Hacked Off🥷 🌍

👀 TLDR

In this week’s What’s Appening, we look at the biggest theft in global history. Hackers stole $6 billion from the Binance crypto exchange, but is it a sign of the times when AI can be the perfect wingman for cybercriminals? We also look at AI “slopaganda” during the Midterms, Apple’s new rules on dating apps for kids, Reddit changing its entire business model, Anthropic being close to cracking RSI, and loads more!

🎬 Our Top Take

🥷🔑 Binance – Crypto Exchange Suffers Biggest Theft in History

Crypto hacks and scams are fairly common, almost routine, so it will always take something ‘special’ for most mainstream media outlets to focus on a crypto exchange being hacked. Well, we got just that last week when Binance was drained for $6.3 billion dollars – making it the biggest theft (of any kind) in history. The blame was squarely placed on North Korea-backed hacker groups. As an aside, Binance and its partners managed to freeze large amounts, and the exchange has promised to cover any customer losses. More generally, though, concern is mounting. If it feels to you like there have been more major global cybersecurity incidents of late, it’s because there have been more – a 71% rise year on year for the first half of 2026; a rise in hacking costs of up to $15 trillion annually.  Just yesterday, Europe’s freezers were hacked. Yes, freezers. Supermarkets in ten European countries had their chilled aisles sabotaged, destroying millions of dollars’ worth of produce. It was the second incident of its type in a month. So, what’s the cause? Well, several things at once. AI, as an accelerant, most certainly, since it helps with everything from better impersonation for phishing to pinpointing software vulnerabilities. There’s also the growing interconnectedness of systems and the fact that so many things that used to be offline are now online: Turns out, you only need to hack a single software provider to control grocery freezer temperatures across much of Europe. The question, though, is what comes next. We are told AI will be a net positive for cybersecurity, even if it gives criminals better tools to succeed. We can certainly see some evidence of that – AI’s role in pinpointing the recent PHP website vulnerability was a massive save on a global scale – but it’s still boomtime for the hacking industry, and it’s being greeted with a shrug. #TheBigHeist Read more here.

📲 App of the Week: Chromogragh Camera

Have you seen the Knives Out movies? They are very good, with neat, clever twists and snappy dialogue. If you’re a cinematography buff, though, the main takeaway might be the gorgeous color schemes used throughout the movies. The wizardry comes from cinematographer Steve Yedlin, who is an avowed “color science” nut. Anyway, this digression is to explain that Yedlin has a new app – Chromograph Camera – that works with your iPhone camera, allowing it to capture ‘raw’ color like never before. The results we have seen have been pretty impressive. The app isn't free; it requires a $13 one-off payment, but if photography is your passion or you simply want to improve snaps for an upcoming wedding or birthday, adding it to your iPhone feels worth the price of a couple of lattes. Get Chromograph Camera for iOS here.

🧐 Stat of the Week: $137 million

📈📉 AI – Midterms Give a Hint of What Is To Come with AI Slopaganda

Happy Midterm Elections Day! In many ways, the elections have been shaped by AI: Data centers are a huge campaign issue at the local level; AI stocks are dropping and hurting the stock market and 401Ks as this is being written. But what about AI materials in election campaigning? Hmmm, it has been, let’s say, uneven, with much of the clearly doctored stuff coming from unofficial accounts. Some states, including Texas, have laws that ban campaigns from using AI to doctor political adverts, though it’s not clear how effective they are. Other reports say that $137 million has been spent on AI-assisted adverts (in 2024, that figure was just $50K. Some have called it “slopaganda”. But here’s the rub: Most experts predict it will be a lot worse in 2028. #Slopaganda Read more here.

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