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It’s good news for those of us who can’t wait to head back to Virgin River, because seasons 1-2 of Sullivan’s Crossing – also created by author Robyn Carr – are now available to stream on Netflix. You might have missed it in everything new coming to Netflix in July 2025, but there’s a good reason why you shouldn’t overlook it (and not just that season 3 is still to come).
Virgin River’s success alone is nothing short of astonishing. It’s now the longest-running original series on the platform, still pulling in almost 16 million viewers when season 6 dropped in December 2024. Virgin River season 7 has officially wrapped filming, but no release date is confirmed as of writing.
Bad news, right? Wrong! Sullivan’s Crossing is the ideal new TV show to tide us over in the meantime. Set in Canada rather than California, it’s the epitome of cozy comfort drama with plenty of famous faces thrown in for good measure.
Neurosurgeon Maggie (Morgan Kohan) is looking to move away from her big city life in Boston after a terrible tragedy affects her personal life. She moves back to her childhood hometown of Sullivan’s Crossing, Nova Scotia, where her dad Sully (Scott Patterson) runs a campground. Maggie meets new resident Cal (Chad Michael Murray), and sparks soon fly. Where have we heard that storyline before?
Sure, Sullivan’s Crossing is exactly the same as Virgin River if you strip it back to its bare bones, but in reality, the hit TV show is so much more than its big sister. For starters, the cast unites When Hope Calls’ Kohan, noughties teen heartthrob Murray and Gilmore Girls legend Patterson in family conflict that always pulls on the heartstrings, allowing each actor to do what they’re best at. Obviously, it doesn’t hurt that any drama takes place against the jaw-droppingly picturesque vistas of rural Canada.
Our main anchor points differ from Virgin River, too. Maggie is falling for Cal, but still has tenuous links to her ex, Andrew (Allan Hawco). In essence, this acts as the reverse of Jack Sheridan (Martin Henderson), who falls for newcomer Mel (Alexandra Breckenridge) but hasn’t fully broken things off with Charmaine (Lauren Hammersley). Sullivan’s Crossing takes its romantic triangle one step further, embroiling the trio in a messy pregnancy plot destined to change all of their lives for good.
What’s the best thing about Sullivan’s Crossing, I hear you ask? The beautiful mundanity of their day-to-day lives. Where rival TV shows like Riverdale and the reboot of Dynasty take the drama in their dynamics to the extreme, Sullivan’s Crossing always returns to the simplicity of what real life really looks like, and that pays off in its popularity. You can blissfully lose your mind to the till breaking at the campground reception, inane chatter happening in the local diner and the many whimsical local events that bring the community together.
If you just can’t wait for Virgin River to return, or want to immerse yourself in more of the same, there’s no question that Sullivan’s Crossing will scratch that itch.
You might also likeIn the world of technology, open source refers to software which is made publicly available, and is free for anyone to use or modify. It is a very popular approach to software development, enabling an open and community engagement to building software projects.
One of the main advantages of open source is transparency, a property that is widely embraced by tech enthusiasts. Open source code means that anyone can inspect the code before usage, meaning that anyone could spot malicious, or broken, code. This is a perfect example of the mantra “Don't trust, verify”, which is popular in various technology spaces.
One of the main drawbacks of open source is considered to be lack of interested involvement from external developers. Many projects typically start with one, or a few, developers – and this base can struggle to grow, leading to a low “bus-factor” (dependency on too few developers) for the majority of open source projects.
This can lead to developer burnout or exhaustion, and can eventually cause the ultimate abandonment of projects. Alongside this, funding can also play a crucial role; many of the most successful projects are backed by some degree of funding from organizations and/or non-profits, effectively supporting developers throughout the time required to maintain the project.
Thankfully, while these issues are very much real there are several examples of successful and pioneering projects in the open source space which have overcome these obstacles. The Linux Foundation is the most prominent example, and there are also some interesting ones in the cryptography space, a field that can particularly benefit from adapting the open source approach. Let’s take a look at some of them individually below.
