The Russians aren't coming, they are already here. Without most anyone realizing, they've created an entire malicious adtech industry whose story is just as complex as the Chinese organized crime we're now realizing from their ventures into pig butchering.

VexTrio is just one Russian organized crime group in the malicious adtech world, but they are a critical one. They have a very "special" relationship with website hackers that defies logic. I'd put my money on a contractual one. all your bases belong to russian adtech hackers.

Today we've released the first piece of research that may eventually prove whether I am right. This paper is hard. i've been told. I know. We've condensed thousands of hours of research into about 30 pages. @briankrebs tried to make the main points a lot more consumable -- and wrote a fabulous complimentary article : read both!

There's so much more to say... but at the same time, between ourselves and Brian, we've released a lot of lead material ... and there's more to come. I've emphasized the Russian (technically Eastern European) crime here, but as Brian's article points out there is a whole Italian side too. and more.

We've given SURBL, Spamhaus, Cloudflare, Domain Tools, several registrars, and many security companies over 100k domains. They are also posted on our open github.

Super thanks to our collaborators at Qurium, GoDaddy Sucuri Security, and elsewhere.

#threatintel #scam #tds #vextrio #cybercrime #cybersecurity #infosec #dns #infoblox #InfobloxThreatIntel #malware #phishing #spam

https://blogs.infoblox.com/threat-intelligence/vexing-and-vicious-the-eerie-relationship-between-wordpress-hackers-and-an-adtech-cabal/

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/06/inside-a-dark-adtech-empire-fed-by-fake-captchas/

"The bottom line from Apple’s research is stark: we’re not witnessing the birth of AI reasoning.

We’re seeing the limits of very expensive autocomplete that breaks when it matters most."

Damning proof from Apple researchers that the hype from big tech surrounding #AI is an expensive illusion.

https://medium.com/@ninza7/apple-just-pulled-the-plug-on-the-ai-hype-heres-what-their-shocking-study-found-24ad42c234a0

#tech

If you are protesting this weekend there are things you should consider:

1 - that this is not an comprehensive list, IANAL
2 - Turn off biometric locks on your smartphone. Lock it with a pin or pattern and set it to lock out after too many attempts.
3 - See #2 again, for real.
4 - consider not taking your phone at all, or taking a burner if you have the means. A burner is a phone that does not have your regular logins, apps, usage, and data on it. Ideally, has a different SIM card or eSIM.
5 - Do carry ID if it will help you, but know your state's ID laws and if it's a Stop and identify state or not. https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/stop-and-id-states
If you are arrested you do need to identify yourself, but in many states you do not up to and until you are arrested (or during a traffic stop while you are driving you are required to present a license).
6 - It is legal in EVERY state and in DC to record or photograph law enforcement as long as you do not actively interfere with them (and they will try to use that pretext). https://www.acludc.org/en/know-your-rights/if-stopped-photographing-public
7 - DO NOT CARRY A WEAPON. I don't care how legal it is, this is the absolute easiest way to end up in the back of a van.
8 - If you require constant medication, reconsider. We got you. Consider being a phone tree for your frineds. If you require medication periodically which could be debilitating if you are detained, try to plan your dosage ahead of time so you have the longest period til needing your next dose.

Again, I am not a lawyer. But I want you to be safe. Here's a great link from the HRC:
https://www.hrc.org/resources/tips-for-preparedness-peaceful-protesting-and-safety

Ok folks, I never do this, but I am in a bind right now and shit is gonna start getting shut off tomorrow if a couple of invoices aren't paid before midnight.

I need some sales badly. Please boost for coverage.

Big packs of bonus freebies to all buyers and 20% discounts on everything in the store - https://www.galactic-stone.com

Dear Fedi friends,

I'm really proud to share with you a video I made: "Introducing the Fediverse: a New Era of Social Media" https://news.elenarossini.com/fediverse-video/

In this 4-minute video I explain what the #fediverse is to people not familiar with it, mentioning some of its great features and benefits (interoperability, no ads, no surveillance...) and I set it in contrast to the world of Big Tech social platforms. I argue that, with the rise of Big Tech oligarchs and the current political climate, there has never been a better time to join the fediverse.

I hope you will enjoy this video and that you will find it useful (maybe as a tool to introduce your friends, family, colleagues, school administrators, local government officials to it).

The fediverse has truly changed my life, making me a better, more empowered digital citizen. I am endlessly grateful for it, so this is my contribution to the cause ❤️

I am also incredibly thankful for the work of @samaaberg and @patel.riyen who helped me bring my vision to life with their amazing cinematography skills and their assistance throughout the process, providing brilliant feedback to the script / edits from the POV of fedi newbies.

And I was also moved by the generous help of people of the Fediverse who volunteered to translate the script into many foreign languages: @jan @fritjof @erikkemp @sknob @severin @clabru @tarcisiosurdi @hongminhee @danielcasanueva @ainali @nacly

Lastly, I'm thankful for the opportunity I had to premiere the video last week at #FediForum - thank you @j12t and @anca

The video is up on my self-hosted PeerTube instance (thank you @yunohost) and for now it is unlisted as I have no idea how my VPS will hold up. I also included an alternate location in the blog post.

