The Web

Backdoor.Stegmap, malware hiding in a plain Microsoft Windows logo

The big picture: Backdoor.Stegmap is a potent backdoor hidden within a simple Windows logo image file through steganography-based encryption. Chinese cyber-criminals are working hard with new and old techniques to permanently compromise high-level government and diplomatic targets.

Chaos: a powerful malware infecting multiple systems and architectures

China-based network tried to influence midterms, but long lunches and 9-to-5 hours hampered efforts

Cloudflare launches invisible, privacy-focused Captcha to take on Google

Stable Diffusion: weird for visual arts, a boon for image compression algorithms?

In a nutshell: Stable Diffusion is a phenomenal example of how much a picture is worth more than a thousand words. In fact, by cutting the image-generation text prompt altogether, the visual AI could be used to get a highly compressed, high quality image file.

The analysts Elon Musk hired to count Twitter bots found fewer than he expected, claims company

House of the Dragon beats The Rings of Power on pirate sites

In a nutshell: While not a widespread phenomenon anymore, piracy continues to drive a significant amount of Internet traffic around the world. TV shows like House of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings are particularly popular, even though the former seems to be way more interesting for P2P pirates.

Amazon confirms a Prime Day-style sales event will take place next month

In brief: Amazon has confirmed reports from earlier this year by announcing that the platform's second major shopping event will take place on October 11 and October 12. The two-day sale will offer plenty of discounts for Prime Members and run in 15 countries, including the US.

This Netgear USB adapter adds plug-and-play Wi-Fi 6E to PCs

SpaceX wants to put Starlink Internet on school buses so kids can do homework

Starlink speeds dip as more people flock to the satellite Internet service

Firefox 105 promises better performance in Windows and Linux

Instagram working on feature to prevent users from viewing unsolicited nudes

In context: It's a sad fact that many women on social media will have unintentionally viewed an unsolicited nude photo in their DMs at some point. It's a problem that's especially prevalent on Instagram, but a new tool could help prevent such incidents, and without compromising the receiver's privacy.

YouTuber puts iPhone 14 crash detection feature to the test

The FDA says don't try this TikTok challenge of cooking chicken in NyQuil

WTF?! Not for the first time, a government organization has issued a warning over a new online trend that sounds too stupid to be real. The latest TikTok craze putting people's lives at risk is the "sleepy chicken" challenge. It involves cooking chicken in NyQuil or another over-the-counter cough and cold medication, presumably to eat it.

Privacy survey shows most people read the T&Cs, would sell their personal data

Spotify launches audiobook business with 300,000 titles and à la carte pricing

TechnicalSides is hiring news reporters, how-to, and feature writers. Join the team!

Take-Two floods internet with copyright strikes following GTA 6 leak, blames "network intrusion"

In context: If there's one thing that validates the legitimacy of a massive gaming leak, it's the company behind said title responding with copyright strikes that force the content to be removed. That's what Take-Two did soon after the 90+ videos and screenshots of GTA 6 started hitting the web yesterday. We've also heard that the leaker responsible, who says he is the same 18-year-old hacker that breached Uber, is looking to "negotiate a deal" with Take-Two/Rockstar.

Browser-based spell check from Google and Microsoft can lead to stolen personal data

Hackers are spreading malware through YouTube channels promoting game cheats

WTF?! Gamers looking to download cheats and cracks should beware of links in YouTube video descriptions. Hackers may have compromised the channels hosting the videos, turning them into vectors for spreading malware that can steal login credentials.

Akamai curbed a new record DDoS attack against one of its European customers

Flickr adds a fourth content category for virtual photography

AI-generated images are drawing bans from some art communities

Steam users warned of sophisticated browser-in-the-browser phishing attack

In brief: Steam users are being warned about a new attack tricking people into handing over their account credentials via a browser-in-the-browser phishing technique. Competitive and professional gamers are being targeted, as is anyone with a high-value account.