Minneapolis, I ❤️ you!

When both your parents have long hair and want a family selfie…

There’s advertising, there’s devices… It’s almost as if AI is not a product in itself. Who’d have thought? Here comes the pin…

So, it seems I can still get into my Sharnbrook school shirt. Last time I was wearing it was 1986, I was 16! Pretty sure I wouldn’t be able to get into the trousers though 😀 It’s the shirt that I had a whole bunch of lunatics write messages on the the end of term.

One for your hard block list.

The bursting of the AI bubble will be orders of magnitude worse than the dot com bubble. So many individuals have already learned to “unthink”, have voluntarily surrendered their creative and critical faculties, that the solution can only be generational.

“Love Destruction” was equally angry and equally prescient. “Love my hatred, love my treason It's what you wanted and that's my reason Caught you livin' the empty feeling A corporate handout to you is pleasing You love destruction”

The Party from all the way back in 1992. Were you not listening? youtu.be/8snFF8FSTxU?...

Blimey, Camilla Tominey seems to be a fairly awful human #newsnight. Never encountered the lady before this evening, hope to continue in that vein in future.

Oh, and I managed to slam the fingers of my left hand in the armour plating of a tank “window”. I was very accident-prone as a kid.

10 years old I managed to close one of the old “slam-shut” British Rail train doors while one hand was still gripping the door frame (I had to lean out to grab the handle). Right thumb burst like a little tomato and I sat holding the wreckage in a tissue all the way back from London to Three Bridges

“I just want to watch ballet, Let the swans dance.” Just discovered this Russian song from 3 years ago. If only this strength of feeling could be translated into something substantive in that oppressive pit of hopelessness.

I’m beginning to realise nostalgia doesn’t make me happy. The state of humanity in 2025 stains everything, even my own memories, with self-centred, I’m-alright-Jack, wilfully ignorant selfishness. Looking back doesn’t comfort me. It leaves me angry at how easily we were satisfied, how little it took

Time for my semi-regular promotion of TraffickCam, an app which helps to identify locations where abuse & trafficking has occurred. All you need to do is upload pics of your hotel room. traffickcam.com please use and RT.

With the most recent zero day in Google Chrome (466192044), we hit an uncomfortable milestone. 100 zero day vulnerabilities in 2025 so far. Equalling the full year figure for 2024. One more and 2025 becomes the busiest year on record. I don’t think anyone is seriously betting against that outcome.

Who knows the legal outcome, but it’s certainly worth heading over to twitter.new to claim your handle… #BackWithYourEx

Every time I think I have seen the limit of cyber “expert” bios, someone proves me wrong. This is not about gatekeeping. It is about integrity, honesty and transparency in a field where people make decisions that really matter.

Never a dull moment with Mister Cluley, and his Smashing Security podcast ❤️

Winter salad ❤️

Winter salad ❤️

Dear America, I have tried your “chocolate” and it is awful. So bad that I completely fail to grasp why Hallowe’en ever even took off in the US. Do better.

Anthropic’s report is being called the first AI-orchestrated cyber-espionage campaign. For many it’s the moment the alarm bell was finally audible. For me, it’s different: the moment a warning I’ve been giving since 2017 stopped being “nightmare scenario” panel fodder & started leading the news.

Lars Ulrich is definitely one of the drummers of all time.

Xi-phoon or Xi-clone? It’s so difficult to tell them apart. Salt, Volt, Flax, Silk; they all rely on Xiploits. Remember, just because something is not “required” doesn’t mean you shouldn’t do it.

TAFKNAP - The Andrew Formerly Known As Prince.

Our team at Forescout has discovered multiple new vulnerabilities in TP-Link routers. You may have noticed an uncredited vulnerability disclosure from TP-Link yesterday, that was us. Several additional vulnerabilities are still in the disclosure process and will be detailed in upcoming publications.

Well this seems pretty huge! www.independent.co.uk/news/health/...

AWS

I almost sliced off the tip of my finger with a breadknife the other day. It’s given me a great idea for Hallowe’en canapés though. #finger_food

1981, the year of antmusic, is now as far behind us at 1937 was in 1981… Damn.

