Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

The World’s Largest, Most Disruptive Botnet Is Exploiting Compromised Internet-of-Things (IoT) Devices

Brian Krebs:

The world’s largest and most disruptive botnet is now drawing a majority of its firepower from compromised Internet-of-Things (IoT) devices hosted on U.S. Internet providers like AT&T, Comcast and Verizon, new evidence suggests. Experts say the heavy concentration of infected devices at U.S. providers is complicating efforts to limit collateral damage from the botnet’s attacks, which shattered previous records this week with a brief traffic flood that clocked in at nearly 30 trillion bits of data per second.

Since its debut more than a year ago, the Aisuru botnet has steadily outcompeted virtually all other IoT-based botnets in the wild, with recent attacks siphoning Internet bandwidth from an estimated 300,000 compromised hosts worldwide.

I guess those people who were declaring a decade ago that the Internet of Things would change the world were right.

Before Taking the Guns Out of the Bond Posters, Amazon Prime Bowdlerized the Poster for ‘Full Metal Jacket’

I missed this story back in 2024, but it’s the same infuriating impulse toward infantilization as with the Bond posters this month. Amazon restored the correct poster art for Full Metal Jacket, but they didn’t learn the lesson: don’t fuck with art.

Let’s Check in on the Mad King’s Spiral Into Dementia

The president of the United States, yesterday on his blog:

THE BIDEN FBI PLACED 274 AGENTS INTO THE CROWD ON JANUARY 6. If this is so, which it is, a lot of very good people will be owed big apologies. What a SCAM - DO SOMETHING!!! President DJT

No president, of course, can be expected to remember everything that happened during his four-year term. But Trump, of course, was still president on January 6, and the events that day were — to say the least — historically significant. The entire point of the January 6 insurrection — for his role in which, Trump was impeached — was to prevent Joe Biden from becoming president on January 20.

The man is obviously unwell.

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Apple Has Indefinitely Postponed Jessica Chastain’s Apple TV+ Thriller ‘The Savant’, for Political Reasons

Nellie Andreeva, reporting for Deadline back on September 23:

The release of Apple TV+’s The Savant has been put on hold. The decision comes three days before the thriller starring Jessica Chastain was slated to premiere on the streamer Sept. 26. No new date has been set.

“After careful consideration, we have made the decision to postpone The Savant,” an Apple TV+ spokesperson said in a statement to Deadline. “We appreciate your understanding and look forward to releasing the series at a future date.”

The streamer would not elaborate on the reasons for the last-minute change but The Savant’s subject matter is believed to be behind it, with the storyline about preventing extremist attacks and some of the imagery considered possibly triggering following the Sept. 10 assassination of right-wing political activist Charlie Kirk. The series includes a sniper in action and the bombing of a government building among other acts of violence.

Jessica Chastain, in a post on Instagram later that same day:

I want to say how much I value my partnership with Apple. They’ve been incredible collaborators and I deeply respect their team. That said, I wanted to reach out and let you know that we’re not aligned on the decision to pause the release of The Savant. [...]

I’ve never shied away from difficult subjects, and while I wish this show wasn’t so relevant, unfortunately it is. The Savant is about the heroes who work every day to stop violence before it happens, and honoring their courage feels more urgent than ever. While I respect Apple’s decision to pause the release for now, I remain hopeful the show will reach audiences soon. Until then, I’m wishing safety and strength for everyone, and I’ll let you know if and when The Savant is released.

Here we are nearly three weeks later, and it’s still a question of if, not when — Apple TV’s page for The Savant still has it labeled “Coming: At a Later Date”.