Friday Squid Blogging: Giant Squid Eating a Diamondback Squid

I have no context for this video—it’s from Reddit—but one of the commenters adds some context:

Hey everyone, squid biologist here! Wanted to add some stuff you might find interesting.

With so many people carrying around cameras, we’re getting more videos of giant squid at the surface than in previous decades. We’re also starting to notice a pattern, that around this time of year (peaking in January) we see a bunch of giant squid around Japan. We don’t know why this is happening. Maybe they gather around there to mate or something? who knows! but since so many people have cameras, those one-off monster-story encounters are now caught on video, like this one (which, btw, rips. This squid looks so healthy, it’s awesome).

When we see big (giant or colossal) healthy squid like this, it’s often because a fisher caught something else (either another squid or sometimes an antarctic toothfish). The squid is attracted to whatever was caught and they hop on the hook and go along for the ride when the target species is reeled in. There are a few colossal squid sightings similar to this from the southern ocean (but fewer people are down there, so fewer cameras, fewer videos). On the original instagram video, a bunch of people are like “Put it back! Release him!” etc, but he’s just enjoying dinner (obviously as the squid swims away at the end).

As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered.

Blog moderation policy.

Tags: ,

Posted on December 12, 2025 at 5:00 PM • 48 Comments

Comments

369 • December 12, 2025 7:24 PM

‘It’s amazing’ – the wonder material very few can make
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c24l223d9n7o

‘special material called cadmium zinc telluride (CZT)

This wonder material has many other uses, such as in X-ray telescopes, radiation detectors and airport security scanners. And it is increasingly sought-after.

CZT itself has been around for decades but it is notoriously difficult to manufacture. “It has taken a long time for it to develop into an industrial-scale production process,” says Arnab Basu, founding chief executive of Kromek.

He adds that CZT-based scanners are currently in use for explosives detection at
UK airports, and for scanning checked baggage in some US airports. “We expect CZT
to come into the hand luggage segment over the next [few] years.”‘

ResearcherZero • December 13, 2025 1:44 AM

A former CIA agent confirms that yes the CIA can hack into all of your bits and bobs.

‘https://currentindia.com/channels/timesofindia/toi-world/yes-they-can-former-cia-spy-warns-agencys-tools-can-takeover-your-phone-tv-and-even-your-car/

Or likely find terabytes of corporate intelligence left lurking in unprotected databases.
https://cybernews.com/security/database-exposes-billions-records-linkedin-data/

And so can anyone else… admittedly, not perhaps with the same level of sophistication.
https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/labs/fake-leonardo-dicaprio-movie-torrent-agent-tesla-powershell

Clive Robinson • December 13, 2025 5:44 AM

@ ALL,

6000 downed by Space weather Story from BBC

In the rapid news cycles the story on one of the largest grounding of aircraft so far seen has disappeared almost faster than “fog on the runway”.

The result much of the implications have not impinged on most people.

And even for those it has is the mystery of,

“Where did it originate from?”

Our Sun, some other sun or cosmic event in the Milky way, or somewhere a lot further from home?

The implication that people should mull over the most is,

“How it effects us as individuals that form technological societies.”

Not least because all computer assisted or controlled vehicles including the car parked in your drive way have the same failing, that’s been known since the 1970’s if not longer.

Think of it as the equivalent of a technology Achilles Heel…

Bit flips: How cosmic rays grounded a fleet of aircraft

“Radiation from space that led to more than 6,000 Airbus aircraft needing emergency computer updates could become a growing problem as ever more microchips run our lives.“

https://www.bbc.co.uk/future/article/20251201-how-cosmic-rays-grounded-thousands-of-aircraft

As noted in the penultimate paragraph,

“As computer chips have become smaller, they have also become more vulnerable to bit flips because the energy required to corrupt tiny packets of data has got lower over time. Plus, more and more microchips are being loaded into products and vehicles, potentially increasing the chance that a bit flip could cause havoc.“

Herman • December 13, 2025 6:25 AM

  • Palantir CEO Says Making War Crimes Constitutional Would Be Good for Business

https://gizmodo.com/palantir-ceo-says-making-war-crimes-
constitutional-would-be-good-for-business-2000695162

  • Mozilla Thunderbird 146 Brings OpenPGP Keyserver Settings

https://linuxiac.com/thunderbird-146-brings-openpgp-keyserver-settings/

  • Brave browser starts testing agentic AI mode for automated tasks

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/artificial-intelligence/brave-browser-starts-testing-agentic-ai-mode-for-automated-tasks/

  • Tails 7.3.1 Anonymous Linux OS Released with Tor Browser 15.0.3 and Tor 0.4.8.21

https://9to5linux.com/tails-7-3-1-anonymous-linux-os-released-with-tor-browser-15-0-3-and-tor-0-4-8-21

Herman • December 13, 2025 6:26 AM

  • Kali Linux 2025.4 Ethical Hacking Distro Released with KDE Plasma 6.5,
    GNOME 49

https://9to5linux.com/kali-linux-2025-4-ethical-hacking-distro-released-wit
h-kde-plasma-6-5-gnome-49

  • The Tor Project is Making a Switch to Rust, Ditches C

https://itsfoss.com/news/tor-rust-rewrite-progress/

  • Fake Leonardo DiCaprio Movie Torrent Drops Agent Tesla Through Layered
    PowerShell Chain

https://www.bitdefender.com/en-us/blog/labs/fake-leonardo-dicaprio-movie-to
rrent-agent-tesla-powershell

Clive Robonson • December 13, 2025 6:28 AM

@ Bruce, ALL,

The bones are still rattling in the closet

Every so often I find cause to mention “Why Jonny can’t encrypt” and later versions, and bemoan the ICT industry and it’s failings.

Well it looks like I’m not alone,

Poor Johnny still won’t encrypt

“The state of email encryption“

https://bfswa.substack.com/p/poor-johnny-still-wont-encrypt

The point being security for Email has not really changed in just about 4 decades, for just about the same reason,

“The reality is blunt: most email traffic doesn’t enforce encryption, as MTA-STS[1] adoption remains very low. Opportunistic encryption (STARTTLS) is more common, but obviously vulnerable to downgrade attacks[2].“

So we’ve moved on from something that offers some level of technical security but was not easy to use, to things that no real security but are trivial to use, thus “Convenient”[3].

