🔥 Your Cisco, ASUS, QNAP, or Synology router might secretly be part of a botnet.

A new threat called PolarEdge is hiding inside routers, turning them into undetectable spies using a secret TLS server and a hidden config file.

Exploit chain, IOCs & decryption trick ↓ https://thehackernews.com/2025/10/polaredge-targets-cisco-asus-qnap.html

Meta just rolled out new anti-scam tools for WhatsApp & Messenger.

⚠️ Screen-share warnings
🤖 AI scam detection
🚨 Instant alerts

... but one setting quietly breaks 🔐 encryption.

Learn more ↓ https://thehackernews.com/2025/10/meta-rolls-out-new-tools-to-protect.html

Every new AI tool in your SOC adds another way in for attackers.

The defender might now be the weak spot.

AI agents are making decisions on their own — and trust just became an identity problem.

Learn how to secure them before someone else does → https://thehackernews.com/2025/10/securing-ai-to-benefit-from-ai.html

🧠 Apple’s Enhanced Visual Search: Scanning Your Photos Without Consent

In my recent webinar Media Master: Open Source Photo and Video Editing, I covered three AI systems built into Big Tech phones. One of the most concerning is Apple’s Enhanced Visual Search — a feature that scans your photos for landmarks and sends that data to Apple’s servers… without your consent.

Even worse, some users found it re-enables itself after being turned off. It’s not just cloud photos — it’s every photo your iPhone takes.

📺 Watch the full Media Master: Open Source Photo and Video Editing webinar to learn how to protect your memories and take back control.

🛡️ Check out our privacy gear.

—
🫶 @takebackourtech
📩 WEBSITE & NEWSLETTER | 🎥 VIDEOS| XMPP | SUBSTACK

My dear solutionaries,

I've just finished the Digital ID report I've been working on for the past few months. The report is ~9K words (after cutting it down) looking at the Digital ID programs in every continent.

To say I'm sick of researching this topic would be an understatement. Still, we must pay attention as its the next paradigm in digital surveillance and contol.
(unless you want to move near the Amazon jungle, the deserts of Africa, or Antartica).

I hope to have a download available for the e-book by tomorrow.

One thing the research makes obvious is that banks are captured, and we need for alternative monetary systems. Two areas that I want to focus on are cryptocurrency or barter/credit networks. Does anyone have solutions?

Dear Abovians,

The right to ‘identification’ has been presented to us as an essential human right; Digital ID programs operational in 90% of countries. After months of researching, we conclude that Digital ID is the cornerstone of the next generation of surveillance.

We are taking a stand by publishing our Digital ID report, raising awareness and presenting solutions to help others avoid Digital ID.

These systems have been planned for decades, they reach the farthest corners of the globe; the goal is to consolidate every human being under Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) which combines identity, payments, and information exchange.

This is a global issue, and there is a lesson to be learned from every region.

North America surprises its residents with surprise biometric ID renewals. Europe and the U.K aspire for universal interoperability. South America, the Middle East, and Africa show us that developing countries receive hundreds of millions in funding for documenting their population. In Asia, we see the bleak future of Life Under Digital ID, where people live under a Digital Caste System. Rights can be taken away with a single misstep or even completely at random.

Digital ID is the first and most important component of DPI. Once enough people enroll in Digital ID, the subsequent components are easily layered ontop.

You give up your rights as soon as you enroll your legal identity with your biometrics.

Our new report will give you knowlege to prepare for the years ahead, and emphasizes that community is the answer. We have a narrow window of a few years to build resilient people-first networks to provide for ourselves and each other.

Download the report here.

Wherever you reside on earth — we are united in this challenge.

— Hakeem Anwar, Founder of Above and #TBOT

📱 Your Devices Are Pre-Hacked—You Just Didn’t Consent Yet

In Media Master: Open Source Photo and Video Editing, I walk through how big tech phones and laptops come with features that are silently installed and activated without your consent. Companies claim it’s for your privacy—so private, they don’t even need to ask.

