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100 Best Deals Under 0 This Prime Day—It Ends Tonight

100 Best Deals Under $100 This Prime Day—It Ends Tonight

Prime Day can be overwhelming, especially when trying to find more affordable items to fill your shopping cart with. We’re here to help. These are the best Prime Day deals under $100, from smartwatches to LifeStraws. Prime Day ends tonight, so this might be your last chance to score a great deal before Labor Day or Black Friday.

Interested in finding more great deals? Be sure to check out our full list of the Best Prime Day Deals and find highlights in our Prime Day liveblog.

Updated July 11: We’ve swapped in fresh deals in the Anker Soundcore Liberty 4 NC and Anker Soundcore Space A40, and updated prices throughout.

WIRED Featured Deals

Table of Contents

Amazon Device Deals

Amazon

Echo Pop

The Amazon Echo Pop is like a sliced-in-half Echo Dot with slightly thinner sound, but its fun colors, lower price (especially now!), and handy Alexa make it a playful pick for dorms or small spaces.

  • Image may contain: Sphere, Electronics, and Speaker

    Courtesy of Amazon

  • Front view of Echo Dot 5th Generation, a grey sphere device with blue light illuminating from the base while sitting on a wooden nightstand

    Photograph: Nena Farrell

Amazon

Echo Dot (5th Gen)

The Amazon Echo Dot (5th Gen) is a miniaturized Echo with the same design, better bass than past Dots, and surprisingly powerful sound—now at an even better price.

  • Echo Spot 2024 edition, a semi-sphere device with a screen on the front, displaying the current time as well as the time the alarm is set for.

    Photograph: Nena Farrell

  • Image may contain: Electronics, Screen, Computer Hardware, Hardware, Monitor, and Speaker

    Courtesy of Amazon

Amazon

Echo Spot (2024)

The Echo Spot is back with a new look and a tiny screen that makes for a perfect bedside clock and companion.

  • Image may contain: Computer, Electronics, Tablet Computer, Person, Animal, Fish, Sea Life, and Shark

    Courtesy of Amazon

  • Amazon Kindle kids, an e-reader with a red case with the screen showing the page of an e-comic

    Photograph: Adrienne So

Amazon

Kindle Kids

If your kids want a Kindle, this is the perfect chance to score one designed just for them and with six months free Kids+ content.

Tech Deals

Apple AirTags

Photograph: Amazon

Apple

AirTags (4-pack)

You can track your keys, luggage, and other valuables in the Find My app on your iPhone with these handy tags. They are the best trackers for Apple folks.

Gear-Anker_MagGo_Qi2-SOURCE-Simon-Hill

Photograph: Simon Hill

Anker

MagGo Power Bank (10K) (Qi2)

This magnetically sticks to your iPhone like a battery limpet and charges it up wirelessly nice and quick. It also has a handy kickstand and a small display.

Backbone One Mobile Controller for PlayStation

Photograph: Backbone

Backbone One PlayStation Edition

Image may contain: Electronics, Screen, Computer Hardware, Hardware, Monitor, Sink, and Sink Faucet

Lamicall

Gooseneck Tablet Holder

This tablet holder works perfectly for e-readers, tablets, and even a Nintendo Switch. It’s ideal for bed or couch use, reducing wrist strain, and easily secures to any ledge or table.

The Shargeek 170 is a long tube-shaped device with clear case that shows the internal pieces and has an external facing screen.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Sharge

Shargeek 170 Power Bank

You cannot beat translucent tech, but this isn’t just the best-looking power bank, it supplies up to 170 watts, has an ample 24,000-mAh capacity, and scores an IP66 rating for water resistance.

Belkin BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1 charger

Photograph: Belkin

Belkin

BoostCharge Pro 2-in-1

This MagSafe charger is ideal for iPhone and AirPods users, offering 15W fast charging, a stable base with a dedicated AirPods spot, and landscape positioning for StandBy mode. It has a built-in 5-foot cable and power adapter.

Image may contain: Car, Transportation, Vehicle, Cushion, Home Decor, and Machine

Photograph: Kat Merck

Bokilino

Cup Holder Phone Mount

Car phone mounts often fail, but the Bokilino keeps phones secure at the perfect angle in your cup holder. A small tradeoff for reliable performance, especially at this price.

Disc with 2 retractable cords sticking out, sitting on wooden surface

Photograph: Simon Hill

Baseus

Mini Retractable USB-C Cable

Baseus’ retractable USB-C cable avoids tangles with preset lengths (1.1-3.3 ft) and auto-rewinds into its case. It charges at 100W, and comes in multiple colors.

Device mounted to the dashboard of a car with an arm extending to a rectangular base and 2 arms on either side to hold a phone

Photograph: Simon Hill

iOttie

Easy One Touch 6

The best car phone mount for your dash, iOttie’s Easy One Touch 6 is easy to use one-handed. When you place your phone against the trigger button, the arms automatically close, and there’s a button release.

Person holding the Apple Pencil Pro

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Apple

Pencil USB-C, Second-Gen, Apple Pencil Pro

The most useful tool for your iPad, the Apple Pencil is ideal for drawing, marking up documents, and even just navigating around in iPadOS. All of them are on sale, but make sure the version you buy is compatible with your iPad.

Slender black charger with two metal prongs protruding

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Nomad

65W Slim Power Adapter

Nomad’s Slim Power Adapters are fantastic. These slim chargers take up very little room in a bag or purse and have folding prongs to prevent scratches. The 65-watt version should cover most devices, but there’s a 100-watt version also under $100 that’ll serve high-power laptops.

Anker 5-in-1 USB-C hub

Photograph: Anker

Anker

5-in-1 USB-C Hub

Laptops have limited ports nowadays, but this inexpensive portable hub adds a 4K HDMI port, SD and microSD Card reader, and two USB 3.0 ports.

Satechi USB-C Hybrid usb hub

Photograph: Satechi

Satechi

USB-C Hybrid Multiport Adapter

Everyone needs a USB-C hub, but this one has one handy feature that most don’t: a built-in M.2 enclosure. The SSD isn’t included, but it greatly expands what this little accessory can do.

Logitech MX Master 3S, a black computer mouse, on top of a leather mousepad

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Logitech

MX Master 3S

There’s a reason this mouse has become iconic. No other mouse balances performance, customization, and design in a way that just about everyone loves.

Razer Viper v2 Pro mouse

Photograph: Eric Ravenscraft

Razer

Viper V2 Pro

Weighing in at just 58 grams, this esports gaming mouse is perfect for twitch response shooters where you need a millisecond edge.

Side view of slim white wifi router device sitting on long wooden table

Photograph: Simon Hill

Asus

RT-AX57 Go

This dual-band Wi-Fi 6 router with gigabit WAN and LAN Ethernet ports is our favorite travel router and will keep you online on your travels.

Image may contain: Computer, Computer Hardware, Computer Keyboard, Electronics, and Hardware

Photograph: Brenda Stolyar

Satechi

SM3 Mechanical Keyboard

Satechi’s first full-size mechanical keyboard has low-profile brown switches are clicky and satisfying, and the adjustable feet make it super comfortable to type on for long periods.

Smartish Cable Wrangler, a black block with clips to organize wires, on wooden desk

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Smartish

Cable Wrangler

If you hate having to fish around for the end of that charging cable, this magnetic cable wrangler is for you.

Black USB stick with the cap off, sitting on wooden surface

Photograph: Simon Hill

SanDisk

Extreme Pro

Fast, reliable, and affordable, this is the best USB flash drive for most folks, and it comes in various sizes from 128 GB up to 1 TB. They are all on sale.

A hand holding an Anker Laptop Power Bank, a black rectangular portable charger with long digital screen.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Anker

Laptop Power Bank

This charging beast is the upgrade pick in our best power banks guide and it sneaks just under the $100 mark for Prime Day.

Black notched memory card on blue vinyl

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

Lexar

128GB Professional 2000x SDXC Memory Card

This trustworthy memory card is rated at UHS-II (U3) and sometimes exceeds Lexar’s claimed 300MB/s, handling 6K video with ease.

Anker Prime USB-C to USB-C Cable wrapped in a circle, sitting on a wooden surface

Photograph: Simon Hill

Anker

Prime USB-C to USB-C Cable

As one of the best USB-C cables, this Anker cord is durable and speedy for charging. It’s made from 100 percent recycled plastic and comes with a lifetime warranty.

Twelve South HiRise 3 Deluxe Charger

Photograph: Twelve South

Twelve South

HiRise 3 Deluxe

Satechi Headphone Stand With MagSafe Wireless Charger holding black headphones and a mobile phone with a red case

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Satechi

2-in-1 Headphone Stand With MagSafe Wireless Charger

Behold, a wireless charger and a headphone stand in one handy device. It also has cable management and a spare USB-C port to charge your cans.

Audio Deals

JLab Go Pop ANC, black ear buds in front of an open, black, oval-shaped case

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

JLab Audio

Go Pop ANC

2025’s best bargain: These noise-canceling wireless buds (with app control, multi-point pairing, and great bass-blocking) cost less than takeout for two, even less on sale.

Image may contain: Computer Hardware, Electronics, Hardware, and Mouse

Courtesy of Pearlclip Pro

Soundpeats

PearlClip Pro

SoundPeats’ open earbuds deliver what pricier Bose/Sony models do—decent sound while keeping you aware of traffic. For open buds, just go cheap.

Left: Two yellow in-ear buds on a wooden surface. Right: Hand holding one in-ear bud, showing the panel that extrudes.

Photograph: Parker Hall

Image may contain: Electronics, Speaker, Sword, Weapon, Jar, and Pottery

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

Blue Yeti microphone

Photograph: Blue

Courtesy of Amazon

Loop

Quiet 2 Ear Plugs

These loop-designed earplugs offer comfort, decent sound, and easy on/off—essential hearing protection for concerts and events.

  • Image may contain: Electronics, Speaker, and Stereo

    Photograph: Ryan Waniata

  • Image may contain: Electronics, Speaker, Cylinder, Grass, and Plant

    Photograph: Ryan Waniata

Tribit

StormBox 2

The Stormbox 2 (9/10, WIRED Recommends) sounds way too good for the money, with good detail and a balanced sound. It’s already worth the money, but especially now that it’s on sale.

Image may contain: Bottle, and Shaker

Photograph: Skullcandy

J.B.L. Clip 5, a small round and circular speaker clipped to the waistband of a person's pants

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

JBL

Clip 5

JBL’s Clip 5 hangs in the shower; it hangs on your tent loop or your belt loop; it hangs wherever you do. It’s got surprisingly warm and full sound for its size, a dunkable design, and up to 12 hours of battery (15 hours in its lighter sound mode).

 Sony WH-CH720N headphones

Photograph: Amazon

Sony

WH-CH720N

Sony’s value-packed 720N provide good features and satisfying performance in a refreshingly affordable package. You’ll get solid noise canceling thanks to Sony’s V1 processor, full and punchy sound, and a comfy fit.

