on EU Most Wanted List

19 January 2026 · 2 min read

Oleg Nefedov, a 35-year-old Russian national, has been added to the EU Most Wanted and INTERPOL Red Notice lists as the alleged leader of Black Basta ransomware. Ukrainian and German authorities identified two Ukrainian accomplices who worked as password crackers for the group.

Read more
Chrome Web Store malicious extension warning screen

Chrome Extensions Stole Enterprise Credentials From 2,300 Users

18 January 2026 · 2 min read

Malicious Chrome extensions posing as enterprise productivity tools stole authentication credentials from Workday, NetSuite, and SAP SuccessFactors users. The extensions extracted session cookies every 60 seconds and blocked access to security management pages.

Read more
Screenshot showing Pathways game extremism meter interface

UK Teaches Kids Curiosity Is Terrorism

17 January 2026 · 4 min read

The UK government created Pathways, a video game with an extremism meter that tracks children's thoughts. Schools deploy it for kids aged 11-18. Researching immigration statistics increases your score. Prevent referred a triple murderer three times and released him. Now it tracks teenage curiosity.

Read more
Australian eSafety Commissioner building with X logo

Child Abuse Was Tolerated. Deepfakes Aren't.

16 January 2026 · 3 min read

X reported 870,000 child abuse cases in 2023. Australia fined them $610,500 and moved on. Grok's AI deepfakes in December 2025 triggered investigations and ban threats within 72 hours.

Read more
Apple ATT consent prompt on iPhone

Italy fines Apple €98.6M over ATT bias

28 December 2025 · 2 min read

Italy fined Apple €98.6 million over App Tracking Transparency, arguing the consent burden fell harder on third party developers while reinforcing ad tracking as the assumed norm.

Read more
Flock Safety camera pointed at playground

Flock Safety Exposes Children to Creeps

24 December 2025 · 3 min read

Flock Safety exposed dozens of Condor cameras filming unattended children and lone adults directly to the internet. Predators accessed live video and full archives with no login or trace.

Read more
AI browser security warning

AI Browsers Are Unsafe by Design

23 December 2025 · 2 min read

AI browsers combine instruction-following models with direct access to sensitive systems, creating failure modes vendors admit cannot be eliminated.

Read more
Young child glued to an iPad

Technology Is Outpacing Childhood

22 December 2025 · 4 min read

Children are being given powerful digital devices earlier than ever. The problem is not technology itself but timing. Developing brains are being shaped by tools designed for constant stimulation.

Read more
Cloud cryptomining abuse

AWS Accounts Hijacked for Cryptomining

18 December 2025 · 3 min read

Attackers are using stolen AWS credentials to spin up massive cryptomining workloads within minutes, draining accounts without exploiting any AWS vulnerability.

Read more
Browser extension surveillance diagram

Your AI Chats Were Never Private

16 December 2025 · 3 min read

A Google featured browser extension with millions of users silently intercepted AI chats across major platforms and exported them to analytics servers as a business model.

Read more
PayPal phishing email alert

Scammers Hijack PayPal Billing Emails

15 December 2025 · 2 min read

Attackers abused PayPal’s subscription system to send legitimate PayPal emails that falsely claim expensive purchases and push victims toward scam phone numbers.

Read more
Abstract visualization of decentralized onion routing nodes

Session Messenger Deep Dive

14 December 2025 · 5 min read

Session Messenger rejects phone numbers, central servers, and contact graphs. This deep dive explains how its network works, why Protocol V1 made controversial tradeoffs, and how Protocol V2 changes the cryptographic model.

Read more
Windows surveillance blocked

Signal vs Microsoft Recall

14 December 2025 · 3 min read

Microsoft Recall screenshots your screen by default. Signal responded by blocking Windows from capturing private conversations entirely.

Read more
us border surveillance checkpoint

The US Border Now Screens Speech

12 December 2025 · 3 min read

The US is moving from checking identities to judging expression. Five years of social media is now being treated as a border requirement.

Read more
malware loader memory evasion graphic

Ransomware’s New Secret Weapon

9 December 2025 · 2 min read

Shanya proves stealth is now a commodity. Ransomware gangs no longer build their own evasion. They rent it and walk straight past EDR tools still relying on a broken Windows trust model.

