hack

EVERY holidaymaker knows the pain of the airport gate: battling for a single plug socket, sad soggy sandwiches and expensive pre-flight pints.

Luckily, this travel trick lets you skip that dread entirely, letting you kick back in a glamorous lounge with complimentary food and booze instead.

Bag 30% off a Standard Priority Pass membership in the Black Friday sale

The key to bagging yourself a luxurious lounge pass for cheap is by signing up to Priority Pass.

Now’s the perfect time to bag a bargain, too, with 30 per cent off standard memberships in their early Black Friday sale.

The membership gives you access to over 1,900 airport lounges around the world, which means no more painfully stuffy airport gates.

With so many lounges under one roof, it immediately solves the problem of signing up for one specific lounge brand, then having to hope they have one wherever you go on holiday.

Read more on travel hacks

SPARE CHANGE

This £1 travel hack unlocks VERY cheap holidays – with package deals from £127

BED IN

The disgusting hotel room item I learned to love and 9 more surprising travel hacks

85% of the world’s top 100 airports are covered by Priority Pass, so chances are you’ll be sorted.

In the lounge you can help yourself to free food, drinks (including alcohol) and relax on comfy sofas that are worlds away from those hard plastic chairs.

Depending on the airport you fly from, you could even be taking advantage of hot showers, quiet zones and private sleep pods to catch up on rest after that gruelling early morning alarm.

The VIP perks also extend beyond the buffet and lounge experience.

Priority Pass members get access to Be Relax spa treatments at participating airports, meaning you can treat yourself to a pre-flight massage or a fresh manicure to show off on your hols.

You also get a takeaway freebie to use at home: complimentary access to the WithU Fitness app.

Bag 30% off a Standard Priority Pass membership in the Black Friday sale

This freebie workout app is worth £79.99 a year, and creates you a personalised exercise programme to use in the gym or even your living room.

This means that for one yearly price you’ve got all your glamorous travel and fitness plans taken care of, so you can live that luxurious lifestyle on a budget.

The Priority Pass Standard membership normally costs £69 per year, but the Black Friday sale shaves 30 per cent off this plan.

That drops your year-long membership fee to just £48, which works out at £4 per month.

When you tot up how many expensive airport meals and pints you can rack up over only a few holidays a year, then £48 becomes totally worth it.

Once you are signed up to the Standard membership, you pay a flat £24 entry fee each time you visit a lounge.

When you factor in the sky-high prices of standard airport bars and restaurants, that £24 easily pays for itself through the complimentary food and free-flowing alcoholic drinks available inside.

All Priority Pass member benefits

Priority Pass members get access to the following:

• Complimentary food and drinks at ALL lounges

• Sleep pods and showers at select lounges

• Be Relax spa treatments at select airports

• Bring along a guest (£24 Guest visit fee)

• Discounts on more airport dining and extra spa treatments

• The option to re-book selected lounges for a supplementary fee

• Free membership to the WithU Fitness app (worth £79.99 per year)

Bag 30% off a Standard Priority Pass membership in the Black Friday sale

Prices correct at the time of publication.

Kim Yo Jong refuses dialogue with US after denying responsibility for theft of more than $6bn in crypto assets from Binance.

North Korea has fired several missiles into the Sea of Japan, according to South Korea’s military, hours after Pyongyang denied allegations that it was behind the theft ⁠of more than $6bn in crypto assets from Binance.

South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said on Wednesday that it had detected the launch of several missiles from the Sondok area on North Korea’s eastern coast towards the Sea of Japan.

It said authorities in South Korea and the United States were analysing the details of the launches.

The tests marked Pyongyang’s fourth such weapons launch in a month. They came a day after North Korea denied involvement in the Binance hack, dismissing an FBI announcement that North Korean hackers were responsible as “a trite provocation”.

Binance, the world’s biggest cryptocurrency exchange, said on Friday that hackers stole more than $6bn in what appears to be the largest cryptocurrency heist on record.

The FBI later said North Korean hackers had orchestrated the theft, attributing it to a hacking group known as TraderTraitor, which was also behind a $1.5bn hack of the Bybit exchange last year.