Image may contain: Electronics, Speaker, Phone, Mobile Phone, Electrical Device, Microphone, and Stereo

Roku

Streambar SE

A soundbar and streaming device in one, Roku’s wee Streambar SE is a great way upgrade that old TV in your den.

Sony SRS XB100 Bluetooth Speakers side by side
  • Photograph: Ryan Waniata

  • Image may contain: Computer Hardware, Electronics, Hardware, Mobile Phone, and Phone

    Photograph: Ryan Waniata

  • Image may contain: Body Part, Finger, Hand, Person, Medication, Pill, and Electronics

    Photograph: Ryan Waniata

Anker

Soundcore Liberty 4 NC

These AirPods-esque Liberty 4 NC (8/10, WIRED Recommends) are a sweet deal, especially at nearly half off. You’ll get clear and punchy sound, good noise canceling, and way more features than you’d expect for the money in a slick design.

Open oval-shaped case with Anker Soundcore Space A40 wireless earbuds inside

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

Anker

Soundcore Space A40

Excellent features, good sound, and a killer price makes thee stylish Space A40 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) hard to resist. They’ve even got quality noise canceling and a comfy fit, all under $50 on sale.

Kitchen Deals

Aeropress Original

Photograph: AeroPress

AeroPress

Coffee Maker, Original

Even after 10 years, the original Aeropress still makes amazing coffee. It is simple, quick, and easy to clean. It’s not quite espresso, not quite drip: It’s just delicious.

Oxo Burr Grinder

Photograph: Oxo

Oxo

Conical Burr Grinder

The best budget grinder for Aeropress, drip, or French press, this delivers even grinds and solid extraction. While its 15 settings aren’t precise enough for espresso (consider the Baratza ESP instead), it’s a steal at the current discount.

Dash Express Digital Tasti-Crisp Air Fryer in black, sitting on a white countertop with a wooden block of knives behind it

Photograph: Brenda Stolyar

Dash

Express Digital Tasti-Crisp Air Fryer

The compact Dash Tasti-Crisp isn’t the most powerful air fryer, but its tiny size, reliability, and Prime Day price make it a no-brainer for crispy snacks.

Image may contain: Device, Appliance, Electrical Device, Mixer, Bottle, and Shaker

Hamilton Beach

Electric Vegetable Chopper

For quick, small jobs like dicing onions, this compact Hamilton Beach chopper—a WIRED staff favorite—is a Prime Day bargain.

Image may contain: Cookware, Cooking Pan, Desk, Furniture, and Table
Image may contain: Food, and Pizza

Courtesy of Amazon

Lloyd Pans

Detroit Style Pizza Pan

Detroit-style pizza is everywhere now. For authentic crispy edges at home, Lloyd’s pans are the gold standard—just don’t hold back on the oil.

A hand holding up a small teal container of Bloom Nutrition Superfood Greens Powder

Photograph: Louryn Strampe

Bloom Nutrition

Superfood Greens Powder

Our top greens powder out of 12 tested. Sweet, fruity flavors (like Strawberry Kiwi) are good, and it’s packed with vitamins, probiotics, and veggies.

  • Image may contain: Citrus Fruit, Food, Fruit, Plant, Produce, and Bottle
  • Blue resealable food bag with a single packet beside it, both sitting on a wooden surface

    Photograph: Kat Merck

Liquid I.V.

Hydration Multiplier

The best electrolyte powder. Has plenty of sodium, carbs, and sugar to replenish your sweat. There are over 20 flavors (watermelon’s a winner) to beat plain water for energy.

Home Deals

Image may contain: Brush, Device, and Tool

Courtesy of Holikme

Holikme

30 Feet Dryer Vent Cleaner Kit

Clean your dryer vents—now. Lint buildup causes 15,000 fires yearly. This drill attachment reaches deep into ducts, making it a must-have for any homeowner.

Image may contain: Lamp, Indoors, Interior Design, Electronics, Speaker, Furniture, Table, and Tabletop

Photograph: Kat Merck

Pura

Smart Diffuser

Pura’s Plus diffuser excels in large spaces—even rooms with 23-foot ceilings—thanks to its powerful, pet-safe scents from luxury brands like Nest and Capri Blue.

White oval-shaped outdoor security camera attached to wooden fence

Photograph: Simon Hill

Image may contain: Electronics, Camera, and Webcam

Photograph: Simon Hill

TP-Link

Tapo C120

The best indoor security camera for most folks is this super affordable device from TP-Link. You can record video at up to 2K resolution, stick a microSD card in to save locally, and the app is feature-packed.

White cone shaped security camera with multiple lenses attached to wooden fence

Photograph: Simon Hill

TP-Link

Tapo Wire-Free MagCam (Battery)

This outdoor camera records video locally at up to 2K, has a 150-degree field of view, and connects directly to your Wi-Fi. The Tapo app detects motion and enables you to set activity zones and privacy zones.

Rectangular cylindrical security camera sitting on a wooden surface

Photograph: Simon Hill

Amazon

Ring Indoor Cam

Ring’s Indoor Cam (2nd Gen) offers 1080p video, color night vision, a privacy shutter, motion alerts, two-way audio, and a siren. This deal gets you two for one.

Image may contain: Sphere, Art, Porcelain, Pottery, Lamp, Furniture, and Table

Photograph: Julia Forbes

Snooz

Smart White Noise Sound Machine

The Snooz white noise machine uses a fan for natural sound, just twist its fabric cover to adjust volume. Ideal for city noise, it works best placed across the room.

  • Image may contain: Electronics, and Cd Player

    Photograph: Julia Forbes

  • Image may contain: Electronics, Speaker, Jar, Baby, Person, and Pottery

    Photograph: Julia Forbes

Babelio

Mini Sound Machine

Tiny but powerful, this 2-inch sound machine fills any space with soothing ambient noise—perfect for sleep or focus, and compact enough for travel.

White oval shaped device sitting on wooden surface. Product is branded with the name Tapo.

Photograph: Simon Hill

TP-Link

Tapo T300 Water Leak Detector

These top-rated leak detectors use six probes (four below, two above) for fast water detection. They send instant phone alerts and sound a 90dB alarm (adjustable via app). Note: Requires a $23 Tapo hub.

TP-Link Kasa Mini Smart Plug

Photograph: TP-Link

TP-Link

Kasa Mini Smart Plug EP10

You can make old lamps and TVs smart with one of the best smart plugs and it will cost you a few bucks. This one is compact and reliable, and works with Alexa, Google, and IFTTT.

Image may contain: Electronics, Mobile Phone, Phone, Gas Pump, Machine, and Pump
Wavy tube of neon lights attached to a wall, swirling around a poster

Photograph: Simon Hill

Govee Neon Rope Light Strip 2

Wonder Creature Cat Fountain, a cyclindrical shaped device with a metal pan top that has a flower which water pours from the petals

Photograph: Kat Merck

Wonder Creature

Cat Fountain

This cat fountain features a blue LED-lit interior, a clear water-level window, and a dishwasher-safe metal bowl. You can even adjust the flower spout for waterfall or bubble modes.

Chom Chom Roller Pet Hair Remover, a white plastic roller for collecting pet hair

Photograph: Simon Hill

ChomChom

Roller Pet Hair Remover

Pet owners: This Prime Day-favorite roller removes hair from furniture and carpets with ease. It’s reusable, easy to clean, and lasts for years.

  • Image may contain: Architecture, Fountain, Water, Device, Bottle, and Shaker

    Courtesy of Amazon

  • Image may contain: Cooking Pot, Cookware, Food, Pot, and Cooking Pan

    Photograph: Molly Higgins

Petlibro

Dockstream Fountain

This might just be the best automatic cat fountain. It has with a stainless steel top, smart water detection, and an app that records your cat’s drinking and warns you when it needs a refill.

Tken Pro 2K Pet Camera Treat Dispenser

Photograph: Molly Higgins

Tkenpro

2K Pet Camera Treat Dispenser

This smart pet camera is a winner, offering almost-360-degree viewing, crystal clear HD video, and infrared night vision. You can also talk to your pet and toss them a snack.

Image may contain: Person, and Security

PeckPerk

Smart Bird Feeder With 2K Camera

This is one of the coolest-looking smart bird feeders I’ve tested. It’s meant to evoke a weaver bird’s nest, and the oversized perch is molded to look like little twigs. Meanwhile, it comes with a solar panel for charging.

Image may contain: Electronics, and Person

Photograph: Kat Merck

Jisulife

Handheld Mini Fan

Handheld fan are popping up everywhere, and for good reason, as they’re a great way to cool off discreetly anywhere you need to. Some of them—like this one!—even double as a flashlight and portable power bank.

Beauty and Grooming

Side view of a hand holding the Bio Ionic Long Barrel Styler, a long narrow black curling iron with three 3 small light blue buttons

Photograph: Alanna Kilkeary

Bio Ionic

Long Barrel Curling Iron

The Bio Ionic Long Barrel Styler is the best curling iron for long hair. The 8-inch ceramic barrel wraps large sections quickly and tames frizz while you style.

CHI Original Ceramic Flat Iron

Photograph: Amazon

Chi

Original Ceramic Flat Iron

Like a Honda Accord, this no-frills Chi straightener is reliable, timeless, and gets the job done—now just $50.

White bottle with black spray top

Photograph: Amazon

Cosrx

Advanced Snail Mucin 96 Percent Power Repairing Essence Serum

Cosrx’s Snail 96 Mucin Essence—with 96 percent snail secretion—hydrates and repairs skin, fragrance-free. A cult favorite, it is now nearly half off for Prime Day.

  • Image may contain: Adapter, Electronics, and Plug

    Photograph: Kat Merck

  • Image may contain: Electrical Device, Microphone, Smoke Pipe, Appliance, and Device

    Courtesy of Chi

Chi

Lava Ministyler

If you must take a hair straightener on your travels, this is our favorite and it happens to be under $100 for Prime Day. It’s dual voltage so it’ll work internationally, has three settings, and can fit in most toiletry bags.

Image may contain: Brush, Device, Tool, and Toothbrush

Courtesy of Amazon

Oral-B

iO Series 3 Rechargeable Electric Toothbrush

While the Oral-B Pro 1000 remains a top pick, the $60 iO Series 3 offers a quieter motor, gentler clean, and 14-day battery life, plus a sleeker design. Note: iO heads aren’t cross-compatible.

Image may contain: Brush, Device, Tool, and Toothbrush

Philips

Sonicare ExpertClean 7500

This Philips Sonicare ExpertClean 7500 has been discontinued but is still a steal at half price. With 4 modes, 3 intensities, and a pressure sensor, it’s a hygienist-level brush. Get it before it’s gone.

Tymo Ring hair straightener

Photograph: Tymo

Tymo

Ring

Does this unique straightening comb result in glass-smooth results for those with very difficult, curly hair? No, it doesn’t. Is it one of the most perpetually popular hair straighteners on Amazon anyway? Indeed, it is.

