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A WordPress privacy plugin opened 115,000 sites to takeover
Burst Statistics, installed on about 200,000 WordPress sites, had a flaw letting attackers sign in as administrator. How to check your version, and what to do if you run one.
Joel Folgner
IT Manager, consultant, and tech curator based in Molalla, Oregon. I’m Joel Folgner, and I created Fresh From Cache to distill the noise of the tech industry into clear, practical insights.
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CISA contractor posted admin keys to public GitHub
A federal contractor left AWS GovCloud admin credentials and a file of plaintext passwords in a public repository for six months. How it happened, and the habit that prevents it.
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Meta dropped Instagram DM encryption. Why?
Meta turned off end-to-end encryption for Instagram direct messages, so new DMs are readable again. What changed, what happened to old conversations, and what to use instead.
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What the heck is a Passkey?
A passkey signs you into a site with your face, fingerprint, or PIN instead of a password. How it works, why a scammer cannot phish one, and what happens if you lose your phone.
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Outlook icon confusion
Windows 11 ships with Outlook (new) while Microsoft 365 installs Outlook Classic, so both sit in your Start menu. Which one to use, and what you give up by switching.
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IT twins wipe 96 government databases.
Two contractors were fired on a video call and deleted 96 federal databases in 56 minutes. What it shows about the accounts nobody closes when an employee leaves.
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The data center boom reaches Hillsboro, OR.
Data centers are arriving west of Portland, and they run on water and electricity from the same system everyone else uses. What the boom means for the people who live nearby.
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The Chatbot: What We Actually Know About AI Companions and Mental Health
A JAMA study of nearly 21,000 adults found daily AI users aged 45 to 64 were 54 percent likelier to screen positive for depression. What the research can and cannot tell us yet.
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The Disturbing Reality of AI-Powered Plush Toys
A $99 AI teddy bear told researchers where to find pills and matches. How AI toys for kids actually work, what they send to the cloud, and what to check before one comes home.
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Google is sending a few clicks back to your website
Google is adding outbound links back into AI Overviews after years of falling click-through rates. What the five changes do for small sites, and what they leave unfixed.
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Four steps to fix your printer (and the rule for when to stop)
Your printer says it is ready and nothing comes out. Four steps that fix most printer problems in order, and the rule for when buying a new one is the cheaper answer.
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Fake face. Real money.
Deepfake software can put someone else's face on a live Zoom or Teams call in real time, and it is sold openly. How these impersonation scams work, and the check that still catches them.