Street photography is rewarding but with city life so dynamic and constantly moving, it can also be difficult to capture it in its truest form. From the people to vehicles on the move and changing lighting, photographers often need incredible skills to get meaningful and authentic shots. But there are a few tricks and techniques you can use to master city photography faster.
Your toolkit for the concrete jungle
A quality camera
The first step to capturing great shots of the city is having the right tools to hand. The camera you choose will give you flexibility in taking a wide range of photos—the gold standard are DSLRs and mirrorless cameras which excel in navigating the challenging lighting conditions you might face in cities, and they allow you to change lenses. Mirrorless cameras have gained significant popularity in recent years, providing the image quality of DSLRs but in a more compact body.
For a budget-friendly way to upgrade your camera, opt for used equipment from reputable suppliers like MPB where you can buy refurbished brands like Canon, Nikon and Sony at attractive prices. Look for models that are one or two generations behind the latest releases—they often offer 90% of the performance at a fraction of the cost.
Not every situation calls for a large camera setup though—in fact, the latest smartphones often excel when discretion is key. Street photography can benefit from the unobtrusive nature of smaller devices, so you can capture candid moments without drawing attention to yourself.
Essential lenses
Cities are built on grand scales, so using a wide-angle lens can help you capture the enormity of the city you’re in. Whether it’s the soaring lines of skyscrapers, the energy of a public plaza, or the intricate details of historic architecture, wide-angle lenses will give you more scope, even when shooting from close distances.
Prime lenses, which have fixed focal lengths, are also handy to have in your kit. The wider maximum aperture will excel in low lights and helps you isolate subjects from busy backgrounds. Lastly, telephoto lenses won’t be essential for every urban photographer, but they do offer creative possibilities with compression effects that stack elements in visually striking ways.
Durable accessories for any urban adventure
Camera bags
Cities are tough on tech, so high quality travel storage is essential. A durable camera bag protects your gear from the elements while keeping it organized and accessible. Look for bags with weather-resistant materials and padded compartments that can handle the bumps and jostling of urban travel.
Messenger-style bags offer quick access to your camera, while backpacks distribute weight more evenly for longer shooting sessions. In busy cities, you might also opt for bags with anti-theft features like slash-resistant materials and locking zips that will keep your camera and other equipment protected.
Extra batteries
City photography sessions can go on for hours, especially when you’re exploring new neighbourhoods or waiting for that perfect shot. Cold weather, especially, drains batteries faster than normal, so always carry at least one extra battery, or a portable power bank if you’re using a smartphone or camera with USB charging capabilities.
Lightweight tripods
Tripods aren’t always necessary, but they do have a place when you require precision and maximum image quality. A lightweight tripod expands your creative possibilities significantly. Look for carbon fibre tripods that balance weight with stability, or compact travel tripods that will fit easily in your bag. Some photographers prefer monopods in urban environments—they provide stability while remaining more portable and less conspicuous than full tripods.
Techniques for capturing a city’s essence
The right equipment is just the foundation of urban photography. The real artistry lies in how you compose and frame your shots to tell compelling stories about city life. Urban environments offer unique compositional challenges and opportunities that require a different approach than landscape or portrait photography.
Mastering light
A city transforms dramatically over the course of 24 hours, so knowing how to work with different lighting conditions will separate amateur snapshots from professional images.
Golden hour, the period just after sunrise and before sunset, is when you’ll find the city bathed in a warm glow, turning even the most mundane scene into something truly magical. Side lighting during this time can create dramatic depth and dimension, while the low sun creates interesting shadows and highlights.
Blue hour is the phase just after sunset or before sunrise, when deep blue tones in the sky create incredible contrast against artificial city lights. And, of course, night images are when a city comes alive through street lights, neon signs and illuminated architecture.
Capturing motion
What sets a city apart is its movement and dynamic energy, so you need to move beyond static architectural photos. Panning—following moving subjects with your camera while using slower shutter speeds, gives that sense of motion while keeping the main focus of the shot sharp.
The heart of urban photography is in capturing those authentic moments of city life. They’re the perfect canvas for portraits that place people within their urban surroundings. Look for ways the buildings, lighting, or urban elements can enhance your subject’s story. Sometimes this means using leading lines to draw attention to your subject, while other times it involves using urban textures or colours to complement skin tones or clothing choices.
Focusing on texture
While sweeping vistas are great, often the best urban images come from the finer detail. These are the elements of human activity that really create rich textures and unexpected beauty in the most unlikely of places. Look for weathered brick walls, worn concrete, and contrasts in single frames, as well as making the most of reflections that will add interest to your compositions. Polished surfaces, puddles, or windows can be used to capture symmetry.
Street art and graffiti are also highlights of city environments so be sure to include them in your shots. Sometimes the most compelling images show how street art interacts with its environment—how a mural complements or contrasts with surrounding architecture, or how people interact with this art.
As you walk through the streets of a city, your surroundings will naturally spark new ideas and inspiration. Use the suggestions provided here to help you see your city from a fresh perspective and encourage you to capture more creative and engaging shots.
Water From Your Eyes have announced a new album: It’s a Beautiful Place is set for release on August 22 via Matador. Today, the New York duo have previewed it with the nu-metal-inflected ‘Life Signs’, which you can check out below, along with the album cover and tracklist.
‘Life Signs’ comes paired with a music video directed by the band’s own Rachel Brown, who commented: “Television has always been my biggest passion, and this video was mostly conceived from my desire to experiment with the tropes of genre. But I also think the medium lends itself to the idea of fitting an infinite amount of universes into a little box you can keep in your living room. I wanted the video to encapsulate as many worlds as the song does and to express an entire lifetime within a short few minutes.”