The Linux FoundationThe most notable example of a successful open source project is the open source development of the Linux Kernel. Originally published in 1991 under a custom license which did not allow commercial usage, this was quickly shifted to an open source-friendly license (GPL), to enable developers to collaborate on the code and ensure wide and free availability of the software.
The open source version which can now be found on Github, is one of the most contributed projects in the history of open source. With over 15,000 contributors, this project has clearly been a huge success. Whilst only ~4% of Desktop computers worldwide are now running Linux, it is still the platform of choice for many computer scientists and cryptographers.
Let’s encryptIn the cryptography space, a popular example is Let’s Encrypt. Let’s Encrypt is an influential open source certificate authority (CA) which helps enable secure communication via HTTPS over the web. This project was started by the Internet Security Research Group (ISG), which is a small non-profit launched in 2015 and backed by various industry players.
Since their launch in 2015, HTTPS usage on the internet has risen from ~40% to ~90%+ today. This, of course, is not down solely to Let’s encrypt, but their mission to “democratize HTTPS by making SSL/TLS certificates free, automated, and easy to obtain” has clearly had a major impact on this. Today, Let’s Encrypt powers secure communications for millions of sites, APIs, and services and is viewed as a major success in the cryptography space.
Open scienceOpen science is a similar idea which draws influence from open source. The goal of open science is to make academic publications (as well as any associated source code, data, etc) public and free for anyone to view or build on. Particularly in the cryptography space, this is something that academics tend to view as a must-have for their work: all experiments should be reproducible with available code. The website https://paperswithcode.com/ collects works which open-source their code in the Machine Learning space.
Such an approach can be critical for successful outcomes in science and research. Attempting to build on something “closed” is almost impossible, which may lead researchers to either completely rebuild something from scratch, or giving up entirely.
An additional element that can help promote this collaborative approach is the promotion of platforms like events and conferences that aim to gather experts and researchers and foster exchange. In the world of cryptography - and of Fully Homomorphic Encryption in particular - FHE.org is one such community, hosting regular online meetups and an annual conference to bring together the best and brightest minds.
Looking forwardThe next frontier in this space, in my view, is AI. AI is an area showing immense growth over the past few years; there is a tangible improvement in models. OpenAI recently closed the largest funding round in history (40b at a 300b valuation). There is currently an AI-arms race between big-tech firms, and specialized start-ups who are vying to release the best model (Polymarket is currently backing Google, at the time of writing).
Clearly, this is a sector where open source principles could be applied well, with collaboration encouraged to ensure correct management of ethics, as opposed to control by a single organization or board.
We've featured the best encryption software.
This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro
The UK Public Accounts Committee’s recent report sends a clear and urgent message: cyber threats are evolving faster than defenses can keep up. The digital infrastructure underpinning our critical infrastructure is increasingly exposed—not only due to external threats but because of internal gaps in strategy, capability, and legacy system management.
Replacing outdated technology may be part of the solution, but it’s far from the full picture. We need a fundamental shift in mindset—toward continuous assurance, smarter system design, and a dynamic approach to skills development that anticipates the challenges of tomorrow, not just today.
Beyond ‘build and forget’: cybersecurity as an ongoing commitmentFor too long, cybersecurity has followed a static, compliance-driven model—deploy once, tick the box, and move on. In today’s evolving threat landscape, this ‘build and forget’ mentality is no longer viable, if it ever was.
Security must be woven into every stage of design, development, and operations through a Secure by Design approach. With Cyber Physical Systems and enterprise IT environments in constant flux, reassessing security posture regularly ensures defenses remain adaptive and effective.
The UK government has rightly prioritized Secure by Design in its Defending the UK in a Digital World: Cyber Security Strategy 2022–25. Yet, despite this ambition, adoption across sectors remains uneven, with many organizations still relying on outdated risk frameworks and reactive measures—essentially attempting to counter modern threats with legacy solutions.
Cybersecurity must evolve beyond static processes. It requires continuous evaluation, proactive defense, and resilient security strategies to stay ahead of emerging risks.
