# In This Issue

- Instagram is taking memes very seriously

- North Korea hacked cryptocurrency exchanges & mining pools to get cash for nuclear weapons

- XFMEXPRESS is a tiny NVMe SSD form factor from Toshiba

- Don’t bother with 3rd party AV software on Windows, just use Defender

- Cheap Telstra pre-paid data, Battlefield V Deluxe Edition, Sega Mega Drive Mini pre-order, free shipping at OzGameShop

# News

#### Instagram is taking memes very seriously

Instagram has announced it wants to hire its "first-ever strategic-partnerships manager specifically to focus on meme accounts". What I considered light-hearted shitposting is now so lucrative, Instagram, a multi-billion dollar company, reckons they need a "strategic-partnerships manager" for fucken memes. According to a statistic provided by Instagram, "meme content gets shared seven times more than non-meme content on the app. More meme accounts than ever are monetizing, and memes have become the default way many young people consume news information on the platform". Perhaps we deserve to be made extinct by climate change and let Earth rejuvenate thousands of years later without our pathetic presence.

#### North Korea hacked cryptocurrency exchanges & mining pools to get cash for nuclear weapons

A leaked UN report has found that North Korea has stolen ~US$2b via cybercrime to fund nuke development. The report found "at least 35 reported instances of DPRK actors attacking financial institutions, cryptocurrency exchanges and mining activity designed to earn foreign currency". Hacking cryptocurrency assets to build nuclear weapons - what a time to be alive. Someone on Hacker News (where I saw this story), summed it up nicely: "The beautiful part here is that the DPRK has (effectively) no cyber infrastructure of its own to retaliate against. It's perfect asymmetric warfare". Next level 4D chess from Kim Jong-un.

#### XFMEXPRESS is a tiny NVMe SSD form factor from Toshiba

Toshiba has invented a new NVMe SSD form factor. How exciting! It's got the catchy name "XFMEXPRESS" and is pretty much a microSD card with loads of connectors that goes into what looks like an old school Nokia SIM card holder (remember the ones behind the battery that had a clip?). Desite the size, it still manages four lanes of PCIe 4.0 bandwidth. No idea when this will actually be used in a product, or even if Toshiba will let others use the standard. Would be awesome to place on a Raspberry Pi or similar single board computer to replace temperamental and slow microSD cards or soldered on (and also slow) eMMC storage.

# Not News

#### Don’t bother with 3rd party AV software on Windows, just use Defender

A question I still get asked with semi-regular frequency is "what anti-virus software should I run on my computer?". My answer is usually nothing for Mac users and for Windows users, just enable Windows Defender and let it automatically update. It's good to know then, that AV-TEST has backed me up and found that Defender is ranked equally as the other "best" AV software packages like F-Secure SAFE and Kaspersky Internet Security. In the latest version of Windows 10, Windows Security is turned on by default too, which includes most of the features competitors have (firewalls, account protection, parental controls, etc.), but for free and way less dodgy.

# Bargains

- Free shipping at OzGameShop. Dunno if there's anything good there, but free shipping makes those impulse buys easier.

- 60GB of Telstra pre-paid data that's valid for 6 months - $120 delivered

- Battlefield V Deluxe Edition for the Xbox One - $16.49 from CD Keys

- Sega Mega Drive Mini pre-order from Amazon AU - $120.79

🎶 Ænema - TOOL

😁 The Sizzle is curated by Anthony "@decryption" Agius and emailed every weekday afternoon. Join us on Slack and chat with other Sizzle subscribers.

The Sizzle is created on Wathaurong land and acknowledges the traditional owners of country throughout Australia, recognising their continuing connection to land, water and community. I pay my respect to them and their cultures and to elders both past and present.​