Fatto spiacevole: quello dei dati personali è un mercato molto appetibile e di particolare valore per i cybercriminali, per motivi tutt’altro che difficili da immaginare. Non parliamo solo di scam o furti d’identità, ma di un complesso di attività illecite che possono trovare impiego nei modi più disparati. Questo riguarda sia i dati esposti online sia quelli reperiti all’interno dei marketplace del dark web, con il comune intento di realizzare dei guadagni diretti o indiretti.

Appreso che un utilizzo indesiderato dei nostri dati personali esiste ed è anzi una buona fetta di mercato per i cybercriminali, a questo punto, potremmo ritenere che tutta la normativa sulla privacy sia totalmente inutile. Insomma: se un cybercriminale vuole commettere una serie di attività illecite, certamente l’essersi procurato i nostri dati personali violando le regole probabilmente non è neanche degno di essere contrassegnato come “ultimo dei suoi problemi”. Ma bisogna ragionare sul perché i nostri dati personali diventano tanto facilmente reperibili, scoprendo così attraverso pochissimi passaggi logici che una maggiore attenzione da parte di chi svolge operazioni sugli stessi a riguardo ne ridurrebbe la disponibilità.

Per quanto non sia possibile avere uno scenario in cui il rischio di vedere i nostri dati personali impiegati in attività illecite viene azzerato, può essere desiderabile quanto meno uno in cui il saccheggio degli stessi sia particolarmente difficoltoso e il bottino meno remunerativo. Insomma: è chiaro che nel momento in cui i costi superano le opportunità, solitamente un cybercriminale desiste. A meno che non sia particolarmente motivato, ovviamente.

Questo però richiede una premessa. Ogni soggetto che raccoglie e impiega i dati personali è chiamato a garantire la protezione dei dati personali per tutta la filiera in cui sono svolte operazioni sugli stessi, andando così ad attenzionare proprio quegli aspetti rilevanti individuati dalla norma. Ovverosia: verificare che i dati siano lecitamente acquisiti, ne siano definite le finalità e vengano raccolti e conservati solo i dati necessari a perseguire le stesse.

Ovviamente, tenendo conto che ogni operazione deve essere svolta in sicurezza.

Non c’è privacy senza sicurezza.

L’aspetto che emerge è indubbiamente quello della sicurezza, per logica e rilevanza. Questo è richiamato non solo dalla norma, ma si pone come premessa: il trattamento in sicurezza dei dati personali garantisce una mitigazione per i rischi che incombono sull’interessato. Senza sicurezza, non può infatti parlarsi di protezione adeguata.

Un generale e più elevato livello di sicurezza contrasta il mercato del cybercrimine, ma questo richiede un effort condiviso da più attori ovverosia tutti i soggetti che svolgono operazioni sui dati. L’orientamento è fornito dalla normativa che obbliga a ragionare su quali dati raccogliere, perché e soprattutto per quanto tempo. Motivare ogni passaggio comporta una maggiore attenzione, e una maggiore attenzione consente di superare tutta una serie di criticità collegate a inconsapevolezza, incuria e disattenzione.

Ecco dunque che il rispetto della privacy – intesa nella sua accezione di protezione dei dati personali – è la premessa affinché i dati siano trattati in modo sicuro. O meglio: più sicuro rispetto allo scenario alternativo in cui non ci sono i presidi imposti dalla norma.

Il fattore culturale.

Un approccio culturale che tiene conto dei rischi per gli interessati richiede che i soggetti che decidono sulle sorti dei dati personali sono responsabilizzati ma anche una maggiore attenzione diffusa al tema. Questo comporta che le garanzie di protezione dei dati personali sono criteri di selezione. Certo, parliamo di garanzie percepite e dunque può essere possibile una strategia di privacywashing, ma un utente o consumatore esprime una domanda di servizi più attenti al rispetto della norma e quindi maggiormente sicuri.

Questo, di fatto, aumenta il costo per il cybercrime in questo ambito.

Meno dati facilmente disponibili comporta infatti costi maggiori.

It’s the market, baby.

L'articolo Non è il dark web a vendere i tuoi dati. Sei tu che li metti in saldo ogni giorno! proviene da Red Hot Cyber.

[Juan] describes himself as a software engineer, a lover of absurd humor, and, among other things, a player of Nethack. We think he should add computer game archaeologist to that list. In the 1990s, he played a game that had first appeared on USENET in 1987. Initially called “Middle-earth multiplayer game,” it was soon rebranded with the catchier moniker, Conquer.

