Today’s big topic: Friendly hackers uncovered a massive security flaw. And then the one thing that must not happen did
What’s happening?
A race against time and malicious actors. That is how Jens Myrup Pedersen, a professor of cybersecurity at Aarhus University, described Wednesday evening’s incident, when the Confederation of Danish Industry (DI) announced that two very serious vulnerabilities had been found in one of the most widely used programming languages behind websites, online stores and portals.
The authorities’ message was that all companies and public institutions using so-called PHP solutions should update now, not tomorrow. The security flaws were found with the help of AI, and it would have been virtually impossible to identify them without it, the cybersecurity firm Wiz wrote on its website.
»AI has been used to find these vulnerabilities, and it is a good thing that it is not only being used by malicious hackers, so these holes can be closed«, Jens Myrup Pedersen says: »But at the same time, you set off a race on both sides. Because you have to tell the whole world that you have found these vulnerabilities, so everyone can get the holes patched, and you cannot communicate that broadly without all the malicious actors hearing about it too«.
Why it matters!
Jeppe Engell was the expert who prompted DI to go public with the news of the flaws, and he received messages on X from American experts, warning that it could become serious. When a couple of websites inexplicably stopped working, he sounded the alarm, and according to him, DI issued such a stark warning for a simple reason.
»Because a great many people who want to build a website or start a blog choose to use the free program WordPress, which is open source. And WordPress is extremely widespread both among ordinary people, but also among companies that start there. And WordPress is written in PHP«.
Christian Damsgaard Jensen, a professor of cybersecurity at Aarhus University, points out that the vulnerability is serious precisely because it is so widespread. He points out that now that the vulnerability is so widely known, it will take hackers only minutes to hours to exploit it.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
In other news
– Billion-dollar settlement takes a big bite out of Facebook owner’s profit
The U.S. company Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, among other platforms, posted a third-quarter profit of $9.9 billion. That corresponds to just under 66 billion Danish kroner. According to AFP, the profit was nearly 50 percent below investors’ expectations.
This appears in Meta’s quarterly earnings report, which was released Wednesday evening, Danish time, Ritzau reports. Meta says that was due to multibillion-dollar costs tied to a settlement the tech giant reached in August with a number of U.S. states.
– Young men assaulted bus driver with punches and kicks
Two men have been arrested after allegedly assaulting a bus driver with punches and kicks Wednesday evening in the town of Hald, north of Randers.That is according to Mikkel Møldrup, the duty officer at East Jutland Police, speaking Thursday morning, Ritzau reports.
»The two men were heavily intoxicated when they got on, and they were shouting on the bus and yelling abuse at the driver,« the duty officer says.
Talk of town: We spend our money in an entirely new way, and a new class society may be taking shape
Noah Middelboe is Smykbar’s 22-year-old co-founder and creative director. Around him in the café on Kompagnistræde in central Copenhagen, a mother and daughter are making their own unique pieces of jewelry. And gemstones, glass beads, and charms are carefully chosen by many guests each day.
»We have lovely things that guests enjoy. But making something together – the social aspect – is what people come for«, says Noah Middelboe. And the fact that Smykbar has also opened in Oslo, Bergen, and Hamburg in recent years is not the result of a streamlined business plan or venture capital backing. It is because guests wanted to bring the concept to life in their own hometowns.
Smykbar is a small example of a new megatrend in consumer behavior. Bank of America, one of the world’s largest banks, has labeled the trend funflation in an analysis pointing to sharp increases in spending on equipment and experiences tied to hobbies and activities centered on having fun.
The same pattern is visible in Denmark. Since the coronavirus crisis, Danes have generally become more cautious with their money, especially when it comes to groceries. But amid that restraint, there is one thing we are spending markedly more on than before.
Still curious? Read the full article here.
This newsletter features stories originally published in Danish. AI was used to shorten and translate the articles into English, after which a member of the editorial staff reviewed and refined the content.