The Register, Friday, June 12th, 2026
BOFH: For One Ambitious Security Type, Chaos Is a Ladder
"And uh... what are you doing?" the Head of Security asks, entering the Security office as I'm making my way to the exit – with a PC under my arm.
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Humor — Archive
285 articles · page 2 of 6
The Register, Friday, June 12th, 2026
This Is Your BIOS Speaking. Please Fix Me. Your PC Is Broken
This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Jackson" who told us about his time providing tech support in a university's biology department.
more → The Register, Thursday, June 11th, 2026
Every Employee's Password Was Stored in a Single Excel File
A CEO kept all 2,000 staff passwords in an unsecured Excel file and refused MFA, despite prior ransomware.
more → The Register, Monday, June 8th, 2026
Consultant Mistakenly Deleted a Ton of Data - But Reported It as a Bug
A consultant's faulty deletion script wiped hundreds of files, but he escaped blame by reporting it as a bug.
more → The Register, Friday, June 5th, 2026
Tech Support Chap Hauled Out to Help SWAT Team Saw His Life Flash Before His Eyes
A county IT staffer called to assist a police raid discovers no computers were needed after a tense standoff.
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The Register, Monday, June 1st, 2026
Techie Expensed a Bag of Oranges and Then Juiced Up a Stupid Security Incident
A contractor threw expensed oranges from a window, baffling a van driver while guards hunted the culprit in vain.
more → The Register, Friday, May 29th, 2026
Russian Oligarch's Financial Network Crashed Thanks To A Crank And A Cleaner
A chandelier's clockwork mechanism destroyed network cables, shutting down an oligarch's investment firm's entire floor.
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TheHackersNews, Monday, May 25th, 2026
Weekly Recap: Linux Flaws, Defender 0-Days, Router Botnets, and Supply Chain Chaos
Weekly cybersecurity recap covering GitHub breach via poisoned VS Code extension, Linux kernel vulnerability, and Microsoft Defender zero-days.
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The Register, Monday, May 25th, 2026
Under-trained Techie Didn't Claim Overtime for Mistakenly Failing to Phone It In
An entry-level IT technician accidentally disrupted a clinic's network by misconfiguring VoIP phone ports but refused to claim overtime for the extra work required to fix it.
more → The Register, Friday, May 15th, 2026
On-Call Techie Decided Job Was Done And Hit The Bottle Just Before His Pager Went Off
A database specialist on-call during the Macau Grand Prix celebrates too early before discovering a critical application failure.
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The Register, Thursday, May 14th, 2026
To Gain Root Access At This Company, All An Intruder Had To Do Was Ask Nicely
A pentester gained root access by social engineering IT staff who prioritized being helpful over security procedures.
more → The Register, Monday, May 11th, 2026
Lab Worker Built A Fake PC To Nuke His Lunch
A lab worker disguised a microwave as a PC to hide it from his overzealous manager.
more → The Register, Friday, May 8th, 2026
Custom PC Worked in the Lab, Failed on Site - and So Did the Angry Client
A technician is blamed for a PC malfunction that turns out to be caused by an unplugged network cable.
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The Register, Thursday, May 7th, 2026
Guessable Admin Password Exposes Sloppy Network Security
A CISO advisor successfully guessed a client's admin password by trying "rosebud" from Citizen Kane, highlighting poor password practices.
more → The Register, Monday, May 4th, 2026
Techie Botched the Last Thing They Did Before a Holiday
A council IT worker accidentally left an unauthorized DHCP server running on the network before taking a week off, causing chaos.
more → Security Boulevard, Thursday, April 30th, 2026
It's Not the Computer, Stupid. It's the Information in It.
Two recent indictments highlight how criminal law struggles to apply traditional theft concepts to information, which cannot be stolen in the traditional sense.