Image may contain: Bottle, Business Card, Paper, Text, and Advertisement

Courtesy of Amazon

Starface

Hydro-Star Pimple Patches

Starface pimple patches can ride to rescue when a zit decides to crash your plans. They are 100 percent hydrocolloid and manage to look cute while they clear your face up.

Outdoor and Active Deals

FitBit Inspire 3

Photograph: Amazon

Fitbit

Inspire 3

Fitbit’s cheapest tracker is still pretty decent for fitness tracking and it offers 10 days of battery life, with a bright AMOLED screen.

Fitbit Charge 6

Courtesy of Fitbit

Blue tube for filtering water

Photograph: Amazon

LifeStraw

Personal Water Filter

Outdoor water can be sketchy. LifeStraw purifies 1,000 gallons, improves taste, and is 50% off. Buy two.

Image may contain: Baby, Person, Light, and Bottle

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

Sawyer

Squeeze Water Filter

Evo Power XL 2.0 pickleball paddle

Photograph: Amazon

SLK

Evo Power XL 2.0

Great for upgrading from beginner pickleball paddles, the SLK Evo Power XL 2.0 features a fiberglass face, balanced weight, and comfy grip—now half off for Prime Day.

Olight Arkfeld Pro Flashlight, a green rectangular light with a circular button near the top

Photograph: Martin Cizmar

Olight

Arkfeld Pro Flashlight

The Arkfield Pro (1300 lumens) tops our flashlight guide with three light sources (standard, UV, laser), intuitive controls, and magnetic charging, all in a compact design.

Image may contain: Appliance, Cooler, Device, Electrical Device, and First Aid

Igloo

Playmate Personal Cooler

Indestructible and iconic, the Igloo Playmate lasts decades—perfect for drinks and snack anywhere. Today’s price makes it life-changingly affordable.

Image may contain: Backyard, Nature, Outdoors, Yard, Garden, Path, Walkway, Grass, and Plant

Photograph: Kat Merck

OnlyFly

Bird Feeder Pole Stand

To deter squirrels, use this pole, which is spiked for tough soil. To position, try to get your feeders 5 feet high, 7 feet from structures, and 9 feet below overhangs.

Model wearing True Classic white t-shirt

Photograph: True Classic

True Classic

White Crew Neck T-Shirt

True Classic tops our best men’s T-shirt guide—tailored for dad bods with a snug (but popular) cut. This deal is ideal for stocking up.

Front view of Amazfit Active 2 smartwatch, showing the large display screen both outdoors and indoors

Photograph: Adrienne So

Amazfit

Active 2

Our top budget fitness tracker is even cheaper thanks to Prime Day. The Amazfit Active 2 packs a ton of functionality for under $100 and still managers to offer a stainless steel case with 5 ATM water resistance.

Travel Deals

Noco Boost Jump Starter

Photograph: Amazon

Noco

Boost Plus GB40 Jump Starter

Never wait for a jump again. This $100 NOCO starter has saved stranded drivers in the WIRED family. Keep one in your trunk and skip the roadside hassle.

neck pillow

Photograph: Trtl

Trtl

Neck Pillow

Odd-looking but brilliant, this scarf-pillow hybrid offers warm fleece and sturdy head support—no tipping or neck aches. This is the secret to middle-seat sleep.

  • Image may contain: Bag, Backpack, Accessories, and Handbag

    Courtesy of Bagsmart

  • Image may contain: Bag, Accessories, Handbag, and Backpack

    Photograph: Kat Merck

  • Image may contain: Accessories, Bag, Handbag, and Baggage

    Photograph: Kat Merck

Bagsmart

Compression Packing Cubes (6 Set)

Top-rated in packing cube tests, these offer sturdy compression, handy handles, and label slots all at a great price. Available in multiple colors.

Image may contain: Bag, Accessories, Handbag, and Baggage

Photograph: Kat Merck

AmazonBasics

Small Packing Cubes for Travel, 4-Piece-Set

Not quite as compressive as our top pick, these Amazon Basics cubes offer sturdy mesh windows and durable fabric—a budget-friendly intro to packing cubes.

  • Image may contain: Electrical Device, Microphone, Lamp, and Bag
  • Image may contain: Bag, Accessories, and Handbag

    Photograph: Kat Merck

Kusshi

Hair Tools Bag

Kusshi’s heat-resistant case (up to 380°F) is perfect for hot tools like the Shark FlexFusion, and this is its first sale ever. Note that you need to let it air out before use.

Small white electronic travel adapter with various outlets

Photograph: Simon Hill

Ceptics

World Travel Adapter Kit 2

Our favorite travel adapter for charging everything, the Ceptics travel adapter includes multiple plug attachments that lock into place and covers most countries.

Ceptics GaN 70W Universal Travel Adapter, a white and grey electronic block with outlets and small cord tucked into a slot

Photograph: Simon Hill

Ceptics

GaN 70W Universal Travel Adapter

This travel adapter covers you for more than 200 countries with sliding plugs that lock, three USB ports, and a handy built-in USB-C cable.

Infinacore P3 Pro, a black square-shaped portable charger, beside three different travel plug adapters.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Infinacore

P3 Pro

This power bank comes with plugs for the UK, Europe, and Australia. It’s a charger and a power bank, with a Qi2 wireless charging pad on top and three USB ports.

Toy and Game Deals

A cartridge box for the game Star Wars Outlaws with the lead characters on the front.

Amazon

Ubisoft

Star Wars Outlaws

Star Wars Outlaws is a blast despite some flaws. Speed across planets, dive into lore, and get hooked. At this price, it’s a must for fans.

Image may contain: Sara la Kali, Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Helmet, Clothing, Hardhat, T-Shirt, Adult, Person, and Book

Lucky Duck Games

Chronicles of Crime

Chronicles of Crime is a must for mystery fans. Scan cards, solve cases, and hunt clues with your phone. Perfect for solo or duo play.

Magna Tiles constructed to look like castle

Photograph: Amazon

Valtech

Magna-Tiles

Magna-Tiles—beloved STEM toys—let kids build 2D/3D creations with magnetic shapes. The classic set starts the fun, but themed expansions are tempting.

GoCube toy

Photograph: Particula 

Particula

GoCube

The GoCube puts a new twist on an old favorite, using smart sensors and lights, with a Bluetooth connection to your phone, to help you discover where blocks are positioned.

Drawing-themed board game contents scattered on wooden surface. Back: Blue and white box with illustration of a person drawing. Left: Packaging with more supplies and instructions. Right: Spiral notebooks, cards, a sand timer, and a pen.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Asmodee

Azul

In Azul, you must make mosaics by matching tiles with different patterns and colors to get the maximum possible score. Azul is easy to grasp but supports many different tactical approaches, making it one of the best family board games.

Box for a boardgame on wooden surface. Front says Catan and is a scene of travelers looking down a long road and a town in the sunset distance.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Klaus Teuber

Catan

An all-time clasic, Catan is an addictive strategy game where you and your friends gather and trade resources to build and settle a randomly generated board of hexagonal tiles.


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What every U.K. AI startup wants to know these days is, how can I get office space in King’s Cross?  

The area is so hot that a VC firm allegedly recently won a deal by promising a founder office space in the neighborhood. “We stop at nothing to win deals [for] and to support” founders, “including helping them source office space when needed,” the firm told me when asked about the rumor, declining to confirm or deny any details. 

The neighborhood’s popularity began back in 2016 when DeepMind — then newly acquired by Google — moved in. Soon after, a flood of AI startups followed, wanting to be around the Google DeepMind magic. Today, they hope to take advantage of the cluster of AI talent there. 

This has transformed King’s Cross into one of the world’s top AI hubs, rivaled only by San Francisco and Beijing. Around London, it’s known by the sobriquet “Knowledge Quarter,” as it’s home to names like OpenAI, Meta, Isomorphic Labs, Cusp AI, Wayne, Recursive, and, a little farther down the road, Synthesia and Anthropic. The European Technology Network (ETN) just moved into a glossy new office nearby, while University College London sits around the corner.  

Mixed in with the new developments are trendy food spots like Hoppers and BAO. Hop a train from King’s Cross, and founders can be in Cambridge in 45 minutes to source talent or can be in Paris in two hours to strike a deal.  

Who would have guessed that a little more than 20 years ago, this was one of the seediest areas in London?  

“In the ’80s, crack and heroin made the area a major narcotics market,” Hussein Kanji, an investor at Hoxton Ventures, said, recalling syringes in tree trunks and gangs patrolling the streets. “In 1982, the local church was occupied by the English Collective of Prostitutes for 12 straight days.” Then, in the early 2000s, a real estate developer had a dream and, well, “now it is the AI hotbed of the United Kingdom,” Kanji said. “What a change.” 
 
Around 18 months ago, his portfolio company BioCorteX moved from the neighborhood Holborn to the Jellicoe building in King’s Cross, hoping to be near the action. “Lots going on in London right now,” Nik Sharma, co-founder of BioCorteX, told me. “Lots of hyperscalers moving in.” That includes, reportedly, Jeff Bezos’ AI company Prometheus, which is also said to be in talks to move into the Jellicoe.  

There are around 3,600 AI startups in London, which, together, have raised around $12.1 billion out of the $14.8 billion raised in the city since late July, according to Dealroom. Since the start of June, AI-related startups have leased more than 1 million square feet of office space in London, according to the real estate firm Knight Frank. With that, prime rents in King’s Cross have risen 18% over the past three years, Chris Dunn, a commercial insight associate at the firm, told me. 
 
That percentage represents only the largest leases encompassing at least 10,000 square feet, like the ones OpenAI and Prometheus are signing. The shorter deals go for even more, he said, and now the vacancy rate for conventional office space is just 0.9%. “Demand has outstripped supply,” he continued.  

Today, one of the big topics of the area is sovereignty. It was a wake-up call for many when Anthropic shut off access to Mythos and Fable this summer, leaving some in the ecosystem to conclude: “We’d better look after ourselves,” Saul Klein, co-founder of the VC firm Phoenix Court, told me.  

Phoenix Court is located in the King’s Cross area and has three portfolio companies in the vicinity, including Olix (which just announced a $3.3 billion valuation), Early Health and CoMind. Robin Klein, co-founder of the firm, said the shutdown of Fable and Mythos access was a “small but sharp reminder that Europe can’t simply rent its AI capabilities and capacity; it needs to build and hold some of its own.” King’s Cross, he said, is where much of this building is actually happening.  

“The bigger question,” he continued, “is whether the U.K. builds the infrastructure, compute, energy, capital, to make this self-reliance durable, rather than just hosting outposts of U.S. labs.” 

This former notorious red-light district is now one of the world’s top AI hubs | TechCrunch
What every U.K. AI startup wants to know these days is, how can I get office space in King’s Cross?  

The area is so hot that a VC firm allegedly recently won a deal by promising a founder office space in the neighborhood. “We stop at nothing to win deals [for] and to support” founders, “including helping them source office space when needed,” the firm told me when asked about the rumor, declining to confirm or deny any details. 