That record gets played so often the needle gets stuck every time…

[1] MTA-STS is more formally “SMTP MTA Strict Transport Security” and you can read all about it till your eyes bleed in RFC 8461 to be found in any good search engine near you (if it’s not fallen prey to enshitification).

[2] Fallback / Downgrade attacks are mostly a variation on “Man in The Middle”(MiTM) attacks that are run during the the plaintext “protocol negotiation phase” of the client software connecting to the server software. Put simply an adversary can cause the security to be removed or downgraded, simply by making the only common encryption protocol available be “plain text” or something else that is easily broken such as ARC4 or worse.

[3] Convenience can be seen as a major security “systems” failing. It’s why most “Security Apps” are not secure in a “system” and journalist get targeted and sometimes badly hurt or murdered.

Clive Robinson • December 13, 2025 11:09 AM

@ Bruce, ALL,

Teaching teenagers about AI and why it’s a tool not magic.

I’ve mentioned before from an engineering perspective how Current AI LLM and ML Systems work. Because I’m assuming that is the appropriate level for the broad range of understanding readers on this blog have.

However most teens don’t have an engineering and software background sufficient to it, nor do they have a mathematical science background to directly understand the statistical mechanics aspects.

Thus they are not the best approach for the majority, so other methods need be taught. Without falling into “death by dull” of taking it all the way up from just Pythagorean maths (I can do this but trust me even readers here would be getting the “Death by viewfoil” feeling 😉

Which is why this caught my eye,

Secondary school maths showing that AI systems don’t think

“At a time when many young people are using AI for personal and learning purposes, schools are trying to figure out what to teach about AI and how…

One aspect of this is how technical we should get in explaining how AI works, particularly if we want to debunk naive views of the capabilities of the technology, such as that AI tools ‘think’. In this month’s research seminar, we found out how AI contexts can be added to current classroom maths to make maths more interesting and relevant while teaching the core concepts of AI.“

https://www.raspberrypi.org/blog/secondary-school-maths-showing-that-ai-systems-dont-think/

It’s important that we do this for the sake and protection of society as we currently still think about it (even though it’s already been compromised to a level that few realise).

Especially as those in the 10-20% of the population who desire power and control above all else… And invest in any way they can get others to give it to them.

It’s why I keep warning about the effective “Be” business plan of AI mega-corps that is,

Bedazzle, Beguile, Bewitch, Befriend and Betray”

That is being used to as rapidly as possible to do two things,

1, Use AI as “Client side” surveillance.
2, Enforce User Identification at all times.

The second via “think of the children” to make building “life profiles” of individuals as easy and rapid as possible. And it’s particularly newsworthy currently with the UK OSA and FEAR acts. As well as the Australian ban on teenage and younger use of social media.

Before anyone asks, I’ve already said in the past about my personal habits[1].

The point is we need to educate the next generation or two about the dangers[2].

And the first step is to get them to understand the technology and it’s dangers.

[1] For my “personal computing” / engineering / design and development I have some rules of behaviour which in some respects are OpSec++,

1, I use pre 1995 consumer/commercial hardware.
2, Anything I need more modern such as data diodes and secure gap crossing technology I design and manufacture myself and it’s bespoke.
3, None of it is connected to any external communications even by the power supply (ie “Energy Gapped).
4, Likewise, “information” segregation is by appropriate encryption algorithms and encryption modes built in to the applications, OS, and boot methods.
5, Further I’m a great believer not just in “segregation” at the hardware / “physical” layers, but as importantly up and through out the entire computing stack from below layer 0 up and beyond what is now seen as “just the technical layers”. That is into those that address human / social / political / policy / legislation / treaties etc.

Sun Tzu was one of the first to write about War and how you do not be a victim of it, likewise carl von clausewitz. But you also need to consider the politics that Niccolò Machiavelli wrote about in his books. But don’t forget Thomas Hobbes’s Leviathan, of which it has been described as,

The axiom, fear; the method, logic; the conclusion, despotism.”

[2] I know it made me sound paranoid when first I talked about these things but… Events are rapidly catching up, as many are now realising. And I need to become even more circumspect in what I do, as does every one else.

We already see slogans such as,

“Cash, use it or loose it!”

Well exactly the same applies to your Privacy and Personal Security.

Data Diode • December 13, 2025 11:44 AM

Clive Robinson,

“1, I use pre 1995 consumer/commercial hardware.”

This means mainly 486 and below. Occasionally original Pentium 586 too, albeit they were rare and EXPENSIVE in 1995.

How you even use this blog with your 486 (or even 586). Modern “https everywhere” movement kills any usability on those machines.

And what is your threat model? Who you think comes after you? Are you really so scared? Sorry, I want to use computers, not first spend 5 hours in the morning to to remove all the security measures, then use it 2 hours and then again 5 hours to unlock it again. If some three letter agency wants to access my computer, they surely eventually can, resources here are not even remotely equal. I really don’t want to go nuts with security. There are other things in life – music, walk, books, friends etc.

369 • December 13, 2025 4:53 PM

@Clive on space weather.
These are parts of the article

‘new computer hardware, to better protect them against the threat of space radiation wreaking havoc with their electronics.

The software works by inducing “rapid refreshing of the corrupted parameter so it has no time to have effect on the flight controls”, Airbus says. This is, in essence, a way of continually sanitizing computer data on these aircraft to try and ensure that any errors don’t end up actually impacting a flight.’

There is explanation how software will help but what about hardware protection?

I guess military aircrafts and ICBMs should have it for sure.

KC • December 13, 2025 5:06 PM

Re: cadmium zinc telluride (CZT)

Fascinating article about a semiconductor capable of very high-precision imaging.

I popped the BBC article into Notebook LM, and generated an infographic and a slideshow.