Water From Your Eyes’ follow-up to 2023’s Everyone’s Crushed is billed as “a reframing of the y2k songbook,” with Nate Amos elaborating, “It ended up being about time, dinosaurs and space. We wanted to present a wide range of styles in a way that acknowledges everything’s just a tiny blip.”
“A song can feel like everything, communicating vast emotional landscapes, but your favorite album is less important than any person,” Amos added. “That person is less interesting than any dinosaur. That dinosaur is less important than any mountain. That mountain is boring compared to any planet. That planet is only a part of a solar system. That solar system is microscopic next to any galaxy. If music and all other human practices are meaningless on a cosmic scale why does it still feel so important?”
Live, Brown and Amos are joined by guitarist Al Nardo and drummer Bailey Wollowitz (of fantasy of a broken heart), and that dynamic helped shape the new record. “When you’re playing with a band you tend to write with one in mind – this was the first time I wrote anything for WFYE imagining us playing anywhere bigger than a basement,” Amos noted.
1. One Small Step
2. Life Signs
3. Nights in Armor
4. Born 2
5. You Don’t Believe in God?
6. Spaceship
7. Playing Classics
8. It’s a Beautiful Place
9. Blood on the Dollar
10. For Mankind
Hand Habits, the project of multi-instrumentalist and singer-songwriter Meg Duffy, has announced a new LP. Blue Reminder is slated to arrive on August 22 via Fat Possum. It’s led by the bristly, yearning new song ‘Wheel of Change’, which comes paired with a video from director Otium. Check out below, and scroll down for the LP’s cover art and tracklist.
“Both lyrically and in its production, this song is about the impossibility of return—you can’t go back to the way things were, no matter how much you might want to hold on to a time, or a feeling, or a person,” Duffy explained in a press release. “Lyrically there’s a kind of desperation (‘I need it now more than ever’), but in it there’s also a request, ‘don’t take it away just yet,’ which is not a question but a demand, and I wanted the production to reflect that. That in longing, there can be this sharper, wild edge. Like, no I need this, give it to me, don’t take it away.”
Duffy recorded Blue Reminder in Los Angeles with co-producer Joseph Lorge. It features a crew of collaborators including Alan Wyffels, Gregory Uhlmann, Olivia Kaplan, Blake Mills, Tim Carr, Daniel Aged, and Joshua Johnson and Anna Butters of SML. “For this record I set out to no longer shapeshift when it came to the person I become in the face of love,” Duffy shared.
“Of course the weight of the past is always in the room with me when I sit down to write,” they added. “It is filtered through my way of making even the most precious moments imbued with something blue — the constant reminder is there — but I have spent so much time writing as a means to work through pain, or place blame on myself or others, and I am at a point in my life where I’m more interested in acceptance, forgiveness, and exploring what it means to need and be needed.”
Back in 2023, Hand Habits released the mini-record Sugar the Bruise. Last year, they contributed to the solo piano music compilation piano1, and recently joined the National’s Matt Berninger on his single ‘Breaking into Acting’.
Blue Reminder Cover Artwork:
Blue Reminder Tracklist:
1. More Today
2. Wheel of Change
3. Nubble
4. Dead Rat
5. Jasmine Blossoms
6. Way It Goes
7. (Forgiveness)
8. Beauty 62
9. Bluebird of Happiness
10. Blue Reminder
11. Quiet Summer
12. Living Proof
Turnstile stopped by The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon last night (June 3), debuting two songs from their new album Never Enough, which is out in a couple of days. Watch them rip through ‘I Care’ and ‘Dull’ below.
Never Enough is the long-awaited follow-up to the hardcore band’s 2021 breakthrough Glow On, which they promoted on Fallon with a performance of ‘Blackout’. So far, they’ve teased the new LP with the singles ‘Look Out For Me’, ‘Seein’ Stars’, and ‘Birds’.
Sea Lemon is the project of singer-songwriter Natalie Lew, who was born and raised in the Pacific Northwest and currently lives in Seattle. Though she grew up playing the piano, it wasn’t until she moved to New York, where she picked up a roommate’s guitars, that she started playing rhythm guitar in a band. After returning to the PNW in the early days of the pandemic, she honed her songwriting and experimented with Logic, resulting in her first EPs, Close Up and Stop at Nothing. Now, she’s come through with her debut full-length, Diving for a Prize, which she worked on primarily with Death Cab for Cutie collaborator Andy Park in his home studio. Death Cab for Cutie’s own Ben Gibbard joins Lew on the standout single ‘Crystals’, which sublimates in glimmering, fuzzy production; elsewhere on the record, the textures become weightier, icier, or even sunnier, but remain carefully balanced. Though gauzy by nature, Lew’s music is more than a vehicle for insular or abstract lyrics, instead encapsulating short stories that match her tight melodicism. “When we’re sinking deeper,” she sings on the closing track, “In the flowers we’re together now.” Who would ask for a better prize?
We caught up with Sea Lemon for the latest edition of our Artist Spotlight series to talk about growing up in Seattle, the process behind her debut album, malaise, and more.
How did moving away from Seattle for a while make you understand what it was like growing up there?
