Beer – Matt Simpson :// Blog

Matt Simpson on 2025-12-29 11:21 pm 🚀

European News 🇪🇺 on 2025-12-29 08:32 am

The EU will launch the digital euro as a 100% European digital payments system to replace reliance on Visa, Mastercard, and Apple and Google Pay, with the European Central Bank issuing a digital form of cash. It will be built entirely in Europe, have zero transaction fees, instant payments, and strong privacy, giving the EU full control over its payments infrastructure.

https://www.independent.ie/business/digital-euro-what-it-is-and-how-we-will-use-the-new-form-of-cash/a165973061.html

(https://archive.ph/ERzTA)

Digital euro: what it is and how we will use the new form of cash

It’s January 1, 2029, the first day of the digital euro. You are in a shop buying milk and bread, and decide to pay with this new money. How exactly will it work?

Matt Simpson on 2025-12-29 11:14 pm 🚀

BrianKrebs on 2025-12-29 03:27 pm

KrebsOnSecurity.com celebrates its 16th anniversary today! A huge “thank you” to all of our readers — newcomers, long-timers and drive-by critics alike. Your engagement this past year here has been tremendous and truly a salve on a handful of dark days. Happily, comeuppance was a strong theme running through our coverage in 2025, with a primary focus on entities that enabled complex and globally-dispersed cybercrime services.

I'll add this spoiler, from the end:

"I am happy to report that the first KrebsOnSecurity stories of 2026 will go deep into the origins of Kimwolf, and examine the botnet’s unique and highly invasive means of spreading digital disease far and wide. The first in that series will include a somewhat sobering and global security notification concerning the devices and residential proxy services that are inadvertently helping to power Kimwolf’s rapid growth."

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2025/12/happy-16th-birthday-krebsonsecurity-com/

A photo of a blacktop street with yellow lines and the number 16 in stenciled yellow paint.

Matt Simpson on 2025-12-27 09:35 pm 🚀

Electronic Frontier Foundation on 2025-12-27 08:56 pm

EFF has defended tech users, digital creators, and researchers for over 35 years. Your support is the reason we can keep up this fight. Donate today! https://eff.org/YEC

Stand Together to Protect Democracy

Donate in 2025 and you’ll help EFF receive bonus grants. Support digital privacy and free speech!

Matt Simpson on 2025-12-24 04:05 pm 🚀

Electronic Frontier Foundation on 2025-12-24 04:01 pm

The European Commission (EC) is considering a “Digital Omnibus” package that would substantially rewrite EU privacy law, particularly the landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It’s not a done deal, and it shouldn’t be. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2025/12/eus-new-digital-package-proposal-promises-red-tape-cuts-guts-gdpr-privacy-rights

EU's New Digital Package Proposal Promises Red Tape Cuts but Guts GDPR Privacy Rights

The European Commission (EC) is considering a “Digital Omnibus” package that would substantially rewrite EU privacy law, particularly the landmark General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). It’s not a done deal, and it shouldn’t be.The GDPR is the most comprehensive model for privacy legislation...