Tomorrow I'll be talking at Iowa State University.

I forgot I scheduled to do this talk.

Rest assured I am woefully unprepared, will probably arrive late, and I will begin the talk about my frustrations about the rising cost of Taco Bell

Yeah, so pretty much the only reason people give a fuck about what I say or do is because I'm the only person dumb enough to copy-paste terabytes of malware stuff into a bucket and do it for free

I've been copy-pasting everyday for 6.5 years

Not complaining, just a silly observation. Anyone could make a vx-underground (and probably do it better than me).

You have to be dedicated to the pain and the boring. You have to sit here and say, "omg why am i doing this"

🚨BRAEKIGN🚨

New footage from Microsoft executives found online. Microsoft discusses the how Windows will be agentic, connect devices, cloud-based, and how they'll use AI to unlock intelligent productivity.

Thank you Iowa State University for letting me schizo rant for 80 minutes.

The talk began with discussing malware. As the talk progressed, it derailed into discussing malware (specifically ransomware) for sex toys.

In the midst of me discussing Threat Actors deploying "cock lock" ransomware, a university TA (Teaching Assistant) arrived. They heard me utter a few words about chastity belts, men having their weiners locked and/or extorted, ... and they promptly left the talk (presumably from shock or confusion).

Sorry, teacher professor person. The students wanted to unironically discuss the cybersecurity posture on sex toys. As silly as it sounds, it is a serious discussion topic.

I've been informed that I deeply bothered some students from a previous talk I did because I said, "University and school is a bunch of bullshit".

I should probably clarify that statement because, as I said that, I was speaking at a University.

Schooling, University, higher education isn't "bullshit". It is "bullshit" in that I believe they over charge students and have a tendency to deliver false hope and unrealistic expectations.

Universities are for high education yet recruiters (and some students) treat it more akin to a job fair.

Education is serious. It is immensely important. Education is why I make everything on vx-underground free. I encourage you to learn, strive, improve, follow your curiosity, and do silly things. Education is paramount.

When I criticize Universities, I am not criticizing you or your decision to enroll in a University. Many people do well in a structured learning environment and for many people it is a good choice. A University can be a great way to make friends, social network, and learn.

I just wish Universities (specifically in the United States) didn't place people in immense debt for simply wanting to get a higher education. I also wish Universities didn't exploit and/or mislead students into the idea that "more education" immediately translates into "more money". Attending a University should be driven by intellectual desires, not financial.

Anyway, I am sorry I didn't elaborate on that more and I am sorry to the students who felt like I was criticizing their career path and/or route. Please know that I am not calling your decision bullshit, I am calling the University which charges you $60,000 for wanting a higher education bullshit.

tldr University is a bunch of fucking bullshit because they want to charge you a bunch of money so you can learn. Learning should be free, or at least not place you into crippling debt. Knowledge and higher learning should be accessible to anyone who wants to learn

My entire life I've been a Windows guy. I loved Windows.

Now I hate Windows and I especially hate Microsoft. Windows is slop.

My only hold up was gaming, but I don't even really game anymore. Games are slop too.

Me and the boys were stoked for Borderlands 4. Borderlands 4 used Unreal Engine 5 and required like, 400 gigabutts of RAM and nerds with 4070s could only get 20fps.

The only true bastion of gaming left that isn't over monetized slop is passionate indie game studios

the people living inside my phone are very angry today

Last year we gave away over $100,000 of educational material to students, nerds, and hobbyists on the internet. The giveaway was to act as a celebration for the Holiday season, New Year, blah blah blah. It was supposed to help people out because sometimes cybersecurity educational material can be expensive.

I have learned nearly 80% of the people I gave free educational material to (vouchers for courses, free certification stuff, etc) did NOT complete the material and did NOT receive certification. Only a small minority of people actually put the educational material to good use

This is very upsetting news. I am also disappointed with the excuses people had presented with why they had not completed the educational material and/or put it to use.