Growing up in Seattle, I always felt like music was just so much a part of my everyday. I was really involved as a kid in some of the music programming in the city; I was involved in a battle of the bands when I was in high school, and I always thought I was gonna be in A&R as a kid. I think that for me, Seattle as a place to write music was something that was really new to me when I moved back here, and I was actually actively writing music. I think that the space of being somewhere where, one, it’s a little bit drearier, and two, it’s more open and green, especially in comparison to living in New York – I felt like I just had more physical room to make music. There’s something to me about being creative in a place that’s kind of tight and cramped and claustrophobic that is almost impossible. I need desk space to be creative, or a bigger room rather than singing on top of my neighbors who I can hear talking, or my friends are in the other room. I have a way easier time if I’m by myself writing music. So that was really nice when I moved back, being able to have the space to physically write music.
Is that when you started seeing yourself more as a songwriter?
A hundred percent. I’ve always been under an impression that’s like, “How hard is anything? Maybe I can just try it.” I think music writing for me was one of those things where I was like, “Well, I’m by myself. My band is gone. I live in Seattle now. Maybe I should just try writing music.” And I had so much fun doing it. I think that is what my project has been all the way up until writing this album and releasing it: what sounds like fun. I want to pursue the things that sound like a good time, and I love writing music. They say that there’s Type A fun and Type B fun. Type A fun is fun that you have while you’re doing the thing and afterwards, and Type B fun is not fun in the moment, but when you look back, you’re like, “That actually was a good time.” I feel quite lucky because I feel like music and writing and playing is always Type A fun: it’s something that I enjoy in the moment.
Even when it’s digging into something vulnerable?
I’m really not a person who writes music when it’s like, “I had a fight with my friend, so I’m going to write a song.” I’m way more of a person who’s like, “I have an idea for a riff. What does that riff remind me of from a story perspective? Let me craft a story around that melody or riff.” I’ve never been a person who’s carried around a journal, writing lots of lyrics. I’m quite melody first. Of course, making music is inherently vulnerable because you’re putting yourself out there in some way. But I’m rarely telling intimate, personal, detailed stories. I’m telling stories that I’m imagining or are parts of my life, but I rarely feel like I can’t release something because I’m exposing too much because so much of my music is so melody-forward.
Were you interested in other kinds of writing before songwriting?
When I started playing music with my band in New York, a band led by somebody who picked a couple people basically off the street to play music with her, we were all super amateur, wanting to just get started. I had never really played the guitar; I’d grown up playing piano. I had really honestly never even heard myself sing out loud. Five years ago, I was like, “Oh, maybe I should try singing out loud. If I’m in this band, if I’m playing the guitar, I should just try singing.” Ever since then, writing is just something that I do all the time. But I also have always loved fiction writing and actual story writing, and I feel like that has really played into the way that I write lyrics and I think about themes and songs and telling a story. I’ve always loved writing in some capacity, but I think songwriting is something that only within the past five years I’ve really started.
What are some of your earliest memories of realizing someone wrote a part of a song in a way that connected with you?
One of my earliest memories of loving a song was probably four or five, being in the back seat, my mom playing ‘Drive My Car’ by the Beatles, and me being like, “This song slaps.” I was like, “This is the best song I’ve ever freaking heard in my life.” And I remember thinking to myself, “How did this come to be?” I remember even at a really early age being like, “That’s so crazy.” As I got older, I would listen to music like The Cure or Cocteau Twins or The Radio Dept., and I feel like I ended up listening to music where I didn’t know how to play it. The sounds they were making, I was like, “I don’t know how the hell they’re putting that together. It’s completely foreign to me.”
It was exciting to be able to unpack how a song would be made. Even if I can’t get the exact plug-in or guitar sound or whatever, you can start to craft like, “Oh, they’re using a shaker here” or “There’s two guitars here, one’s playing this riff and one’s doing something else.” Learning how to listen really demystified making music for me because I was like, “Every song is just a bunch of parts, and if you come up with parts, you make a song.” That’s something I really did when I started making music, just add a bunch of stuff in a Logic file and then listen to it all together, listen to some of the parts singled out. Being able to listen and think about all the parts and then replicate that process for myself really helped.
Do you tend to practice that kind of attentive listening when you are also in the process of making your own music?
I think there’s there’s a phase before sitting down to be like, “I’m writing music,” where I listen to a lot of stuff that gives me inspiration. I was listening to a lot of Air before I made this album. I think, “These are really cool synth sounds and guitar sounds and interesting ways to write riffs and add your voice.” I make almost an inspirational mood board for myself, and sometimes, I’ll make a mood board with photos and images to evoke how I want somebody to feel and what I imagine when I hear the songs. And then when I go into writing, no listening to music. If I listen to music and I’m writing music all at the same time, it’s really easy to be really hard on yourself and be like, “This sounds so much better. Why can’t I make something as good as this?” I had to tell myself it’s not a competition. All of the songs out there are just songs, and this will just also be a song. It’s okay. Nothing has to be perfect or beat each other. I kind of need quiet to make something myself and not feel like I need to compare it to anything else.
The song ‘Silver’ seems to identify a very formative memory of storytelling for you. What made you go back to that?
That’s one of my personal favorite songs on the album. There’s a couple of songs on this album that I wrote melodically when I was suffering from tonsillitis. I used to get horrible, horrible tonsillitis. And when I would have tonsillitis, I couldn’t sing at all. When I was writing this album, I would be like, “What am I what am I supposed to do? I can’t sing. I need to be putting together demos.” I started doing this thing where I would open up a Logic file, and I would write a MIDI line as what I should sing as the lead vocal line. And then in my head, I would imagine, “Now I’m adding words here.” And then weeks later, I would add on my vocals where the MIDI line would be. ‘Silver’ is one of those songs, and I think that’s why in some ways it sounds kind of different.