This is how things like contact tracing, digital ID, and vaccine passport systems get rolled out globally—instantly.

I also share how the Above Phone flips this model completely. No hidden connections. No backdoors. Just full control, from the stock camera to the open-source media apps we recommend.

📺 Watch the full Media Master: Open Source Photo and Video Editing webinar
🛡️ Browse our privacy gear.

🚨Learn what life is like with Above Phone - Rise Above: Device Overview Webinar, Oct 29

—
🫶 @takebackourtech
📩 WEBSITE & NEWSLETTER | 🎥 VIDEOS| XMPP | SUBSTACK

"Redmi Projector 4 launched at $137!- 360 lumens brightness - 1080p resolution - MEMC for smooth visuals - Dual 5W speakers - AI voice control - Xiaomi HyperConnect Perfect for immersive entertainment at home!"

🔗 Check More

🐧Qualcomm's new Snapdragon chip misses out on one of Android 16's best features

The Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 5 doesn’t support Android’s Linux Terminal, making Qualcomm the only vendor to not support it.

More details (including Qualcomm's statement)👇

🔗https://www.androidauthority.com/snapdragon-chips-android-linux-terminal-3608648/

🐧Google’s Pixel 10 can now run Linux apps better than other Android phones

The Pixel 10 supports GPU-accelerated rendering for Linux apps in Android 16 QPR2, theoretically letting them run at near-native performance levels!

Here's why that matters👇

🔗https://www.androidauthority.com/pixel-10-linux-apps-gpu-acceleration-3608754/

🖥Google is rolling out Android 16 QPR2 Beta 3.1!

This minor update fixes the issue that caused SystemUI to repeatedly crash when Desktop Mode was enabled.

🔗https://www.androidauthority.com/android-16-qpr2-beta-3-return-3608643/

🔦Android’s new flashlight brightness slider now has a clever design like a real flashlight

The new 2510 Android Canary release brings a brand new UI for the flashlight brightness controls in Quick Settings.

🔗https://www.androidauthority.com/android-flashlight-brightness-design-3608998/

📱Pixel phones will get a smarter always-on display that saves battery life

New code suggests Android will add a feature that turns off the AOD automatically when there's no user activity.

More details👇

🔗https://www.androidauthority.com/always-on-display-inactivity-detection-rumor-3609052/

🔙🏠Android FINALLY lets you flip your Pixel’s navigation buttons, just like on Samsung phones

The latest Android Canary has added a setting to change the order of the buttons in the 3-button navigation bar, as we previously reported would happen.

🔗https://www.androidauthority.com/reorder-three-button-navigation-setting-3609073/

Soon a test build will be published to allow use of Treat Wheel while a full release is in the way, as it will be incompatible due to new fixes in ReZygisk.

Those will only last a month, and will refuse to work after that, to ensure no one keeps using incomplete versions.

If you had issues with 0.0.5, it is time to report, not to gatekeep and expect it to magically be known.

Do the change, or else it will be forever stuck at where it never left.

Sincerely,
ThePedroo, TW/RZ developer.

Treat Wheel 0.0.5 - Test Compatibility Version

Only meant to be used with ReZygisk 421+.

Oh, come on, Tensor chip is a perfect little silicon angel, and if your pictures look bad or your phone crashes, it's not a bug, it's a user feature.

Google made it perfect; you're the one using it wrong. It's a miracle it even works in your hands.

https://www.androidpolice.com/tensor-g5-complaints/

🤝 Managers who can't manage = Samsung

I am now bored of this drama in the custom ROM community. Android is already dying and people are still busy firing at each other.

https://joeyhuab.com/

October 17th, 2025 EUROPOL performed Operation SIMCARTEL

They arrested 7 people. EUROPOL seized:
- 1,200 sim boxes
- 40,000 active sim cards
- 5 servers
- gogetsms
- apisim
- 4 luxury cars
- $502,000 in bank accounts
- $310,000 in cryptocurrency

They also released a badass video