It may not seem like a big thing today, but writing multiplayer software and distributing it widely was pretty rare stuff in the late 1980s or early 1990s. In 2006, [Juan] realized that this game, an intellectual predecessor to so many later games, was in danger of being lost forever. The source code was scattered around different archives, and it wasn’t clear what rights anyone had to the source code.

[Juan] set out to find the original authors [Edward Barlow] and [Adam Bryant]. Of course, their e-mail addresses from USENET were long dead. With persistence, he finally found [Barlow] in 2006. He was amenable to [Juan] porting the code over, but didn’t know how to contact [Bryant].

[Juan] continued to leave posts and follow up leads. He did eventually find [Bryant], who read one of the posts about the project and offered his permission to GPL the code. This was in 2011, nearly five years after the release from [Barlow]. He also discovered there was a third author who was also game. Unfortunately, [Richard Caley] had already passed away, so there was no way to obtain his release.

You can compare the original version with the new updated version from [Juan]. A software accomplishment worthy of Indiana Jones.

We love digging through old code. Especially for software that was especially influential.

hackaday.com/2025/11/11/resurr…

Ahoy Pirates,

Our next PPI board meeting will take place on 18.11.2025, 14:00 UTC / 15:00 CET.

All official PPI proceedings, Board meetings included, are open to the public. Feel free to stop by. We’ll be happy to have you.

Where:jitsi.pirati.cz/PPI-Board

Agenda: Pad: https://etherpad.pp-international.net/p/ppi-board-meeting-2025-08-05-vnly0cj

All of our meetings are posted to our calendar: pp-international.net/calendar/

We look forward to seeing visitors.

Thank you for your support,

The Board of PPI

pp-international.net/2025/11/p…

PPI’s main delegate at the United Nations Office of Geneva, Mr. Carlos Polo, attended events of the Environmental Programme (UNEP) this August. We attach some pictures of his visit, and we offer some comments about the efforts of our organization in helping to shape environmental policy.

The UNEP oordinates environmental work across the UN, but it is not the only organization. The UN has now created the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD), the Convention on Biological Diversity (CBD), and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). Each organization deals with separate environmenal issues and hosts its own conferences that include negotiations between nations and sometimes ask for statements and opinions of NGOs like our own. Currently the UNFCCC is hosting the COP conference in Brazil.

Carlos was able to observe the UNEP negotiations, but as we are not a nation (aka Party) we do not have a voice. Furthermore, we are not yet members of any of these conventions. PPI needs to establish more direct activities that promote environmental protection so that we can be accepted as members of these organizations, in addition to the Economic and Social Affairs Committee (ECOSOC) where we are already members.

We are hoping to make a bigger impact on international environmental governance. As an NGO, our abilities are limited. NGOs often watch from the back of the room. Our speaking time is scarce. The actual negotiation where the decisions are made take place behind closed doors, and we are simply able to only provide statements at the conference or as a published policy statement. One additional opportunity is that we can host side events. We have discussed cohosting a side even with other NGOs. If anyone is interested in collaborating, please contact us.

board@pp-international.net

Donations

pp-international.net/donations…

pp-international.net/2025/11/g…

There are many applications out there that use more than one window, with every modern-day platform and GUI toolkit offering the means for said application to position each of its windows exactly where it wants, and to restore these exactly in the configuration and location where the user saved it for that particular session. All toolkits but one, that is, for the Wayland project keeps shooting down proposals. Most recently merge request #264 for the ext-zones protocol by [Matthias Klumpp] as it descended into a 600+ comments spree.

This follows on an attempt two years prior with MR#247, which was rejected despite laying out sound reasons why the session protocol of Wayland does not cover many situations. In the breakdown video of the new ext-zones protocol discussion by [Brodie Robertson] the sheer absurdity of this whole situation becomes apparent, especially since KDE and others are already working around the Wayland project with their own extensions such as via KWin, which is being used commercially in e.g. the automotive world.

In a January 2024 blog post [Matthias] lays out many of his reasonings and views regarding the topic, with a focus on Linux desktop application usage from a scientific application perspective. When porting a Windows-, X11- or MacOS application to Wayland runs into compatibility issues that may necessitate a complete rewrite or dropping of features, the developer is more likely to stick to X11, to not port to Linux at all, or to use what eventually will amount to Wayland forks that patch around these missing API features.

Meanwhile X11 is definitely getting very long in the tooth, yet without it being a clean drop-in replacement it leaves many developers and end-users less than impressed. Perhaps the Wayland project should focus more on the needs of developers and end-users, and less about what it deems to be the One True Way?

youtube.com/embed/_MS8pSj-DLo?…

hackaday.com/2025/11/11/waylan…

Over on the [Behind The Code with Gerry] YouTube channel our hacker [Gerry] shows us how to emulate a 74LS48 BCD-to-7-segment decoder/driver using an Altera CPLD Logic Chip From 1998.