I don’t know how accurate the rendering in the slideshow is, but to be able to see an x ray in colour? As a doctor says: “It’s an amazing feat of engineering and physics.” Looking further, it appears CZT can measure each photon’s energy, not just its presence, allowing for such “spectroscopic” images.

And as @369 observed, CZT’s applications are practical and many. Now to figure out more precisely where I may be hallucinating … 🙂

369 • December 13, 2025 5:41 PM

@KC – thank you for Your point.

@all
Google asks UK experts to find uses for its powerful quantum tech
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c2epm0w0zggo

‘Google has announced plans to team up with the UK to invite researchers to come up with uses for the tech giant’s state-of-the-art quantum chip Willow.

It is one of several firms competing to develop a powerful quantum computer –
which is seen as an exciting new frontier in the future of computing.

The collaboration between Google and the UK’s national lab for quantum computing means more researchers will get access to the technology.

When it was unveiled in 2024, Google’s Willow chip was seen as a significant step forward in the field.

Rival firms including Amazon and IBM are also developing their own tech.

Dr Michael Cuthbert, Director at the National Quantum Computing Centre (NQCC) said the partnership would “accelerate discovery”.

The NQCC already hosts seven quantum computers from British-based firms such as
Quantum Motion, ORCA and Oxford Ionics.’

Ismar • December 13, 2025 5:47 PM

@Clive- isn’t the plain’s fuselage not enough shielding from magnetic radiation to prevent this?

369 • December 13, 2025 6:28 PM

https://news.yahoo.com/news/tech/science/articles/spacecraft-chinese-launch-nearly-slammed-045934216.html

‘”As far as we know, no coordination or deconfliction with existing satellites
operating in space was performed, resulting in a 200-meter close approach between one of the deployed satellites and STARLINK-6079 (56120) at 560 km altitude. Most of the risk of operating in space comes from the lack of coordination between satellite operators — this needs to change,” Michael Nicolls, vice president of Starlink engineering at SpaceX, said via X on Friday evening (Dec. 12).

Kinetica 1 is a 100-foot-tall (30 meters) solid-fuel rocket operated by CAS Space. The company, which is based in Guangzhou, responded to Nicolls’ post, saying that it did its due diligence as the launch services provider (LSP) but is looking into the incident nonetheless.

The coordination that Nicolls cited is becoming more and more important, for Earth orbit is getting more and more crowded. In 2020, for example, fewer than 3,400 functional satellites were whizzing around our planet. Just five years later, that number has soared to about 13,000, and more spacecraft are going up all the time.

Starlink satellites avoid potential collisions autonomously, maneuvering
themselves away from conjunctions predicted by available tracking data. And this sort of evasive action is quite common: Starlink spacecraft performed about 145,000 avoidance maneuvers in the first six months of 2025, which works out to around four maneuvers per satellite per month.’

Clive Robinson • December 13, 2025 9:28 PM

@ ALL,

Did Trump kill US Defence industry and kick the legs out from under the Silicon Valley Corps?

The news is that Trump has pulled the US out of NATO… Whilst Canada, Japan, South Korea, Norway, and Greece are joining EU SAFE (EU defence industry fund)…

Apparently Mr Buffet takes rather a dim view on Trump’s yammerings…

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=VSBXzK3Vf7o

There is a section in there on ICTsec and US corporate cloud that’s important. So skimming through to 21 mins to hear what he voices about the likes of Microsoft, Amazon, and other SaaS / cloud providers and US technology firms etc in “the Supply chain” might prove a bit of an eye opener.

lurker • December 13, 2025 10:27 PM

@clive Robinson
“The news is that Trump has pulled the US out of NATO”

What news? Time to cut down the strength of that tea?

br0k3n • December 14, 2025 12:36 AM

  • Google’s New ‘Disco’ Browser Turns Tabs Into Custom Web Apps

https://www.extremetech.com/internet/googles-new-disco-browser-turns-tabs-into-custom-web-apps

  • This Group Pays Bounties to Repair Broken Devices—Even If the Fix Breaks the Law

https://www.wired.com/story/fulu-repair-bounties-nest-molekule/

  • Google Translate expands live translation to all earbuds on Android

https://arstechnica.com/google/2025/12/google-translate-learns-slang-and-idioms-expands-live-translation-beyond-pixel-buds/

  • Stolen Fabergé pendant passed to police – quite literally

https://news.sky.com/story/police-recover-bond-inspired-faberge-pendant-six-days-after-it-was-swallowed-by-a-suspect-13479544

Clive Robinson • December 14, 2025 6:32 AM

@ KC, lurker,

Maybe I should have emphasized the “apparently” rather more[1]…

Whilst it is true the countries mentioned want to join up with, or have joined, the “Security Action for Europe”(SAFE) EU fund program,

https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/canada-agrees-join-eu-initiative-surge-defense-spending-2025-12-01/

It’s been noted that the UK won’t be on this round or probably later rounds.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c2epgwkw1vlo

(The “scuttlebutt” is France is behind the break down as they see UK as to close to US and have opposed UK entry in all ways open to them).

https://www.brownejacobson.com/insights/uk-eu-defence-fund-talks-collapse-a-missed-opportunity

Even though the UK “third political party” is in agreement with the UK joining it,

https://edm.parliament.uk/early-day-motion/64735/uk-access-to-the-eu-safe-defence-fund

But moving on,

And it is true Trump’s defence team have pushed out a quite negative report along the lines of “European Freeloaders owe the US trillions”,

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-sets-2027-deadline-europe-led-nato-defense-officials-say-2025-12-05/

All of which are verified via other news sources.

The point is as I made some time ago, the US Defence industry is very much “propped up” by NATO spending. If Europe goes else where then the likes of Boeing, will be in a very much worse position which will have serious effects on it’s ability to perform –all be it quite badly– in the associated civilian and space projects Defence income cross subsidises.

BUT consider the whole video is a “crystal ball view” of a potential future again based on verifiable snip-its of information.

It’s why I pointed out the section of interest at 21mins in with,

“So skimming through to 21 mins”

To give a crystal ball view on the US IT Mega corps,

“the likes of Microsoft, Amazon, and other SaaS / cloud providers and US technology firms etc in “the Supply chain” might prove a bit of an eye opener.”

