======================================================================== MAKE / BREAK issue #01 FOLD THE LIGHT MAKE - 23 Sep 2026 - by the Norfolk Hacker ======================================================================== This week's security in plain English, a two-minute fix that stops the most common way people get hacked, and a build: turn last issue's plasma into a living kaleidoscope. colour edition: https://makebreak.co.uk/issues/01.html Back again. Same deal every other week: what happened in security without the jargon, one thing to learn if you're new, and one thing to make or break. Today we bend last issue's plasma into a mandala -- but first, the news. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [ 1. THIS WEEK IN SECURITY ] Three worth knowing. One of them is why the beginner's tip below matters. * 153 million driving-licence scans turned up for sale. A firm that handles ID verification (IDScan) had a breach, and a dark-web service is now hawking scans of licences from across the US and Canada -- names, licence numbers, the lot. This is the raw material for identity theft. -> do this: if that could include you, freezing your credit with the big bureaus is the single strongest move -- it's free and stops crooks opening accounts in your name. And be extra suspicious of "verify your identity" messages for a while. (source) [1] * That "T-Mobile reward" text is a trap. A big phishing wave is using fake reward points and "they expire today!" pressure to get people tapping a dodgy link. Doesn't have to be T-Mobile -- the trick is the same everywhere: a prize plus a deadline. -> do this: never claim a reward from a link in a text. If you think it might be real, open the company's actual app and check there. (source) [2] * The scams sound human now. AI is stripping the old giveaways out of scam messages -- no more broken English or weird formatting -- and even cloning voices from a few seconds of audio. "It sounded exactly like my daughter" is now a sentence real people say. -> do this: agree a family "safe word" for genuine emergencies, and if a call asking for money or codes feels off, hang up and call the person back on their known number. (source) [3] ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [ 2. BEGINNER'S CORNER ] Why do breaches like the one above hurt so much? Because most people reuse the same password everywhere -- so one leaked password unlocks a dozen accounts. The fix is one habit. * Get a password manager. Bitwarden (free, open-source) or your phone's built-in one. It invents a long random password for every site and remembers them all, so you don't. You memorise one strong master password and nothing else. * Then turn on two-factor (2FA) for email and banking at least. Even if a password leaks, the attacker still can't get in. Prefer an app or a passkey over text-message codes. Do those two things this week and you've closed the door that most break-ins walk through. That's the whole tip. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [ 3. THE PROJECT ] FOLD THE LIGHT Last issue you made a plasma. Today we fold it into a kaleidoscope -- and the whole trick is one line. Drag the petals. [ live demo: https://makebreak.co.uk/issues/01.html ] Same plasma as issue #00 -- just folded into wedges. Set petals to 3, then 12. >> 01. The one idea Take any messy pattern, fold it around the centre, and your eye reads order where there was none. That's a kaleidoscope. The fold is literally one line -- you convert each pixel to an angle and mirror it into N wedges: const seg = (Math.PI*2) / PETALS; let ang = Math.atan2(dy, dx); ang = Math.abs(((ang % seg) + seg) % seg - seg/2); // ← the whole trick Everything six wedges see is now the same folded angle, so the pattern reflects around the circle. Change PETALS and you change the flower. Everything else -- the plasma, the colours -- is just what you're folding. >> 02. Now break it Kill the spin for a still mandala. Warp the radius (Math.sqrt(rad)*0.3) and it feels like falling in. Then the real prize: drive the petals or the speed from your microphone's volume and it dances to music -- a Virtual Light Machine in embryo, which is exactly where Jeff Minter took this idea. That's your turn. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [ 4. YOUR TURN ] * Make it react to sound. Grab the mic with getUserMedia, read the volume with an AnalyserNode, and feed the bass into petals or spin. Point it at a track and film ten seconds -- best one leads issue #02, with your name on it. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ A new one every other week -- free, right here: https://makebreak.co.uk/issues/ No paywall, no ads, no sponsor telling me what to say. If an issue earned you a brew: https://buymeacoffee.com/androidacid -- the Norfolk Hacker prev: #00 The one where you start https://makebreak.co.uk/issues/00.txt next: #02 Recon that isn't a checklist https://makebreak.co.uk/issues/02.txt ------------------------------------------------------------------------ LINKS [1] https://www.techrepublic.com/article/news-biggest-data-breaches-2026-ranked-impact/ [2] https://www.malwarebytes.com/blog/news/2026/09/a-week-in-security-september-7-september-13 [3] https://consumer.ftc.gov/consumer-alerts/2023/03/scammers-use-ai-enhance-their-family-emergency-schemes ========================================================================