This is very much a das blinkenlights kind of project. The goal is to get a 7-segment display to count from 0 to 9, and that’s it. [Gerry] has a 74LS193 Up/Down Binary Counter, a 74LS42 BCD to Decimal Decoder, and some 74LS00 NAND gates, but he “doesn’t have” an 74LS48 to drive the 7-segment display so he emulates one with an old Altera CPLD model EPM7064SLC44 which dates back to the late nineties. A CPLD is a Complex Programmable Logic Device which is a kind of precursor to FPGA technology.

This fun video runs for nearly one hour and there are all sorts of twists and turns. The clock is made from a 555 timer. The Altera USB Blaster is used to program the CPLD via JTAG. But before he can do that he has to re-enable JTAG on his CPLD because JTAG LOCKOUT has been used on his secondhand chip. JTAG LOCKOUT is something you can do so that you can use the various JTAG pins for other purposes in your design, at the cost of no longer being about to access via JTAG! Fortunately [Gerry] has the right equipment to do a full reset of his chip and thus reinstate JTAG support.

Just as he’s nearly finished his project he manages to short out and destroy his CPLD by dropping a wire into the wall power socket! Talk about unlucky! He has to go back to the drawing board with a similar model. And in the end he realizes he used the the 7447 (common anode) but actually needed the 7448 (common cathode), so he has to fix that up too. All in all it’s fun to see what was state-of-the-art back in 1998. If you’re interested in such things you might like to read Not Ready For FPGAs? Try A CPLD.

youtube.com/embed/0WAaH37rmEk?…

hackaday.com/2025/11/11/emulat…

[Samcervantes] wanted a cyberdeck. Specifically, he wanted a Clockwork Pi uConsole, but didn’t want to wait three months for it. There are plenty of DIY options, but many of them are difficult to build. So [Sam] did the logical thing: he designed his own. The Bumble Berry Pi is the result.

The design criteria? A tactile keyboard was a big item. Small enough to fit in a pants pocket, but big enough to be useful. What’s more is he wanted to recycle some old Pi 3Bs instead of buying new hardware.

The result looks good. There’s a 4.3″ touch screen, a nice keyboard, and enough battery to run all day. If you already have the Pi, you are looking at about $60 and two 3D-printed parts. There is some soldering, but nothing that should put off the average Hackaday reader.

Does it run Doom? From the photo on the GitHub repo, yes, yes, it does. This would be a fun build, although we have to admit, the beauty of doing a build like this is making it your own. Maybe your pants have differently shaped pockets, we don’t know.

Either way, though, you can get some ideas from [Sam] or just clone his already good-looking deck. If we’re being honest, we are addicted to multiple screens. Plus, we want a built-in radio.

hackaday.com/2025/11/11/have-a…

If you’re familiar with electrical slip rings as found in motors and the like you’ll know them as robust assemblies using carefully chosen alloys and sintered brushes, able to take the load at high RPM for a long time. But not all slip ring applications need this performance. For something requiring a lot less rotational ability, [Luke J. Barker] has something from his parts bin, and probably yours too. It’s an audio jack.

On the face of it, a 1/4″ jack might seem unsuitable for this task, being largely a small-signal audio connector. But when you consider its origins in the world of telephones it becomes apparent that perhaps it could do so much more. It works for him, but we’d suggest if you’d like to follow his example, to use decent quality plugs and sockets.

This is an entry in our 2025 Component Abuse Challenge, and we like it for thinking in terms of the physical rather than the electrical. The entry period for this contest will have just closed by the time you read this, so keep an eye out for the official results soon.

hackaday.com/2025/11/11/2025-c…

Riportiamo la traduzione del post pubblicato da Patrick Breyer sul suo blog Poco prima di un incontro decisivo a Bruxelles, l’esperto di diritti digitali ed ex membro del Parlamento europeo, il Dott. Patrick Breyer, lancia l’allarme. Con un “ingannevole gioco di prestigio”, un controllo obbligatorio e ampliato della messaggistica privata viene imposto dalla porta sul retro…

Source

Despite the best efforts of modern medicine, Huntington’s disease is a condition that still comes with a tragic prognosis. Primarily an inherited disease, its main symptoms concern degeneration of the brain, leading to issues with motor control, mood disturbance, with continued degradation eventually proving fatal.

Researchers have recently made progress in finding a potential treatment for the disease. A new study has indicated that an innovative genetic therapy could hold promise for slowing the progression of the disease, greatly improving patient outcomes.

