HackerTube.dev

The Internet Was Weeks Away From Disaster And No One Knew

Veritasium · 16.5M views · 2026-02-25 · 53:00

Open on YouTube ↗

If playback is restricted in your region, try opening the original video. Use Mark watched to add it to your marked videos.

Overview

Veritasium tells the story of the XZ backdoor, how a patient attacker became maintainer and nearly compromised SSH on Linux systems. It also covers free software history and how encryption in SSH works.

On Hacker News

Cited as an accessible, documentary-style account of the XZ backdoor in supply chain security discussions.

Recommended by 1 HN people across 1 months · HN mentions 2026–2026

Topics

Security & hackingLinux & open-source ecosystemsCryptography
Search by tags
xzsupply chain attacklinuxsshopen source security

What people said

ajoy · 2026-03 · Recommendation

Reminded me of a similar story at openSSH, wonderfully documented in a "Veritasium" episode , which was just fascinating to watch/listen. [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗
rolandog · 2026-04 · Reference

Agreed. However, I often wonder if people like that are deliberately (or inadvertently) being a psyop seeking to burn out people ala how "Jia Tan" tried to become maintainer of xz [0]. [0] [VIDEO]

Read the original HN comment ↗
briansm · 2026-03 · Reference

Just to mention the original was cited in the most recent Veritasium video: "The Internet Was Weeks Away From Disaster and No One Knew" [VIDEO] (at about the 9:50 mark)

Read the original HN comment ↗

Sources

Video by Veritasium, played through YouTube.

Data and selection notes

HN summaries and labels may contain AI errors. HN dates refer to discussions, not video publication.

HN Library: HackerTube export (2026-10-31) and open-index/hacker-news. Upstream summaries and classifications may contain AI errors.

Views, duration and playback status refresh separately from the published catalog. When an update fails, existing data remains visible.

Selection checks
  • SaaS & AI candidates: Topic keywords do not match
  • Editor-approved picks: Editorial review is required

Rule matches identify candidates. They do not guarantee video quality or financial results.

About the library and its sources