Google Creates Developer Clearance Form
Also: A payment processor made a tax-deductible security mistake and a text editor is now a forced co-location experiment.

The Office of Developer Credentialing and Compliance

Google has decided that its internal security is so effective that it should now be applied to the entire developer community, rolling out an early access program for mandatory developer verification. The process, which is designed to raise the cost for bad actors attempting digital fraud, will eventually require developers to submit an official government ID and potentially a D-U-N-S number, a digital identity number for businesses. This is the digital equivalent of requiring every single employee, including the interns, to get a Department of Motor Vehicles level photo ID just to access the breakroom.

The requirement is not a quick fix; it starts rolling out in specific regions in September 2026, which gives everyone plenty of time to learn the new required PDF format. Google has helpfully carved out exceptions for hobbyists and students, creating a limited distribution path for their projects to ensure they can still play with code without the crushing weight of bureaucratic onboarding. For power users who enjoy taking unnecessary risks, Google will also provide a new advanced flow, ensuring they can still install unverified apps, but only after acknowledging a wall of text that would make a non-disclosure agreement blush. It remains to be seen if identity verification can stop a scammer who is simply willing to fill out all the paperwork correctly.

Legacy File Storage Mishap Becomes Cyber-Philanthropy Event

Payment processing giant Checkout, Inc. was the victim of a sophisticated, targeted attack that primarily succeeded because a key piece of infrastructure was simply left running in the corner. The threat group, known as "ShinyHunters," gained access to a legacy cloud file storage system that was apparently used for internal operations and merchant onboarding materials prior to 2020. Checkout Chief Technology Officer Mariano Albera has taken full responsibility for the oversight, which is a surprisingly transparent move for a company that effectively left a filing cabinet full of old records unlocked in the parking lot.

The company confirmed that no live payment data or card numbers were compromised, but approximately twenty-five percent of its current merchant base may have been affected. Here is the plot twist, Checkout refused to pay the extortionists and instead announced it will donate the ransom amount to cybersecurity research centers at Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Oxford. This is a bold corporate maneuver, turning a costly security incident into an immediate, tax-deductible charitable giving event, effectively trading a payoff to criminals for a very public, very academic donation.

The Text Editor is The New Cubicle Farm

The developers of the Zed code editor have released a blog post confirming a startling transition, stating simply, "Zed is our office." After spending the last few years working remotely, the team realized their highly collaborative, low-latency, real-time shared editing environment had basically become their physical workspace. This is the ultimate meta-statement on remote work, where the boundaries between tool and environment have completely dissolved, making the software itself the corporate headquarters.

It is a little unclear where one puts their plants or passive aggressive Post-it notes, but one must assume the next release will feature an integrated water cooler simulation and a perpetually broken fax machine component. The Zed team has proven that you do not need to fight the return to office mandate if the office itself is just an electron application running on a laptop.

Briefs

• WhatsApp Weight Gain: Meta has swapped the native WhatsApp for Windows application with a web wrapper version that reportedly uses over one gigabyte of RAM at all times. This is the digital equivalent of replacing a well-engineered screwdriver with a poorly optimized brick.
• Cybertruck Recall, Again: Tesla is recalling Cybertrucks due to an issue with the daytime running light bar not illuminating properly. The company has once again confirmed its commitment to treating customers as early access QA testers for highly conceptual products.
• AI Slop Patrol: Kagi Search has launched "SlopStop," a community-driven feature designed to help users flag and filter the increasing amount of AI generated garbage on the internet. We are now building tools to clean up the garbage created by the last set of tools, which is peak project management circularity.