Treatment

Huntington’s disease stems from a mutation in the huntingtin gene, which is responsible for coding for the huntingtin protein. This gene contains a repeated sequence referred to as a trinucleotide repeat, where the same three DNA bases repeat multiple times. The repeat count varies between individuals, and can change from generation to generation due to genetic mutation. If the number of repeats becomes too long, the gene no longer codes for huntingtin protein, and produces mutant huntingtin protein instead. The mutated protein eventually leads to neural degeneration. This genetic basis is key to the heritability of Huntington’s disease. If one parent carries a faulty gene, their children have a fifty percent chance of inheriting it and eventually developing the disease themselves. Over generations, the number of repeats can increase and lead to symptoms appearing at an earlier age.
Excessive repeats in a critical gene are the root cause of Huntington’s disease. Credit: NIST, public domain
The new treatment relies on advanced genetic techniques to slow the disease in its tracks. It involves the use of a custom designed virus, which is inserted into the brain itself in specific key areas. It’s a delicate surgical process that takes anywhere from 12 to 18 hours, using real-time scanning to ensure the viral payload is placed exactly where it needs to go. The virus carries a DNA sequence and delivers it to brain cells, which begin processing the DNA to produce small fragments of genetic material called microRNA. These fragments intercept the messenger RNA that is produced from the body’s own DNA instructions, which is responsible for producing the mutant huntingtin protein which causes the degenerative disease. In this way, mutant huntingtin levels are reduced, drastically slowing the progression of the disease.

The effects of the treatment are potentially game changing, with progression of the disease slowed by 75% in study patients. Results indicate that with effective treatment, the decline expected over one year would instead take a full four years. In more qualitative areas, some patients in the trial have managed to maintain the ability to walk at a point when they would typically be expected to require wheel chairs. In typical Huntington’s cases, the onset occurs between 30 to 50 years old, with a life expectancy of just 15 to 20 years after diagnosis. The hope is that by delaying the progression of the disease, affected patients could have a greater quality of life for much longer, without suffering the worst impacts of the condition.
A microscopic image of a neuron damaged by mutated Huntingtin (mHtt) protein inclusion, visible via orange stain. Credit: Dr Steven Finkbeiner, CC BY-SA 3.0
The initial trial involved just twenty-nine patients, but results were promising. Data indicated consistent benefit to patients three years after the initial surgery. Crucially, the treatment isn’t just slowing symptoms, but there is also evidence it helped to preserve brain tissue. Markers of neuronal death in spinal fluid, which would typically increase as Huntington’s disease progresses, were actually lower than before treatment in study patients.

The therapy isn’t without complications. Beyond the complicated and highly invasive brain surgery required to get the virus where it needs to go, some patients developed inflammation from the virus causing some side effects like headaches and confusion. There’s also the expense — advanced gene therapies don’t come cheap. However, on the positive side, it’s believed the treatment could potentially be a one-off matter, as the brain cells that produce the critical microRNA fragments are not replaced regularly like other more disposable cells in the body. While it’s a new and radical treatment, pharmaceutical company UniQure has plans to bring it to market as soon as late 2026 in the US, with the European market to follow.

It’s not every day that scientists discover a new viable cure for a disease that has long proven fatal. However, through genetic techniques and a strong understanding of the causative factors of the disease, it appears scientists have made progress in tackling the spectre that is Huntington’s disease. For the many thousands of patients grappling with the disease, and the many descendents who struggle with potentially having inherited the condition, news of a potential treatment is a very good thing indeed.

Featured image: “Huntington” by Frank Gaillard.

hackaday.com/2025/11/11/gene-t…

Ever get to the train station on time, find your platform, and then stare at the board showing your train is 20 minutes late? Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) may run like clockwork most days, but a heads-up before you leave the house is always nice. That’s exactly what [filbot] built: a real-time arrival display that looks like it was stolen from the platform itself.

The mini replica nails the official vibe — distinctive red text glowing inside a sheet-metal-style enclosure. The case is 3D printed, painted, and dressed up with tiny stickers to match the real deal. For that signature red glow, [filbot] chose a 20×4 character OLED. Since the display wants 5 V logic, a tiny level-shifter sits alongside an ESP32-C6 that runs the show. A lightweight middleware API [filbot] wrote simplifies grabbing just the data he needs from the official BART API and pushes it to the little screen.

We love how much effort went into shrinking a full-size transit sign into a desk-friendly package that only shows the info you actually care about. If you’re looking for more of an overview, we’re quite fond of PCB metro maps as well.

hackaday.com/2025/11/11/real-t…