The neighborhood’s popularity began back in 2016 when DeepMind — then newly acquired by Google — moved in. Soon after, a flood of AI startups followed, wanting to be around the Google DeepMind magic. Today, they hope to take advantage of the cluster of AI talent there. 

This has transformed King’s Cross into one of the world’s top AI hubs, rivaled only by San Francisco and Beijing. Around London, it’s known by the sobriquet “Knowledge Quarter,” as it’s home to names like OpenAI, Meta, Isomorphic Labs, Cusp AI, Wayne, Recursive, and, a little farther down the road, Synthesia and Anthropic. The European Technology Network (ETN) just moved into a glossy new office nearby, while University College London sits around the corner.  

Mixed in with the new developments are trendy food spots like Hoppers and BAO. Hop a train from King’s Cross, and founders can be in Cambridge in 45 minutes to source talent or can be in Paris in two hours to strike a deal.  

Who would have guessed that a little more than 20 years ago, this was one of the seediest areas in London?  

“In the ’80s, crack and heroin made the area a major narcotics market,” Hussein Kanji, an investor at Hoxton Ventures, said, recalling syringes in tree trunks and gangs patrolling the streets. “In 1982, the local church was occupied by the English Collective of Prostitutes for 12 straight days.” Then, in the early 2000s, a real estate developer had a dream and, well, “now it is the AI hotbed of the United Kingdom,” Kanji said. “What a change.”  Around 18 months ago, his portfolio company BioCorteX moved from the neighborhood Holborn to the Jellicoe building in King’s Cross, hoping to be near the action. “Lots going on in London right now,” Nik Sharma, co-founder of BioCorteX, told me. “Lots of hyperscalers moving in.” That includes, reportedly, Jeff Bezos’ AI company Prometheus, which is also said to be in talks to move into the Jellicoe.  


There are around 3,600 AI startups in London, which, together, have raised around .1 billion out of the .8 billion raised in the city since late July, according to Dealroom. Since the start of June, AI-related startups have leased more than 1 million square feet of office space in London, according to the real estate firm Knight Frank. With that, prime rents in King’s Cross have risen 18% over the past three years, Chris Dunn, a commercial insight associate at the firm, told me.  That percentage represents only the largest leases encompassing at least 10,000 square feet, like the ones OpenAI and Prometheus are signing. The shorter deals go for even more, he said, and now the vacancy rate for conventional office space is just 0.9%. “Demand has outstripped supply,” he continued.  

Today, one of the big topics of the area is sovereignty. It was a wake-up call for many when Anthropic shut off access to Mythos and Fable this summer, leaving some in the ecosystem to conclude: “We’d better look after ourselves,” Saul Klein, co-founder of the VC firm Phoenix Court, told me.  

Phoenix Court is located in the King’s Cross area and has three portfolio companies in the vicinity, including Olix (which just announced a .3 billion valuation), Early Health and CoMind. Robin Klein, co-founder of the firm, said the shutdown of Fable and Mythos access was a “small but sharp reminder that Europe can’t simply rent its AI capabilities and capacity; it needs to build and hold some of its own.” King’s Cross, he said, is where much of this building is actually happening.  







“The bigger question,” he continued, “is whether the U.K. builds the infrastructure, compute, energy, capital, to make this self-reliance durable, rather than just hosting outposts of U.S. labs.” 

Image Credits:Phoenix Court

Top founders want to stay 

Simon Kohl, founder of Latent Labs, has offices in King’s Cross and San Francisco. The London office, at the moment, is growing faster, and he’s more bullish than ever on the ecosystem, he said. “The mood right now feels less like London trying to catch up and more like London becoming one of the default places to start a serious AI company,” he said.  Look around and you are likely to see Wayve testing its autonomous cars. Founded in 2017 by co-founder Alex Kendall, the unicorn is one of London’s biggest success stories.  

“Ten years ago, building a frontier AI company from London felt like an unusual choice,” Kendall told me. “Now it feels like an obvious one.” Wayve moved into King’s Cross in 2018 looking for a space that could double as a garage — “a rare combination in Central London,” Kendall said. He has watched the ecosystem mature around him — and it’s now evident that a startup can stay in London, raise serious capital, hire world-class AI talent, and remain globally competitive, he said.  Down the street from Anthropic’s new 158,000-square-foot office is the AI agent builder Sierra and the AI video platform Synthesia. 

Laura Gonzalez Florez, Synthesia’s chief of staff and head of people, says the company moved into its glossy new office building a year ago to accommodate its growing team. They were drawn to the area for the same reason as everyone else: “It’s very close to the airport … very close to where a lot of investors are,” she said. 

Image Credits:Synthesia

Around two-thirds of Synthesia’s engineers are remote, Gonzalez Florez said, letting the company tap into an affordable, international, and diverse talent pool and helping it scale faster. “From London, we can hire and work, without any problem, people from anywhere, from Slovenia to Portugal,” she said.  

Unsurprisingly, London’s AI boom is also causing a talent war.U.K. AI job postings have skyrocketed in the past few years, per data from PwC. When Anthropic announced it moved into town earlier this year, it listed, for example, a salary range of £260,000 to £630,000 for a machine learning research engineer when the average salary in London for the same role is around £102,000. Some founders in the U.K., like those in Silicon Valley, are being forced to raise more and bigger rounds to keep up. 

“The real test is whether more globally significant AI companies are founded, funded, and scaled from the U.K., while continuing to attract the world’s best talent to build them here,” Zain Ali, founder of the King’s Cross-based AI legal firm Centuro, told me. “If that continues to happen, King’s Cross won’t just be an AI hub. It’ll become one of the U.K.’s most important strategic assets.”
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Thisformernotorious #redlight #districtis #nowone #worlds #top #hubs #TechCrunchUK
Image Credits:Phoenix Court

Top founders want to stay

Simon Kohl, founder of Latent Labs, has offices in King’s Cross and San Francisco. The London office, at the moment, is growing faster, and he’s more bullish than ever on the ecosystem, he said. “The mood right now feels less like London trying to catch up and more like London becoming one of the default places to start a serious AI company,” he said. 
 
Look around and you are likely to see Wayve testing its autonomous cars. Founded in 2017 by co-founder Alex Kendall, the unicorn is one of London’s biggest success stories.  

“Ten years ago, building a frontier AI company from London felt like an unusual choice,” Kendall told me. “Now it feels like an obvious one.” Wayve moved into King’s Cross in 2018 looking for a space that could double as a garage — “a rare combination in Central London,” Kendall said. He has watched the ecosystem mature around him — and it’s now evident that a startup can stay in London, raise serious capital, hire world-class AI talent, and remain globally competitive, he said. 
 
Down the street from Anthropic’s new 158,000-square-foot office is the AI agent builder Sierra and the AI video platform Synthesia. 

Laura Gonzalez Florez, Synthesia’s chief of staff and head of people, says the company moved into its glossy new office building a year ago to accommodate its growing team. They were drawn to the area for the same reason as everyone else: “It’s very close to the airport … very close to where a lot of investors are,” she said. 

Image Credits:Synthesia

Around two-thirds of Synthesia’s engineers are remote, Gonzalez Florez said, letting the company tap into an affordable, international, and diverse talent pool and helping it scale faster. “From London, we can hire and work, without any problem, people from anywhere, from Slovenia to Portugal,” she said.  

Unsurprisingly, London’s AI boom is also causing a talent war.

U.K. AI job postings have skyrocketed in the past few years, per data from PwC. When Anthropic announced it moved into town earlier this year, it listed, for example, a salary range of £260,000 to £630,000 for a machine learning research engineer when the average salary in London for the same role is around £102,000. Some founders in the U.K., like those in Silicon Valley, are being forced to raise more and bigger rounds to keep up. 

“The real test is whether more globally significant AI companies are founded, funded, and scaled from the U.K., while continuing to attract the world’s best talent to build them here,” Zain Ali, founder of the King’s Cross-based AI legal firm Centuro, told me. “If that continues to happen, King’s Cross won’t just be an AI hub. It’ll become one of the U.K.’s most important strategic assets.”

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Thisformernotorious #redlight #districtis #nowone #worlds #top #hubs #TechCrunchUK">This former notorious red-light district is now one of the world’s top AI hubs | TechCrunch
What every U.K. AI startup wants to know these days is, how can I get office space in King’s Cross?  

The area is so hot that a VC firm allegedly recently won a deal by promising a founder office space in the neighborhood. “We stop at nothing to win deals [for] and to support” founders, “including helping them source office space when needed,” the firm told me when asked about the rumor, declining to confirm or deny any details. 







The neighborhood’s popularity began back in 2016 when DeepMind — then newly acquired by Google — moved in. Soon after, a flood of AI startups followed, wanting to be around the Google DeepMind magic. Today, they hope to take advantage of the cluster of AI talent there. 

This has transformed King’s Cross into one of the world’s top AI hubs, rivaled only by San Francisco and Beijing. Around London, it’s known by the sobriquet “Knowledge Quarter,” as it’s home to names like OpenAI, Meta, Isomorphic Labs, Cusp AI, Wayne, Recursive, and, a little farther down the road, Synthesia and Anthropic. The European Technology Network (ETN) just moved into a glossy new office nearby, while University College London sits around the corner.  

Mixed in with the new developments are trendy food spots like Hoppers and BAO. Hop a train from King’s Cross, and founders can be in Cambridge in 45 minutes to source talent or can be in Paris in two hours to strike a deal.  

Who would have guessed that a little more than 20 years ago, this was one of the seediest areas in London?  

“In the ’80s, crack and heroin made the area a major narcotics market,” Hussein Kanji, an investor at Hoxton Ventures, said, recalling syringes in tree trunks and gangs patrolling the streets. “In 1982, the local church was occupied by the English Collective of Prostitutes for 12 straight days.” Then, in the early 2000s, a real estate developer had a dream and, well, “now it is the AI hotbed of the United Kingdom,” Kanji said. “What a change.”  Around 18 months ago, his portfolio company BioCorteX moved from the neighborhood Holborn to the Jellicoe building in King’s Cross, hoping to be near the action. “Lots going on in London right now,” Nik Sharma, co-founder of BioCorteX, told me. “Lots of hyperscalers moving in.” That includes, reportedly, Jeff Bezos’ AI company Prometheus, which is also said to be in talks to move into the Jellicoe.  


There are around 3,600 AI startups in London, which, together, have raised around .1 billion out of the .8 billion raised in the city since late July, according to Dealroom. Since the start of June, AI-related startups have leased more than 1 million square feet of office space in London, according to the real estate firm Knight Frank. With that, prime rents in King’s Cross have risen 18% over the past three years, Chris Dunn, a commercial insight associate at the firm, told me.  That percentage represents only the largest leases encompassing at least 10,000 square feet, like the ones OpenAI and Prometheus are signing. The shorter deals go for even more, he said, and now the vacancy rate for conventional office space is just 0.9%. “Demand has outstripped supply,” he continued.  

Today, one of the big topics of the area is sovereignty. It was a wake-up call for many when Anthropic shut off access to Mythos and Fable this summer, leaving some in the ecosystem to conclude: “We’d better look after ourselves,” Saul Klein, co-founder of the VC firm Phoenix Court, told me.  