Legacy systems: balancing risk and progressFew areas illustrate the tension between innovation and practicality more clearly than legacy systems. Originally built for a different technological landscape, many were air-gapped, manually operated, and completely isolated from external networks—never designed to withstand the level of connectivity and cyber threats seen today.
In pursuit of efficiency and cost reduction, organizations have increasingly networked and remotely managed these systems, often without implementing adequate security safeguards. While this enhances operational flexibility, it also exposes critical infrastructure to new vulnerabilities, opening doors to sophisticated cyber threats.
The solution isn't as simple as replacing old systems outright. The decision to upgrade or extend the life of legacy platforms requires careful cyber risk evaluation, ensuring the right balance of mitigation strategies, isolation measures, and continuous monitoring to maintain security. Organizations must also weigh financial constraints, applying appropriate risk controls to optimize security investments without excessive costs.
Secure by design: a strategic imperativeSecure by Design isn’t just a cybersecurity buzzword—it’s an essential principle for building resilient digital infrastructure. It ensures that an appropriate level of security is built in from the ground up, integrated at every design, development, and operational phase to create adaptable, auditable, and testable systems.
Yet, despite its inclusion in policy frameworks and industry guidelines, implementation is often incomplete or superficial. Many organizations pay lip service to security but fail to embed it across teams and processes, treating it as an isolated function rather than an organizational priority – much like organizations approach health and safety.
Regulation will play a vital role in closing this gap. The upcoming Cyber Security and Resilience Bill is set to improve oversight, enforce stronger standards, and introduce mandatory incident reporting for high-risk sectors. Coupled with enhanced threat intelligence sharing, this legislation could shift cybersecurity strategies from reactive defense to proactive resilience.
Cyber talent: securing the future workforceAnother major challenge in cybersecurity is building a workforce capable of responding to evolving threats. As technology advances, skills become obsolete faster than ever, requiring ongoing investment in cyber capability development.
While direct government hiring plays a role—especially in sensitive security domains—industry partnerships offer a scalable alternative. Specialist organizations, like Thales, are well-positioned to train and upskill professionals through apprenticeships, immersive simulations, and diverse sector exposure, which traditional public-sector roles often lack.
This model provides dual benefits: it equips trainees with experience across various threat scenarios, while also fostering an agile workforce that can quickly adapt to emerging technologies like artificial intelligence and quantum computing. Cybersecurity isn't just about fixing vulnerabilities of the past—it's about anticipating and securing against the threats of the future.
Transparency and collaboration: strengthening cyber resilienceCybersecurity can no longer be viewed as a standalone issue—threats don’t respect organizational boundaries, and weaknesses in one system can expose an entire network. Transparency, collaboration, and mandatory incident reporting are essential for national security, ensuring vulnerabilities are addressed before they escalate into widespread risks.
Reporting cyber incidents, much like the practice of reporting near misses and accidents in health and safety, strengthens overall resilience. Just as greater visibility has helped organizations reduce safety incidents, increased cyber reporting makes it harder for hackers to exploit gaps, reinforcing defenses before real damage occurs.
The Thales Data Threat Report underscores the growing risks to Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) and highlights the value of compliance—organisations that passed cybersecurity audits had significantly fewer breaches than those that failed. With the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill raising standards, stronger protections for essential infrastructure, including data centers that support AI innovation and national healthcare, will become the norm.
Each unreported cyber-attack is a missed opportunity to refine security strategies. Enhanced visibility into cyber threats improves collective intelligence, allowing organizations to make faster, smarter decisions in the face of emerging risks.
Conclusion: building security for the futureModern cybersecurity requires more than patching vulnerabilities or checking compliance boxes—it demands a strategic rethink of how systems are designed, maintained, and safeguarded. Understanding how legacy and modern environments interact is key, alongside developing cyber talent that can anticipate and mitigate future risks.
Secure by Design must be the standard, not the exception. With the right balance of policy, proactive security measures, and skilled professionals, organizations can shift from reactive defense to sustainable resilience, ensuring they are prepared for the threats ahead, not just responding to the ones they see today.