From a conceptual standpoint, ‘Silver’ is about being a little kid and having all these memories of being with your family and your parents and your friends and feeling like the world is your oyster. You can do anything, you can be anyone. And then getting older – when I moved to New York, I worked a corporate job, which was lovely, but we would go on these business trips sometimes where you’re out in the middle of nowhere with some folks that you don’t really know that well, and it can be kind of an isolating experience. I remember thinking it’s so crazy – your parents tell you you can be anything, and ten you’re in this hotel room by yourself, eating room service. ‘Silver’ is about that realization, as an adult, that things that were sold to you as a kid are not quite as beautiful and incredible as you would have imagined as a little kid.
Even being a musician, something you might have dreamt about as a child – once it’s demystified, there are also parts of it that can also be isolating and arduous.
Totally. I mean, I remember as a little kid getting a room service and staying at a hotel and being, like, “This is the peak of luxury. Life could not be better than this.” [laughs] Then I remember being on a business trip in my early twenties, getting served moldy fruit on a cart, and being like, “What the hell is going on? This is not what I thought it was gonna be.”
After releasing a couple of EPs, how did you feel about the prospect of making a full-length album?
It was definitely daunting, in that you want to write an album that feels representative of you, something that feels recognizable, but also maybe new. Navigating what story I wanted to tell with this record and how I wanted it to feel overall was the most daunting part. But once I got into the actual, “I’m writing the songs, we’ve got demos,” it felt less and less daunting because what I realized in writing an album is that you can just take it places that you wouldn’t on an EP or in singles. You can get weirder with it. It’s okay to have album tracks that don’t sound like something you’ve released before because it’s a body of work, it’s not just a few songs that are mostly singles. I think that’s why I enjoyed the process so much – I allowed myself to push it and be weirder with it. Like, I historically have written songs at a really fast BPM, and I was like, “I wanna write slower songs.”
How else did that weirdness manifest itself?
I’m definitely quite a guitar-driven writer. It’s definitely my primary instrument. But when I was writing the album, I was like, “Why don’t we just have songs that are a lot synthier?” I think I allowed myself to get weirder with synths and some of the drumming styles on the album. We had a live drummer do all of the tracks this time rather than using samples, and that also pushed me out of my comfort zone to be like, “What does this sound like when it gets bigger?” Historically, I’ve always had and wanted my songs to feel lower-fi, something that’s more bedroom pop, because that kind of music is really lovely and accessible and possible to make, and sounds great. But with this album, I was like, “It’s okay if we use live instruments and make the whole thing sound bigger.” I think that was a real push in a new direction.
How much of that experimentation rose out of your dynamic with Andy Park?
In general, he was a serious co-partner on this album. We wrote some of the songs together in the studio, and then some of the songs I brought to him, and he really helped flesh out a vision for the One of my personal favorites, ‘Give In’, I sat down and wrote in the studio just by myself with a guitar. We talked about what general vibe we wanted it to be lik, we added parts, and the next day when I came to the studio, Andy had started a soundscape around the song. He already had a vision for how the song could atmospherically be, using some weirder synths. It felt like he was in my brain putting together the things that I had started on the song and finishing them exactly how I had imagined, if not so much better. That was really fun as we got into a groove of knowing what we wanted the record to sound like together.
On that song, you sing about not being “scared to toe the line of bleaker endings/ So go ahead/ And be obsessed.” I’m curious if that’s an impulse you try to embrace creatively in any way.
That whole track is about seeing an abandoned house and being like, “Maybe I should just go in just for a little bit, just for fun.” That’s always been an impulse that I’ve had. That last line is like, I’m gonna toe the line – maybe I should stay back, maybe I shouldn’t do something that could be potentially harmful or bad or get me in trouble. And then it’s like, or maybe I can just be obsessed and go for it. When I write music and when I think about this album, there was a big part of me that was like, “I wanna make sure that there are songs that people recognize in terms of, ‘That is a Sea Lemon song.’” Then I was like, “But also, this is a better time than any to just write whatever I want and have fun with it.” It’s funny you mentioned that – I’ve never thought of that line as representative of how I thought about writing this album. But I do actually think that that idea of, “Just be obsessed with whatever you’re doing, that’s really what matters,” is really apt.
There are at least a couple of songs that revolve around that feeling of obsession, like ‘Sweet Anecdote’, while also poking fun at it.
I think songs like ‘Sweet Anecdote’ and ‘Sunken Cost’ and ‘Give In’ are all meant to be stories about situations that are real, but also playing fun at being obsessed with something and not being able to let it go. And acknowledging to yourself, “There’s something wrong in my brain, and that’s okay.” What was so fun about writing those songs was being able to tell a story from, not the point of view of exactly me, but instead a heightened character where I’m not worried about, like, “Do I sound like a villain in my songwriting? Or do I sound like me exactly?” I can tell a fictional story in my songwriting, and that’s something I think expands the universe you write about.
I love the parallel between Ben Gibbard’s line in ‘Crystals’ – “It seems that all I wanna do is sleep these days” – and your “All I want is to live in a warm cocoon” in ‘Sunken Cost’. Is there something about making this kind of gauzy music that helps fuel this need to drift off?
Oh, definitely. I like a real hint of darkness in my music. I like telling stories that edge towards darker, and I think shoegaze music and people who listen to shoegaze music, they’re not looking for the peppiest stuff. When you write melodies that feel darker, there’s a part of you that always wants to tell the story lyrically that you’re telling melodically. And I do think that this type of music lends itself really well to stories about periods of darkness or isolation or feeling weird. I’ve actually never thought about the similarity between those lines, but I think that they’re they’re really capturing a similar energy, even though they were written by myself and then Ben separately – the feeling of kind of malaise, a comfort in malaise, and also a hatred of it at the same time.