Phoenix Court is located in the King’s Cross area and has three portfolio companies in the vicinity, including Olix (which just announced a .3 billion valuation), Early Health and CoMind. Robin Klein, co-founder of the firm, said the shutdown of Fable and Mythos access was a “small but sharp reminder that Europe can’t simply rent its AI capabilities and capacity; it needs to build and hold some of its own.” King’s Cross, he said, is where much of this building is actually happening.  







“The bigger question,” he continued, “is whether the U.K. builds the infrastructure, compute, energy, capital, to make this self-reliance durable, rather than just hosting outposts of U.S. labs.” 

Image Credits:Phoenix Court

Top founders want to stay 

Simon Kohl, founder of Latent Labs, has offices in King’s Cross and San Francisco. The London office, at the moment, is growing faster, and he’s more bullish than ever on the ecosystem, he said. “The mood right now feels less like London trying to catch up and more like London becoming one of the default places to start a serious AI company,” he said.  Look around and you are likely to see Wayve testing its autonomous cars. Founded in 2017 by co-founder Alex Kendall, the unicorn is one of London’s biggest success stories.  

“Ten years ago, building a frontier AI company from London felt like an unusual choice,” Kendall told me. “Now it feels like an obvious one.” Wayve moved into King’s Cross in 2018 looking for a space that could double as a garage — “a rare combination in Central London,” Kendall said. He has watched the ecosystem mature around him — and it’s now evident that a startup can stay in London, raise serious capital, hire world-class AI talent, and remain globally competitive, he said.  Down the street from Anthropic’s new 158,000-square-foot office is the AI agent builder Sierra and the AI video platform Synthesia. 

Laura Gonzalez Florez, Synthesia’s chief of staff and head of people, says the company moved into its glossy new office building a year ago to accommodate its growing team. They were drawn to the area for the same reason as everyone else: “It’s very close to the airport … very close to where a lot of investors are,” she said. 

Image Credits:Synthesia

Around two-thirds of Synthesia’s engineers are remote, Gonzalez Florez said, letting the company tap into an affordable, international, and diverse talent pool and helping it scale faster. “From London, we can hire and work, without any problem, people from anywhere, from Slovenia to Portugal,” she said.  

Unsurprisingly, London’s AI boom is also causing a talent war.U.K. AI job postings have skyrocketed in the past few years, per data from PwC. When Anthropic announced it moved into town earlier this year, it listed, for example, a salary range of £260,000 to £630,000 for a machine learning research engineer when the average salary in London for the same role is around £102,000. Some founders in the U.K., like those in Silicon Valley, are being forced to raise more and bigger rounds to keep up. 

“The real test is whether more globally significant AI companies are founded, funded, and scaled from the U.K., while continuing to attract the world’s best talent to build them here,” Zain Ali, founder of the King’s Cross-based AI legal firm Centuro, told me. “If that continues to happen, King’s Cross won’t just be an AI hub. It’ll become one of the U.K.’s most important strategic assets.”
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Thisformernotorious #redlight #districtis #nowone #worlds #top #hubs #TechCrunchUK

European Technology Network (ETN) just moved into a glossy new office nearby, while University College London sits around the corner.  

Mixed in with the new developments are trendy food spots like Hoppers and BAO. Hop a train from King’s Cross, and founders can be in Cambridge in 45 minutes to source talent or can be in Paris in two hours to strike a deal.  

Who would have guessed that a little more than 20 years ago, this was one of the seediest areas in London?  

“In the ’80s, crack and heroin made the area a major narcotics market,” Hussein Kanji, an investor at Hoxton Ventures, said, recalling syringes in tree trunks and gangs patrolling the streets. “In 1982, the local church was occupied by the English Collective of Prostitutes for 12 straight days.” Then, in the early 2000s, a real estate developer had a dream and, well, “now it is the AI hotbed of the United Kingdom,” Kanji said. “What a change.” 
 
Around 18 months ago, his portfolio company BioCorteX moved from the neighborhood Holborn to the Jellicoe building in King’s Cross, hoping to be near the action. “Lots going on in London right now,” Nik Sharma, co-founder of BioCorteX, told me. “Lots of hyperscalers moving in.” That includes, reportedly, Jeff Bezos’ AI company Prometheus, which is also said to be in talks to move into the Jellicoe.  

There are around 3,600 AI startups in London, which, together, have raised around $12.1 billion out of the $14.8 billion raised in the city since late July, according to Dealroom. Since the start of June, AI-related startups have leased more than 1 million square feet of office space in London, according to the real estate firm Knight Frank. With that, prime rents in King’s Cross have risen 18% over the past three years, Chris Dunn, a commercial insight associate at the firm, told me. 
 
That percentage represents only the largest leases encompassing at least 10,000 square feet, like the ones OpenAI and Prometheus are signing. The shorter deals go for even more, he said, and now the vacancy rate for conventional office space is just 0.9%. “Demand has outstripped supply,” he continued.  

Today, one of the big topics of the area is sovereignty. It was a wake-up call for many when Anthropic shut off access to Mythos and Fable this summer, leaving some in the ecosystem to conclude: “We’d better look after ourselves,” Saul Klein, co-founder of the VC firm Phoenix Court, told me.  

Phoenix Court is located in the King’s Cross area and has three portfolio companies in the vicinity, including Olix (which just announced a $3.3 billion valuation), Early Health and CoMind. Robin Klein, co-founder of the firm, said the shutdown of Fable and Mythos access was a “small but sharp reminder that Europe can’t simply rent its AI capabilities and capacity; it needs to build and hold some of its own.” King’s Cross, he said, is where much of this building is actually happening.  

“The bigger question,” he continued, “is whether the U.K. builds the infrastructure, compute, energy, capital, to make this self-reliance durable, rather than just hosting outposts of U.S. labs.” 

This former notorious red-light district is now one of the world’s top AI hubs | TechCrunch
What every U.K. AI startup wants to know these days is, how can I get office space in King’s Cross?  

The area is so hot that a VC firm allegedly recently won a deal by promising a founder office space in the neighborhood. “We stop at nothing to win deals [for] and to support” founders, “including helping them source office space when needed,” the firm told me when asked about the rumor, declining to confirm or deny any details. 







The neighborhood’s popularity began back in 2016 when DeepMind — then newly acquired by Google — moved in. Soon after, a flood of AI startups followed, wanting to be around the Google DeepMind magic. Today, they hope to take advantage of the cluster of AI talent there. 

This has transformed King’s Cross into one of the world’s top AI hubs, rivaled only by San Francisco and Beijing. Around London, it’s known by the sobriquet “Knowledge Quarter,” as it’s home to names like OpenAI, Meta, Isomorphic Labs, Cusp AI, Wayne, Recursive, and, a little farther down the road, Synthesia and Anthropic. The European Technology Network (ETN) just moved into a glossy new office nearby, while University College London sits around the corner.  

Mixed in with the new developments are trendy food spots like Hoppers and BAO. Hop a train from King’s Cross, and founders can be in Cambridge in 45 minutes to source talent or can be in Paris in two hours to strike a deal.  

Who would have guessed that a little more than 20 years ago, this was one of the seediest areas in London?  

“In the ’80s, crack and heroin made the area a major narcotics market,” Hussein Kanji, an investor at Hoxton Ventures, said, recalling syringes in tree trunks and gangs patrolling the streets. “In 1982, the local church was occupied by the English Collective of Prostitutes for 12 straight days.” Then, in the early 2000s, a real estate developer had a dream and, well, “now it is the AI hotbed of the United Kingdom,” Kanji said. “What a change.”  Around 18 months ago, his portfolio company BioCorteX moved from the neighborhood Holborn to the Jellicoe building in King’s Cross, hoping to be near the action. “Lots going on in London right now,” Nik Sharma, co-founder of BioCorteX, told me. “Lots of hyperscalers moving in.” That includes, reportedly, Jeff Bezos’ AI company Prometheus, which is also said to be in talks to move into the Jellicoe.  


There are around 3,600 AI startups in London, which, together, have raised around .1 billion out of the .8 billion raised in the city since late July, according to Dealroom. Since the start of June, AI-related startups have leased more than 1 million square feet of office space in London, according to the real estate firm Knight Frank. With that, prime rents in King’s Cross have risen 18% over the past three years, Chris Dunn, a commercial insight associate at the firm, told me.  That percentage represents only the largest leases encompassing at least 10,000 square feet, like the ones OpenAI and Prometheus are signing. The shorter deals go for even more, he said, and now the vacancy rate for conventional office space is just 0.9%. “Demand has outstripped supply,” he continued.  

Today, one of the big topics of the area is sovereignty. It was a wake-up call for many when Anthropic shut off access to Mythos and Fable this summer, leaving some in the ecosystem to conclude: “We’d better look after ourselves,” Saul Klein, co-founder of the VC firm Phoenix Court, told me.  

Phoenix Court is located in the King’s Cross area and has three portfolio companies in the vicinity, including Olix (which just announced a .3 billion valuation), Early Health and CoMind. Robin Klein, co-founder of the firm, said the shutdown of Fable and Mythos access was a “small but sharp reminder that Europe can’t simply rent its AI capabilities and capacity; it needs to build and hold some of its own.” King’s Cross, he said, is where much of this building is actually happening.  







“The bigger question,” he continued, “is whether the U.K. builds the infrastructure, compute, energy, capital, to make this self-reliance durable, rather than just hosting outposts of U.S. labs.” 

Image Credits:Phoenix Court

Top founders want to stay 

Simon Kohl, founder of Latent Labs, has offices in King’s Cross and San Francisco. The London office, at the moment, is growing faster, and he’s more bullish than ever on the ecosystem, he said. “The mood right now feels less like London trying to catch up and more like London becoming one of the default places to start a serious AI company,” he said.  Look around and you are likely to see Wayve testing its autonomous cars. Founded in 2017 by co-founder Alex Kendall, the unicorn is one of London’s biggest success stories.  

“Ten years ago, building a frontier AI company from London felt like an unusual choice,” Kendall told me. “Now it feels like an obvious one.” Wayve moved into King’s Cross in 2018 looking for a space that could double as a garage — “a rare combination in Central London,” Kendall said. He has watched the ecosystem mature around him — and it’s now evident that a startup can stay in London, raise serious capital, hire world-class AI talent, and remain globally competitive, he said.  Down the street from Anthropic’s new 158,000-square-foot office is the AI agent builder Sierra and the AI video platform Synthesia. 

Laura Gonzalez Florez, Synthesia’s chief of staff and head of people, says the company moved into its glossy new office building a year ago to accommodate its growing team. They were drawn to the area for the same reason as everyone else: “It’s very close to the airport … very close to where a lot of investors are,” she said. 

Image Credits:Synthesia

Around two-thirds of Synthesia’s engineers are remote, Gonzalez Florez said, letting the company tap into an affordable, international, and diverse talent pool and helping it scale faster. “From London, we can hire and work, without any problem, people from anywhere, from Slovenia to Portugal,” she said.  