Early on Wednesday, Kim Yo Jong, the sister of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, said Pyongyang viewed the FBI announcement as “an extension of Washington’s invariable hostile policy toward” North Korea.

She ruled out dialogue with Washington until the US abandoned that policy.

“It is our clear stand that we have no need to sit face to face with such unreliable and hostile persons,” she said. “The choice for peace includes dialogue, of course, but this is not surely equated with national interests for us.”

US President Donald Trump said in August that he plans to meet Kim Jong Un later this year, seeking to revive the bond he claims to have forged with the North Korean leader during his first term.

Trump said it was important to “get along” with Kim, adding that Pyongyang had 57 “very powerful” nuclear weapons.

Previous rounds of talks between Kim and Trump in 2019 abruptly ended amid disagreements over Pyongyang’s nuclear programme. In October, the US, South Korea and Japan again reiterated their call for the “complete denuclearisation” of the Korean Peninsula.

The call came as North Korea has accelerated its weapons testing this year, in what analysts say is likely a bid to increase its leverage in any future diplomacy with the US.

Its recent tests have included a submarine-launched ballistic missile, hypersonic missiles, attack drones, and cluster bombs designed to be carried by ballistic missiles.

On Tuesday, Pyongyang said it had tested a new cluster warhead for strategic cruise missiles the previous day, claiming it could destroy an area of 5 to 6 hectares (12 to 15 acres) with “high-density power”.

The latest launches followed a North Korean state media report that Kim had visited a naval shipyard building a destroyer and stressed the importance of a powerful navy.

Victims of the Oct. 29 hack that stole approximately $6.3 billion in digital assets from crypto exchange operator Binance will be made whole using company funds, the exchange operator announced the day after the hack.

Richard Teng, Co-CEO of Binance, said in a video statement posted on X that the company has already used $5 billion to purchase the affected digital assets, including USDC, USDT, BTC, and others, through market and over-the-counter purchases.

“Most of what we earn from day-to-day operations is held in crypto assets and then is reinvested into the business and security,” he said. “Because we believe in crypto and the long-term value of this industry, this is precisely why we are able to absorb a loss of this size immediately with our own money.” 

Binance plans to release a full proof-of-reserves report by Nov. 2. Until then, it has paused withdrawals to investigate, rebuild, and retest its entire infrastructure. The move has frozen an estimated $3 billion in digital assets, including $2.3 billion in stablecoins such as USDT and USDC, according to CoinDesk.

Anatomy of a Hack

Binance initially said the hacker gained access to its system via a compromised laptop belonging to a DevOps engineer, but further investigation revealed that the hot wallet hack, which is used for regular transactions, was far more complex and involved multiple breach points.

“The attacker used a self-destruct mechanism that destroyed tooling and tracers as they ran, which makes it more difficult for us to trace and investigate,” said Teng. “The attacker used a known multi-signature protocol, EIP 7702, to obtain on-chain execution approval of a hot wallet. The delegation did not pass through our normal approval controls.”

“The attacker sold about 325 million USDT to market makers within minutes of receiving it,” said Ari Redbord, global head of policy at TRM Labs. “This shows how quickly stolen funds can reach unsuspecting counterparties.”

An Ounce of Prevention

CFOs of firms with stablecoins frozen by Binance should prepare to prove that the frozen assets belong to their companies by providing copies of account agreements, every deposit and withdrawal address, transaction hashes, statements, and approval logs.

“Treasury should own that file, and copies should live on your own systems, since a custodian’s platform can go dark during an incident,” said Redbord. “When issuers like Tether and Circle freeze funds, the paper trail decides who gets them back.”

He also suggested that every corporate treasury have its custodian commit to five things in writing: a set time to inform you of an incident, clear legal title to the company’s assets that is separate from the custodian’s title, reviewable insurance and audit controls, systems divided by chain and wallet type, and round-the-clock cooperation with stablecoin issuers and law enforcement.