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The Register, Thursday, April 30th, 2026
Finance Company Stores DB Credentials in Helpfully Labeled Spreadsheet
A fintech startup stored database root credentials and AWS keys in a password-protected Excel file on a shared intranet.
more → The Register, Monday, April 27th, 2026
PowerPoint Punishment Sent Users Into an Infinite Loop
Colleagues in the early 2000s pranked coworkers by creating looping PowerPoint presentations of their screenshots.
more → The Register, Friday, April 24th, 2026
To Fix This Wi-Fi Network, We'll Need A Crane
A school's Wi-Fi problems were caused by a construction crane's wireless controller interfering with the 2.4 GHz band.
more → The Register, Thursday, April 23rd, 2026
Using The Password 'Admin123' Wasn't As Bad As Sharing It On Slack
A software client's data loss resulted from using the weak password 'admin123' and sharing it on Slack.
more → The Register, Monday, April 20th, 2026
Invisible Mouse' Made A Mess Of PC Rebuild
A technician's PC rebuild was delayed because a new mouse was hidden under the case during troubleshooting.
more → The Register, Friday, April 17th, 2026
Support Tech Caught By 'Technician Aura': The Bug That Only Hides When You're Watching
All that kit, and the fix was simply stepping aside
more → The Register, Thursday, April 16th, 2026
Server-Room Lock Was Nothing But A Crock
Your cybersecurity is only as good as the physical security of the servers
more → The Register, Monday, April 13th, 2026
IT Manager Approved Downtime Over Lunch, But Made A Meal Of It
Optimism is always risky, and defective hardware makes it indigestible
more → The Register, Friday, April 10th, 2026
Tech Support Chap's Boss Got Him Out Of Jail So He Could Finish A Job
The right person for the job didn't have the right passport for the job
more → The Register, Tuesday, April 7th, 2026
The Developer Who Came In From The Cold And Melted A Mainframe
The world is rapidly becoming a more uncertain place, but The Register tries to offer readers one small point of certainty by always delivering a fresh Monday morning instalment of "Who, Me?" - the reader-contributed column in which you admit to your errors and elucidate your escapes.
more → The Register, Friday, April 3rd, 2026
Contractor Quaffed His Way Through Y2K Compliance While The Client Scowled
Easter means today is a holiday in much of the Reg-reading world, but that won't stop us from delivering another instalment of On Call - the reader contributed column that shares your tech support stories. To mark the occasion, The Register has revisited our mailbag of holiday-adjacent stories to tell the tale of a reader we'll Regomize as "Marcus," who told us he worked as a contractor for a "very large, very blue, blue-chip company" in the Netherlands and helped it prepare for Y2K.
more → The Register, Thursday, April 2nd, 2026
The Company's Biggest Security Hole Lived In The Breakroom
Welcome to Pwned, The Register's new column, where we highlight the worst infosec own goals so you can, hopefully, protect against them. Caffeine is an essential tool for most IT defenders, so, on balance, we're sure it has protected against a lot more exploits than it has caused. But in this case, the desire for everyone's favorite stimulant led to a massive breach.
more → The Register, Monday, March 30th, 2026
Security Contractor Blew The Whistle On Support Crew's Viral Indifference
Who, Me? It's the reader-contributed column in which you share stories of things you did at work that had interesting consequences. This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Brad" who once worked as a security contractor.
more → The Register, Friday, March 27th, 2026
Engineer Sabotaged Hardware Then Complained When It Didn't Work
This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Ewen" who told us that in the early 1990s he worked for a company that made fiber-optic devices that sound like serious pieces of kit.
more → The Register, Friday, March 20th, 2026
While You're Here, Could You Go Out Of Your Way To Do An Impossible Job?
He would have gotten away with it too, if it weren't for a meddling security team's fear of USB
more → The Register, Monday, March 16th, 2026
Brilliant Backups That Kept Data Alive For Ages Landed Web Developer In Big Trouble
Client omissions caused the problem, so guess who was thrown under the bus
more → The Register, Friday, March 13th, 2026
Blustering Blackbeard's PC Was All At Sea, Sysadmin Got Him Shipshape In Seconds
Have you tried turning it on, never mind off and on again? This week, meet a jolly reader we'll Regomize as "Roger" who thinks he may have broken our record for fastest tech support resolution, which we believe currently stands at 8.5 seconds.