Unsurprisingly, London’s AI boom is also causing a talent war.U.K. AI job postings have skyrocketed in the past few years, per data from PwC. When Anthropic announced it moved into town earlier this year, it listed, for example, a salary range of £260,000 to £630,000 for a machine learning research engineer when the average salary in London for the same role is around £102,000. Some founders in the U.K., like those in Silicon Valley, are being forced to raise more and bigger rounds to keep up. 

“The real test is whether more globally significant AI companies are founded, funded, and scaled from the U.K., while continuing to attract the world’s best talent to build them here,” Zain Ali, founder of the King’s Cross-based AI legal firm Centuro, told me. “If that continues to happen, King’s Cross won’t just be an AI hub. It’ll become one of the U.K.’s most important strategic assets.”
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Thisformernotorious #redlight #districtis #nowone #worlds #top #hubs #TechCrunchUK
Image Credits:Phoenix Court

Top founders want to stay

Simon Kohl, founder of Latent Labs, has offices in King’s Cross and San Francisco. The London office, at the moment, is growing faster, and he’s more bullish than ever on the ecosystem, he said. “The mood right now feels less like London trying to catch up and more like London becoming one of the default places to start a serious AI company,” he said. 
 
Look around and you are likely to see Wayve testing its autonomous cars. Founded in 2017 by co-founder Alex Kendall, the unicorn is one of London’s biggest success stories.  

“Ten years ago, building a frontier AI company from London felt like an unusual choice,” Kendall told me. “Now it feels like an obvious one.” Wayve moved into King’s Cross in 2018 looking for a space that could double as a garage — “a rare combination in Central London,” Kendall said. He has watched the ecosystem mature around him — and it’s now evident that a startup can stay in London, raise serious capital, hire world-class AI talent, and remain globally competitive, he said. 
 
Down the street from Anthropic’s new 158,000-square-foot office is the AI agent builder Sierra and the AI video platform Synthesia. 

Laura Gonzalez Florez, Synthesia’s chief of staff and head of people, says the company moved into its glossy new office building a year ago to accommodate its growing team. They were drawn to the area for the same reason as everyone else: “It’s very close to the airport … very close to where a lot of investors are,” she said. 

Image Credits:Synthesia

Around two-thirds of Synthesia’s engineers are remote, Gonzalez Florez said, letting the company tap into an affordable, international, and diverse talent pool and helping it scale faster. “From London, we can hire and work, without any problem, people from anywhere, from Slovenia to Portugal,” she said.  

Unsurprisingly, London’s AI boom is also causing a talent war.

U.K. AI job postings have skyrocketed in the past few years, per data from PwC. When Anthropic announced it moved into town earlier this year, it listed, for example, a salary range of £260,000 to £630,000 for a machine learning research engineer when the average salary in London for the same role is around £102,000. Some founders in the U.K., like those in Silicon Valley, are being forced to raise more and bigger rounds to keep up. 

“The real test is whether more globally significant AI companies are founded, funded, and scaled from the U.K., while continuing to attract the world’s best talent to build them here,” Zain Ali, founder of the King’s Cross-based AI legal firm Centuro, told me. “If that continues to happen, King’s Cross won’t just be an AI hub. It’ll become one of the U.K.’s most important strategic assets.”

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Thisformernotorious #redlight #districtis #nowone #worlds #top #hubs #TechCrunchUK">This former notorious red-light district is now one of the world’s top AI hubs | TechCrunch

What every U.K. AI startup wants to know these days is, how can I get office space in King’s Cross?  

The area is so hot that a VC firm allegedly recently won a deal by promising a founder office space in the neighborhood. “We stop at nothing to win deals [for] and to support” founders, “including helping them source office space when needed,” the firm told me when asked about the rumor, declining to confirm or deny any details. 

The neighborhood’s popularity began back in 2016 when DeepMind — then newly acquired by Google — moved in. Soon after, a flood of AI startups followed, wanting to be around the Google DeepMind magic. Today, they hope to take advantage of the cluster of AI talent there. 

This has transformed King’s Cross into one of the world’s top AI hubs, rivaled only by San Francisco and Beijing. Around London, it’s known by the sobriquet “Knowledge Quarter,” as it’s home to names like OpenAI, Meta, Isomorphic Labs, Cusp AI, Wayne, Recursive, and, a little farther down the road, Synthesia and Anthropic. The European Technology Network (ETN) just moved into a glossy new office nearby, while University College London sits around the corner.  

Mixed in with the new developments are trendy food spots like Hoppers and BAO. Hop a train from King’s Cross, and founders can be in Cambridge in 45 minutes to source talent or can be in Paris in two hours to strike a deal.  

Who would have guessed that a little more than 20 years ago, this was one of the seediest areas in London?  

“In the ’80s, crack and heroin made the area a major narcotics market,” Hussein Kanji, an investor at Hoxton Ventures, said, recalling syringes in tree trunks and gangs patrolling the streets. “In 1982, the local church was occupied by the English Collective of Prostitutes for 12 straight days.” Then, in the early 2000s, a real estate developer had a dream and, well, “now it is the AI hotbed of the United Kingdom,” Kanji said. “What a change.” 
 
Around 18 months ago, his portfolio company BioCorteX moved from the neighborhood Holborn to the Jellicoe building in King’s Cross, hoping to be near the action. “Lots going on in London right now,” Nik Sharma, co-founder of BioCorteX, told me. “Lots of hyperscalers moving in.” That includes, reportedly, Jeff Bezos’ AI company Prometheus, which is also said to be in talks to move into the Jellicoe.  

There are around 3,600 AI startups in London, which, together, have raised around $12.1 billion out of the $14.8 billion raised in the city since late July, according to Dealroom. Since the start of June, AI-related startups have leased more than 1 million square feet of office space in London, according to the real estate firm Knight Frank. With that, prime rents in King’s Cross have risen 18% over the past three years, Chris Dunn, a commercial insight associate at the firm, told me. 
 
That percentage represents only the largest leases encompassing at least 10,000 square feet, like the ones OpenAI and Prometheus are signing. The shorter deals go for even more, he said, and now the vacancy rate for conventional office space is just 0.9%. “Demand has outstripped supply,” he continued.  

Today, one of the big topics of the area is sovereignty. It was a wake-up call for many when Anthropic shut off access to Mythos and Fable this summer, leaving some in the ecosystem to conclude: “We’d better look after ourselves,” Saul Klein, co-founder of the VC firm Phoenix Court, told me.  

Phoenix Court is located in the King’s Cross area and has three portfolio companies in the vicinity, including Olix (which just announced a $3.3 billion valuation), Early Health and CoMind. Robin Klein, co-founder of the firm, said the shutdown of Fable and Mythos access was a “small but sharp reminder that Europe can’t simply rent its AI capabilities and capacity; it needs to build and hold some of its own.” King’s Cross, he said, is where much of this building is actually happening.  

“The bigger question,” he continued, “is whether the U.K. builds the infrastructure, compute, energy, capital, to make this self-reliance durable, rather than just hosting outposts of U.S. labs.” 

This former notorious red-light district is now one of the world’s top AI hubs | TechCrunch
What every U.K. AI startup wants to know these days is, how can I get office space in King’s Cross?  

The area is so hot that a VC firm allegedly recently won a deal by promising a founder office space in the neighborhood. “We stop at nothing to win deals [for] and to support” founders, “including helping them source office space when needed,” the firm told me when asked about the rumor, declining to confirm or deny any details. 







The neighborhood’s popularity began back in 2016 when DeepMind — then newly acquired by Google — moved in. Soon after, a flood of AI startups followed, wanting to be around the Google DeepMind magic. Today, they hope to take advantage of the cluster of AI talent there. 

This has transformed King’s Cross into one of the world’s top AI hubs, rivaled only by San Francisco and Beijing. Around London, it’s known by the sobriquet “Knowledge Quarter,” as it’s home to names like OpenAI, Meta, Isomorphic Labs, Cusp AI, Wayne, Recursive, and, a little farther down the road, Synthesia and Anthropic. The European Technology Network (ETN) just moved into a glossy new office nearby, while University College London sits around the corner.  

Mixed in with the new developments are trendy food spots like Hoppers and BAO. Hop a train from King’s Cross, and founders can be in Cambridge in 45 minutes to source talent or can be in Paris in two hours to strike a deal.  

Who would have guessed that a little more than 20 years ago, this was one of the seediest areas in London?  

“In the ’80s, crack and heroin made the area a major narcotics market,” Hussein Kanji, an investor at Hoxton Ventures, said, recalling syringes in tree trunks and gangs patrolling the streets. “In 1982, the local church was occupied by the English Collective of Prostitutes for 12 straight days.” Then, in the early 2000s, a real estate developer had a dream and, well, “now it is the AI hotbed of the United Kingdom,” Kanji said. “What a change.”  Around 18 months ago, his portfolio company BioCorteX moved from the neighborhood Holborn to the Jellicoe building in King’s Cross, hoping to be near the action. “Lots going on in London right now,” Nik Sharma, co-founder of BioCorteX, told me. “Lots of hyperscalers moving in.” That includes, reportedly, Jeff Bezos’ AI company Prometheus, which is also said to be in talks to move into the Jellicoe.  


There are around 3,600 AI startups in London, which, together, have raised around .1 billion out of the .8 billion raised in the city since late July, according to Dealroom. Since the start of June, AI-related startups have leased more than 1 million square feet of office space in London, according to the real estate firm Knight Frank. With that, prime rents in King’s Cross have risen 18% over the past three years, Chris Dunn, a commercial insight associate at the firm, told me.  That percentage represents only the largest leases encompassing at least 10,000 square feet, like the ones OpenAI and Prometheus are signing. The shorter deals go for even more, he said, and now the vacancy rate for conventional office space is just 0.9%. “Demand has outstripped supply,” he continued.  

Today, one of the big topics of the area is sovereignty. It was a wake-up call for many when Anthropic shut off access to Mythos and Fable this summer, leaving some in the ecosystem to conclude: “We’d better look after ourselves,” Saul Klein, co-founder of the VC firm Phoenix Court, told me.  

Phoenix Court is located in the King’s Cross area and has three portfolio companies in the vicinity, including Olix (which just announced a .3 billion valuation), Early Health and CoMind. Robin Klein, co-founder of the firm, said the shutdown of Fable and Mythos access was a “small but sharp reminder that Europe can’t simply rent its AI capabilities and capacity; it needs to build and hold some of its own.” King’s Cross, he said, is where much of this building is actually happening.  







“The bigger question,” he continued, “is whether the U.K. builds the infrastructure, compute, energy, capital, to make this self-reliance durable, rather than just hosting outposts of U.S. labs.” 

Image Credits:Phoenix Court

Top founders want to stay 

Simon Kohl, founder of Latent Labs, has offices in King’s Cross and San Francisco. The London office, at the moment, is growing faster, and he’s more bullish than ever on the ecosystem, he said. “The mood right now feels less like London trying to catch up and more like London becoming one of the default places to start a serious AI company,” he said.  Look around and you are likely to see Wayve testing its autonomous cars. Founded in 2017 by co-founder Alex Kendall, the unicorn is one of London’s biggest success stories.  

