Joe Tidy BBC News
@joetidy.bsky.social
Cyber Correspondent, BBC News. Author of Ctrl+Alt+Chaos. I cover cyber security, online safety, crypto, AI, social networks and everything 💻📱📡. Global news mainly. DMs always open for tips/ feedback.
First pic - a column I wrote for the BBC Tech Decoded newsletter where I pondered how long it would be until Meta curtailed it's huge spending on building out its metaverse. Second pic - news this week. Column here for posterity: view.email.bbc.com?qs=6f24de31c...
December 6, 2025 at 10:55 PM
First pic - a column I wrote for the BBC Tech Decoded newsletter where I pondered how long it would be until Meta curtailed it's huge spending on building out its metaverse. Second pic - news this week. Column here for posterity: view.email.bbc.com?qs=6f24de31c...
'Parents are cluless as child hackers steal millions.' Good exploration of the issue of teenage hacking gangs here from Sky News. news.sky.com/liveblog-web...
Ex-teen hackers warn parents are clueless as children steal 'millions' | Money blog
Ex-cyber criminals jailed for stealing millions warn in exclusive interviews that parents are unaware it's easier than ever for children to fall down the hacking rabbit hole - and the first step is of...
news.sky.com
December 6, 2025 at 9:16 AM
'Parents are cluless as child hackers steal millions.' Good exploration of the issue of teenage hacking gangs here from Sky News. news.sky.com/liveblog-web...
Another Cloudflare outage. On Friday at business time for the UK and many other parts of the world. This was a scheduled thing that seems to have failed. There is something deliberate in the timings of these 'maintenance gone wrong events'. The rest of the world suffers whilst the US sleeps.
December 5, 2025 at 9:02 AM
Another Cloudflare outage. On Friday at business time for the UK and many other parts of the world. This was a scheduled thing that seems to have failed. There is something deliberate in the timings of these 'maintenance gone wrong events'. The rest of the world suffers whilst the US sleeps.
UK's Ofcom keeps issuing fines to companies which fail to put adequate age gating into sites. But companies are just ignoring them. Online Safety Act is proving very hard to enact. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Porn site fined £1m over age verification has never replied to Ofcom
The regulator tells the BBC it has been emailing AVS Group Ltd without reply since July.
www.bbc.co.uk
December 4, 2025 at 5:19 PM
UK's Ofcom keeps issuing fines to companies which fail to put adequate age gating into sites. But companies are just ignoring them. Online Safety Act is proving very hard to enact. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Asahi says 1.5 million customers' data potentially leaked in cyber-attack. Hat tip to Asahi for its continued transparency about the ransomware attack. Other firms hit this year who tried to minimise, deny and cover up attacks could learn from Asahi's honesty. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Asahi says more than 1.5 million customers' data potentially leaked in cyber-attack
The ransomware attack in September crippled Asahi's Japan operations and caused a drinks shortage.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 27, 2025 at 3:15 PM
Asahi says 1.5 million customers' data potentially leaked in cyber-attack. Hat tip to Asahi for its continued transparency about the ransomware attack. Other firms hit this year who tried to minimise, deny and cover up attacks could learn from Asahi's honesty. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Scammers hacked her phone and hijacked her digital life - so how did they get her details? We tried to work out how 3 victims of scams were targeted and which data breaches criminals used. The results once again highlight how data breaches cause real harm to individuals
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Scammers hacked her phone and stole thousands of pounds - how did they get her details?
Sue Shore told the BBC how scammers targeted her - and we found her information had been leaked online.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 25, 2025 at 7:35 AM
Scammers hacked her phone and hijacked her digital life - so how did they get her details? We tried to work out how 3 victims of scams were targeted and which data breaches criminals used. The results once again highlight how data breaches cause real harm to individuals
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
There it is - the Evil Corp podcast boxset is complete! Finale landed today for international listeners. Working on the pod has been enormously fun and I am very proud of the story we have told! Big ups to the amazing producers who are remaining anonymous..
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...
November 24, 2025 at 6:51 PM
There it is - the Evil Corp podcast boxset is complete! Finale landed today for international listeners. Working on the pod has been enormously fun and I am very proud of the story we have told! Big ups to the amazing producers who are remaining anonymous..
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...
podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/c...