more → The Register, Monday, March 9th, 2026
Bug That Wiped Customer Data Saved The Day - And A Contract
Ignorance really was the way to achieve bliss
more → The Register, Thursday, March 5th, 2026
Techie Was Given Strict Instructions Not To Disrupt Client. Then He Touched One Box And The Lights Went Out
Discovering, and explaining, the bizarre cause was harder than the job he was sent to do
more → The Register, Monday, March 2nd, 2026
Server Crashes Traced To One Very Literal Knee-Jerk Reaction
Oh, the contortions required to debug strange errors!
more → The Register, Friday, February 27th, 2026
Engineer Held Hostage By Client Who Asked For The Wrong Fix
This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Kent" who told us he once worked as a field engineer and shares a story of the time a client dispatched him to a private datacenter to replace a failed system board in an HP server.
more → The Register, Monday, February 23rd, 2026
Work Experience Kids Messed With Manager's PC To Send Him To Ctrl-Alt-Del Hell
Rogue user showed them an excellent prank, which they put into production
more → The Register, Friday, February 20th, 2026
Desktop Tech Sent To Prison For An Education On Strange Places To Put Tattoos
And a very awkward introduction to workplace culture
more → The Register, Friday, February 13th, 2026
Enforcing Piracy Policy Earned Helpdesk Worker Death Threats
This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Henry" who shared a chilling story from his time delivering internal desktop support for a major internet service provider.
more → The Register, Monday, February 9th, 2026
Tech Support Chap Invented Fake Fix For Non-Problem And Watched It Spread Across The Office
You can fool some of the people some of the time, but The Register tries to entertain all of its readers most of the time and especially early on Monday mornings, when we present a new installment of "Who, Me?" - the reader-contributed column that shares your stories of workplace mayhem and mischief.
more → The Register, Friday, February 6th, 2026
New Hire Fixed A Problem So Fast, Their Boss Left To Become A Yoga Instructor
Poking around in deep menus found a fault that flummoxed old hands
more → The Register, Monday, February 16th, 2026
Final step to put new website into production deleted it instead
The Register hopes you arrive at your desk well-rested after a pleasant weekend, and not stressed out by working late as is the case in this week's instalment of "Who, Me?" - the reader contributed column that chronicles your mistakes and escapes.
more → The Register, Monday, February 2nd, 2026
Techie's One Ring Brought Darkness By Shorting A Server
Monday brings the shock of a return to work, a transition The Register always tries to ease by bringing you a new instalment of Who, Me?, the reader-contributed column in which your fellow readers admit to errors and disclose how they dodged the consequences.
more → The Register, Friday, January 30th, 2026
In-House Techies Fixed Faults Before Outsourced Help Even Noticed They'd Happened
60-minute SLA was effectively useless and the contractor admitted it
more → The Register, Monday, January 26th, 2026
Marketing 'Genius' Destroyed A Printer By Trying To Fix A Paper Jam
This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Louis" who told us he once managed the IT operations at a leasing company.
more → The Register, Friday, January 23rd, 2026
Tech Support Detective Solved PC Crime By Looking In The Carpark
Some tech support jobs are sweet, and others go sour. Whatever taste they leave in your mouth, The Register celebrates them all each week in On Call - the reader-contributed column that shares your support experiences.
more → The Register, Monday, January 19th, 2026
ATM Maintenance Tech Broke The Bank By Forgetting To Return A Key
This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as 'Phil' who once had a job maintaining automatic teller machines (ATMs).
more → The Register, Friday, January 16th, 2026
Engineer Used Welding Shop Air Hose To 'Clean' PCs - Hilarity Did Not Ensue
This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as "Wilson" who once worked as the boss of a welding shop attached to an engineering consultancy. Wilson set the scene by telling us this story came from the early 1980s, when AutoCAD was replacing drawing boards.
more → The Register, Monday, January 12th, 2026
Techie Banned From Client Site For Outage He Didn't Cause
This week, meet a reader we'll Regomize as 'Patrick' who told us he once installed an extra shelf of storage for a NAS at a local council office in Australia. The job initially went well. 'The staff left me alone in the computer room while I was tidying up the paperwork,' Patrick wrote. While he handled that administrivia, something caught Patrick's eye.
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