Are you wary of that darkness or malaise when you’re in the process of making music?
For me, the actual process of, “Time to go to the studio, time to write music, time do all the things that I need to do in order to make this happen,” can sometimes feel like a daunting task. There was a period where I really wanted to have been recording, and I just wasn’t ready yet. I had to start from a perspective of, “Let’s just start with one track, and let’s get that track in a good spot. And then let’s talk about the rest of the record.” I can go into a real isolated, insular, malaise kind of place if I don’t have guardrails and goals of: here’s what I need to do next.
Have you discovered any tools for getting unstuck?
I have a synth at my house that a friend of ours gave us, which is a kid’s toy from the eighties from Yamaha. I find that playing that, or getting on Logic and just starting to mess around with stuff in an unserious way, really helps me get unstuck. Sometimes I find that I will get stuck if I try to just write stuff on an acoustic guitar or start more serious because I’ll be like, “This song has to be good. Why is it not good yet?” And if I just start on what feel like sillier instruments – I also have an omnichord – I’m often like, “This is for fun, and it’s silly,” and then it can start a cool idea. That helps me get outside of my comfort zone.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity and length.
The global gaming industry, projected to exceed $300 billion in annual revenue by 2028, has become a high-stakes battleground for cybercriminals. With over 2.58 billion players interacting in virtual ecosystems worth billions, gaming platforms now face unprecedented cybersecurity challenges.
From DDoS attacks paralyzing tournaments to sophisticated phishing campaigns targeting young gamers, the sector’s technical complexity and financial value demand robust defensive strategies. This article examines the evolving threat landscape and provides actionable insights for safeguarding gaming ecosystems.
The Escalating Threat Landscape in Gaming
DDoS Attacks: Disrupting Play and Profit
Distributed denial-of-service attacks remain one of the most prevalent threats, with gaming companies experiencing a 94% surge in layer 7 DDoS attacks between 2023-2024. A Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack floods a server, network, or game platform with an overwhelming amount of traffic causing it to slow down, crash, or become completely unplayable.
Unlike traditional hacks, the goal isn’t to steal data, but to disrupt access and ruin the experience. These attacks overwhelm servers with malicious traffic, causing service outages during critical moments.
Blizzard Entertainment’s 2025 tournament disruption exemplifies the dual impact of DDoS attacks damaging player trust while incurring direct revenue losses from downtime.
Account Takeovers
Cybercriminals increasingly target gaming accounts due to their resale value on dark web markets. High-profile titles like Counter-Strike and World of Warcraft see stolen virtual items sold for six-figure sums. Weak passwords and reused credentials enable 80% of account breaches, while cloud gaming platforms introduce new attack vectors through vulnerable infrastructure.
Phishing: Exploiting Gaming Communities
Phishing attacks have become alarmingly common in the gaming world, where cybercriminals prey on the trust and enthusiasm of online players. These scams often appear as fake login pages, free in-game item offers, or urgent messages that mimic official game platforms or popular streamers.
Phishing campaigns now disproportionately target gaming platforms, with Steam, Roblox, and Garena accounting for 62% of gaming-related scams. Attackers leverage in-game messaging systems and YouTube tutorials to deceive users a tactic particularly effective against Roblox’s under 12 user base. These schemes often promise free in-game currency while harvesting login credentials, enabling secondary attacks on payment methods linked to accounts.
Insider Threats
The gaming community’s technical sophistication presents unique risks, as disgruntled players develop custom bots to disrupt streams or manipulate in-game economies. Unlike traditional industries, gaming platforms must guard against threats originating from both external actors and skilled participants familiar with system architectures.
Cloud Gaming’s Double-Edged Sword
While cloud gaming reduces local hardware vulnerabilities, centralized server architectures create high-value targets. Platforms like Aethir emphasize enhanced anti-cheat protections through server-side computation, but 2023 saw an alarming increase in web application firewall attacks targeting these environments.
Security Frameworks and Compliance Standards
OWASP Game Security Framework (GSF)
The OWASP GSF provides standardized threat models for multiplayer exploits, client integrity violations, and virtual economy manipulation. Its cheat taxonomy helps developers prioritize vulnerabilities, while case studies like the Elder Scrolls Online botnet incident offer mitigation blueprints. The framework’s emphasis on server authority aligns with cloud gaming’s shift toward centralized validation.
GLI Gaming Security Framework (GLI-GSF-1)
Released in 2024, GLI-GSF-1 establishes controls for auditing Gaming Information Security Management Systems (GISMS). It mandates encrypted data storage for virtual transactions and requires two-factor authentication for developer access to production environments.
Secure Development Lifecycle Practices
Threat Modeling in Pre-Production
Integrating threat modeling during concept phases reduces remediation costs by 60% compared to post-launch fixes. The OWASP GSF Playbook recommends mapping attack surfaces for microtransaction systems and social features early in development.
In the fast-paced world of game development, Continuous Integration and Continuous Deployment (CI/CD) pipelines are critical for pushing frequent updates, patches, and new content to players. However, this speed and automation can introduce serious security risks if not properly managed.
Building a Multi-Layered Defense Strategy
Authentication: The First Line of Defense
Implementing strong password policies remains fundamental, with 60% of account compromises linked to reused credentials. Gaming companies should enforce 12-character minimums with symbol/number requirements, complemented by mandatory two-factor authentication (2FA). Splashtop’s implementation of multi-factor authentication for remote gaming sessions demonstrates how 2FA blocks 99.9% of automated attacks.
