COMPUTERS ARE BROKEN AND BAD GUYS ARE SMASHING THEM!

Stuff is Breaking on the Computers! (May 15, 2026)

Hi! I’m Jerome Skinly, and I’m seven! I’m writing for Jape News about what’s been happening with computers. My dad says it's called "cybersecurity," which is a REALLY big word. It means keeping the bad guys out of computers!

So, lots of stuff has been going wrong lately. Like, a LOT. It’s like when you build a LEGO castle and your little brother comes and smashes it. Except it's with computers and people you can't see!

First, there was trouble with these things called Exchange Servers. They help people send emails. Someone was getting into them with sneaky emails! That's not good. Then, there was something super bad with Cisco stuff. It’s like the roads for computers to talk to each other. Someone could get in and be the boss of everything! That's a 10 out of 10 bad, my dad said. CISA, which is like the computer police, said to fix it fast!

And get this – someone put a secret trap in a little piece of computer code called “node-ipc”. It’s like hiding a whoopie cushion in someone’s chair! It was stealing stuff!

Palo Alto and NGINX, those are also computer things, had problems too. One had a big overflow (like when you fill your juice cup TOO much!) and the other was old and had a hole in it! Holes are bad for computers, just like they’re bad for boats.

Even Windows and Linux, the things that make computers work, had secrets that people found! One could mess up the lock on your computer (BitLocker), and the other could let someone become the computer’s king!

There are bad guys doing this stuff. One is called Ghostwriter and they're being mean to Ukraine. Another group is UAT-8616 and they were messing with those Cisco roads.

My dad said something about AI. It's like computers being smart. But sometimes the computers think they know things, but they're wrong! That's called a hallucination. It could be bad if the computers are helping with important stuff. But then Microsoft made a new smart computer helper named MDASH, and another one called Mythos is good too! It's like having a superhero for your computer! GPT-5.5 is good too.

Also, people need to be careful about what they get with their computers. It's like when you share your toys - sometimes someone might sneak a bad toy in. And…ransomware is still around. That’s when bad guys lock up your computer and want money to give it back. It’s like stealing your allowance!

My dad says all this means we need to be super careful with our computers. Make good passwords (like secret codes!) and fix things when they break. It's a lot to remember, but it's important! Because computers are cool, but they need to be safe!