They are mostly going to find that SAFE locks them out not just of EU Defence spending but also EU Government spending as well.

Something that is actually not unexpected by many who claim that the GDPR and other EU legislation is a “paper tiger” or similarly ineffective.

The issue as always is the way the EU is setup and how just one out of the member states can veto the majority…

A quick glance will show you the US Mega Corps, are all in effect based in the South of Ireland. Because of various political “sweetheart deals” that have allowed those Mega Corps to dance around the GDPR and other EU legislation. So some EU nations are “out for blood”.

If you doubt this have a look at who is now in a very senior position in the Irish Data Protection Commission. You will find statements like,

“The European Commission is seeking further information from the Irish authorities in relation to the appointment of Niamh Sweeney as the third commissioner of the Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC).

The move follows controversy over Ms Sweeney’s suitability for the role due to her former position as a senior official in the tech giant Meta.”

Further it’s been said that like all Meta Execs she will have signed a lifetime agreement not to act in anyway against Meta or it’s owner(s)…

[1] There are a couple of words “apparently” and “supposedly” I use very regularly in my posts to indicate I can not find corroboration,

“From two or more independent sources”.

You will see it especially with US “unnamed official” statements 😉

lurker • December 14, 2025 11:36 AM

@Clive Robinson, KC

That video was an obvious chop-shop job. And today:

“This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Audrey Schwartz Rivers”

So, it goes along with all the other strange noises from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave

KC • December 14, 2025 8:46 PM

Cryptographers use puzzles to bypass LLM prompt filters

In ‘controlled-release prompting’ malicious prompts can be hidden inside substitution ciphers, which are too complex for the filter but solvable by the underlying LLM. The attack is inspired by time-lock puzzles. It’s important to understand how models work. Those with advanced output filtering demonstrate greater resistance to these attacks, but future work could explore this.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/cryptographers-show-that-ai-protections-will-always-have-holes-20251210/

ResearcherZero • December 14, 2025 11:21 PM

@Clive Robinson, ALL

I guess Trump forgot nuclear warheads create electromagnetic pulses when they detonate. Perhaps nobody told him, or the more plausible explanation – he wasn’t paying attention.

‘https://thebulletin.org/2025/12/new-starts-death-is-around-the-corner-please-someone-tell-the-president/

Russia is now “no longer a direct threat,” Trump has said. The Kremlin’s approach has deterred the United States and the Trump administration’s lack of strategy demonstrates Trump’s capitulation to Russia’s demands. This ensures that the United States moves to the beat of Russia’s drum. ICBMs don’t much care about how much a nation isolates itself.

https://www.thecipherbrief.com/breedlove-middle-east-ukraine-authoritarians

ResearcherZero • December 14, 2025 11:47 PM

The Kremlin hasn’t changed any of its policies as a result of Trump’s maneuvering. Instead Russian state television has shown a map of nuclear targets to strike in the United States.

‘https://www.foxnews.com/video/6007159319001

It is not the first time the Kremlin has leaked such maps or purported maps have appeared in various publications. These maps are of dubious origin and many of the targets obvious.

In all of these maps the first target is Washington DC, where the White House is located.
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-map-nuclear-war-russia-b2279249.html

The United States is giving both China and Russia a huge advantage and policy wins through a series of recent missteps. While the policies of the US administration have stifled innovation, China has encouraged scientific achievement and collaboration to thrive.

Trump has sought to prevent regulations for AI, yet China has achieved its advances with strict rules in place. Trump’s tariffs pushed China to pivot and achieve many of the goals it had wanted to achieve. This includes aims to eliminate US software at state-run companies by 2027.

Russia and China can extend their influence to fill the void left by the US.
Over the next few years the advantage the US once had will continue to rapidly evaporate.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/12/12/world/asia/nvidia-china-trump-security-japan.html

China has made significant progress on eliminating US technology and replacing it with domestic products. China is very proficient in training and giving students a hands-on education with technology, while the policies of the Trump administration are no real strategy for security, innovation or soft power and diplomacy. Rather Trump’s policies have harmed US academia, scientific discovery and the preparedness of the US to combat existing and emerging threats, divided the country and weakened national responses to challenges.

https://www.theintelbriefing.com/p/the-95-collapse-how-beijings-delete

Clive Robinson • December 15, 2025 7:13 AM

@ 0day,

With regards,

“20 years old bug can also be a 0day.”

But I think you will find that is not what @lurker was getting at.

It was more along the lines of the joke introduction of,

“Hello boys and girls we’ve spoken of serpents and apples…”

“Well we are now going to talk about Adam and Eve”

To some people it’s called “contrapuntal” writing or “contraposition” writing as in,

“Counterpoint to make a point.”

Whilst normally it referres to music that has two or more melodies that are combined but distinct. In poetry, oratory, and persuasive writing it’s considered a higher level in style.

fib • December 15, 2025 12:21 PM

@KC, All re CZT

It is worth noting that CZT incorporated in a ceramic medium exhibits strong photon-counting capability and high radiation attenuation. Such materials can serve as effective physical entropy generators. When photon counts or inter-arrival times are sampled and properly conditioned, they provide a robust source of true physical entropy.

Clive Robinson • December 15, 2025 12:49 PM

@ ResearcherZero,

With regards,

“This ensures that the United States moves to the beat of Russia’s drum. ICBMs don’t much care about how much a nation isolates itself.”

To understand why we are where we are with the Ukraine we need to contrast and compare with Turkey. And understand what the US with UK support did.

At the supposed end of the Coldwar the US ran around the old Soviet block trying to grab all the nuclear weapons the Soviets had left behind all over the place.

They even tried to grab back or limit other sovereign states that had nuclear weapons. It was an over reaction by those in the State Dept and backed by those who had been totally wrong footed by the Soviet collapse, like Condoleezza Rice, who even today has not learned lessons about Russia thus is making inept calls,

https://eadaily.com/en/news/2025/07/20/ukraine-could-have-defeated-russia-a-long-time-ago-candoliza-rice

Basically the US and UK “disarmed the Ukraine” of Nuclear Weapons, and as the price for this both nations promissed to give what ever was required to “keep Russia out”.

