Back-to-school is the second-biggest shopping season of the year, and scammers run their own semester right alongside it: fake school messages, fake supply deals, fake scholarships, fake housing. One field guide, four costumes, one rule: anything about your kid or your money gets verified through the school itself.

Hackers disrupted more than 30 Minnesota community water systems, and utilities in at least seven states have reported similar incidents. They locked out operators, boil-water notices were sent out, and plants switched to manual operations. The scariest-sounding headline of the summer, and the verdict is calmer than you'd think: no contamination reported, real safeguards held, and the two things a normal person should do are simple.

Weekly Signal, covering what you missed over the last week.

Camera-and-microphone smart glasses have gone mainstream, and the backlash is real: covert recording of strangers, a lawsuit over who actually sees the footage, and researchers showing the glasses can be paired with facial recognition. What's the actual risk to a normal person?

Those random texts: "Hey, how've you been?", "Are we still on for dinner?", "Hi, this is Amy", aren't mistakes. They're the opening move of one of the most patient scams running, and the entire defense is refusing to say hello back.

A flaw in Meta's AI support chatbot let attackers reset the password of Instagram accounts. No hacking, just asking. About 20,000 accounts were hijacked. Every account with two-factor authentication turned on was untouched

Weekly Signal, covering what you missed over the last week.

ClickLock, a new Mac malware, doesn't sneak. Instead, it bullies. It closes every app you open, over and over, until you type your password into its fake prompt. But the whole attack starts with one trick anyone can learn to spot: a "prove you're human" page that asks you to paste a command.

That's Not Your Daughter Calling: the AI "cloned voice" emergency scam the FBI is warning about, and the free family safe word that beats it.

The "boss scam": an email or text that looks like it's from your CEO or manager, asking for your cell number and then an urgent favor, usually buying gift cards. This episode is a field guide to the tells, dedicated to someone I know who just faced it.