I hope you'll enjoy it! It's been a real labor of love (a month of full time work on it)... I see it as my love letter to the fediverse 💌

Edit/update: THANK YOU for all the people who volunteered to have their avatar show up in the last shot. There were 750+ submissions and only 135 spots - sorry I couldn't include everyone 🥲

#TheFutureIsFederated

I like this introduction a lot: https://jointhefediverse.net/

Today is Microsoft's June 2025 Patch Tuesday, which includes security updates for 66 flaws, including one actively exploited vulnerability and another that was publicly disclosed.

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/microsoft/microsoft-june-2025-patch-tuesday-fixes-exploited-zero-day-66-flaws/

If you want to help people in #academia who are maybe less fortunate than you, who have less famous supervisors, or work at less prestigious universities, here's one simple thing you can do:

Do proper literature research.

That means complete forward and backward snowballing from a decent seed set. Find everything that is relevant to your paper and cite it. Budget a couple of full days just to get the reading list in place.

It is with great sadness that I am doing what I would once have thought unthinkable. Following Salim Abdool Karim's superb Faraday Lecture 10 days ago, i have decided to return my own Faraday prize, awarded in 2014.

The silence of the Royal Society in the face of Elon Musk's rampage (a member of the RS since 2018) across US science is incomprehensible to me.

We must all draw the line somewhere in the face of authoritarian attacks and this is mine.
https://www.ft.com/content/877853df-1687-4d1f-940b-9eefc0cf69c0?accessToken=zwAAAZdYtYr2kdOHeFPfFodNH9OUC57vwM9pwA.MEUCIQDNG6kcQyHa-g6Kx4G9NHE2ofD36kR8OX0yEu-KfXlV0QIgcmMFKTaT90y42QfwQTWb05khk6thpQPe-JvIGkaZzQY&segmentId=e95a9ae7-622c-6235-5f87-51e412b47e97&shareType=enterprise&shareId=5fbecded-0dc9-419a-b064-cda0dee0d73a

20 years ago we were suing teenagers for millions of dollars because they were torrenting a single Metallica album and now billionaires are demanding the free right to every work in history, so that they can re-sell it.

The law only ever serves capitalism.

When you cherry-pick data to support findings that serve your political goals, it’s no longer science.

It’s propaganda.

@skyglowberlin @salvabara
Yes - brighter and more white/blue-white. I've even seen bright white lights used for fog lights (obviously never tried using them in fog?).

#Headlightgate is crazypants.

Next - do traffic lights? I swear those things have become more intense in recent years (excessively so, to the point of causing glare).

It’s not your imagination: “The luminous intensity of the average individual car headlights, taking the mean of the high and low beam lights, increased in [2016-2025] by 22%, corresponding to a compound annual growth rate 2.2 %/year.”

https://zenodo.org/records/15565958

#LightPollution #Lighting

In just under a fortnight, on 19 June, my book "111 Places in Space That You Must Not Miss", will be published by Emons in Germany, followed by the UK on 21 July & the US on 2 September 🪐✨📕

It's a tour guide of interesting places in our Solar System, the Milky Way, & Deep Space beyond, & describes what you'd find & learn if you were able to visit them 🙂

Here's a preview of the cover & a few chapters – it's available to order in all the usual places 🙇‍♂️

#SpaceScience
#ShamelessSelfPromotion

Under Donald Trump, the United States National Park Service has erased any mention of transgender people from their history of the Stonewall Uprising. The "T" in "LGBTQ+" has been removed, as has the word "queer." Marsha P. Johnson and Sylvia Rivera, both transgender activists, were on the front lines of this watershed event for LGBTQ+ rights in America. This deletion is a deliberate attempt to marginalize transgender people and deny them their rightful place in this story. Transgender people have always been a central part of the LGBTQ+ movement, and we cannot allow them to be written out of history.

We cannot stand for this. Join me in calling for the reversal of this erasure by signing this petition: HTTP://thepetitionsite.com/takeaction/982/256/512/?TAP=2430&source_id=TransgenderStonewall

I have a pretty simple first-level filter for communication platforms:

Is or was Jack Dorsey involved in any way?
Yes? Not touching it.

NEW #Astrophoto: Messier 3

Messier 3: 34,000 light-years away in Canes Venatici.
Captured this globular cluster after midnight on May 16, 2025, during my May Messier tour.

Full story: https://astrocamp.eu/en/messier-3-may25/

▼ Vixen VC200L | Canon EOS R(a) '25

#astrophotography #nightsky #space #astronomy #telescope #clearsky #photography #nature

> The most distressing thing is that maybe it does work; if not well enough to actually do the work, at least ambiguously enough to fool the executives long-term.

-- @glyph via @tante

https://blog.glyph.im/2025/06/i-think-im-done-thinking-about-genai-for-now.html

so, so many parts of this that resonate with me. Thank you for sharing these thoughts

As much as I don’t like Generative AI, it’d be beneficial for schools to teach students how to properly navigate it, rather than banning it. People are going to use AI regardless. Everyone needs to understand the limitations, or risk sacrificing critical thinking to something that can’t even think.

it's highly ironic that the "AI" evangelists constantly repeat that people who hate it are out of touch. they're implying that people don't like it because they don't understand it, when my experience has been people who hate "AI" seem to have a far firmer grasp on how it actually works than the evangelists

edit: reclaiming my notifications by muting this ✌