PromptLock. Was. An. Academic. PoC. Not. An. AI. Revolution. In. Cybercrime. Stop putting it in your blogs and presentations. Thank you for your attention to this matter ;)

But, will the Conservatives give everyone (except “illegals” fkors) a free puppy “if they win the next election?

If you edit for a security title and you follow me, I’ve a new column looking for a home: Operational Truth. Accuracy is a security property. It’s practical: exposure SLOs, drift measurement and enforced controls. and it has a funky Stranger Things tie-in. Want it as a contributed piece? DM me.

Terminal 2 at Prague airport is currently evacuated

Post you from a different era. Describe that era. Sep 1992, Buckinghamshire. 22 & graduated. In a recession so couldn’t find a job, so I worked in my local boozer and lived up in the roof. Life was very good. After this I went to live in Paris and work in a bookshop.

Hello weekend ❤️

Boarding at Heathrow is still hit and miss after the recent #ransomware attack against Collins Aerospace . Some gates are working. Some gates are still operating manual boarding procedures. Be prepared for delays.

I the ten years I have lived here in Warsaw, I’ve never seen a swan. Suspiciously though, I have seen brogue-shaped footprints by the lake, just deep enough to hold half a pint of real ale, and a vague waft of stale tobacco. The was a clue in the tread although I could quite make it out.

Best, most raw, thing I have written in ages. So much so that it can't go on LinkedIn, they'd crucify me :) Anchored in the Cupboard - Growing up in the 80s.

Wouldn’t it be nice if folks quit telling you how to improve? Nice to find a feed not full of humblebrag platitudes? Respectful if those who’ve “cracked it” didn’t claim their recipe fits every cookie? You do you. Keep going, even when no one’s looking. Practice makes perfect. You’re worth it.

The late-night drive feeling of isolation, discomfort, dislocation. A few lines echo the rhythm of tyres ticking over cats-eyes. UK folks will know that heartbeat under the tyres that tells you you’re already drifting. The uncanny, fog-lit stretch between fatigue and focus. I hope the mood lands

You don’t predict the future. You feel the gradient under your boots 2017 I said AI would enter adversarial ops & we’d need AI to meet it. 2019, impersonation would mature & that defenders must reason like machines. Today, AI accelerates crime before it automates it & change windows are still human

11 years ago today, aKasia Ferguson and I were lucky enough not just to spend an amazing day with simply the best friends and family you can imagine, but we joined a winning team . Team Ferguszki, in Wonderland. Love wins. youtu.be/BRmnrXSkD6A?...

Substack now live. I’m unearthing and analysing a decade or so of my blogs to see what holds water. Sharp security, occasional detours (probably music, opinion, or language-related). If the jumble of my brain is your thing, subscribe! ferguson.ink

11 years ago I warned connectivity would outrun security. It has. Interfaces are the battleground; diversity buys time, not safety. APIs run the business and unmanaged, unagentable devices crowd IT, OT and IoT. What works: live inventory, context-led risk, real segmentation.

I learned this the hard way, one glance at my phone on a mountain road and I nearly wiped out a group of cyclists. A second of divided attention turns a safe system into a weapon. Security fails the same way. Speed limits are compliance; safe driving is judgement. #cybersecurity #OTsecurity #risk

I wrote about this topic recently too. We should get together soon and discuss best ways forward www.helpnetsecurity.com/2025/07/29/r...

The urge to outlaw ransom payments is understandable. It feels morally clear and politically decisive. But clarity != effectiveness. I explore why banning payments may do more harm than good. Not a defence of payment but sometimes the option must remain. Policy rarely moves faster than crime WDYT?

The first half of 2025 saw a 36% increase in ransomware, a 46% rise in zero-day exploitation, and the return of Iranian faketivism in OT environments. Our latest threat report looks behind the headlines at what attackers are targeting, how tactics are shifting, & what defenders need to be watching.

What perfect album came out the year you turned 16? 1986, in rock, not a lot that was unarguably “perfect”, so this one stands out.