A mystery cube, a secret identity, and a puzzle solved after 15 years
In today's WIRED Daily, what the Fastly outage reveals about the structure of the internet and the story of a huge puzzle that's finally been solved after 15 years.
Some people noticed the problem when they couldn't access The Guardian. Others struggled with the New York Times or the UK government's websites. Others couldn't buy things Amazon. People started to panic as another global outage struck internet users. The latest outage, which began just before 11am UK time, appears to have hit Fastly, a content distribution network, or CDN, and knocked out every company that used its services to support their websites. Across the internet, "Error 503 service unavailable" appeared on people's screens. Messaging app used in FBI sting - What happened: More than 800 criminals have been arrested after being tricked into using an encrypted messaging app that was run by the FBI. The sting allowed police to monitor chats about drug smuggling, money laundering and murder plots.
- Why it matters: Law enforcement agencies have regularly clashed with major technology platforms about accessing encrypted data. This could be a sign of them taking matters into their own hands by covertly running apps and services that criminals assume are safe.
Tech billionaires dodge federal taxes - What happened: ProPublica has obtained a cache of IRS information. It reveals that Jeff Bezos paid no federal income taxes in 2007 and 2011, while Elon Musk achieved the same feat in 2018.
- Why it matters: The documents show how easy it is for the wealthy to dodge paying their taxes. As ProPublica explains, "the wealthiest can – perfectly legally – pay income taxes that are only a tiny fraction of the hundreds of millions, if not billions, their fortunes grow each year".
Internet use skyrocketed during the pandemic - What happened: In a revelation that will surprise no one, Ofcom has found that the pandemic has made us use the internet at a higher rate than ever before. Adults spent an average of three hours and 47 minutes online every day during the pandemic.
- Why it matters: The past 18 months have been a bonanza for certain digital companies. Perhaps none more so than Zoom, which went from a few hundred thousand UK users before the first lockdown to more than 13 million today.
In 2005, an alternate reality game asked players to find a man named Satoshi based just on a photograph. Fifteen years later, the mystery was solved
Content marketing manager Slack 💉 The rise, and huge promise, of mRNA vaccines 👮 Brain training games are here to end police brutality mRNA brought us a Covid-19 jab in record speed. Next, scientists hope the technology could open the door to vaccines for everything from flu to HIV. Read about the vaccine revolution in the latest issue of WIRED. Also in this issue...
- A new way to build the electric vehicles of the future
- Nvidia and the AI gold rush
- The plan to bring extinct animals back from the dead
- Retail gets a whole new look
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