Teens plead not guilty over TfL cyber-attack. Thalha Jubair 19, from East London, and Owen Flowers, 18, from Walsall in the West Midlands spoke only to confirm their names and enter pleas at the brief hearing. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Teenagers plead not guilty over Transport for London cyber attack
Thalha Jubair, 19, and Owen Flowers, 18, are charged with conspiring to commit unauthorised acts.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 21, 2025 at 5:07 PM
Teens plead not guilty over TfL cyber-attack. Thalha Jubair 19, from East London, and Owen Flowers, 18, from Walsall in the West Midlands spoke only to confirm their names and enter pleas at the brief hearing. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Today's news about a Russian money laundering network mentions Evil Corp. "Operation Destabilise began by tracking the activity of the ransomware group Evil Corp, but ended up uncovering "eye-watering scales" of money-laundering". As we say in our podcast series: the tentacles spread far and wide
November 21, 2025 at 9:44 AM
Today's news about a Russian money laundering network mentions Evil Corp. "Operation Destabilise began by tracking the activity of the ransomware group Evil Corp, but ended up uncovering "eye-watering scales" of money-laundering". As we say in our podcast series: the tentacles spread far and wide
Reposted by Joe Tidy BBC News
✅ @joetidy.bsky.social has been verified by @bsky.app.
November 19, 2025 at 11:43 AM
✅ @joetidy.bsky.social has been verified by @bsky.app.
I LOVE how unhinged and melodramatic the official EU Parliament TikTok account is about the USBC law. Here all day for it.
November 19, 2025 at 1:43 PM
I LOVE how unhinged and melodramatic the official EU Parliament TikTok account is about the USBC law. Here all day for it.
Superb research here. Shows how convenience features can undermine privacy. WhatsApp is still only behind Signal for best private mass chat apps. But this research and write up from @agreenberg.bsky.social made me change my profile pic which was me and my family www.wired.com/story/a-simp...
A Simple WhatsApp Security Flaw Exposed 3.5 Billion Phone Numbers
By plugging tens of billions of phone numbers into WhatsApp’s contact discovery tool, researchers found “the most extensive exposure of phone numbers” ever—along with profile photos and more.
www.wired.com
November 19, 2025 at 10:15 AM
Superb research here. Shows how convenience features can undermine privacy. WhatsApp is still only behind Signal for best private mass chat apps. But this research and write up from @agreenberg.bsky.social made me change my profile pic which was me and my family www.wired.com/story/a-simp...
British hacker must repay £4m after hijacking celebrity Twitter accounts. Joseph O'Connor, from Liverpool, hijacked more than 130 accounts in July 2020, including those of Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Elon Musk in The Great Twitter Hack.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
British hacker must repay £4m after hijacking celebrity Twitter accounts
Joseph O'Connor, from Liverpool, hacked more than 130 accounts in July 2020 to promote a Bitcoin scam.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 17, 2025 at 3:38 PM
British hacker must repay £4m after hijacking celebrity Twitter accounts. Joseph O'Connor, from Liverpool, hijacked more than 130 accounts in July 2020, including those of Barack Obama, Joe Biden and Elon Musk in The Great Twitter Hack.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
My write up of the bombshell Anthropic news about Chinese hackers using its chatbot for near autonomous cyber attacks. No doubt many questions still to be answered and I would love to hear more from a non-commercial entity that handled this.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
AI firm claims Chinese spies used its tech to automate cyber attacks
The company claimed in a blog post this was the
www.bbc.co.uk
November 14, 2025 at 11:00 AM
My write up of the bombshell Anthropic news about Chinese hackers using its chatbot for near autonomous cyber attacks. No doubt many questions still to be answered and I would love to hear more from a non-commercial entity that handled this.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Joe Tidy BBC News
Extraordinary day and historic for the wrong reasons - a cyber attack featured in the GDP figures
November 13, 2025 at 12:20 PM
Extraordinary day and historic for the wrong reasons - a cyber attack featured in the GDP figures
Reposted by Joe Tidy BBC News
A really insightful interview from the prison that @joetidy.bsky.social and the crew conducted with the former most wanted cyber criminal under nickname 'Tank' with real name Vyacheslav Penchukov, who used to run the infamous Russian cyber gang
"Paranoia is a constant friend of hackers." In an exclusive interview for our podcast, we went inside a Colorado prison to interview former Most Wanted cyber criminal 'Tank'. Vyacheslav Penchukov, climbed to the top of the Russian-speaking cyber-underworld.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Tank interview: A hacking kingpin reveals all to the BBC
One of the world's most prominent cyber-criminals speaks to the BBC in an exclusive interview.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 13, 2025 at 11:36 AM
A really insightful interview from the prison that @joetidy.bsky.social and the crew conducted with the former most wanted cyber criminal under nickname 'Tank' with real name Vyacheslav Penchukov, who used to run the infamous Russian cyber gang
"Paranoia is a constant friend of hackers." In an exclusive interview for our podcast, we went inside a Colorado prison to interview former Most Wanted cyber criminal 'Tank'. Vyacheslav Penchukov, climbed to the top of the Russian-speaking cyber-underworld.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Tank interview: A hacking kingpin reveals all to the BBC
One of the world's most prominent cyber-criminals speaks to the BBC in an exclusive interview.