Securing Network Infrastructure
Encrypted connections using TLS 1.3 protocols and virtual private networks (VPNs) mitigate man-in-the-middle attacks, particularly on public Wi-Fi. Network segmentation strategies, such as isolating tournament servers from general matchmaking infrastructure, limit DDoS impact zones.
Proactive Vulnerability Management
The OWASP Game Security Framework emphasizes continuous patch cycles, with its cheat taxonomy helping developers prioritize critical updates. Automated update systems ensure the majority of users install security patches within few hours.
Anti-Cheat Technologies Evolving
Server-side validation mechanisms in cloud gaming platforms reduce client-side exploit risks. Behavioral analytics tools now detect anomalous player actions like sudden accuracy improvements with more accuracy, banning cheaters before they impact legitimate users.
Incident Response and Crisis Management
Wargaming for Breach Preparedness
Secarma’s incident response wargaming simulates ransomware attacks on leaderboard systems or inventory database breaches. These exercises reduce mean time to recovery through stress-testing communication protocols between developers, PR teams, and law enforcement.
Forensic Readiness in Virtual Economies
Maintaining immutable audit logs of virtual item transactions assists post-breach investigations. World of Warcraft’s 2024 gold-selling scandal was resolved using blockchain-style transaction tracing embedded in their auction house API.
Conclusion
As virtual economies rival real-world markets, cybersecurity becomes inseparable from game design itself. By implementing layered defenses, fostering player education, and participating in industry coalitions, gaming companies can transform from cyberattack victims to security innovators.
The stakes extend beyond financial losses every secured account preserves the creativity and competition defining modern gaming culture. In this escalating digital arms race, proactive defense isn’t just an IT concern; it’s the key to sustaining the industry’s meteoric growth.
When streaming cannot keep up, downloading saves the day and your data. Accordingly, YTS is a fan-favorite destination for movie enthusiasts looking to download high-quality films. It allows users to save their chosen content quickly and easily. Similarly, people love YTS, for they can also stream content with it. But websites like this face several issues. This is why users find themselves seeking reliable alternatives. In connection, knowing your streaming options is beneficial, especially if working sites for downloading become extra hard to find.
Dive into the list of downloading sites and streaming platforms and learn more information from Reddit threads.
Top Five Suggested YTS Alternatives
DownloadHub
DownloadHub focuses heavily on the downloading experience. It assists users in finding and saving videos from the internet in just a few clicks. On top of that, this tool offers different resolution options that would match users’ preferences.
Torlock
Torlock stands out as a dedicated torrent index and search engine for downloading movies. In addition, it guarantees verified torrents and avoids fake files. Users turn to Torlock to find a collection of genuine content.
Cinebloom
Cinebloom serves as a great choice for streaming whenever downloading is not an option. More specifically, it is an on-demand streaming platform. Plus, every user can expect to find movies and TV series in multiple file formats.
StreamonHD
StreamonHD is another option for streaming when offline mode is out of reach. Further, this free streaming website allows you to watch hundreds of movies, documentaries, Talk shows, TV shows, and reality programs online.
Movie25
Movie25 delivers a robust service for streaming movies and TV shows for free. Moreover, it has a straightforward interface that makes navigation hassle-free.
Mirror Sites for YTS
Based on DigitBin, the existing mirrors for YTS are the following:
https://yts.am/
https://yts.mx/
https://yts.sc/
https://yts-official.mx/
Take note that the availability of these mirror sites may differ depending on your area and other factors. It is also a must to understand that mirrors can suddenly stop working due to their legal standing.
Latest Reddit Updates
As mentioned, websites like YTS encounter several concerns. Correspondingly, Reddit users raise the same questions and issues.
r/Piracy: “Is YTS safe? If it is, which is official?” says a user.
r/torrents: “Does anyone have problems with YTS.mx?” posts another Reddit user.
The Bottom Line
If YTS continues to face challenges, there is no need to panic. Several alternatives are waiting for you to enjoy. The only decision you have to make now is to stream or download.
In a world that never stops, streaming is the ultimate pause button. And it would be nice if everyone could get that for free. Thankfully, that is no longer impossible. When your budget is tight but your watchlist is not, free streaming steps up! In line with this, Cineb is a popular choice in those situations. However it can be frustrating due to several disruptions. For that reason, many users are searching for trustworthy alternatives.
Visit these five recommended selections and find out more from Reddit updates.
Top Five Suggested Cineb Alternatives
LosMovies
LosMovies permits its users with registration to stream tons of content completely free of charge. And yes, there are no hidden subscription fees. Additionally, you can watch movies and TV shows for as long as you like.
Movie2K
Movie2K is a web-based application that provides free streaming of movies and TV series without advertisements. Moreover, its content offerings are all of a full high-definition quality. Movie2K also employs a community-driven approach, which adds a new layer to the experience.
Fbox
Fbox easily emerged as a top choice for free streaming websites. Why? It grants users the ability to easily stream films, ranging from blockbusters to classic cinema. Plus, it regularly updates its library.
MoviesHD
MoviesHD is taking a somewhat unique approach by prioritizing high-quality streams. Also, it is popular for having more than 10,000 titles across movies and TV shows. MoviesHD even promises that users can stream its content without having to pay or register.
HDToday
HDToday rounds out the list as a reliable option for free streaming. More specifically, it lets you stream movies online for free. In fact, you can choose from thousands of pieces of content.
