This is your easyDNS #AxisOfEasy Briefing for the week of March 30th, 2026. Our Technology Correspondent Joann L Barnes and easyCEO Mark E. Jeftovic send out a short briefing on the state of the ‘net and how it affects your business, security and privacy.

In this issue:

• Age Verification Laws Reshape the Internet
• Dutch Finance Ministry Cyberattack Disrupts Treasury Portal for 1,600 Public Institutions
• Copilot Injects Ads Into Pull Requests as AI’s Subsidy Era Ends
• Axios Supply Chain Attack Exposes Malicious npm Dependency
• Anthropic’s Claude Code Source Leaked Again
  

Elsewhere Online:

• Fake LinkedIn Notifications Target Professionals in New Phishing Campaign
• Microsoft Uncovers New Malware Campaign Spreading via WhatsApp Messages
• New DeepLoad Malware Targets Windows Users via ClickFix Attacks
• New iOS 18 Patch Arrives as DarkSword Exploit Chain Leaks Online
• UK Government Allocates £630K for People’s Panel to Debate Digital ID Plans

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Age Verification Laws Reshape the Internet

Governments in the US, UK, Australia, France, and the EU are implementing age verification laws that end online anonymity while framing it as child protection. UK leaders Keir Starmer and Liz Kendall push under-16 bans; Australia’s eSafety Commissioner Julie Inman Grant deactivated 4.7 million accounts.

France, led by Emmanuel Macron, aligns with EU pilots. In the US, Senators Ted Cruz, Brian Schatz, Marsha Blackburn, and Richard Blumenthal push KOSA and Kids Off Social Media Act. Apple and Meta implement and benefit from device-level verification, while Snap, X, and Pinterest support legislation.

More via Reclaimthenet

Dutch Finance Ministry Cyberattack Disrupts Treasury Portal for 1,600 Public Institutions

The Dutch Finance Ministry told Parliament that “unauthorized access” affected multiple banking systems, including its treasury portal. Eelco Heinen said systems were taken offline for forensic investigation and security reasons.

About 1,600 public institutions—including ministries, agencies, statutory bodies, schools, social funds, and decentralized governments—cannot view balances, request loans or credit facilities, change intraday limits, or generate reports, disrupting public-sector cash management. The timeline for restoration is unclear. Investigations are underway with the National Cyber Security Centre. No actor or ransom details were disclosed.

More via Zerohedge

Copilot Injects Ads Into Pull Requests as AI’s Subsidy Era Ends

Generative AI’s subsidy phase—funded by labs and venture capitalists absorbing billions—is waning amid a $400 billion gap between AI data center investment and revenue. With $20 subscriptions failing to cover inference costs, advertising is moving in.
Ads are now appearing inside GitHub Copilot pull requests.

Melbourne developer Zach Manson reported Copilot fixed a typo, then inserted a Raycast promotion. The text appears in 11,000+ PRs on GitHub and on GitLab. Neowin found 1.5 million PRs with Copilot ads. Meanwhile, OpenAI says January-launched ads hit a $100M annualized run rate, with global expansion planned.

More via neowin

Axios Supply Chain Attack Exposes Malicious npm Dependency

A supply chain attack compromised Axios versions 1.14.1 and 0.30.4 on npm, introducing the malicious dependency plain-crypto-js@4.2.1. Developers should verify installations and inspect for obfuscated scripts. Immediate mitigation involves uninstalling the compromised packages, deleting node_modules and package-lock.json, and reinstalling safe Axios versions (e.g., 1.13.0) with integrity checks.

Continuous defense includes npm audit, SCA tools like Snyk, .npmrc hardening, Docker scans, and manual package inspection. Post-compromise, rotate secrets and monitor network activity. The attack underscores that even trusted libraries can be weaponized, highlighting the need for zero-trust dependency policies, SBOMs, and AI-driven anomaly detection in CI/CD pipelines.

More via Undercodetesting

Anthropic’s Claude Code Source Leaked Again

On 31 March 2026, researcher Chaofan Shou of Fuzzland discovered that Anthropic’s Claude Code v2.1.88 exposed its full source via a 60MB cli.js.map in its npm package. The 1,906 TypeScript files revealed internal APIs, telemetry, encryption, and inter-process protocols. Source maps meant for debugging made the code publicly downloadable from Anthropic’s cloud storage.

The leak echoes a February 2025 incident. Archived on GitHub, it quickly amassed 1,100+ stars and 1,900+ forks, but included no model weights or user data. Anthropic has not issued a statement, raising scrutiny over its software release practices.

More via ndtv

Curated Posts

Posts added to axisofeasy.com since the last edition:

• xAI will win  (Mar 28)

Elsewhere Online:

Fake LinkedIn Notifications Target Professionals in New Phishing Campaign
Read: https://hackread.com/linkedin-phishing-scam-fake-notificatioms-hijack-accounts/

Microsoft Uncovers New Malware Campaign Spreading via WhatsApp Messages
Read: https://thehackernews.com/2026/04/microsoft-warns-of-whatsapp-delivered.html

New DeepLoad Malware Targets Windows Users via ClickFix Attacks
Read: https://www.securityweek.com/new-deepload-malware-dropped-in-clickfix-attacks/

New iOS 18 Patch Arrives as DarkSword Exploit Chain Leaks Online
Read: https://hackread.com/apple-pushes-rare-ios-18-patch-darksword-exploit/

UK Government Allocates £630K for People’s Panel to Debate Digital ID Plans
Read: https://www.theregister.com/2026/04/01/peoples_panel_digital_id/

Previously on #AxisOfEasy

If you missed the previous issues, they can be read online here:

• March 27th, 2026: Apple Becomes The UK Government’s Favorite Compliance Officer
• March 20th, 2026: Canada Introduces Bill C-22 For Mandatory Metadata Retention
• March 13th, 2026: Canada Allows TikTok To Continue Operations With New Safeguards
• March 6th, 2026: Meta Ray-Ban Glasses Footage Sent To Human Reviewers
• February 27th, 2026: OpenAI Suppressed Warnings On Mass Shooter Months Before Spree