“This hack showed what that cooperation can do, because issuers froze about $2.7 billion within hours,” said Redbord. “Test it before you need it.”

Rob Daly writes about the economy and fintech. You can reach him at rdaly@gfmag.com

Binance plans to begin restoring cryptocurrency withdrawals Sunday following a cyberattack that affected an estimated $6.3 billion in assets, with the exchange saying it has replenished approximately 95% of the affected amount.

The cryptocurrency exchange said the first phase of

Binance, which was founded in China in 2017, allows users to trade digital assets and is estimated to have more than 300 million registered users worldwide.

The company said in 2024 that it had more than $160bn in assets under its custody.

A lot of the fear right now from Binance users – and the crypto industry at large – is whether or not Binance will actually be capable of covering this enormous financial loss.

The company has said repeatedly that customer funds will be covered and that the firm is strong enough to weather the storm.

But crypto history watchers have been pointing out online that this is exactly the kind of message that FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried gave before his crypto exchange collapsed in 2022, leading to huge losses for customers and the industry.

Several experts have warned customers not to regard Binance’s promise to cover losses as legally binding and said they may need to pursue litigation to recover them.

Daniel Tunkel, of the London-based Edwin Coe law firm, said that would “come down to what [customers] have been promised in their contracts”, and “where Binance can be sued for non-performance, if it comes to it”.

Binance has been subject of regulatory scrutiny around the world.

Meanwhile, AI-powered investigations company TRM Labs said that several elements of the attack resembled earlier North Korean-linked incidents, including the Bybit hack.

In the last five years the crypto industry has been beset by enormous losses from hackers.

In nearly all cases investigators have blamed hackers from North Korea, pointing to the infamous Lazarus Group – also know as TraderTraitor. The names refer to clusters of cyber criminals accused of working directly for the regime.

Chainalysis, a crypto analytics firm, said it had “high confidence” that a North Korean is linked to the hack.

North Korea is an impoverished country with very little industry and heavy international sanctions and experts say the regime uses cyber crime as a way to bring money in.

North Korea has always denied this, but the wealth of evidence from cryptocurrency flow analysis and insider interviews from defectors is compelling.

It makes North Korea likely to be the only nation that uses hacking as a way to raise public funds.

The theft of $6.3B of assets from Binance, constituting the world’s largest crypto hack, was conducted by a North Korean cybercrime group, according to two crypto analysis firms’ assessment on Friday.

Binance also provided a further update on the amount

Details of more than 41,000 personnel working for the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS), including thousands involved in immigration enforcement, have been leaked to the public.

The leak includes names, work addresses and phone numbers of DHS staff, including agents working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection, along with descriptions of the work they do for each agency.

Wednesday’s leak marks the third time in recent weeks that a government agency has been targeted by leaks or hacks.

A DHS spokesperson said the agency is “aware of a potential breach and is actively working to address the situation swiftly and effectively.”

“We take all security threats against our employees and officers seriously and will work to ensure all are properly protected,” the spokesperson added.

“We will update the public when more information is available.”

The seemingly unprecedented breach of employee information was made public online. A group called the Department of Peace accessed the information from DHS, while journalist and cybersecurity researcher maia crimew alongside the website Distributed Denial of Secrets put it online.

The information was put in a database named Icepick.

Most of the agents included, more than 21,000 of them, work for CBP, according to the data. Nearly 6,600 work for ICE.

Other records show agents with Homeland Security Investigations, the Federal Protective Service and even people working for the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The leaked information also included dozens of previously unknown operation names, the agents that led and worked on those operations, and some of the technology they used in their work, including tech provided by Cellbrite and Palantir.

The groups wrote in an online statement that the the leak was not meant to be a directory of every DHS agent. Rather the aim was to replace “anonymity with accountability”, according to Emma Best, a co founder of DDoSecrets.

“The leak is extraordinary but deceptive in it’s simplicity as it identifies the officials responsible for overseeing covert and undercover operations, the government’s hunt for leakers and the failed BlueLeaks investigation – along with key personnel in DHS’s ever-escalating rendition and deportation programs,” Best added.