Mirror Sites for Cineb
While there are no other websites that list down Cineb mirrors, here are the currently working domains:
https://cineb-official.com/
https://cineb.rs/
Before you click on anything, you must remember that proxy sites are much worse than the original websites that operate in gray areas. They often contain malicious ads and scamming schemes.
Latest Reddit Updates
Reddit communities play a vital role in helping users navigate the shifting streaming landscape. Accordingly, everyone is asking about the reliability and safety of using Cineb. From two years ago up to now, the same question arises.
I’ll-Career9180: “Is cineb.rs a safe website? Been using it for a week now.”
ch4rl0tt3_: “Are streaming sites like Cineb actually dangerous for your technology?”
The Bottom Line
With several free streaming platforms to choose from, nothing is stopping you from watching whatever you desire. As long as you remember the dos and don’ts, you can stream smoothly. So, enjoy your movie marathon!
There’s so much music coming out all the time that it’s hard to keep track. On those days when the influx of new tracks is particularly overwhelming, we sift through the noise to bring you a curated list of the most interesting new releases (the best of which will be added to our Best New Songs playlist). Below, check out our track roundup for Tuesday, June 3, 2025.
Big Thief – ‘Incomprehensible’
Big Thief have been teasing ‘Incomprehensible’ for a while, and it’s finally out alongside news of the band’s next album, Double Infinity. If you’re a fan of the hazier tracks on 2022’s Dragon New Warm Mountain I Believe In You, the new song offers more than a little bit of magic. “I’m afraid of getting older, that’s what I’ve learned to say/ Society has given me the words to think that way,” Adrianne Lenker sings. “The message spirals, don’t get saggy, don’t get gray/ But the soft and lovely silvers are now falling on my shoulder.”
Sudan Archives – ‘DEAD’
Sudan Archives is back with a new single, ‘DEAD’. Billed as an exploration of “orchestral Black dance music” and informed by her time touring with artists such as Andre 3000, Caroline Polachek, and Tame Impala, the track is as emphatic as its title, though it takes a little while to reach its peak.
Cate Le Bon – ‘Heaven Is No Feeling’
Cate Le Bon has announced a new album, Michelangelo Dying, with the smoky and alluring ‘Heaven Is No Feeling’. “And you smoke our love/ Like you’ve never known violence,” she sings.
Shame – ‘Cutthroat’
Shame have returned with news of their next LP, the John Congleton-produced Cutthroat, which is led by the groovy and primal title track. “I was reading a lot of Oscar Wilde plays where everything was about paradox,” vocalist Charlie Steen explained. “In ‘Cutthroat’, it’s that whole idea from Lady Windermere’s Fan, ‘Life’s far too important to be taken seriously’.”
Sex Week – ‘Coach’
After sharing their single ‘Coat’ back in March, Sex Week have released a tangentially titled track called ‘Coach’. A little airier and dancier than the duo’s past material, the song is taken from their newly announced EP Upper Mezzanine, which is due August 1 via Grand Jury. They wanted it to feel “like Romanian Popcorn music was playing in an American dive bar,” they explained.
Nilüfer Yanya – ‘Where to Look’
Nilüfer Yanya has announced a new EP, Dancing Shoes. Arriving July 2, it includes the previously unveiled ‘Cold Heart’, as well as the dreamlike and pensive new song ‘Where to Look’. “We started writing this song for the album, but it was tricky to get it off the ground at that time,” Yanya explained. “Then when we came back from tour, it suddenly clicked. Melodically it’s one of my favourite things ever. Very glad I was able to give it the time and breathing space that it needed.”
Marissa Nadler – ‘Radiations’
Marissa Nadler has a new self-produced album on the way. New Radiations is out August 15, and the beguiling title track is out now. “My narrator (whether these are first person songs or not really depends on how you want to listen to them) is feeling stuck, depressed, and frozen in a world after a tough few years for the world,” Nadler explained. “Regardless, the ‘psychic vibrations and new radiations’ take their toll. The cosmic darkness we live in creeps into the psyche — but the character reaches clarity. As the song unfolds, the screen shatters, the ice breaks, and a new world begins.”
Ganser – ‘Black Sand’
Ganser have announced a new album called Animal Hospital, which finds them reuniting with Liars frontman Angus Andrew – it’s out August 29. About the blistering new single ‘Black Sand’, singer Sophie Sputnik said: “When I wrote these lyrics a few years ago there were wildfires, real ones. And a lot of talk around LGBTQ rights in Florida where I’m from. And it’s strange because these things, they don’t just go away. They linger. They shift. They burn, and then they burn differently. And here we are still talking about wildfires and LGBTQ rights in Florida.”
Open Mike Eagle – ‘contraband (the plug has bags of me)’
Open Mike Eagle has detailed a new LP, Neighborhood Gods Unlimited, arriving July 11, with the intriguing ‘contraband (the plug has bags of me)’. “The trauma at the center of Neighborhood Gods Unlimited is mine,” the rapper explained. “I was shattered as a young person, and I spent the majority of my life not knowing it. In my ignorance, I would go on to shatter myself even further because it was all I knew. This is a story about how people who are trying to find themselves get confused when they encounter things that remind them of themselves…”
Hot Mulligan – ‘And a Big Load’
Hot Mulligan have announced a new LP, The Sound a Body Makes When It’s Still, and you read that right: the first single is called ‘And a Big Load’. “It’s the consequences of your own actions,” You could face them; you could avoid them entirely,” co-vocalist and guitarist Chris Freeman said. “Our biggest conflicts and struggles are often self inflicted. Drink too much? Hangover. What did you say last night? Apologize… or don’t. You could commit suicide instead. You could commit to being sober. You could commit to drinking one million beers. At the end of the day it’ll all be left for you to deal with. It’s terrifying.”