In part the Ukrainian leadership appeared to be happy to get rid of the nukes, but they were not exactly independent of Russia.

The Turkish however took a different view that Russia was and would remain “pure poison” on the world as long as Putin and those like him had any kind of power. So despite the US trying to get back the nukes from Turkey they eventually acquiesced and Turkey kept the nukes it had.

The Russians are in little doubt that Turkey will use them so have “kept of the grass” there.

Not so the Ukraine. I could go on at great length about the stupidity of the US State Dept and Congress with respect to other nations. It can be fairly easily seen that the US have pushed both Iran and North Korea step by step despite repeated warnings into becoming not just nuclear capable states, but also with capable delivery systems to drop in pretty much where they would want to.

The easiest thing to see was the US response to Pakistan. Prior to their becoming nuclear with delivery the US in effect treated them as lower than dirt… After the US started pulling out the chair for them at the top table. It’s a lesson not lost on nations that have been threatened with the US,

“Bomb them back to the stoneage”

rhetoric.

So North Korea and Packistan now have “Keep off the Grass notices”. Iran however decided to go up toward the capable line, but stay far enough away that the threat level was actually low to short term non existent.

So the US armed Israel and set them onto Iran for purely commercial political reasons.

The US Congress has a hate-on for Europe thus took advantage of Arab Spring and similar to drive refugees into Europe knowing that a certain criminal and terrorist element would hide in amongst them and create mayhem.

The simple fact is Europe does not want refugees of any form, and those that were “quiting their homelands whilst the going was possible” were mostly those who their original nations could not do with out…

So we got “cheap professional labour” and a lot of resentment which made the lives of “authoritarians” oh so much easier.

But as the US has found getting rid of refugees and immigrants that can “pay their way” within the US labour market, once across the boarder won’t want to “Go back home”. Worse as they are actually competition for professional jobs in the US they in effect are competition for those who have been ripped-off over and over by the US higher education system.

The UK has similar problems and some European Nations have taken the view of not allowing refugees and immigrants to be competition in the job market in various ways… Which has created issues all of it’s own as well.

But consider the “home nations” that have lost, healthcare, engineering and similar professional labour… It creates problems for those still there which aids authoritarians not only into power but keeps them there or creates civil unrest / war.

And war in other nations very much benifits the US in oh so many ways. As we’ve seen the world has been pushed onto a “slippery slope” and we are racing downwards.

But consider Putin has shown he also cares nothing about the use of nuclear weapons and will if he is believed would quite happily give the order to fire as long as it fills his “old nan” greater goals of being remembered for 10,000 years…

To quote the words of a song from the 1960’s,

“And can’t you feel the fears I’m feeling today?
If the button is pushed, there’s no running away.
There’ll be no one to save with the world in a grave.
Take a look around you, boy, it’s bound to scare you, boy

And you tell me over and over and over again, my friend.
Ah, you don’t believe we’re on the eve of destruction.”

The style of the record is very raw, as it was sung for the first time as a rehearsal and was recorded on an engineers personal tape. It got slipped out to a Radio Station that played it, over and over and it caught a moment in time in a nation and became a runaway success. The writer P.F.Slone, wrote it when just 19. He wrote five songs that night in 64, the most well known being the afore mrntioned “Eve of Destruction recorded by Barry McGuire. The least well known and actually the one I like the most is “Take Me For What I’m Worth” recorded by an English band that inspired the Byrds “The “Searchers” that had a very clean sound, but was not as famous as they might have been,

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=HyEJM5ZYB5Q

Bang Le Desk • December 16, 2025 1:57 AM

Google is shutting down its dark web report feature in January

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/google/google-is-shutting-down-its-dark-web-report-feature-in-january/

Home Depot exposed access to internal systems for a year, says researcher

https://techcrunch.com/2025/12/12/home-depot-exposed-access-to-internal-systems-for-a-year-says-researcher/

How to break free from smart TV ads and tracking

https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2025/12/the-ars-technica-guide-to-dumb-tvs/

Verizon refused to unlock man’s iPhone, so he sued the carrier and won

https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/verizon-refused-to-unlock-mans-iphone-so-he-sued-the-carrier-and-won/

Clive Robinson • December 16, 2025 10:33 PM

@ Ismar,

With regards,

“isn’t the plain’s fuselage not enough shielding from magnetic radiation to prevent this?”

Simple answer is “not really”. The reason is a mixture of probability and one off events.

It’s not magnetic –wave– radiation, but actual –particle– products, that hit the semiconductor structure at close to the speed of light and high inertia.

The question that actually arises is “where” the problem particles originated, that is where the fission actually took place.

As you probably know neutrinos can go right through the earth but alpha particles can not make it through the dead layer of skin on your hand.

Space Weather and CME’s contain tonnes of charged particles called “Solar Energetic Particles”(SEP) that are ejected and stream out driven by shockwaves. Unlike light that takes ~8mins to get from the Sun to the Earth, the large mass of particles can take very much longer that is nearly 3days, which is why we have some “warning time” of them heading our way. Like the event over the 6th-9th of Dec a few days back,

https://www.msn.com/en-us/science/astronomy/nasa-and-noaa-forecast-cme-impact-on-december-9-geomagnetic-storm-warning-issued/ar-AA1RUIl7

Such things are 21st Century Research and actually quite active,

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1364682625001634

But… These energetic particles when they come towards the earth encounter the Earth’s atmosphere where they hit atoms, of various gases at increasing density. The thing is the SEP’s don’t just stop a few tens of km above our heads with the light displays of the aurora, some few make it all the way down to sea level.

It’s the byproducts of these particle-atom interactions that cause the bit flips to semiconductor memory cells, and,

“Why when you fly higher, the more likely they are to hit yer.”

