Ok, fellow hackers, I propose a pact: That new EU age verification app thingy ... do NOT help improve it.

Don't publish findings. Don't responsibly disclose insecurities. Don't facilitate them making it bulletproof.

If personal data is directly at risk, by all means, slam their asses into the ground. GDPR them into oblivion.

But on its core functionality this needs to be, to become, and to stay, the most insecure, the most easily circumventable piece of shit code on the planet.

NEW, by me: Sweden has blamed Russian government-linked hackers for attempting a destructive cyber attack on a thermal plant in western Sweden in 2025.

The cyberattack failed, but it's the latest in a string of Russia-linked incidents targeting critical infrastructure in Europe in recent years.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/04/15/sweden-blames-russian-hackers-for-attempting-destructive-cyberattack-on-thermal-plant/

Well this is truly bad. US national level OS-level age verification bill. https://www.congress.gov/bill/119th-congress/house-bill/8250/all-info

The text of it isn't out yet.

EDIT: Well the text is now out and it's as bad as you could imagine. It's not even just that you need to verify your age to access a website... operating systems must verify your age to let you *use a computer at all*

EDIT EDIT: Thanks to @Andres4NY for pointing out that it also holds responsible anyone who has any software shipped on the operating system of a computer, meaning FOSS developers eveywhere

Last month, the EU Council wanted to push through voluntary scanning. But they failed! 🎉

However, the trilogue discussions on Chat Control 2.0 start this Thursday. But #ChatControl is a Trojan Horse for citizens and businesses in Europe. Interestingly, not everyone should be monitored:

❌ Government

❌ Military

✅ YOU

Make sure your country opposes Chat Control! Learn why: 👉 https://tuta.com/blog/chat-control-criticism

RE: https://infosec.exchange/@muntashir/116372607911622394

Google's assault on F-Droid has begun. They are permitting malicious actors to claim other people's apps and take them over. As we've warned, this is going to destroy F-Droid and independent app distribution around the world. Speak out and help stop them at https://keepandroidopen.org. #keepandroidOpen

RE: https://mathstodon.xyz/@Paul_Taylor/116393432979937863

Google and Microsoft - the global email service duopoly - block other services in the name of "fighting spam".

I get it. Spam is a perpetual arms race. But the opaqueness of Google and Microsoft's practices and decades-long predatory self-dealing mean no one trusts them to apply even their own rules.

Email still works interoperably. Just about. Getting off US duopolies and monopolies is vital for the future of the internet. So in that way, digital sovereignty is vital to save the internet.

TIL that the FEMA guy is hardly the only one who has experienced "teleportation". It's an entire pattern of people who are randomly teleported to where they intended to go, while driving, and also the car/truck is teleported, and also some of the gasoline is teleported out of the gas tank, and also the car/truck might have been teleported to a nearby ditch.

And also the person teleported is super drunk.

Makes me wonder whether this whole teleportation phenomena goes back to before cars.

I guess more of you like astrophotography than I expected, so here is my favorite object in the northern night sky: the Great Hercules Cluster, a cluster of several hundred thousand stars.

I don't have a good telescope to photograph it, so here's a photo by Chuck Ayoub, and one from Hubble.