Jon Sullivan
@joncounts@mastodon.nz  ·  activity timestamp 22 hours ago

We just brought it six audio recorders from across campus at #LincolnUniversityNZ, which students had laid out as part of our long-term monitoring of campus birds.

To our surprise, and annoyance, some pesky varmint has done its best to gnaw right through one of them. I've not seen anything like it before, and we've had these units left out in all sorts of wild places.

Either it's one very hungry rat, or a rat that particularly likes the taste of plastic. Maybe if we can catch it and breed it, there's a potential for plastic recycling rat farms.

#rats #nz#AudioRecorder #ecology #plastic

A photo of six audio recorders sitting on my office chair. They're long thin black plastic units, with a microphone at one end covered in sponge and protected by a metal grill, and the rest of the unit is solid plastic inside of which are the batteries and electronics. This is the AR4 model designed and manufactured by the New Zealand Department of Conservation.
A photo of six audio recorders sitting on my office chair. They're long thin black plastic units, with a microphone at one end covered in sponge and protected by a metal grill, and the rest of the unit is solid plastic inside of which are the batteries and electronics. This is the AR4 model designed and manufactured by the New Zealand Department of Conservation.
A photo of six audio recorders sitting on my office chair. They're long thin black plastic units, with a microphone at one end covered in sponge and protected by a metal grill, and the rest of the unit is solid plastic inside of which are the batteries and electronics. This is the AR4 model designed and manufactured by the New Zealand Department of Conservation.
Jon Sullivan
@joncounts@mastodon.nz  ·  activity timestamp 22 hours ago

We just brought it six audio recorders from across campus at #LincolnUniversityNZ, which students had laid out as part of our long-term monitoring of campus birds.

To our surprise, and annoyance, some pesky varmint has done its best to gnaw right through one of them. I've not seen anything like it before, and we've had these units left out in all sorts of wild places.

Either it's one very hungry rat, or a rat that particularly likes the taste of plastic. Maybe if we can catch it and breed it, there's a potential for plastic recycling rat farms.

#rats #nz#AudioRecorder #ecology #plastic

A photo of six audio recorders sitting on my office chair. They're long thin black plastic units, with a microphone at one end covered in sponge and protected by a metal grill, and the rest of the unit is solid plastic inside of which are the batteries and electronics. This is the AR4 model designed and manufactured by the New Zealand Department of Conservation.
A photo of six audio recorders sitting on my office chair. They're long thin black plastic units, with a microphone at one end covered in sponge and protected by a metal grill, and the rest of the unit is solid plastic inside of which are the batteries and electronics. This is the AR4 model designed and manufactured by the New Zealand Department of Conservation.
A photo of six audio recorders sitting on my office chair. They're long thin black plastic units, with a microphone at one end covered in sponge and protected by a metal grill, and the rest of the unit is solid plastic inside of which are the batteries and electronics. This is the AR4 model designed and manufactured by the New Zealand Department of Conservation.
ESET Research
@ESETresearch@infosec.exchange  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago
#ClickFix went from virtually non-existent to the second most common attack vector blocked by #ESET, surpassed only by #phishing. This novel social engineering technique accounted for nearly 8% of all detections in H1 2025. #ESETresearch
ClickFix lures users by displaying bogus error messages followed by quick fix instructions, including copy-pasting malicious code. Running the code in the victim’s command line interpreter delivers malware such as #RATs, infostealers, and cryptominers.
Between H2 2024 and H1 2025, ESET’s detection for ClickFix, HTML/FakeCaptcha, skyrocketed by 517%. Most detections in ESET telemetry were reported from Japan (23%), Peru (6%), and Poland, Spain, and Slovakia (>5% each).
What makes #ClickFix so effective? The fake error message looks convincing; instructions are simple, yet the copied command is too technical for most users to understand. Pasting it into cmd leads to compromise with final payloads, including #DarkGate or #LummaStealer.
While #ClickFix was introduced by cybercriminals, it’s since been adopted by APT groups: Kimsuky, Lazarus; Callisto, Sednit; MuddyWater; APT36. NK-aligned actors used it to target developers, steal crypto and passwords from Metamask and #macOS Keychain.
#ClickFix uses psychological manipulation by presenting fake issues and offering quick solutions, which makes it dangerously efficient. It appears in many forms – error popups, email attachments, fake reCAPTCHAs – highlighting the need for greater vigilance online.
Read more in the #ESETThreatReport:
🔗 https://welivesecurity.com/en/eset-research/eset-threat-report-h1-2025
ESET Research
@ESETresearch@infosec.exchange  ·  activity timestamp 2 months ago
#ClickFix went from virtually non-existent to the second most common attack vector blocked by #ESET, surpassed only by #phishing. This novel social engineering technique accounted for nearly 8% of all detections in H1 2025. #ESETresearch
ClickFix lures users by displaying bogus error messages followed by quick fix instructions, including copy-pasting malicious code. Running the code in the victim’s command line interpreter delivers malware such as #RATs, infostealers, and cryptominers.
Between H2 2024 and H1 2025, ESET’s detection for ClickFix, HTML/FakeCaptcha, skyrocketed by 517%. Most detections in ESET telemetry were reported from Japan (23%), Peru (6%), and Poland, Spain, and Slovakia (>5% each).
What makes #ClickFix so effective? The fake error message looks convincing; instructions are simple, yet the copied command is too technical for most users to understand. Pasting it into cmd leads to compromise with final payloads, including #DarkGate or #LummaStealer.
While #ClickFix was introduced by cybercriminals, it’s since been adopted by APT groups: Kimsuky, Lazarus; Callisto, Sednit; MuddyWater; APT36. NK-aligned actors used it to target developers, steal crypto and passwords from Metamask and #macOS Keychain.
#ClickFix uses psychological manipulation by presenting fake issues and offering quick solutions, which makes it dangerously efficient. It appears in many forms – error popups, email attachments, fake reCAPTCHAs – highlighting the need for greater vigilance online.
Read more in the #ESETThreatReport:
🔗 https://welivesecurity.com/en/eset-research/eset-threat-report-h1-2025