The fun fact is that these particles en-mass can cause very high levels of current (protons hitting atoms to free electrons etc). Thus like static electricity discharging and lightning strikes, cause electromagnetic waves to be induced as they are charged particles that are moving. The effect seen on long conductors can be devastating, where the immense voltages and currents generated in what are effective insulators get shorted through the power grid… This happens especially in North America along the Rockies and Canadian Shield that is a effectively an insulator of immense “capture area” for the particles.

We know this “the hard-way” because it happened in March 1989. And from well south of New York northward things went badly wrong and much of it ended up in Canada and is still known today as the Canadian / Quebec Blackout,

https://www.offthegridnews.com/grid-threats/the-1989-solar-storm-that-knocked-out-the-grid-closed-schools-businesses-panicked-the-population/

Whilst such devastating CME events are “rare” in human life expectancy terms. It really is just a case of probability, so “when it happens” not “if”. Worse historical evidence such as it is tends to suggest such events “cluster together” so multiple whammies as “incoming”.

ResearcherZero • December 17, 2025 7:06 AM

@Clive Robinson

I must of missed it when the State Department provided Ukraine with modern equipment and training when Condoleezza Rice was working there. Putin had invaded Chechnya, bombed its cities into oblivion and set up filtration camps to identify targets and separate families.

I do not remember the United States making much noise about it at the time or ringing the alarm bells, warning of Russia’s aggression or of the mass graves filled with civilians. As long as the oil and gas has continued to flow, human rights violations have been ignored.

The strategy has not worked well for the US and has given Russia and China a foothold in the South America’s (and many other regions around the world). States need credit, know-how and infrastructure and the authoritarian regimes have all of those capabilities, while needing the raw outputs and commodities that developing nations produce – for their own processing and production facilities – and to manufacture goods and refined products.

Petroleos de Venezuela, S.A (PDVSA) systems down and deliveries suspended after ransomware attack. Tankers headed for Venezuela have had to turn around and head to other countries.

‘https://www.reuters.com/world/americas/venezuelas-pdvsa-says-operations-unaffected-by-cyber-attack-blames-us-2025-12-15/

Russia had signed a 15 year deal for financial backing to keep PDVSA operations running.
https://factually.co/fact-checks/business/china-russia-influence-pdvsa-refining-joint-ventures-90393f

China has kept PDVSA afloat by providing the infrastructure, assisting with oil field development and providing skilled technicians to assist Venezuela to operate facilities.
https://venezuelanalysis.com/news/chinese-company-installs-first-floating-oil-platform-in-venezuelas-maracaibo-lake/

ResearcherZero • December 17, 2025 7:15 AM

Misconfigured edge devices hosted in the cloud are giving nation-states access to critical infrastructure. Once the attackers get access, they traverse the network and passively capture credentials for online services, which they then use to access those services.

‘https://www.securityweek.com/amazon-russian-hackers-now-favor-misconfigurations-in-critical-infrastructure-attacks/

LOLBINS

Group captures credentials and internal application data using built-in features.
https://businessinsights.bitdefender.com/curly-comrades-new-threat-actor-targeting-geopolitical-hotbeds

ResearcherZero • December 17, 2025 8:30 AM

@Clive Robinson

When the public elects politicians from parties to office, the oil and gas lobby are also granted daily access to those member’s parliamentary offices and any intelligence insights.

In return the oil and gas lobby back compliant individuals who run for office. Any who defy the oil and gas lobby face difficulty in raising funds and very well funded competition.

Invasions like that of Ukraine, drive up the profits of oil and gas companies and make the world more dependent on the flow of fossil fuels. When governments receive intelligence of plans for invasion that will affect the flow of commodities, the first people they call are the fossil fuel executives. Typically this happens well in advance of any invasion and successive governments do not deviate from allowing it proceed, despite the impact that the war will have on the affected populations and added expense for their own constituents.

Wars displace people. Many of those people often flee to other countries. As people fill up their cars with petrol and complain about the price, it is not the price of lives on their mind. Instead it is any other subject that their oil-backed MP directs their attention to.

The migrants flowing toward the United States are a direct result of this geopolitical game, just as the migrants flowing into Europe face the same pressures of conflict and the ravaging of their local environments from resource extraction that has taken everything and left them with nothing. Finite resources mean that once they are gone – they are gone.

Even in our own countries the workers are flown in and out to remote facilities, while the companies that employ them spend little of the profits in local towns and communities. Most of these companies have generous tax incentives to avoid contributing to the financing of basic services and public facilities in the locations being exploited.

I had a map somewhere showing where all the new extraction facilities were being built and they were nearly all in areas that are severely impoverished and under-resourced. The number of these facilities is set to double over the next 5 years, along with blood shed.

(I seem to have lost the map for now. The locations are all in the world’s poorest regions)

Killings, enforced disappearances and conflict are elevated near fossil fuel infrastructure, affecting 25% of the world’s population.

‘https://www.hrw.org/report/2025/04/30/punished-seeking-change/killings-enforced-disappearances-and-arbitrary-detention

The number of state-based conflicts worldwide have reached the highest level since 1946.
https://theconversation.com/the-world-on-the-brink-why-governments-must-invest-in-peace-not-just-arms-264543

Clive Robinson • December 17, 2025 9:40 AM

@ ResearcherZero,

You forgot to mention Venezuela’s territorial ambitions against it’s immediate neighbour Guyana for the resource rich “Essequibo” region,

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guyana%E2%80%93Venezuela_crisis_(2023%E2%80%932024)

As some are putting it the Guyana’s have more rights to offshore petrochemicals than Venezuela and importantly are not members of OPEC this not constrained by OPEC’s decisions.

This puts Venezuela at a considerable disadvantage against not just Guyana, but the US as well…

https://www.offshore-technology.com/features/explainer-the-venezuela-and-guyana-oil-dispute/

This is boiling up to be a similar situation to the Falkland Islands back in the 1980’s. Where the US desiring the south atlantic reserves basically started feeding intel and arms to the Argentine. The UK was aware of what was going on as Chille were providing the UK with not just feed back, but intel, and later military assistance.