Frost Children – ‘CONTROL’
“‘CONTROL’ is our truest self,” the band said of the rambunctious first single off their new album SISTER, which lands September 12. “We don’t care about perceptions anymore and we’re really just ready to take over dance music and make people bounce and feel free. Frost Children takeover is imminent.”
Dropkick Murphys – ‘Who’ll Stand With Us?’
Dropkick Murphys show no signs of stopping. They have a new album called For the People coming July 4, and today they’ve shared ‘Who’ll Stand With Us?’. The record features appearances from the likes of Billy Bragg, the Scratch, the Mary Wallopers, and original Murphys singer Al Barr.
Teethe – ‘Magic of the Sale’
The title track of Teethe’s upcoming album Magic of the Sale made our list of the best songs of May, and today the Texas band has unveiled a new single, ‘Holy Water’. Madeline Dowd’s lead vocals are delicate yet arresting, and the track also features pedal steel by Wednesday and MJ Lenderman’s Xandy Chelmis.
Lifeguard – ‘Like You’ll Lose’
Ahead of the release of their debut LP Ripped and Torn on Friday, Lifeguard have previewed it with a frenetic new single called ‘Like You’ll Lose’. Leaning on the band’s dub influence, the track takes inspiration from Lee Perry’s drum sound and lo-fi atmospherics.
Kathleen Edwards – ‘Save Your Soul’ and ‘Say Goodbye, Tell No One’
Here’s something a little lighter, at least sonically: Kathleen Edwards has shared two new songs, ‘Save Your Soul’ and ‘Say Goodbye, Tell No One’, from her just-announced record Billionaire. Jason Isbell and Gena Johnson produced the album, which arrives August 22. “I decided to call the record Billionaire because the word is used in such a caustic way these days,” Edwards explained. “But we should all want to be billionaires in life, to be rich in experience, friendship, purpose, and the pursuit of the things that bring us joy.”
Molly Tuttle – ‘That’s Gonna Leave a Mark’
Just as breezy-sounding is ‘That’s Gonna Leave a Mark’, the lead single from her new album So Long Little Miss Sunshine, arriving August 15. “I wrote ‘That’s Gonna Leave a Mark’ with my friend Kevin Griffin,” she commented. “He has such a brilliant pop sensibility. We reworked it a little bit last year. It’s fun, sort of sassy, and that guitar part is one of my favorites that I play on the record.”
RIP Magic – ‘Loot’ and ‘Dox’
RIP Magic have shared an intoxicating pair of singles, ‘Loot’ and ‘Dox’, marking the first taste of actual music from the project of DJ and sound designer Marco Pini and visual artist Felix Bayley-Higgins.
Harmony – ‘Anything’
“‘Anything’ is a love song about dedication,” Harmony said of her affecting new song. “The desire to be all the ugly and beautiful things and the transcendence of that feeling.” It follows the similarly tender ‘Where Strangers Go’.
DJ Haram – ‘Distress Tolerance’
DJ Haram has previewed her forthcoming debut full-length Beside Myself with a haunting new track, ‘Distress Tolerance’. “I had a lot to get off my chest and wrote this poem on tour,” she remarked. “I insisted on trying to perform it on that same tour, even though it didn’t have a beat and I didn’t have the words memorized either. If you’re a musician, you put it in the music.”
Pretty Bitter – ‘Outer Heaven Dude Ranch’
Pretty Bitter have shared a soaring, celestial new single, ‘Outer Heaven Dude Ranch’, whose chorus reminds me of early Japanese Breakfast. It’s lifted from their forthcoming album Pleaser, releasing July 25.
Welcome Strawberry – ‘Violets & Honey’
Welcome Strawberry have dropped a new track, ‘Violets & Honey’. If those band name and track title aren’t enough to tingle your senses, the song itself, dreamy and expansive, still should. It’s set to appear on the band’s upcoming album Desperate Flower.
Cate Le Bon has announced a new album, Michelangelo Dying. The follow-up to 2022’s Pompeii will land September 26 via Mexican Summer. The hazy, enchanting lead single, ‘Heaven Is No Feeling’, arrives with a music video directed by longtime collaborator H. Hawkline. Check it out and find the album cover below.
Sharing production duties with collaborator Samur Khouja, Cate Le Bon made the new LP between the Greek island of Hydra, Cardiff, London, Los Angeles, and the Californian desert. It features Euan Hinshelwood on saxophone, Paul Jones on piano, Dylan Hadley on drums, and Valentina Magaletti on drums and percussion, while the legendary John Cale appears on one song.
Commenting on the new video, Hawkline said:
There are moments in life you canʼt make up, that seem unfathomable, then they happen. Life calls you on a banana phone and tells you her oldest joke, everybody crowds around and you try to remember the words to your favorite song. If you were to ask me how we made this video, I couldnʼt tell you. Cate watching her, watching her watching Cate. I will always feel honored to work with Cate in whatever shape or form; itʼs easy to forget how remarkable someone is when youʼve known them forever. “I want you to make me a new video.” “Have you watched the old one yet?” “No” …Bravo!
Michelangelo Dying Cover Artwork:
Michelangelo Dying Tracklist:
1. Jerome
2. Love Unrehearsed
3. Mothers of Riches
4. Is It Worth It (Happy Birthday)?
5. Pieces of My Heart
6. About Time
7. Heaven Is No Feeling
8. Body as a River
9. Ride [feat. John Cale]
10. I Know What’s Nice