BlueLeaks refers to a massive leak of US police data in 2020, data from which DDoSecrets also hosted.

A spokesperson for the Department of Peace pointed directly at actions by ICE agents for the groups work to hack DHS records.

“On July 17th, Markwayne Mullin said he was ‘turning up the heat’. This is what happens to ICE when you do that,” the spokesperson wrote on Wednesday.

Mullin in March became Secretary of Homeland Security.

The Department of Peace said it accessed the DHS agent profiles through a single sign-on service called Okta.

Okta is a popular online security tool that organisations use to ensure that only people with access to internal platforms are logging on to them.

A spokeswoman for Okta said the company is aware of the claims being made, but said: “Okta is secure, and we have no evidence our data or systems were compromised.”

Last month, the FBI was hacked by a group called ShinyHunters, which took personal information about thousands of agents.

In recent days, the Federal Election Commission, which makes public political campaign donation data, was taken offline because of a suspected hacking attempt.

Public backlash to US immigration enforcement has been building as the Trump Administration has pushed a huge increase in arrests and deportations of people suspected of being in the country illegally.

Immigration operations this year have repeatedly turned violent, external, with ICE agents shooting at more than two dozen people and killing at least nine people.

Those killings include the high profile deaths of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, both of whom were shot and killed by ICE agents this year in Minnesota, despite not being the targets of arrests.

Often, ICE agents carry out enforcement actions while their faces are covered by masks and sunglasses. Immigration agents rarely identify themselves, despite being required by law to do so, and US politicians have publicly demanded, external DHS enforces the requirement.

Since President Donald Trump returned to office in 2025, the US has enacted nearly 1 million deportations, external, according to data from the Migration Policy Institute. More than 70% of the deportations have been of people with no criminal record.

EVERY traveller knows the main airport terminal is essentially a giant, chaotic waiting room where a sad sandwich and a pre-flight pint can set you back a small fortune.

But tucked away from the crowds is a world of plush sofas, Prosecco refills, buffet spreads and hot showers – and getting past the velvet rope is cheaper than you might think.

Claim 20% off Priority Pass membership

The trick to bypassing the terminal madness is a Priority Pass membership.

Once you’re signed up, you’ll get access to more than 1,900 premium airport lounges across the globe.

And right now, savvy Sun readers can bag 20 per cent off their first year by clicking here.

This includes major UK airports like London Heathrow, Gatwick, East Midlands, Manchester, and Birmingham. In fact, Priority Pass covers 85 per cent of the world’s top 100 airports.

Read more on travel hacks

CASH IN

£1 travel hack unlocks some of the CHEAPEST holidays in UK & abroad – from £79pp

BED IN

The disgusting hotel room item I learned to love and 9 more surprising travel hacks

Instead of battling for a plug socket in a busy terminal, the smart holidaymakers are hiding out in spaces like the Aspire, No. 1, Skylife, and Escape lounges.

Inside these lounges you get access to food as well as alcoholic drinks, comfy seating, fast Wi-Fi and plenty of places to charge your devices.

But it’s far more than just filling your boots at the buffet. Depending on where you’re flying from, these spaces are kitted out with hot showers, exercise zones even nap pods to counter that gruelling early morning start.

And for even more pampering, at airports with Be Relax spas you can squeeze in a pre-flight massage or a fresh manicure, ready to show off on holiday.

And if that’s not enough, Priority Pass members also get free access to the WithU Fitness app.

The app normally costs £79.99 a year, and includes personalised audio coaching and workout programmes that you can take home with you.

Claim 20% off Priority Pass membership

A standard plan usually costs £69 a year, but drops to just £55 with our 20 per cent discount.

That works out to less than a fiver a month, coming in a £4.60.

After that, with a standard pass you pay a flat £24 entry fee each time you visit a lounge – giving you access to those all-you-can-eat buffets and free-flowing drinks.

