Plus: how would you count $1 million in bills? ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌ ‌

July 02, 2025 | Read online
# Qantas hack, war on AI crawlers and defeating deepfakes with copyright Plus: how would you count $1 million in bills?
{{OPEN_TRACKING_PIXEL}}
Edition 2365
Flickr: ordinary.stuff
# The News
### Qantas hack turns ‘days since cyberattack affecting millions of Aussies’ counter back to 0
6 million Qantas customers’ personal information have been exposed by a cyber-attack through the airline’s customer service platform (ABC News). The company said it first detected the attack on Monday, and believes that intruders stole a “significant” portion of data, including names, phone numbers, frequent flyer numbers etc (Qantas). One Sizzler drew my attention to a LinkedIn post about someone’s frequent flyer account being broken into. The AFR seems to be suggesting the hack is the work of a group called Scattered Spider, which the FBI warned this week was targeting airlines (X dot com) but I haven’t seen this reported anywhere else so take this with a grain of salt. Another day, another massive hack due to a third party platform being the cybersecurity weak link!
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### One of the internet’s biggest players has declared war on AI crawlers
One of the internet’s most widely used web providers Cloudflare is going to start blocking AI crawlers by default (The Verge). Cloudflare, which powers about 20% of the web, put out some super interesting blogposts to go along with this announcement, including info on all of the AI crawlers (Cloudflare) and how these crawlers are affecting publishers (Cloudflare). I’ve mentioned how AI bots are strangling web publishers a lot but I didn’t expect a big player to do something like this — and this will seriously worry AI companies. Another interesting wrinkle: Cloudflare will also let people charge AI bots to crawl their data (Yahoo), which I think is an interesting step towards one version of the future internet where microtransactions are common. But that’s a topic for another edition…
| nilay patel @reckless.bsky.social |
Big move here - AI firms are all facing down an existential content theft reckoning and still haven’t explained what applications will generate enough value to make it worth it www.theverge.com/news/695501/...
Cloudflare will now block AI crawlers by default Cloudflare wants AI companies to get permission to crawl websites.
2:39 PM • Jul 1, 2025
179 Likes 35 Reposts | 6 Replies
| Laurie Voss @seldo.com |
I like the idea of AI companies paying to crawl but I suspect the urge to be indexed at all will create a race to the bottom in which most sites are free. techcrunch.com/2025/07/01/c...
Cloudflare launches a marketplace that lets websites charge AI bots for scraping | TechCrunch Cloudflare is launching a new marketplace that reimagines the relationship between publishers and AI companies.
8:05 PM • Jul 1, 2025
7 Likes 0 Reposts | 0 Replies
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
### Denmark wants to give people copyright to their body to beat deepfakes
Denmark looks set to give its citizens copyright over their own appearance and voice as a way of fighting back against non-consensual deepfakes (The Guardian). Its government has secured cross-party support for the policy and will develop a law that is intended to stop people deepfaking people’s bodies and voices. There will be carve-outs for copyright and satire, but the law would give people the right to get platforms to take down content and potentially sue anyone who infringes on it. It’s often said that copyright is the only functional law on the internet (The Verge) because platforms are pretty good at removing bootleg copies of Frozen; while hate speech and violence remains rampant. That being said — I’m not super familiar with Danish law, but I wonder if there will be any weird consequences of tying up our right to our own likeness with copyright, a system built to protect IP for its economic value.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
#### Leftovers
Consider your cyber hygiene in light of global events (Australian Cyber Security Centre) New government guide to dealing with end-of-life ICT equipment (DTA) OpenAI latches onto Labor’s economist wonks (AFR, $) this was super satisfying reading Report: Australian ransomware payments drop drastically year on year (Cyber Daily AU) Sparks fly over proposal to allow networks to install EV chargers on power poles (The Driven) Apple accuses former Vision Pro engineer of stealing trade secrets (The Verge) Apple reminds us it will soon end support for the old HomeKit architecture, with two options (9to5Mac) The evolution of the Trash icon in macOS from Mac OS X 10.0 to macOS Tahoe 26 (Reddit) X opens up to Community Notes written by AI bots (The Verge) Google’s data center energy use doubled in 4 years (TechCrunch) Nothing Phone 3 hands-on: A tiny, playful dot-matrix screen in the company's most expensive phone yet (Engadget) Exclusive: Tinder to require Face Check for new users in California (Axios) Senate Votes 99-1 to Strip AI Provision From Trump’s Tax Bill (Bloomberg, $) International Criminal Court hit by new 'sophisticated' cyberattack (Bleeping Computer) ICEBlock, an app for anonymously reporting ICE sightings, goes viral overnight after government criticism (TechCrunch) “sad to see a teenager collaborating with Microsoft Security Response Center, rather than engaging in a more traditional hobby like popping university and government systems until someone tells them to stop” (Rohan Pearce on Bluesky) China hosts first fully autonomous AI robot football match (The Guardian) “This is what appears to be an ICE agent wearing Meta’s rayban glasses” (Bluesky)
Discuss these links in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Oh, Also