We've featured the best endpoint protection software.
This article was produced as part of TechRadarPro's Expert Insights channel where we feature the best and brightest minds in the technology industry today. The views expressed here are those of the author and are not necessarily those of TechRadarPro or Future plc. If you are interested in contributing find out more here: https://www.techradar.com/news/submit-your-story-to-techradar-pro
Spending time on the internet in 2025 is proving to be more difficult than ever before. After all, image generation tools are readily accessible in AI products like ChatGPT, and video generation software like Google's Veo 3 is available to the general public.
We're still at a point in the AI-powered internet journey where I'd argue it's still easy enough to tell what's real and what's not. That said, today's AI image and video tools are more powerful than ever, and the scary thing is: this is the worst they'll ever be.
The other day, while browsing Instagram, I stumbled across a new post from France and Real Madrid soccer superstar, Kylian Mbappé. Widely regarded as one of the best players in the world, the image showcased an incredible bicycle kick he had performed in the Club World Cup quarter-final the night before.
The thing is, while the image appeared normal at first glance, a closer inspection revealed some seriously bad editing, or quite possibly AI image generation.
You see, zoom into the crowd watching Mbappé's acrobatics and you'll see a Picasso-esque abstract work of art, people merging into each other, and something more akin to a horror movie than a soccer field. All of the faces blur together like a nightmare.
Initially, I couldn't quite believe that a social media admin for an Instagram account with over 124 million followers would use AI to enhance an image. But then I thought about it some more, and of course, AI has infiltrated the social profiles of public figures. It's everywhere.
A post shared by Kylian Mbappé (@k.mbappe)
A photo posted by on
What's real anymore?You might be wondering why Kylian Mbappé's social media team used AI to edit this photo in the first place. After all, according to official reports, there were over 76,000 fans in MetLife Stadium for the game.
Since it started a few weeks ago, the FIFA Club World Cup has been plagued with stories of low attendance rates, with one report claiming the tournament had over 1 million empty seats in the group stage alone.
Now, 76,000 is closer to MetLife's 82,500 capacity than some of the other examples of low attendance in the tournament, but considering the terrible photo edits to the crowd, did Mbappé's incredible goal fall into the line of sight of empty seats?
Thinking about the context of the tournament and the badly edited photo, this is the conclusion that I'd feel most comfortable putting forward. After all, sometimes you have to call a spade a spade. Why would anyone play with the crowd capacity other than to fill gaps?
Whether Mbappe's photo was AI-edited or badly edited by a human, the world of photo editing on social media is nothing new. Since the inception of platforms like Facebook and Instagram, we've all had to adapt to the 21st-century way of living, which often includes curating your best angles and happiest moments online.
AI-generated instagram influencer (Image credit: @millasofiafin / Instagram)In the past, influencers would slim down their waists using apps on their iPhones or by manually editing the photo. Now, AI can do it all with the press of a button. And that's not all, AI-edited photos are only the beginning.
Whether that's fully AI-generated influencers scoring brand deals, AI-generated YouTube channels garnering millions of views and subscribers, or AI beauty pageants, we no longer live in a world where it's easy to tell what's real on social media and what's not. The thing is, have we ever been able to? Or is AI just making it easier than ever before to bend reality to fit a narrative?
As someone who has used multiple AI photo editing tools for testing purposes, I'm fairly confident that Mbappé's terrible editing is the work of artificial intelligence, and most probably Apple's mediocre Clean Up tool.
This clear example of heavily-edited photography shines a light, not only on bad editing, but also on the fact that if bad edits slip through the cracks, there's a high chance most of the posts we see aren't actually rooted in real life.
You might also likeFortnite will receive an update on July 11 that's set to add Superman powers, and the main Superman skin for all players to unlock. We don't know what's in store yet, but expect super-powered upgrades, new mythic items, and Superman-themed cosmetics.
Fortnite Chapter 6 is finally here, continuing with Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 3 which has switched up the map once again. There's new weapons to try out, a superhero-themed Battle Pass, as well as updates centered around Superman himself.
