“Dozens of organizations had data stolen in Oracle-linked hacks,” TechCrunch reported. “Google said in a corresponding blog post that the hacking campaign targeting Oracle customers dates back to at least July 10, some three months before the hacks were first detected. Oracle conceded this week that the hackers behind the extortion campaign were still abusing its software to steal personal information about corporate executives and their companies. Days earlier, Oracle’s chief security officer claimed in the same post — since scrubbed — that the extortion campaign was linked to previously identified vulnerabilities that Oracle patched in July, suggesting the hacks were over.”

For the record, this hack “can be exploited over a network without the need for a username and password.”

The Discord Hack Is Every Users Worse Nightmare. “Around 70,000 users’ personal data at risk. Hackers targeted a third-party company…in an effort to extort a ‘ransom,’ Discord said,” noted The Independent.  Both users ID photos and data were stolen.

We hear about hacks all the time and no bigs, right? Now that we’ve entered an age where people are increasingly required to have digital IDs, this is UGE. Is anyone thinking about this at all?

First, let’s talk about Digital IDs

Everything from your banking to your social posts to your health records will purportedly be tied to your Digital ID. In the case of some countries, already is. Telegram CEO Pavel Durov summed it up well as he Warns of Growing Digital Repression and Decline of Online Freedom. “Durov expressed deep concern that the free and open digital world once envisioned by early pioneers is slipping out of reach, replaced by expanding government control and surveillance. He described a growing trend among democratic nations to impose what he called dystopian policies. Digital IDs are being pushed in the UK. Australia is enforcing online age ID verification systems,” and we will remind you that at first they were voluntary. Six months later they were required.

Oops, this just in: Deloitte’s AI use created a blunder Down Under. Employment records were involved in a country that requires Digital IDs to do anything. What could go wrong? Deloitte’s solution: use more AI. Talk about things that make you go hmmm, and thank you C+C Music Factory.

“Across the European Union, lawmakers are backing proposals that would allow the mass scanning of private messages,” Durov continued. He said Germany is targeting users who criticize government officials, the UK is jailing people over social media activity, and France is investigating tech leaders who stand up for privacy and freedom of expression.”

Also of note: Swiss Voters Narrowly Approve State-Run e-ID Law, by less than half a percent. Still, it’s now the law of the land.

Tech companies, including the socials, are increasingly requiring age verification of users

This means photo IDs and personal data, in the name of protecting the children, as always. It’s always voluntary, at least at first. As Morning Brew reported with the new JP Morgan requirement for biometric scanning of employees for access to the new headquarters. “Though the bank initially called it voluntary, biometric access is now “required” to get into the skyscraper.

While this is an issue that should be taken with the utmost of seriousness, Google shrugs off anonymity concerns with a smirk and a shrug, offering little more than vague reassurances. “The policy will require developers to submit government-issued identification to Google. Under the proposed system, Google will have the unilateral authority to determine who is allowed to distribute apps and could effectively block any developer it suspects of wrongdoing, potentially even without a clear or transparent justification…. Developers flagged in error could lose their ability to share apps entirely, with no clear recourse.”

In our experience, this is just the beginning. After all, it has to start somewhere…

Wait! Didn’t Oracle and OpenAI just strike an historic $300 billion cloud partnership, as Tech Spot et al reported? Talk about information grab and potentially worse, but being neither paranoid nor a conspiracy theorist, not going there.

Bottom line, as Durov said, “What was once the promise of free exchange of information is being turned into ultimate tool of control.” While true that, what happens when the hackers enter the equation, which, as history demonstrates, it seems they always do.

“This is why age verification is dangerous. Stupid laws have stupid consequences,” one wag commented on Tik Tok. Once again in the name of safety, we’re witnessing an information and potential surveillance/control grab the likes of which the world has never witnessed, and with Digital IDs increasingly being required and hackers becoming increasingly more sophisticated, we’re entering a very dangerous place at this stage in the age of tech. Just a heads up to you and while it’s important to connect the dots, it’s even more important for We the People to decide where we’re going to draw the line. Onward and forward.