Cybersecurity’s Black Wednesday Puts 70% of Internet At Risk & ‘Glee’ Returns
October 22, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readCybersecurity’s Black Wednesday, Meta’s Financial Gymnastics, and the Return of Glee
The internet spent yesterday in crisis mode after a security researcher using ChatGPT to audit PHP source code uncovered two critical vulnerabilities that had lurked undetected since 2004. The flaws—dubbed “PHP to shell”—let hackers remotely take control of websites without any authentication, and the programming language PHP underpins roughly 70% of the web, including WordPress, Wikipedia, and countless other sites. What followed was a global scramble that Neil Freiman and Toby Howell describe as “everything happening all at once,” with government agencies from Japan to the EU telling site operators to take their systems offline if they couldn’t immediately patch them.
The AI Vulnerability Race
The story begins weeks ago when a security researcher participating in OpenAI’s “Patch the Planet” initiative used the company’s top-end model, GPT 5.6, to audit PHP source code. The vulnerability had existed for years but was considered too complicated to practically exploit. AI showed that it wasn’t. Amy Lutwok, co-founder of Wiz (the cybersecurity company Google bought for $32 billion), called it “the most severe AI vulnerability that was ever found.”
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:29) **Show Open & Headlines** - Neal and Toby set up the day's main stories: Meta's creative financial engineering and a massive cybersecurity vulnerability.
- 2 (00:46) **Glee is Coming Back** - Disney announces a reboot of the hit musical show, sparking mixed reactions in the office and online.
- 3 (02:56) **The Mother of All Cybersecurity Flaws** - A critical vulnerability in the PHP programming language puts 70% of the web at risk, setting off a global race between hackers and defenders.
- 4 (04:10) **The Global Scramble to Patch** - The secret leak of the vulnerability forces a frantic global response, with governments urging sites to go offline if they can't patch immediately.
- 5 (06:49) **Meta’s Financial Wizardry for Zuck** - Meta reports record revenue but creates a new non-voting class of stock to raise cash for AI and keep Mark Zuckerberg in California.
- 6 (11:00) **Muse’s Monetization Pressure** - Zuckerberg touts the success of the Meta AI agent, but the need to monetize it immediately shows the financial pressure of massive AI spending.
- 7 (12:36) **United CEO’s Wealth Tax Firestorm** - Scott Kirby says he supports a national wealth tax, igniting a conservative backlash and highlighting the airline industry’s own inequality issues.
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Guests on this episode
Show Notes
#960: Government websites go dark as hackers exploit weaknesses. Meta strikes a deal to keep Zuckerberg in California. United CEO is caught in a firestorm after doubling down on his support of a national wealth tax. Then Neal shares his favorite numbers from the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show, bougie neighborhoods, and the Brewers. Finally, Airbnb says guests don’t have to clean up after themselves.
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