- Trail of Bits released McSema, an open-source tool that lifts x86 binaries to LLVM bitcode, enabling symbolic execution and analysis of closed-source software.  
- Discussion of Stratum protocol vulnerabilities: Bitcoin mining pools can silently redirect miners via the undocumented “client.reconnect” message, and the “client.show_message” command allows unfiltered log injection.  
- A practical SSH denial-of-service technique was shared: the default OpenSSH “MaxStartups 10” limit can be exhausted with unauthenticated connections; mitigation options include puzzles, exponential backoff, and load-balancing configurations.  
- A Science paper on IBM’s “TrueNorth” neuromorphic chip (1 million spiking neurons, packet-based routing, no synaptic plasticity) prompted debate on whether biological fidelity is necessary for useful neural computation.  
- The ISIS Lab’s “Shellcode” and “screwSSH” repositories were highlighted as demonstrations of simple but effective network attacks against default SSH configurations.  
- A Guardian article was cited describing an $84 k Bitcoin theft achieved by injecting Stratum redirection packets between miners and pools.  
- A Chrome extension named “cloud-to-butt-plus” was noted as a humorous example of browser-based text replacement tools.