We don't yet know exactly what's to follow in the next season of Fortnite, but given Fortnite Super just launched, it could be a while before we get any hints from Epic Games. It's frequent updates like these that make Fortnite one of the best battle royale games around. Last season concluded June 7 with a climactic Star Wars live event, before Chapter 6 Season 3 went live across the world.
Here's everything you need to know about the process of Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 4 launching, when the next season starts, and what to expect from Fortnite in the future. Also, the latest on what's been revealed about Superman, and other superhero skins.
When does the current season of Fortnite end?(Image credit: Epic Games)Fortnite Super will end on August 8, 2025. So far, no details have been shared on specific timings, though the in-game Battle Pass menu does count down to the update. We'll be sure to provide details closer to launch, but expect the new season to launch after a period of extended downtime.
When is the next season of Fortnite?(Image credit: Epic Games)The next season of Fortnite has yet to be fully revealed, but it'll launch following downtime on August 8, 2025. Hopefully, downtime is only 2-3 hours (based on the average times of Chapter 6 so far), but it's worth noting that things have been known to slip slightly in the past.
What to expect from the next Fortnite season(Image credit: Epic Games)Epic Games has not fully revealed what's in store for Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 4, but given that the current one only just launched, we'll be waiting at least a month for updates. What we do know is that Superman will arrive in Fortnite on July 11, with quests going live that'll reward you with a Superman Skin and related cosmetic items.
Fortnite Chapter 6 Season 3 map changes(Image credit: Epic Games)Here's the full map for Fortnite Super. As you can see in the image above, there's still some Star Wars locations like Outpost Enclave, First Order Base, and Resistance Base. The new locations are Supernova Academy, Utopia City, and Demon's Domain. Sprites have been turned into mascots, but work the same way as before, with different abilities like laser-vision.
You Might Also Like...- Experts observe a 19x quarter-over-quarter rise in .es usage for malicious campaigns
- 99% were credential phishing attacks, with 1% relating to remote access trojans
- Microsoft was by far the most commonly impersonated brand
Cybersecurity experts from Cofense have revealed a 19x increase in malicious campaigns using .es domains between Q4 2024 and Q5 2025, making it the third-most abused top-level domain (TLD) after .com and .ru.
Typically reserved for businesses and organizations in Spain, or Spanish-speaking audiences, researchers found nearly 1,400 malicious subdomains across nearly 450 .es base domains between January and May.
An overwhelming majority (99%) of the campaigns involved credential phishing, with most of the remaining 1% delivering remote access trojans (RATs) like ConnectWise RAT, Dark Crystal and XWorm.
.es domains are proving popular for phishing attacksAlthough the rise of .es domains in cyberattacks is noteworthy, attack vectors remain unchanged. Malware was seen to be delivered by C2 nodes or spoofed emails, with most (95%) impersonating Microsoft (an attacker's favorite). Adobe, Google, Docusign and the Social Security Administration made up the top-five most commonly impersonated websites. Email lures often mimicked HR and document-related requests.
Interestingly, the malicious .es subdomains were randomly generated, not crafted manually, making them easier to identify as being fake. Examples include ag7sr[.]fjlabpkgcuo[.]es and gymi8[.]fwpzza[.]es.
Despite researchers suggesting that no similarities can be used to link attacks to a single group, 99% of the malicious .es domains were hosted on Cloudflare.
"If one threat actor or threat actor group were taking advantage of .es TLD domains then it is likely that the brands spoofed in .es TLD campaigns would indicate certain preferences by the threat actors," the researchers wrote.
Cofense explained that "significant restrictions" on the usage of .es TLDs were in place until 2005, adding that the recent rise in .es-related attacks could be a cause for concern, marking a new trend exploiting the authority that country-related TLDs unofficially carry.
You might also like- We've listed the best identity theft protection services
- Keep yourself protected online by installing the best business VPN
- ChatGPT and other AI tools could be putting users at risk by getting company web addresses wrong