Black October
It’s been a rough month if you work in cybersecurity. Some are calling it Black October. Today we’ll talk about two of the major security events: PHP2Shell and eMudhra’s TLS certificates. But we’ll also have some fun AI news, too, including the second half of my tutorial on making your own apps using a free chatbot. In other news: Google fixes serious Pixel phone bugs; North Korea blamed for $6.3B crypto heist; Google using your email, photos for ads targeting; NM judge fines Meta $25B; Israeli firm used ads to deliver spyware; Utah judge rules VPN law invalid; CA public school data leak; Canada’s Crime Stoppers leaks 1.5M tips spanning decades; DHS breached affecting 41k employees; people are hacking their smart TVs to make them dumb. Article Links 110 vulnerabilities fixed in Google Pixel devices. [kaspersky.com – Alanna Titterington – Oct 2, 2026]: https://www.kaspersky.com/blog/google-pixel-september-2026-security-update/56488 North Korean hackers blamed for stealing record $6.3B in Binance breach. [techcrunch.com – Zack Whittaker – Oct 30, 2026]: https://techcrunch.com/2026/10/30/north-korean-hackers-blamed-for-stealing-record-6-3b-in-binance-breach How to stop Google using your Gmail and Photos for ads. [proton.me – Ben Wolford – Oct 27, 2026]: https://proton.me/blog/gmail-ads Meta ordered to pay New Mexico $25 billion for deceiving users about privacy on Facebook. [apnews.com – https://apnews.com/author/mikella-schuettler – Oct 21, 2026]: https://apnews.com/article/facebook-penalty-cambridge-analytica-new-mexico-b329f82c3d3db3758a159405acbd4d0e Israeli firm used online ads to run vast spy operation, researchers say. [reuters.com – Raphael Satter – Oct 15, 2026]: https://www.reuters.com/legal/litigation/israeli-firm-used-online-ads-run-vast-spy-operation-researchers-say-2026-10-15 Court Agrees with EFF: Utah’s VPN Law Demands a Technical Impossibility. [eff.org – Rindala Alajaji – Oct 6, 2026]: https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/10/court-agrees-eff-utahs-vpn-law-demands-technical-impossibility Hackers steal personal data of millions of California students in massive breach. [msn.com – Howard Blume, Andrew Khouri, Jaweed Kaleem – Oct 15, 2026]: https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2026-10-16/state-testing-student-data-hack Massive Leak Exposes 41,000 Homeland Security Workers—Including Undercover ICE Agents. [wired.com – Dhruv Mehrotra – Oct 28, 2026]: https://www.wired.com/story/massive-leak-exposes-41000-homeland-security-workers-including-undercover-ice-agents More than 1.5 million Canadian Crime Stoppers tips leaked. [cbc.ca – Valérie Ouellet, Michelle Allan – Oct 21, 2026]: https://www.cbc.ca/news/investigates/canadian-crime-st