“Ten years ago, building a frontier AI company from London felt like an unusual choice,” Kendall told me. “Now it feels like an obvious one.” Wayve moved into King’s Cross in 2018 looking for a space that could double as a garage — “a rare combination in Central London,” Kendall said. He has watched the ecosystem mature around him — and it’s now evident that a startup can stay in London, raise serious capital, hire world-class AI talent, and remain globally competitive, he said.  Down the street from Anthropic’s new 158,000-square-foot office is the AI agent builder Sierra and the AI video platform Synthesia. 

Laura Gonzalez Florez, Synthesia’s chief of staff and head of people, says the company moved into its glossy new office building a year ago to accommodate its growing team. They were drawn to the area for the same reason as everyone else: “It’s very close to the airport … very close to where a lot of investors are,” she said. 

Image Credits:Synthesia

Around two-thirds of Synthesia’s engineers are remote, Gonzalez Florez said, letting the company tap into an affordable, international, and diverse talent pool and helping it scale faster. “From London, we can hire and work, without any problem, people from anywhere, from Slovenia to Portugal,” she said.  

Unsurprisingly, London’s AI boom is also causing a talent war.U.K. AI job postings have skyrocketed in the past few years, per data from PwC. When Anthropic announced it moved into town earlier this year, it listed, for example, a salary range of £260,000 to £630,000 for a machine learning research engineer when the average salary in London for the same role is around £102,000. Some founders in the U.K., like those in Silicon Valley, are being forced to raise more and bigger rounds to keep up. 

“The real test is whether more globally significant AI companies are founded, funded, and scaled from the U.K., while continuing to attract the world’s best talent to build them here,” Zain Ali, founder of the King’s Cross-based AI legal firm Centuro, told me. “If that continues to happen, King’s Cross won’t just be an AI hub. It’ll become one of the U.K.’s most important strategic assets.”
When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.#Thisformernotorious #redlight #districtis #nowone #worlds #top #hubs #TechCrunchUK
Image Credits:Phoenix Court

Top founders want to stay

Simon Kohl, founder of Latent Labs, has offices in King’s Cross and San Francisco. The London office, at the moment, is growing faster, and he’s more bullish than ever on the ecosystem, he said. “The mood right now feels less like London trying to catch up and more like London becoming one of the default places to start a serious AI company,” he said. 
 
Look around and you are likely to see Wayve testing its autonomous cars. Founded in 2017 by co-founder Alex Kendall, the unicorn is one of London’s biggest success stories.  

“Ten years ago, building a frontier AI company from London felt like an unusual choice,” Kendall told me. “Now it feels like an obvious one.” Wayve moved into King’s Cross in 2018 looking for a space that could double as a garage — “a rare combination in Central London,” Kendall said. He has watched the ecosystem mature around him — and it’s now evident that a startup can stay in London, raise serious capital, hire world-class AI talent, and remain globally competitive, he said. 
 
Down the street from Anthropic’s new 158,000-square-foot office is the AI agent builder Sierra and the AI video platform Synthesia. 

Laura Gonzalez Florez, Synthesia’s chief of staff and head of people, says the company moved into its glossy new office building a year ago to accommodate its growing team. They were drawn to the area for the same reason as everyone else: “It’s very close to the airport … very close to where a lot of investors are,” she said. 

Image Credits:Synthesia

Around two-thirds of Synthesia’s engineers are remote, Gonzalez Florez said, letting the company tap into an affordable, international, and diverse talent pool and helping it scale faster. “From London, we can hire and work, without any problem, people from anywhere, from Slovenia to Portugal,” she said.  

Unsurprisingly, London’s AI boom is also causing a talent war.

U.K. AI job postings have skyrocketed in the past few years, per data from PwC. When Anthropic announced it moved into town earlier this year, it listed, for example, a salary range of £260,000 to £630,000 for a machine learning research engineer when the average salary in London for the same role is around £102,000. Some founders in the U.K., like those in Silicon Valley, are being forced to raise more and bigger rounds to keep up. 

“The real test is whether more globally significant AI companies are founded, funded, and scaled from the U.K., while continuing to attract the world’s best talent to build them here,” Zain Ali, founder of the King’s Cross-based AI legal firm Centuro, told me. “If that continues to happen, King’s Cross won’t just be an AI hub. It’ll become one of the U.K.’s most important strategic assets.”

When you purchase through links in our articles, we may earn a small commission. This doesn’t affect our editorial independence.

#Thisformernotorious #redlight #districtis #nowone #worlds #top #hubs #TechCrunchUK
Why Remote Server Access Is a Common Attack Vector

Every cloud server exposes at least one remote access point – usually SSH on port 22 – and that port is scanned constantly by bots looking for weak credentials. Password-based login is the most common way a system can be attacked by brute force, and it is quite common with a standard setup that the system is left in a state where an admin/user of that system – “root user” – can log in directly by guessing the user ID and the password combination. Add in shared team credentials, forgotten firewall rules from old projects, and staging servers left publicly reachable, and it’s clear why misconfigured remote access – not zero-day exploits – is behind most cloud server compromises. The fix is simple, though you’ll need to do some setup yourself instead of trusting the default setting.

How to lock down SSH access in the right way

The best way to secure remote access is through a series of small improvements rather than one major overhaul. The following is a real working method:

  1. Switch to SSH key authentication, then turn off password login completely in the same location: sshd_config. Keys are far harder to brute-force than passwords.
  2. Disable root login over SSH and require a non-root user with sudo privileges instead; this is a security advantage that even without any change, one key compromising would limit the impact.
  3. Change the default SSH port away from 22 to cut down on automated scanning noise (not a security measure on its own, but it reduces log clutter).
  4. Restrict access by IP using your firewall or security group, allowing SSH only from known office or VPN IP ranges rather than the entire internet.
  5. Add a VPN as a connection layer for anyone accessing servers from outside a trusted network – a VPN like Planet VPN’s free VPN service can encrypt the connection between a remote worker’s laptop and the server before SSH traffic ever leaves their device, which matters especially on public wi-fi or shared networks.

Every step you take closes the doors that the attacker may open slightly, and when you combine everything, you would have a door to a series of locked gates.

Why Do I Need a Bastion Host?

When it comes to teams working with many servers, deploying a bastion host (jump box) may be a clean and effective way to solve the long-term problem. With this method, you only expose SSH to the bastion, and the other servers accept it only when it’s from the bastion’s internal IP. This centralizes logging and makes auditing access far simpler.

Using a virtual private network (VPN) and a bastion host together is perfectly fine – and many solutions use both: a safe way to access the private network via a VPN, followed by use of a bastion host to restrict which servers can be accessed. Some teams may decide to forgo the bastion because they don’t have the manpower to manage one, and so use a combination of a VPN and a set of firewall rules that still quite a bit lowers the exposure, but without the extra effort.

Mistakes Leading to Leaving Cloud Servers Open

The Mistakes That Cause Leaving Cloud Servers Open: Even the safest development teams may have slip-ups from time to time. One of the most frequent is leaving staged, or test servers with relaxed firewall rules equivalent to those of the production environment – hackers don’t concern themselves with which environment they first land on. Another frequent error is reusing the same SSH key on several servers and clients, causing one hacked laptop to compromise all servers that key has access to.

Another common human error is not removing or changing access when someone leaves the team, so stale credentials remain valid and accessible. At last, putting trust in the strategy of “security through obscurity” – meaning one thinks that setting up the unusual port or hiding the hostname from the public is actually sufficient security – creates a wrong impression of security. This is mostly true; in reality, modern-day attackers scan all ports anyway, and there is no way to hide from them.

System Administrators Guide to Secure Remote Access 

Prohibit SSH password logins totally and depend exclusively on key-based authentication

  • Surely no one wants to type in the password every time; because of this, use only key-based authentication 
  • Deter the user from logging in as root by default and instead use the sudo command to do root tasks
  • A firewall or security group rule can provide great help with IP address-based restrictions on SSH logins 
  • For access that comes from untrusted sources or external networks, use a secure tunnel like a vpn or bastion host
  • Periodically change SSH keys and inspect access lists
  • Maintain records of login attempts and detect brute-force attacks as quickly as possible

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the principal means by which cloud servers suffer break-ins through remote access?

By far the biggest reason why this can happen is unauthorized password-based SSH logins that have been cracked by brute force. The scenario is most likely to develop where the administrator allows root login via password and leaves the default port open.

Sufficient security measures for the server via SSH keys: Do you think it is safe to rely only on key authentication? 

It is true that SSH keys drastically decrease the danger of a successful brute-force attack. However, if there is only key authentication on the server, there are still risks – the server administrator can always enable root login or disable the IP-based login restrictions. So it is recommended to always have these three in the server configuration: disabled root login, restricted access to known IPs, and rotating the keys regularly as the main components of meaningful protection. 

Is it really necessary to set up a separate VPN network while I am able to connect via SSH keys? 

A VPN gives extra security by first encrypting your computer traffic before it reaches your network, where the SSH connection will be used. This is mostly important when working on untrusted networks – like public wi-fi – where there is a threat of a potential hacker in your local network looking at your data.

Bastion host vs VPN as methods of accessing the server? 

The bastion host works by funneling SSH sessions from many users through a single, carefully monitored server point while the rest of the network (and mostly the servers) remains protected from the internet. At the same time, a vpn will fully encrypt the communication between the user and the corporate network or servers. The combination is very common among larger security teams as a part of the defense-in-depth principle. 

How often should SSH keys be rotated? 

The ideal period to change your SSH keys depends on the security practices of your organization, but generally a good practice is to change SSH keys between 90 and 180 days, or in the case that the user who had access with the key leaves or is no longer able to be contacted, such as when a team member leaves.

Why is only changing the port number for SSH enough to secure that port?

Changing the port reduces automated scanning noise in your logs but isn’t a real security control on its own — port scanners check all ports, so it should never replace key-based auth and firewall rules.

#Secure #Remote #Access #Cloud #ServerCloud,remote access">How to Secure Remote Access to Your Cloud Server in 2026
	
Protection against unauthorized remote logins to your cloud server is a matter of SSH key-based authentication, a strict security policy on the firewall, two-factor authentication, and a secure communication channel – no individual component will give adequate protection by itself. The major risk point in breaches is not the server but the open door to remote login. To patch that vulnerability, you need a series of countermeasures, not a magical setting.





Why Remote Server Access Is a Common Attack Vector



Every cloud server exposes at least one remote access point – usually SSH on port 22 – and that port is scanned constantly by bots looking for weak credentials. Password-based login is the most common way a system can be attacked by brute force, and it is quite common with a standard setup that the system is left in a state where an admin/user of that system – “root user” – can log in directly by guessing the user ID and the password combination. Add in shared team credentials, forgotten firewall rules from old projects, and staging servers left publicly reachable, and it’s clear why misconfigured remote access – not zero-day exploits – is behind most cloud server compromises. The fix is simple, though you’ll need to do some setup yourself instead of trusting the default setting.