www.bbc.co.uk
November 10, 2025 at 9:05 AM
"Paranoia is a constant friend of hackers." In an exclusive interview for our podcast, we went inside a Colorado prison to interview former Most Wanted cyber criminal 'Tank'. Vyacheslav Penchukov, climbed to the top of the Russian-speaking cyber-underworld.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...
Reposted by Joe Tidy BBC News
There's some really big caveats to this. A thread.
New: Google says it has discovered at least 5 malware families that use AI to rewrite their code and generate new capabilities on the fly, suggesting AI-powered malware is finally starting to take off. cloud.google.com/blog/topics/...
Report also has interesting stories about state actors' AI use.
Report also has interesting stories about state actors' AI use.
November 5, 2025 at 3:52 PM
There's some really big caveats to this. A thread.
Pleasure to do a keynote and book signing at the Irish Reporting and Information Security Service conference today. At the Aviva Stadium in Dublin no less! Thanks for the invite @brianhonan.bsky.social 🇮🇪#irisscon
November 5, 2025 at 5:38 PM
Pleasure to do a keynote and book signing at the Irish Reporting and Information Security Service conference today. At the Aviva Stadium in Dublin no less! Thanks for the invite @brianhonan.bsky.social 🇮🇪#irisscon
Reposted by Joe Tidy BBC News
It’s great to have @joetidy.bsky.social speak about teenage hackers at this #irisscon
November 5, 2025 at 10:08 AM
It’s great to have @joetidy.bsky.social speak about teenage hackers at this #irisscon
Pleased to announce my publisher has ordered another print run of my book as we have very nearly sold out of the first print! The second print run will fix the 2 typos that eagle-eyed readers pointed out to me. So if your copy has the typos - you now have a collectosr 1tem!
November 4, 2025 at 5:39 PM
Pleased to announce my publisher has ordered another print run of my book as we have very nearly sold out of the first print! The second print run will fix the 2 typos that eagle-eyed readers pointed out to me. So if your copy has the typos - you now have a collectosr 1tem!
Reposted by Joe Tidy BBC News
Britain’s digital delinquents - organised gangs and hostile states are recruiting teenage hackers to wreak havoc online.
@joetidy.bsky.social chats to Oliver Pickup at @newstatesman1913.bsky.social. Read more:
www.newstatesman.com/technology/2...
Joe's new book #CtrlAltChaos is out now!
@joetidy.bsky.social chats to Oliver Pickup at @newstatesman1913.bsky.social. Read more:
www.newstatesman.com/technology/2...
Joe's new book #CtrlAltChaos is out now!
Britain’s digital delinquents
Organised gangs and hostile states are recruiting teenage hackers to wreak havoc online
www.newstatesman.com
November 3, 2025 at 10:56 AM
Britain’s digital delinquents - organised gangs and hostile states are recruiting teenage hackers to wreak havoc online.
@joetidy.bsky.social chats to Oliver Pickup at @newstatesman1913.bsky.social. Read more:
www.newstatesman.com/technology/2...
Joe's new book #CtrlAltChaos is out now!
@joetidy.bsky.social chats to Oliver Pickup at @newstatesman1913.bsky.social. Read more:
www.newstatesman.com/technology/2...
Joe's new book #CtrlAltChaos is out now!
Looks like we might need to make an emergency addition to the podcast series! @briankrebs.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy - who we interviewed at length for the series - has broken the news that one of the alleged JabberZeus lads has been nabbed in Italy.
krebsonsecurity.com/2025/11/alle...
krebsonsecurity.com/2025/11/alle...
November 3, 2025 at 8:50 AM
Looks like we might need to make an emergency addition to the podcast series! @briankrebs.infosec.exchange.ap.brid.gy - who we interviewed at length for the series - has broken the news that one of the alleged JabberZeus lads has been nabbed in Italy.
krebsonsecurity.com/2025/11/alle...
krebsonsecurity.com/2025/11/alle...
October 31, 2025 at 8:51 PM
Proof if proof be need be that Twitter is now almost unusable. Just saw this on a major account on X.
October 31, 2025 at 9:10 AM
Proof if proof be need be that Twitter is now almost unusable. Just saw this on a major account on X.