This blog is retired (after 19 years)

As my first blog reaches nearly one million views, I've decided to place the old thing into retirement.

For the foreseeable future it will stay online as an archive, but I will not be updating it.

Since I started my security testing business SE Labs, there hasn't been time to blog privately, which you can see from the massive reduction in postings since 2017.

And I don't have time to update this blog, fix missing images and bring it up to modern design standards. So it's now on ice and if you want see what I'm up to, or to get in contact, the best place is through my personal website, SimonEdwards.com.

Highlights

I started this blog, HACK (by Simon PG Edwards), in April 2007 with a short post about a new magazine on Windows Vista. I had contributed the security chapters. It was my first blog post ever.

Over the years I discussed security testing; the launch of Dennis Technology Labs; and my 'bookazine', The Complete Internet Security Handbook.

I created a Facebook account in 2008 simply to understand the security implications. I contributed to Dennis Publishing's Facebook bookazine. I could never have predicted that Facebook would bypass its users' privacy settings to sell their data.

I wrote about strange devices being hacked; the possibility of planes and missiles suffering the effects of viruses; and examined Apple's macOS security - reposting an article I wrote for MacUser in 2002. Much of it is still relevant today.

In fact I now test macOS security regularly and find it is pretty easy to compromise - certainly no harder than Microsoft Windows. This heretical view has been entirely ignored by the current IT media, which I find confusing but also quite interesting.

Twitter

As a journalist I received advance notice of Twitter's existence, and actually managed to snag a user account in my own name, simonedwards! I saved it for years, waiting for a chance to use it. What a shame that it's clear I'll never want to.

GPS?!

The most surprising part of my blogging experience was that by far the most popular posts I made were not directly related to security.

I wrote about how to extract GPS coordinates from images and then plot them on Google Maps. In doing so I discovered a bug in Windows 7, which failed to show the polarity of the Longitude and Latitude values.

At the time of writing, the number of people who have viewed this article was larger than viewers of the next four most popular articles combined (over the lifetime of this blog).

Hacking power sockets

The fourth most popular post was about how to use European power plugs with UK power sockets without an adapter. You just need a little bit of plastic, like a pen lid.

Podcasting

I dropped back into the blog in 2021 with a few business tips, based on my experiences as an unexpected entrepreneur. I also wrote a little bit about the Cyber Security Decoded podcast I created for SE Labs. At the time of writing it is in Apple's top 10 for 'cyber security' podcasts.

I then wrote a silly article about how to use a stolen kitchen shelf as an essential podcasting tool, which has been enjoyed by thousands as of March 2026.

The end...

So this is the end of HACK, my blog. Thanks for reading it. It's been fun and educational for me. Please consider this archive as my notebook of things I've found to be interesting in tech over the last 19 years.

What now?

Visit SimonEdwards.com if you want my latest opinions, wish to invite me to speak or want to chat about security. There is also the SE Labs newsletter, which you might enjoy.

Podcasting workstation management problems SOLVED!

Introducing the Advanced Podcast Platform™ from DE:CODED.

Our ingenious, hi-tech mobile podcast platform solves all of your workstation management problems.

It's all based on an MDF kitchen shelf, which allows you to clamp the mic wherever you are. But there's more to it than that!

The Coming Mac Threat (Revisited)

Foreword

The following article was written and published in 2008. The first iPhones were less than six months old and Apple's OS X operating system was just seven years old. The previous year Apple launched a version of OS X that could run on Intel systems. The following year OS X could *only* run on Intel systems. This could have made life easier for attackers, as they faced a familiar underlying system.

A lot has changed since then. According to some statistics the use of OS X (now MacOS) has risen between 2009 and 2021 from below 4% to around 16%. This is clearly a significant rise, but with around 75% of computer users still staring at Windows, the value to an attacker of MacOS exploits is still relatively low.

Attackers have targets and the chances of a valuable one using a Mac is now five times as likely. We've seen news reports of exploits targeted Apple-based devices. NSO's Pegasus spyware is now widely recognised as being a threat that targeted civilians, including journalists.

Define: Farcetime

Farce time [/fɑːs/ /tʌɪm/] n. 1. a futile, dispiriting experience combining video conferencing systems; young children and/ or elderly relatives; and unreliable WiFi.

Business Startup Tips: Get and Keep Money

These business startup tips are based on my personal experience. I've tried to make them as generic as possible without falling into the same trap that makes most business advice articles useless.

The content here is general opinion based on personal experience. It does not constitute professional, legal, financial, or tax advice. Readers should consult a qualified professional before acting on business decisions.

What kind of business?

Every business startup advice article out there talks about business plans and cashflow. And then the need to find and satisfy customers. The basic advice is right, of course, but it doesn't get you anywhere in the real world. It is too basic to be useful, and it's so obvious! If you needed that advice you might reconsider starting a company.

The following tips are unusual but accurate. You might not have seen them anywhere else because most people who write business startup articles haven't started a business. And those who have are probably keeping this advice to themselves. Selfish!

I hope you find the following 5 business startup tips useful. I wish I'd read them six years ago...

Define: Coming Soon

Coming soon [kuhm-ing soon] adj. 1. A false claim used to reassure website visitors that content will appear before the domain expires.

How we made the DE:CODED podcast

When we chose to make a podcast we knew we would have a lot to learn...

This is how we made the DE:CODED podcast

At the end of 2020 we decided to create a podcast.

Five months later we have published the final episode of series one. (We're definitely doing a second series.)

Some information and advice for those wishing to do the same follows...