Read more
stalkerware phone surveillance graphic

SpyFone stays banned

9 December 2025 · 2 min read

The FTC denied SpyFone’s attempt to escape its 2021 ban because nothing changed. SpyFone was stalkerware and the industry still harms real people.

Read more
Broken VPN icons scattered

The VPN Industry’s Rot Laid Bare

8 December 2025 · 4 min read

A new peer reviewed study shows enormous VPN brands lying about ownership, hard coding encryption keys, and quietly piping user data through insecure tunnels. The rot is systemic and it has been hidden behind Singapore shell companies and marketing gloss.

Read more
AI coding tool security diagram

IDEsaster Exposes 30 Flaws in AI Coding Tools

7 December 2025 · 3 min read

Thirty vulnerabilities in AI coding tools show how prompt injection and auto approved actions can escalate into data theft and remote code execution. Every major AI IDE tested was vulnerable.

Read more
Android malware VNC control concept

New Albiriox MaaS Malware

1 December 2025 · 3 min read

Albiriox is a new Android MaaS threat built for on device fraud, VNC control and credential theft. It targets more than 400 financial apps and bypasses FLAG_SECURE protections.

Read more
Lawmakers targeting VPNs

The New War On VPNs In America

29 November 2025 · 2 min read

US states are pushing bills that punish VPN use and force websites to expose users. It looks a lot more like authoritarian censorship than child protection.

Read more
Edward Snowden silhouette

Snowden vs the surveillance state

27 November 2025 · 2 min read

Edward Snowden exposed a surveillance system that watched everyone while pretending it did not exist. His leaks forced the world to face the truth.

Read more
GrapheneOS homescreen on a Pixel phone

Android's No Match for GrapheneOS

27 November 2025 · 2 min read

GrapheneOS strips out Google’s surveillance layer and replaces it with real security. It takes discipline to use, but the payoff is a phone that finally works for you instead of advertisers.

Read more
Monero digital cash privacy concept

Monero Keeps You Hidden

26 November 2025 · 2 min read

Monero hides the sender, receiver and amount on every transaction. In a world built on surveillance finance, this is what real digital cash looks like.

Read more
smart speaker on table listening

"Alexa, Who Else is Listening?"

25 November 2025 · 1 min read

Smart speakers are marketed as helpers but operate as networked microphones feeding Amazon and Google. Every misfire and bug proves how fragile your privacy becomes once you let them in.

Read more
Zcash symbol with rising chart

Zcash’s privacy revolt

24 November 2025 · 1 min read

Zcash’s surge has set off panic among Bitcoin purists and institutions that want crypto domesticated. Privacy is back on the table and the usual suspects are furious.

Read more
Smart meter on house wall

Judge Ends Sacramento Smart Meter Surveillance

23 November 2025 · 2 min read

A California judge has shut down a decade long program where police used utility smart meter data to scan entire neighborhoods without suspicion. The ruling confirms that mass data sharing by utilities crosses clear legal limits.

Read more
WhatsApp data breach concept image

WhatsApp leak exposes 3.5 billion users

22 November 2025 · 1 min read

Researchers scraped 3.5 billion WhatsApp profiles using WhatsApp’s own contact discovery feature. No hack. No breach. Just a system that exposes too much data by design.

Read more
Meta building with dollar signs

Meta Is Making Billions From Scam Ads

20 November 2025 · 2 min read

Hidden documents show Meta estimates up to 10% of its 2024 revenue comes from scam advertisements and that its platforms display 15 billion “higher risk” scam ads each day.

Read more
WireGuard encryption keys and routing interface

Why WireGuard Encryption is Superior

26 October 2025 · 2 min read

WireGuard stripped VPNs back to what matters, modern cryptograpy, tiny attack surface, insane speed, and zero legacy baggage. Here is why we built Blackout on top of it.

Read more
Digital identity and age verification concept

Australia’s Digital ID Trojan Horse

24 October 2025 · 8 min read

‘Child safety’ laws are being used to justify nationwide identity verification. Here's how digital ID systems and age checks merge into one surveillance framework.

Read more