Plus: Something the Pope said about technology will SHOCK you! ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

October 14, 2025 | Read online
# Aussies love getting hacked, Qantas court order stops leak alert and new Wi-Fi Plus: Something the Pope said about technology will SHOCK you!
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Edition 2438
"Internals Commodore PET variants (SuperPET, 4032, 2001-8C)Commodore PET variants" (Flickr: Andy Grady)
# The News
### Australians are smashing ‘getting hacked’ KPIs
Australia has gotten its yearly reminder that we’re increasingly at risk from cyber attacks (SBS). The Australian Signals Directorate’s annual cyber threat report says that there are rising numbers of cyber attacks for both individuals and the country, and those attacks are more costly and disruptive than ever before (Cyber dot gov). ASD highlighted state-sponsored hackings using routers and smart devices, leading to headlines like Chinese hackers are targeting WFH employees which rocks (AFR, $).
you do NOT want to be in the red
The Sizzle: The most interesting tidbit to me were the two unnamed federal government bodies and bits of critical infrastructure that were categorised as “extensive compromise”. (You know what they were? Hit me up). Also the rising number of critical infrastructures notified of “potential malicious cyber activity over 190 times”. I will say that I have a lot of sympathy for the poor sysadmins and support staff who are dealing with the headaches of figuring out whether users are CCP hackers or just idiot employees trying to sign in via dodgy free Wi-Fi in Yubeng, and then subsequently complaining that they can’t access all their confidential files.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Qantas court order stops service from alerting people whose details have been leaked
Australian national treasure Troy Hunt will not alert Have I Been Pwned users caught up in the Qantas hack because of a court order prohibiting use of the data (Troy Hunt). In July, Qantas successfully sought an interim injunction that prohibits Australians from sharing the airline’s data that has now just been released on the dark web. Unfortunately, these injunctions also affect people who are going to use this data for good — like journalists, security firms and Troy Hunt who runs the Have I Been Pwned service which relies on accessing leaks to inform users who are included.
Hunt points out the problem with these kinds of court orders:
Much of my gripe with injunctions is the premise that they in some way protect customers (like me), when clearly, they don't. But hey, "thoughts and prayers", right?
Troy Hunt
He noted the limited benefit of a court order: they only apply to people in Australia, who abide by the law, and who even know the order exists.
EFTM’s Trevor Long had a similar take:
A NSW Supreme Court ruling isn’t going to stop some hackers releasing data, and it’s certainly not going to stop scammers from snapping up that data and using it to target Aussies via SMS, Email and Phone.
Trevor Long, EFTM
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### We’re getting a new Wi-Fi standard :)
Move over Wi-Fi 7 — TP-Link has just successfully tested its first ever device using the nascent Wi-Fi 8 standard (Tech Spot). A white paper was released earlier this year for 802.11bn which uses the same GHz bands and data rates — so don’t expect even faster rates — but apparently improves latency and reduces packet loss (TP-Link). While we don’t even have a draft for the actual standards, the improvements on the tech are being sold as good for real world “time-sensitive applications such as gaming, augmented reality, industrial automation, and specialized AI workloads.”
This all sounds great, but I’ll settle for a Wi-Fi 6 mesh set up for my house that doesn’t just freak out by alternating between various nodes with no rhyme or reason.
I don’t think it’s Wi-Fi that’s holding back VR, personally
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Australia:
Social media companies want to wriggle out of the teen social ban. The government has a trump card (Crikey, $) Meta, TikTok, Snapchat dodge inquiry on under-16 social media ban (The Canberra Times, $) Frothy AI valuations raise Australian bubble fears (The Australian Financial Review, $) Zuckerberg snares Australian tech superstar as AI hiring war heats up (The Australian Financial Review, $) 'I'm dismayed': CSIRO slashes more than 800 jobs (InnovationAus, $) SA cracks down on AI deepfakes in political advertising (InnovationAus, $) An alternative to the App Store is coming to Australia (Pickr) Govt touts US$65m paper gain on PsiQuantum investment (InnovationAus, $) It took 10 years to build, but does it deliver the perfect toast? (The Sydney Morning Herald, $)
Rest of the world:
OpenAI, Broadcom forge multibillion-dollar chip development deal (WSJ, no paywall) Britain issues first online safety fine to U.S. website 4chan (Reuters, $)https://x.com/Feldfrog/status/1977513684118147076 Tesla Cybertruck sales decrease in Q3 2025 (The Verge) Software update bricks some Jeep 4xe hybrids over the weekend (Ars Technica, $) California becomes first state to regulate AI companion chatbots (TechCrunch, $)
| Benny Feldman 🪸🫧🐠 @Feldfrog |
My buddy lost his job to AI. It was his job to chug thousands of gallons of water at a data center
11:16 PM • Oct 12, 2025
195K Likes 10.4K Retweets
96 Replies
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### Something the Pope said about technology will SHOCK you!
I already knew we had a new Woke Pope but I didn’t realise he was a Poster. Reuters reports that Pope Leo warned of “the degrading practice of so-called click-bait” and preached caution when using artificial intelligence.
"Communication must be freed from the misguided thinking that corrupts it ... and from the degrading practice of so-called click-bait," the pope said. "I urge you, never sell out your authority."
Pope Leo
Sorry pope, I wasn’t familiar with your game. I feel like I should have known when a few weeks ago our new American pope poured cold water on the idea of making an AI pope (USCCB).
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electrical & electronics
Terminal 2 65W Gan Universal Travel Adapter - $25 at JB Hi-Fi Samsung Galaxy Buds at Phonebot Galaxy Buds Live for $59 Galaxy Buds Pro for $99 JBL Clip 5 - $69.95 at Big W Creality K2 Plus Combo - $1499 at au-creality-official-store eBay AU (Opened – never used)
Computing
MSI Ventus 3X/Gigabyte Windforce SFF RTX 5070 Ti Video Card - $1279 at Smarthomestoreau eBay Lenovo IdeaPad Pro 5: Ryzen 7 AI 350, 24GB RAM, 1TB SSD, 16" 2880x1800 OLED, 84Wh - $1424 at Lenovo Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon Gen 12 Laptop: Intel Ultra 7 155u, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD - $1819 at Lenovo Outlet (Down from $3739)
Mobile
amaysim 200GB 365-Day Prepaid SIM Starter Pack (with Free Calls to 28 Countries) - $175 at amaysim (Down from $240)
# The End
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