Mad Maggie decided to go have a chat with Ronnie the Ray-Gun and in effect boxed his ears and the US State Dept did a “Smoking U-Turn” and changed it’s policy.

Yes I know that is not how the history books are written, but it’s not always the victor that gets to write the history books. Empires tend to push agendas hard and not forgive or forget…

Now however the US State Dept is playing a similar game, in that much of what is happening to Venezuela has been very deliberately orchestrated out of the US. Something that would not not be immediately apparent from most MSM news items. However some point more in the direction of the truth than others,

https://www.dw.com/en/venezuela-and-us-conflict-whats-it-all-about/a-75110149

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/us-venezuela-war-military-trump-b2882412.html

The reality about “drugs” is they are not the real reason for the War that will happen if “Agent Orange” gets his way. In short they are an excuse for the home crowd.

If the US really wanted to stop the drugs trade it has built up by domestic policy… Then the solution is within the USA not any country the Doh-gnarled decides needs to have leverage invented against.

Something like half a century of failure by the USA has created an entire ecosystem that the politicians and their funders find very lucrative, so actually don’t want to stop.

But then also think about what having Venezuela and Guyana’s heavy oil under US control would be worth to Agent Orange and his “when the going is good” buddies?

lurker • December 17, 2025 12:57 PM

@ResearcherZero
“edge devices hosted in the cloud”

They deserve all they’re getting

“The number of state-based conflicts worldwide … ”

I’m waiting for April 4, 2063. [Star Trek: First Contact]

369 • December 17, 2025 6:05 PM

https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-cyber-startup-armis-nears-deal-to-be-sold-to-servicenow-for-up-to-7b-report/

‘ServiceNow has a market value of almost $180 billion and is the developer of an AI-driven software platform for workflow processes.

Headquartered in Palo Alto, California, Armis was founded in 2016 by Yevgeny Dibrov, CEO, and Nadir Izrael, CTO, to develop a software system that would allow companies to adopt new connected devices without fear of cyberattacks.

The cybersecurity platform automatically discovers, monitors and provides information about all devices — from traditional laptops and smartphones to smart TVs, webcams, printers, HVAC systems, industrial control systems and medical devices — before they connect to an organization’s network. It manages an organization’s cyber risk exposure in real time and quarantines any suspicious
and malicious devices.’

ResearcherZero • December 17, 2025 9:41 PM

@lurker

I don’t know if they are coming. Probably worried they might pick up a nasty cold, transmissible disease, or all their private and sensitive data is going to be collected, then breached and dumped in a doxxing attack by malicious teenagers. By 2063 this is likely to be a daily occurrence, with personalized AI agents and automated botnets providing every school aged child with their own automated cyber weapons platform on par with nation states.

It might not be physical safe to land an intergalactic vehicle on Earth due to all the space junk left behind from failed satellite constellations following a major collision. If one was to even approach, they could invite attack from anyone of the defunct satellites in orbit which has been hijacked by the unruly school children. The former satellites of the abandoned Golden Dome space interceptor program would be especially dangerous. Anyone approaching Earth’s orbit would risk having their vehicle attacked by any one of a number of former space interceptor satellites, then under the control of an excited 10 year old with a Space invaders obsession, likely without any warning.

Personally, I would be hesitant to travel any closer than Saturn to refuel and resupply.

–

Wanted persons files and criminal records processing system at the French Ministry of Interior breached after the Ministry’s email system was compromised.

‘https://www.aa.com.tr/en/europe/french-interior-minister-says-hackers-accessed-dozens-of-confidential-files-in-cyberattack-on-ministry/3773488

Members of BreachForums claim they stole the files as an act of revenge. The judicial records system (TAJ) database, which contains about 17 million records on perpetrators and victims of crimes or offenses, and the wanted persons file (FPR) database were accessed in the attack. The credentials used in the breach were apparently obtained after employees shared the details in plain text via email. The hackers claim to have stolen the databases.

French police have stated that they have arrested a suspect responsible for the breach.

https://cybernews.com/security/france-interior-ministry-beauvau-data-breach/

ResearcherZero • December 17, 2025 10:18 PM

Manufacturers are still making it easy to conduct mass surveillance via our televisions.

Screenshots of what people watch and access on smart TVs are captured every 500ms by software built into the television that is designed to collect viewing habits. This can capture passwords, network configuration details, bank account details and private data.

Other viewing data such as internet browsing could also be captured if the device is used as a monitor for another device, or used to play videos and view pictures or documents. In such a case, any sensitive details entered into online forms and payment details may be captured, along with user names and visible passwords, or messages and online comments.

Blocking the IP address of the TV from internet access in home router settings would prevent the device from uploading captured data, but obviously this would also stop the internet capability of the TV, limiting the device to the home network only. Alternatively users could avoid connecting the television to their home network or the internet. Disable data collection if the option exists, or use an alternative method to view online content via a separate box that is not a Visio unit (or any other unit that also spies on users using the same nefarious methods).

Given the risk, enabling internet for smart TVs is highly dangerous and revealing.

‘https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/12/texas-sues-biggest-tv-makers-alleging-smart-tvs-spy-on-users-without-consent/

If you cannot disable data collection, factory resetting the TV may reveal the option during the setup process. Otherwise it may be far safer to use it as a dumb TV instead.
https://www.howtogeek.com/how-to-stop-any-smart-tv-from-spying-on-you-lg-samsung-sony-vizio/

Smart TVs also spy on customers via a number of other built-in and third party methods.
https://www.technobezz.com/slides/smart-tv-spying

cube • December 18, 2025 5:29 PM

  • Director of MIT’s Plasma Science and Fusion Center Murdered in His Home

https://www.bostonherald.com/2025/12/16/mit-professor-shot-killed-in-brookline-home/

  • Google Search Now Lets You Upload Images and PDFs for Analysis

https://www.extremetech.com/internet/google-search-now-lets-you-upload-images-and-pdfs-for-analysis

Firefox Will Ship with an “AI Kill Switch” to Completely Disable all AI Features

https://9to5linux.com/firefox-will-ship-with-an-ai-kill-switch-to-completely-disable-all-ai-features