### How would you count $1 million in bills?
If you go to the Federal Reserve Bank’s museum in Chicago, there’s a big cube on display filled with $1 million in dollar bills. “Have you ever wondered what one million dollars looks like? You don’t have to wonder anymore because you can see it right in front of you!” the sculpture’s plaque claims. One guy wanted to double-check by counting (Calvin Ling). To assist, he made a simple “dot counter” tool that helped him keep track of how many bills were in each column so he could estimate how many there were in total. He concluded that the money cube in fact held more than $1.5 million in notes.
Another way to check that’s a bit quicker? Asking. A 2014 Reddit post says that a tour guide told them that the $1 million figure is wrong.
Discuss in the Sizzle Slack or forum.
# Bargains
Electronic & electrical
Samsung 256GB PRO Plus MicroSD - $34.99 at SwiftOrder Amazon Ecovacs Winbot W1 Pro Robotic Window Cleaner - $494 at Harvey Norman Samsung Soundbars at Samsung EPP HW-QS700F for $549 HW-Q800F for $604 HW-Q930F for $879 HW-Q990F for $1099
Computing
ORICO USB-C 3-Port 5Gbps Hub: 2x USB-A 3.0 + 1x USB-C - $4.79 at Orico Official Store AliExpress Logitech M720 Triathlon Wireless Mouse - $35 at PLE Computers ASUS TUF Gaming 650W Bronze PSU - $78 at Metrocom via Amazon AU Aerocool P500C Compact PC Case White - $79 at PC Case Gear GMKtec G2 Mini PC with Intel N100, Windows 11 Pro, 12GB DDR5, 512GB SSD - $139 at Gmktec Office AliExpress AMD Ryzen 7 5700X CPU - $124 at TaiYuan Store AliExpress Sapphire Pure RX 9060 XT GAMING OC 16GB - $645 at Shopping Express Lenovo Legion Go S Game Console - Ryzen Z2 GO CPU, 16GB RAM, 512GB SSD - $718 at Lenovo Outlet Alienware Gaming Monitors at Amazon AU AW2725DF 26.7" 360Hz Gaming Monitor for $988 AW3225QF 31.6" 4K OLED Monitor for $1438 Apple 12.9-Inch iPad Pro M1 Wi-Fi + Cellular, 2TB (5th Gen) - $1698 at Amazon AU Apple Mac Studio M2 Max with 32GB RAM & 512GB SSD - $1895 at JB Hi-Fi
Mobile
Vodafone 220GB 1-Year Prepaid Mobile Starter Pack plus 30% cashback plus $20 Westpac bonus - $179 at Vodafone (apparently ends up being $105.30 after cashback) Boost Mobile 12-Month Prepaid SIM Starter Pack with 290 GB Data (300GB from July 8) - $235 at Cellpoint
# The End
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