Priority Pass members get access to:

• Complimentary food and drinks (including alcohol)
• Sleep pods to catch up on rest at selected locations
• Be Relax spa treatments (at participating airports)
• Bring along a guest (£24 Guest visit fee)
• Discounts on further airport dining and spa treatments
• The option to re-book selected lounges for a supplementary fee
• Free membership to the WithU Fitness app (worth £79.99 per year)

Claim 20% off Priority Pass membership

Prices correct at the time of publication.

AUTUMN is theme park season in my house, as the time between summer season and October half-term is quiet with no queues – and I know how to get great deals.

The key to keeping costs down is using a technique I call ‘hack stacking’, and it’s really easy for everyone to do.

The way it works it to combine different deals to get entry for the individuals in your party and maximise the benefits that come with each.

We’ve already enjoyed cheap trips to Warwick Castle and have already lined up visits to Drayton Manor, Alton Towers and Legoland Discovery Centre.

One deal to take advantage of is with Merlin which is currently running an annual pass deal that includes the rest of this year if you pay for 2027.

A gold pass includes car parking, so the £239 cost of one pass could be well worth it just for that if you go once a month plus a couple of extra visits in the summer as lots of the theme parks charge £13 a day for parking.

BAG IT

Cheap summer 2027 holidays you should book NOW for under £60pp – before prices go up

STAY CHEAP

Bargains at Butlins & manor stays… incredible value UK hols from £2.50pp a night

The key to hack stacking is that not everyone uses the same deal to get in.

So someone else could use Tesco Clubcard vouchers or Nectar points to pay for individual entry and others could get parent and toddler tickets if you’ve got children the right age. 

It’s also important to keep an eye out for deals over the course of the year and work out how they could be combined to get the most bang for your buck.

In the spring, Merlin ran a stay and play deal that included annual passes if you booked an overnight stay at one of its parks.

That’s an amazing base for building your hack stacking on. I took two of my sons to stay overnight at Legoland Windsor in June for £270 and now the three of us can get free entry into multiple Merlin attractions until next summer.

If I add on a gold pass for my husband under the current 15 months for the price of 12 deal, I only have to find a final hack to get my third son a ticket to whichever attraction we plan to visit.

So for £510, split over two payments made six months apart, not only have I got annual passes plus car parking for four people, I’ve also enjoyed an overnight theme park stay and even got a little bit of cashback through Quidco.

I did much the same at Drayton Manor, starting with the tickets I claimed through the Sun Club earlier in the year and then using a Blue Light Card discount to buy more.

I could prebook two free tickets through my Sun Club membership over the summer and then buy two more for £20 each.

My final ticket to cover my family of five was £26 using our Blue Light Card and what’s great about this offer is that you can even book it on the day, saving almost £20 on the gate price.

Normally, Drayton Manor pricing is dynamic so it goes up the closer you get to the day of your visit, even if you’re booking online, whereas the Blue Light price is a flat rate.

We paid £66 for the five of us to visit Drayton Manor on a September weekend instead of £200 if we’d turned up and paid on the day.

You can even shave a couple of quid off the parking by prebooking that online too.

And if you visit during September, you get a return visit until the end of October included.

Teachers can get in free on October 3-4, so that’s something to consider if you work in a school.

My hack-stacking trick works at most theme parks as long as you take a bit of time to look at who you’re buying entry for and then work out how to combine deals.

We visited Pleasurewood Hills near Lowestoft, which has just been named theme park of the year, in April and there’s some great deals to be had for tickets there.

You can get a Blue Light discount, but it actually makes better financial sense to use a family ticket for four people for £70 or to buy early bird tickets at £16 each a month in advance.

People with local postcodes could get a reduced price ticket at the start of the season, so it’s worth keeping an eye out to see if that pops up again.

My final tip if you fancy giving hack stacking a go is to keep an eye on discount sites like Planet Offers, Groupon or Wowcher as you can make some great savings, as long as you read the small print to make sure what you’re buying is valid on the date you want to visit.

A family ticket on the Flamingo Land website costs £168 for four people, whereas it’s £98 for the same ticket on one of the discount sites.

And make sure you check rival sites too as there can be a big difference in what they are offering.