I.
Flightradar24 has a fun article about the intricate sky art of Benjamin McDaniel and his Cessna Skylane RG. McDaniel’s latest piece, Munch’s The Scream, took just over six hours to complete, with the plane in the air for 6 hours and 9 minutes.
II.
Olesya Vartanyan, a conflict analyst and investigative journalist, wrote about the use of spyware in the South Caucasus and recently learning that she’d been targeted with Pegasus in 2020 and 2021. Security researchers have previously reported on the use of Pegasus and Predator in the region. Earlier this year, Apple told journalist Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai that they “are not aware of any successful mercenary spyware attacks against a Lockdown Mode-enabled Apple device.” If you’re concerned about sophisticated spyware, go turn that on.
III.
The team at Indicator spoke to Shayan Sardarizadeh about his approach to debunking viral fakes for the BBC Verify service. (And somewhat related to an entry in last week’s newsletter, he checks everything for AI.)
IV.
My friend Gisela Perez de Acha is running another three-day course on the basics of open source investigations, starting on Monday, October 26. I really enjoyed Gisela’s course back in July and highly recommend it if you’re interested in OSINT. For just $22, you’ll learn more about verifying AI-generated photos and videos; digging up data on the deep web; and using satellite imagery for your investigations.