HUH: Chinese hackers counted on no one clicking ‘update’ in decade-long spree.

The Department of Justice unsealed an indictment Tuesday alleging two hackers worked in collaboration with the Chinese Ministry of State Security to steal everything from video game source code to weapons designs from hundreds of companies around the globe. And, if the indictment is to be believed, the hackers were able to do much of this by exploiting people’s natural laziness about updating their software.

Notably, the indictment claims, the two hackers — Li Xiaoyu, 34, and Dong Jiazhi, 33 — had a decade-long spree that succeeded, in large part, because people and companies often don’t immediately download and install software patches as soon as they become available.

“[To] gain initial access to victim networks, the defendants primarily exploited publicly known software vulnerabilities in popular web server software, web application development suites, and software collaboration programs,” reads a DOJ press release.

It amazes me how many people — including IT pros who ought to know better — shrug off security patches.

SKYNET SMILES: Machines can learn unsupervised ‘at speed of light’ after AI breakthrough, scientists say.

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: They’re Not Really ‘Secret Police’ If We’re All Talking About Them. “We’re not talking about a fringe group of Twitter commies pitching a fit. The increasingly-impaired bag of vile who is currently serving as the Speaker of the House of Representatives is in on it. Her alcoholic Trump Derangement Syndrome is so strong that she is disparaging good federal police officers who are carrying out their duties in cities where Democrats have abandoned the law-abiding citizens to lawless packs of criminals.”

“The worse, the better,” the lefty visionary once said.

COME SEE THE RACISM INHERENT IN THE LEFTISM: BLM speaker: “There is one common enemy: the white man … we need to get rid of them.”

WHY SHOULD THEY EVEN HAVE A UNION? Why Are Taxpayers Footing the Bill for Full-Time Police Union Employees?

TEACH WOMEN NOT TO RAPE: Texas high school teaching aide accused of having sex with 3 male students.

UGH: LinkedIn cuts 960 jobs as pandemic puts the brakes on corporate hiring.

STEPHEN KRUISER GOES In Search of… the Invisible Biden Voter. “Last week, a friend of mine who is well-placed on Capitol Hill remarked that no one in D.C. is talking about Joe Biden. In the ensuing four days, three other friends whose opinions I also respect mentioned that nobody ever meets a Biden supporter in person.”

BOMBSHELL: FBI Investigated the Joe Biden Campaign for Corruption.

TYLER O’NEIL: Jesus Statues Vandalized, Beheaded in U.S. as China Rips Down Jesus Posters in Homes.

NOTHIN’ LEFT TO LOSE: Tom Cotton Compares Portland Antifa to Confederate Rebels, Leftists Lose Their Minds.

KANYE WEST: Kim tried to get me committed after campaign event ‘because I cried about saving my daughter’s life’ from abortion.

HOW ABOUT THAT REALITY-BASED COMMUNITY? High School Teacher in Michigan Fired for Saying ‘Trump Is Our President’ on Social Media.

WE COULD SURE USE THEM: It’s official: US Air Force to buy Turkish F-35s. “The U.S. Air Force will officially buy eight F-35A conventional takeoff and landing jets originally built by Lockheed Martin for Turkey as part of a $862 million contract modification. The deal also contains an additional six F-35As built for the Air Force and modifications that will bring the Turkish jets in line with the U.S. configuration.”

COLORADO: Anti-cop ‘mob’ swarms Back the Blue event in Denver, bloodying several before shutting things down.

Why the scare quotes, Fox News?

BREAKING: FBI Arrests Ohio House Speaker, former GOP Chairman in Alleged $60M Bribery Scheme.

COLD WAR II: China steps up shipbuilding with two more aircraft carriers under construction towards 2035 navy goal. “As China aims to equal US naval strength in the Pacific, its first domestically developed carrier begins final assembly process.”

ON TODAY’S INSANITY WRAP: Netherlands Paid Islamic Terrorists, Plus Portland’s Menacing Mob Moms.

Plus: The aquatic love that dare not speak its name (or at least shouldn’t), and Ghislaine Maxwell teamed with Jacob Wohl for extra awfulness.

Some of this stuff is too rich even for Heinlein’s Crazy Years.

FEATURE, NOT A BUG: Widespread Mail-In Voting Would Pour Gasoline on the Fires Already Raging in Our Streets.

FASTER, PLEASE: Trump Ending Obama-Biden Regulation to Rezone Neighborhoods That’ll Effectively Abolish Suburbs.

CHARLES LIPSON: Reopening Schools and the Limits of Expertise. “When we listen to experts, we should remember Clint Eastwood’s comment in Magnum Force: ‘A man’s got to know his limitations.’ Even the best authorities have them, and one, ironically, is that they seldom admit them, even to themselves. It is important for us both to appreciate expert advice and to recognize its limits every time we’re told to “be quiet and do what they say.” We should listen, think it over, and then make our own decisions as citizens, parents, teachers, business owners, workers, retirees — and voters.”

KRUISER’S MORNING BRIEF: Andrew Cuomo’s Creepy COVID Victory Lap Needs To Have a Sock Shoved In It Now. “Cuomo so believed his own hype that he’s been doing an unseemly victory lap, acting as if he’s cured COVID. He held a press conference where he unveiled this strange papier mâché green mountain to explain New York’s COVID curve. Cuomo obviously thought it made him look clever, but he really looked like the dumb, lazy kid at a middle school science fair.”

ALL YOUR PLAN BELONG TO US: What Would A Joe Biden Presidency Retirement System Look Like? Farewell, 401(k), For Starters. “The promises to “equalize” tax breaks refers to longstanding complaints that, so long as 401(k) plans provide for the deferral of taxes on income saved for retirement, this tax break, or forgone tax revenue, primarily benefits relatively higher earners. Biden promises instead to ‘equalize benefits across the income scale’ and there’s no clear manner in which this lines up with a particular Sanders or Warren proposal, but progressives have been advocating for changes here for many years, for example, in this 2011 Brookings proposal in which tax deferral is replaced by a 30% federal match up to a cap, or other proposals with federal contributions to retirement accounts to be made on a flat per-person basis. Which of these Biden has in mind is unclear.”

I doubt we’ll see any clarity before election day.

Although I do get the feeling that the 30% carrot would quickly be turned into a stick. “Nice ‘match’ you’ve got there. Would be a shame if anything were to happen to it.”

LAND OF LIBERTY: Kentucky couple forced to wear ankle monitors after wife tests positive for COVID.

HOT: BadPower attack corrupts fast chargers to melt or set your device on fire. “The BadPower technique works by altering the default charging parameters to deliver more voltage than the receiving device can handle, which degrades and damages the receiver’s components, as they heat up, bend, melt, or even burn.”

To be clear, a bad guy needs physical access to a charger to make this happen.