  • Trump Officials Celebrated With Cake After Slashing Aid. Then People Died of Cholera.

https://www.propublica.org/article/usaid-cholera-deaths-trump-humanitarian-aid-cuts-south-sudan

cube • December 18, 2025 5:30 PM

  • Meet Armbian Imager, the Official Flashing Utility for Armbian Linux, Beta Out Now

https://9to5linux.com/meet-armbian-imager-the-official-flashing-utility-for-armbian-linux-beta-out-now

  • Your car’s web browser may be on the road to cyber ruin

https://www.theregister.com/2025/12/18/web_browsers_in_devices_security_vulnerabilities/

  • North Korean infiltrator caught working in Amazon IT department thanks to lag

https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/cyber-security/north-korean-infiltrator-caught-working-in-amazon-it-department-thanks-to-lag-110ms-keystroke-input-raises-red-flags-over-true-location

Clive Robinson • December 18, 2025 9:20 PM

@ ResearcherZero,

With regards “Smart Tv’s” and their habits of,

“Screenshots of what people watch and access on smart TVs are captured every 500ms by software built into the television that is designed to collect viewing habits. This can capture passwords, network configuration details, bank account details and private data.”

Is this not also the same sort of behaviour of the AI forced on users by Microsoft in Win-11?

Because according to the “Information Commissioner’s Office”(ICO) in the UK that is already unlawful behaviour under the GDPR (it’s Class A user information).

Clive Robinson • December 18, 2025 10:33 PM

@ It belongs…, ALL,

With regards,

“Creating apps like Signal or WhatsApp could be ‘hostile activity,’ claims UK watchdog”

I saw this coming back before Signal was more than an announcement let alone an actuality.

I warned that no matter what level of security and type of encryption signal used it could not be secure as a system due to what we now call client side attacks.

I indicated that the only way to ensure privacy was to “move the ‘security endpoint’, beyond the ‘communications endpoint'” which ment taking the encrypted traffic “off the device” all together.

And people thought I was being paranoid…

It’s why I showed how to make “deniable encryption” using a,

“Paper&pencil secure encryption (OTP) algorithm and a code book to convert encrypted data to harmless plaintext that had high redundancy”

Doing this sort of thing is actually the only way to stop the ever forward march by authoritarian politicians and those that drive them to destroy society.

And yes I really do mean “destroy society” as we currently know and understand it.

People often go on about “Free Speech” but what they actually mean is the right to,

“Shout out what they want to in public.”

Which having been on the receiving end of, I actually still agree they should have (I might not like what they say but the same ‘Free Speech’ gives me the right of ‘free reply’).

But you very very rarely hear anybody go on about the other “Free Speech” of the right to,

“Say what you need or want to say in private.”

And it’s value as a “social good” that actually is a glue for society as we used to know it last century.

To see why there is a phrase that has a certain truth about adults,

“Nobody is vanilla we all have kinks and fetishisms”

They are built into our DNA by evolution,

“For the good of the species”.

But the all important point many miss is that,

“Between consenting adults”

automatically implies,

“In private”.

It is this “Free Speech in Private” that is really under attack…

Not just by tin pot dictator politicians and the guard labour that own them, but by all sorts of undesirables who covert the power to control, make profit or both from others who do not consent to it.

Remember that “blackmail” and “censorship” are actually the two sides of the same coin…

lurker • December 19, 2025 12:51 PM

“The CRASH (Collision Realization And Significant Harm) Clock calculates how long it would take, on average, for a debris-producing collision to occur if satellites suddenly lost situational awareness and stopped maneuvering.

In 2018, before today’s megaconstellations filled the skies, the CRASH Clock stood at 121 days. Today, it’s less than three.

According to SpaceX’s most recent biannual report, Starlink satellites alone executed 144,404 collision-avoidance maneuvers between Dec. 1, 2024, and May 31, 2025.

Enjoy your Starlink–while you can.”

‘https://www.spaceweather.com/archive.php?view=1&day=19&month=12&year=2025

Clive Robinson • December 20, 2025 4:26 AM

@ lurker, ALL,

With regards,

“In 2018, before today’s megaconstellations filled the skies, the CRASH Clock stood at 121 days. Today, it’s less than three.”

The thought occurs as to what the clock would change to,

“If we take out all the very low earth orbit Sats for ‘consumer use’ such as Starlink and co…”

But one thing to note about,

“Starlink satellites alone executed 144,404 collision-avoidance maneuvers”

The number you have to make goes up as your orbit hight decreases. The reason is the Earth “reaches out” in various ways. Not least due to friction from the atmosphere that gets significantly effected by solar radiation.

So Sats in very low orbit might have natural orbit lives measured in days not years before they get to the point of no recovery and burn up in the atmosphere.

But of increasing concern is what is happening to the atmosphere as Sats burn up, much of the material becomes gas that can stay in the upper atmosphere for decades if not centuries. We found out the hard way that things like ozone and spray can propellents and fridge coolants cause very real and lasting damage in the atmosphere and the Earth underneath. Many are coming to the conclusion we might be in danger of doing it all again with Sats burning up, thus we need to investigate it properly rather than shrug it off.

It has been posited that Kessler syndrome[1] could be used, or occur as a weapon of war with one adversary destroying the other adversaries satellites. Thus denying the new “High Ground” not just to an adversary but every one.

The fact that some authoritarian leaders well beyond normal retirment age. And consequently approaching their death by old age, now look on nuclear weapons all being tactical offensive rather than strategic defence weapons… As they don’t care about what mess they leave behind, only that their name goes on. And in fact look on it positively as “leaving their mark on the world”… thus might be way more likely –than those more rational than themselves– to see the Kessler effect as being not only as a valid weapon, but also poisoning the atmosphere for centuries if not millennium as a positive bonus as a slow acting “doomsday weapon”.

[1] Basic and upto date figures information on Kessler syndrome for those that may not have come across it as more than an MSM Science News sound bite before,

https://climatecosmos.com/climate-science/what-happens-if-space-debris-triggers-kessler-syndrome-2/

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