Some of the educational material would require, at minimum, 30-minutes of time a day. There is almost no reason why you could not allocate 30-minutes of time a day to learning.

Not only have these students wasted their own potential and squandered a free gift, they also robbed another potential student of an opportunity.

I am profoundly disappointed.

"Well, I've just been really busy".

I work a full time job, I have a vx-underground, and I have a family which includes a newborn baby. If I am able to allocate 30 minutes of time a day to doing something there is literally ZERO reason you could not set aside 30 minutes.

You're fucking LAZY. You're lazy and you wanted a free handout. Despite the educational material delivered to you on a silver platter FOR FREE you still chose you do nothing.

You will never succeed in this career field if you cannot do something as simple as study for 30 minutes.

I've had some positive feedback from the giveaways though.

I gave away like, $20,000 cash to various charities. A doctor who does stuff with kids with seizures called me and personally thanked me.

Some church that does stuff that helps Military Veterans who have PTSD made me a "Thank you" video and said the money would directly go to soldiers who were having a bad New Year, or something.

Some stinky nerd sent me this too

Received a message today about a young and passionate student who is studying malware reverse engineering.

They're 11 years old. That's amazing.

What's more amazing is they're blind.

Do you have any fucking idea how LOCKED THE FUCK IN you have to be to reverse engineer malware WHILE BLIND? This 11 year is LISTENING to x64 disassembly.

THEY'RE LISTENING TO ASSEMBLY

Dawg, we gotta find a way to hook this kid up. Send him to DEFCON, get him a VirusTotal enterprise license, something, I don't know. This kid is COOKING

Roman Novak and Anna Novak, Russian cryptocurrency scammers and obnoxious Instagram flexers, have been confirmed deceased by UAE authorities.

Him and his wife were brutally murdered and dismembered after what police believe was Mr. Novak refusing to give the kidnappers his cryptocurrency wallet.

Mr. and Mrs. Novak were believed to possess over $500,000,000 in various crypto assets after defrauding investors in Russia.

I don't want to disrespect the deceased.

I would like to state however that if you possess extreme wealth, and flaunt it online, you are placing a giant target on your back.

https://www.instagram.com/t0r

Every couple of months, or years, I don't know, I don't remember anymore, all these different governments come together and do this thing called "Operation Endgame".

They takedown botnets, and stuff, and make it this big ass theatrical event. Each takedown is released in "seasons" and "episodes". They even released videos and it's all anime-like and sort of edgy

The entire purpose of this, of course, is to garner attention and do anti-Threat Actor propaganda. For example, in the latest "episode" of Operation Endgame, the federal agencies behind Operation Endgame assert Rhadamanthys, one of the thingies they took down, was secretly stealing money from their "clients". In other words, the criminal selling to criminals was taking a little extra money off the top from criminals.

Ultimately, these law enforcement agencies want people to see these videos, see the blog posts, and discuss it. They then want would-be Threat Actors (or active Threat Actors) to see it and become scared.

These Operation Endgame seasons and episodes are both news and/or media grabbing and also an intimidation tactic.

It is interesting. I enjoy watching the silly Operation Endgame videos they release. I understand what these law enforcement agencies are trying to do. My primary criticism however is the lack of kitty cats.

I have yet to see a single silly kitty cat in any of the videos. It's always some weird edgy scifi cyber punk spooky voodoo stuff. Whatever. Want to get peoples attention? Show a silly kitty cat.

Please see attached photo as something which may get the publics attention. This is something which will make people stop and go, "wow, now that's a fucking nice looking kitty cat"

If the next Operation Endgame propaganda video has a kitty cat on it, I'll fuckin lose my mind. I'll probably start blasting divorced dad rock and shadow box in my underwear

I am yet again doing another talk at another college.

Ranting like a schizophrenic person about malware is very lucrative (I've been getting paid in pizza).

I'll be schizo ranting about malware at Oakland Community College on November 19th.

Thanks for the pizza, nerds