Plus: Calm your farm by watching moose migrate ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

April 16, 2025 | Read online
# CVE's uncertain future, 4chan hacked and NSW Police tech stories Plus: Calm your farm by watching moose migrate
Issue 2314 - Wednesday 16 April 2025
Hello! Sorry for the late edition, I was reporting on a legally sensitive story (Crikey, $) and things dragged on longer than expected ᵃˢ ᵗʰᶦⁿᵍˢ ᶦⁿᵛᵒˡᵛᶦⁿᵍ ˡᵃʷʸᵉʳˢ ᵒᶠᵗᵉⁿ ᵈᵒ.
# The News
### It is about to get a lot harder to identify and track bugs and exploits without CVE
The world’s way of tracking software exploits may go dark as early as tomorrow after the Trump administration pulled funding (CyberDaily). Just yesterday, the board of CVE program — ‘common vulnerabilities and exposures’ — was told that the Department of Homeland Security would not extend a grant set to expire imminently (Mastodon). This program is responsible for registering and tracking software exploits, assigning those CVE-2025-6969 numbers that are both crucial to communicating about problems but are literally also hardwired into many of the cybersecurity systems. To put it bluntly, this will mean chaos, according to the industry (Forbes). Meanwhile, US’s Defense Digital Service has resigned en masse because of DOGE meddling (Politico) and a whistleblower claims DOGE has already caused a significant cyber breach (Reuters)…. I mean… what more is there to say?
### 4chan has been hacked and maybe we’re about to solve a lot of mysteries
The urinal of the internet, 4chan, has been down since Monday (Engadget). Screenshots purportedly of the admin phpMyAdmin page have been posted online (Imgur) but no idea how legit they are. A group, Soyjak.party, has claimed responsibility and reckons they’ve got info on admins and anonymous users (WIRED, $). If it’s true, there will be a lot of interest in this data. While not quite the centre of everything bad on the internet like it used to be, 4chan’s logs would be extremely useful for tracking down who was responsible for a lot of horrific stuff.
The supposed 4chan backend
### Two interesting stories about NSW Police using technology
NSW Police have switched off their facial recognition software but won’t say why 🤨 (InnovationAus, $). Police minister Yasmin Catley announced that the force had chosen to deactivate PhotoTrac, a tool it had used for more than a decade. PhotoTrac has never been tested for racial bias, but it apparently based on an algorithm that has previously been found to be less accurate for women and people of colour (WIRED, $). Elsewhere in NSW police tech news, a “firewall security” staff member was fired for installed WeChat on work computers, which was unapproved, and being “dishonest” about it (ITNews).
#### Leftovers
auDA 2026-30 draft strategy consultation paper (auDA) Brisbane Greens MP joins OnlyFans to ‘make people pay attention’ to HIV prevention drug policy (The Guardian Australia) Bank crypto crackdown leaves customers seeing red (AFR, $) Mark Zuckerberg at FTC antitrust court case wrap up Zuckerberg’s antitrust testimony aired his wildest ideas in Meta’s history (The Verge) Zuckerberg Says He Considered Spinning Off Instagram in 2018 (Bloomberg, $) Zuckerberg had a 'crazy idea' to boost Facebook's relevance: Make everyone start from scratch (Business Insider) Inside Mark Zuckerberg’s Failed Negotiations to End Antitrust Case (WSJ, $) What Does OpenAI Want With a Social Network? (New York Magazine) Google Search is going to be google.com globally (9to5Google) NVIDIA says the US has put export restrictions on H20 AI chips (Engadget) Notion releases an AI-powered email client for Gmail (TechCrunch) On TikTok, Chinese factories are trolling anxious American shoppers (The Verge) How Starlink took over Africa’s largest internet market (Rest of World) Figma sent a cease-and-desist letter to Lovable over the term ‘Dev Mode’ (TechCrunch) Kill your crewmates in 3D when Among Us 3D launches in May (The Verge) It's easier than ever to de-censor videos (Jeff Geerling) You cannot have our user's data (Sourcehut)
# Oh, Also
### Calm your farm by watching moose migrate
There’s a lot of hectic things going on in the world. You know what’s not hectic? This Swedish TV station’s annual livestream of its Great Moose Migration (Svtplay.se)
The Great Moose Migration
No sightings for me so far, but I’m told that you’ll just see a flock of moose stroll through fairly regularly (TechCrunch). Let me know if you see any!
# Bargains
Electrical & Electronics
Our Pure Planet Headphones/Earbuds at Mobileskin Children Headphones for $6.99 Wireless Bluetooth In-ear Earbud Stereo Earset for $6.99 Apple 140W USB-C Charger - $49.99 at Hub by Triforce SanDisk 256GB Max Endurance MicroSDHC Memory Card - $70.64 at Officeworks Donkey Kong Bananza (Switch 2) (Preorder) - $99 at JB Hi-Fi and Big W Flashforge Adventurer 5M 3D Printer - $327 at Flashforge 3D PRO eBay 4040 Pro CNC Machine, Upgraded 3-Axis Engraving All-Metal - $493 at Comgrow LG NANO81 UHD LED 4K Smart TV (2024) at Amazon AU 50" for $699 55" for $799 65" for $999 75" for $1199 86" for $1699 ECOVACS DEEBOT T20e Omni Robot Vacuum Cleaner w/ Mops - $899 at ECOVACS Amazon AU
Computing
Surfshark VPN: 100% Cashback (New VPN Customers Only) at Cashrewards TP-Link LS108GP Gigabit Desktop Ethernet Switch with 8-Port PoE+ - $39 at Amazon AU Ubiquiti Unifi U6 Indoor/Outdoor Mesh Point, Wi-Fi 6 - $279 at Gravitech AU via Amazon AU Lenovo Legion 32" QHD 180hz 0.5ms Gaming Monitor R32QC - $349 at Lenovo Store TP-Link Deco BE65 BE11000 Tri-Band Mesh Wi-Fi 7 Router System (3-Pack) - $809 at Amazon AU
Mobile
Hoppy Easter Bunny Stickers - $0 at Apple App Store Google Pixel 9a 128GB on JB Hi-Fi Mobile $79/M 24M SIM Plan - $0 at JB Hi-Fi Get a Google Pixel 9a 128GB when you trade-in a Google Pixel 6a or iPhone SE2 - $549 at Google Google Pixel 9a 128GB + $150 Trade-In Bonus - $847 at JB Hi-Fi
# The End
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