Last week at a small conference, there was talk about a future event referred to as The Hackening. As in, within 6 to 12 months, many predicted that due to advanced AIs and AI agents the internet would become a severely hostile place. Some worried that this could rise to the level of ‘assume any phone connected to the internet is rooted’ and several people urged doing general crisis preparations on a personal level, in case of disruptions in supply lines, power, water or internet.
It did not take long for things to escalate.
The biggest hack is a flaw in PHP, which can be exploited to take control of the computer running any website suing an unpatched version of PHP. There are many others.
On a personal level, you want to do at least some basic prep and get your security in order. It is cheap to do as a form of insurance, and being caught not having it when you need it is a large mistake. That doesn’t mean you should panic, or cancel travel plans or anything like that. But there is low hanging security fruit out there. Pick it.
And So It Begins: PHP
Joshua [...]
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Outline:
(01:12) And So It Begins: PHP
(05:19) The PHP Bug Was Kind of a Big Deal
(09:45) On Your Marks
(12:25) This Was Only the Beginning
(16:01) Some More Hacks
(17:56) Everything Will Be Attacked
(22:22) Hugging the Face
(24:49) Get Daybreak Now
(26:15) Some People Need Practical Advice
(30:51) Diffusion Is Slow Until It Isn't
(33:11) One, Two, Three, Four
(34:36) Going Vertical
(35:22) Bot Versus Bot
(36:28) Cyber Lack of Security
(39:09) Offense Versus Defense
(42:11) Pick Up the Phone
(45:57) What Can We Do About It?
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First published:
October 23rd, 2026
Source:
https://www.lesswrong.com/posts/iqgZaJMnmyDCYfnuC/the-hackening-1
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Narrated by TYPE III AUDIO.
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