How to lock down SSH access in the right way



The best way to secure remote access is through a series of small improvements rather than one major overhaul. The following is a real working method:




Switch to SSH key authentication, then turn off password login completely in the same location: sshd_config. Keys are far harder to brute-force than passwords.



Disable root login over SSH and require a non-root user with sudo privileges instead; this is a security advantage that even without any change, one key compromising would limit the impact.



Change the default SSH port away from 22 to cut down on automated scanning noise (not a security measure on its own, but it reduces log clutter).



Restrict access by IP using your firewall or security group, allowing SSH only from known office or VPN IP ranges rather than the entire internet.



Add a VPN as a connection layer for anyone accessing servers from outside a trusted network – a VPN like Planet VPN’s free VPN service can encrypt the connection between a remote worker’s laptop and the server before SSH traffic ever leaves their device, which matters especially on public wi-fi or shared networks.




Every step you take closes the doors that the attacker may open slightly, and when you combine everything, you would have a door to a series of locked gates.



Why Do I Need a Bastion Host?



When it comes to teams working with many servers, deploying a bastion host (jump box) may be a clean and effective way to solve the long-term problem. With this method, you only expose SSH to the bastion, and the other servers accept it only when it’s from the bastion’s internal IP. This centralizes logging and makes auditing access far simpler.



Using a virtual private network (VPN) and a bastion host together is perfectly fine – and many solutions use both: a safe way to access the private network via a VPN, followed by use of a bastion host to restrict which servers can be accessed. Some teams may decide to forgo the bastion because they don’t have the manpower to manage one, and so use a combination of a VPN and a set of firewall rules that still quite a bit lowers the exposure, but without the extra effort.



Mistakes Leading to Leaving Cloud Servers Open



The Mistakes That Cause Leaving Cloud Servers Open: Even the safest development teams may have slip-ups from time to time. One of the most frequent is leaving staged, or test servers with relaxed firewall rules equivalent to those of the production environment – hackers don’t concern themselves with which environment they first land on. Another frequent error is reusing the same SSH key on several servers and clients, causing one hacked laptop to compromise all servers that key has access to.



Another common human error is not removing or changing access when someone leaves the team, so stale credentials remain valid and accessible. At last, putting trust in the strategy of “security through obscurity” – meaning one thinks that setting up the unusual port or hiding the hostname from the public is actually sufficient security – creates a wrong impression of security. This is mostly true; in reality, modern-day attackers scan all ports anyway, and there is no way to hide from them.



System Administrators Guide to Secure Remote Access 



Prohibit SSH password logins totally and depend exclusively on key-based authentication




Surely no one wants to type in the password every time; because of this, use only key-based authentication 



Deter the user from logging in as root by default and instead use the sudo command to do root tasks



A firewall or security group rule can provide great help with IP address-based restrictions on SSH logins 



For access that comes from untrusted sources or external networks, use a secure tunnel like a vpn or bastion host



Periodically change SSH keys and inspect access lists



Maintain records of login attempts and detect brute-force attacks as quickly as possible




Frequently Asked Questions



What is the principal means by which cloud servers suffer break-ins through remote access? By far the biggest reason why this can happen is unauthorized password-based SSH logins that have been cracked by brute force. The scenario is most likely to develop where the administrator allows root login via password and leaves the default port open.  Sufficient security measures for the server via SSH keys: Do you think it is safe to rely only on key authentication?  It is true that SSH keys drastically decrease the danger of a successful brute-force attack. However, if there is only key authentication on the server, there are still risks – the server administrator can always enable root login or disable the IP-based login restrictions. So it is recommended to always have these three in the server configuration: disabled root login, restricted access to known IPs, and rotating the keys regularly as the main components of meaningful protection.   Is it really necessary to set up a separate VPN network while I am able to connect via SSH keys?  A VPN gives extra security by first encrypting your computer traffic before it reaches your network, where the SSH connection will be used. This is mostly important when working on untrusted networks – like public wi-fi – where there is a threat of a potential hacker in your local network looking at your data.  Bastion host vs VPN as methods of accessing the server?  The bastion host works by funneling SSH sessions from many users through a single, carefully monitored server point while the rest of the network (and mostly the servers) remains protected from the internet. At the same time, a vpn will fully encrypt the communication between the user and the corporate network or servers. The combination is very common among larger security teams as a part of the defense-in-depth principle.   How often should SSH keys be rotated?  The ideal period to change your SSH keys depends on the security practices of your organization, but generally a good practice is to change SSH keys between 90 and 180 days, or in the case that the user who had access with the key leaves or is no longer able to be contacted, such as when a team member leaves.  Why is only changing the port number for SSH enough to secure that port? Changing the port reduces automated scanning noise in your logs but isn’t a real security control on its own — port scanners check all ports, so it should never replace key-based auth and firewall rules.  





#Secure #Remote #Access #Cloud #ServerCloud,remote access

  1. free VPN service can encrypt the connection between a remote worker’s laptop and the server before SSH traffic ever leaves their device, which matters especially on public wi-fi or shared networks.

Every step you take closes the doors that the attacker may open slightly, and when you combine everything, you would have a door to a series of locked gates.

Why Do I Need a Bastion Host?

When it comes to teams working with many servers, deploying a bastion host (jump box) may be a clean and effective way to solve the long-term problem. With this method, you only expose SSH to the bastion, and the other servers accept it only when it’s from the bastion’s internal IP. This centralizes logging and makes auditing access far simpler.

Using a virtual private network (VPN) and a bastion host together is perfectly fine – and many solutions use both: a safe way to access the private network via a VPN, followed by use of a bastion host to restrict which servers can be accessed. Some teams may decide to forgo the bastion because they don’t have the manpower to manage one, and so use a combination of a VPN and a set of firewall rules that still quite a bit lowers the exposure, but without the extra effort.

Mistakes Leading to Leaving Cloud Servers Open

The Mistakes That Cause Leaving Cloud Servers Open: Even the safest development teams may have slip-ups from time to time. One of the most frequent is leaving staged, or test servers with relaxed firewall rules equivalent to those of the production environment – hackers don’t concern themselves with which environment they first land on. Another frequent error is reusing the same SSH key on several servers and clients, causing one hacked laptop to compromise all servers that key has access to.

Another common human error is not removing or changing access when someone leaves the team, so stale credentials remain valid and accessible. At last, putting trust in the strategy of “security through obscurity” – meaning one thinks that setting up the unusual port or hiding the hostname from the public is actually sufficient security – creates a wrong impression of security. This is mostly true; in reality, modern-day attackers scan all ports anyway, and there is no way to hide from them.

System Administrators Guide to Secure Remote Access 

Prohibit SSH password logins totally and depend exclusively on key-based authentication

  • Surely no one wants to type in the password every time; because of this, use only key-based authentication 
  • Deter the user from logging in as root by default and instead use the sudo command to do root tasks
  • A firewall or security group rule can provide great help with IP address-based restrictions on SSH logins 
  • For access that comes from untrusted sources or external networks, use a secure tunnel like a vpn or bastion host
  • Periodically change SSH keys and inspect access lists
  • Maintain records of login attempts and detect brute-force attacks as quickly as possible

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the principal means by which cloud servers suffer break-ins through remote access?

By far the biggest reason why this can happen is unauthorized password-based SSH logins that have been cracked by brute force. The scenario is most likely to develop where the administrator allows root login via password and leaves the default port open.

Sufficient security measures for the server via SSH keys: Do you think it is safe to rely only on key authentication? 

It is true that SSH keys drastically decrease the danger of a successful brute-force attack. However, if there is only key authentication on the server, there are still risks – the server administrator can always enable root login or disable the IP-based login restrictions. So it is recommended to always have these three in the server configuration: disabled root login, restricted access to known IPs, and rotating the keys regularly as the main components of meaningful protection. 

Is it really necessary to set up a separate VPN network while I am able to connect via SSH keys? 

A VPN gives extra security by first encrypting your computer traffic before it reaches your network, where the SSH connection will be used. This is mostly important when working on untrusted networks – like public wi-fi – where there is a threat of a potential hacker in your local network looking at your data.

Bastion host vs VPN as methods of accessing the server? 

The bastion host works by funneling SSH sessions from many users through a single, carefully monitored server point while the rest of the network (and mostly the servers) remains protected from the internet. At the same time, a vpn will fully encrypt the communication between the user and the corporate network or servers. The combination is very common among larger security teams as a part of the defense-in-depth principle. 

How often should SSH keys be rotated? 

The ideal period to change your SSH keys depends on the security practices of your organization, but generally a good practice is to change SSH keys between 90 and 180 days, or in the case that the user who had access with the key leaves or is no longer able to be contacted, such as when a team member leaves.

Why is only changing the port number for SSH enough to secure that port?

Changing the port reduces automated scanning noise in your logs but isn’t a real security control on its own — port scanners check all ports, so it should never replace key-based auth and firewall rules.

#Secure #Remote #Access #Cloud #ServerCloud,remote access">How to Secure Remote Access to Your Cloud Server in 2026

Protection against unauthorized remote logins to your cloud server is a matter of SSH key-based authentication, a strict security policy on the firewall, two-factor authentication, and a secure communication channel – no individual component will give adequate protection by itself. The major risk point in breaches is not the server but the open door to remote login. To patch that vulnerability, you need a series of countermeasures, not a magical setting.

Why Remote Server Access Is a Common Attack Vector

Every cloud server exposes at least one remote access point – usually SSH on port 22 – and that port is scanned constantly by bots looking for weak credentials. Password-based login is the most common way a system can be attacked by brute force, and it is quite common with a standard setup that the system is left in a state where an admin/user of that system – “root user” – can log in directly by guessing the user ID and the password combination. Add in shared team credentials, forgotten firewall rules from old projects, and staging servers left publicly reachable, and it’s clear why misconfigured remote access – not zero-day exploits – is behind most cloud server compromises. The fix is simple, though you’ll need to do some setup yourself instead of trusting the default setting.

How to lock down SSH access in the right way

The best way to secure remote access is through a series of small improvements rather than one major overhaul. The following is a real working method:

  1. Switch to SSH key authentication, then turn off password login completely in the same location: sshd_config. Keys are far harder to brute-force than passwords.
  2. Disable root login over SSH and require a non-root user with sudo privileges instead; this is a security advantage that even without any change, one key compromising would limit the impact.
  3. Change the default SSH port away from 22 to cut down on automated scanning noise (not a security measure on its own, but it reduces log clutter).
  4. Restrict access by IP using your firewall or security group, allowing SSH only from known office or VPN IP ranges rather than the entire internet.
  5. Add a VPN as a connection layer for anyone accessing servers from outside a trusted network – a VPN like Planet VPN’s free VPN service can encrypt the connection between a remote worker’s laptop and the server before SSH traffic ever leaves their device, which matters especially on public wi-fi or shared networks.

Every step you take closes the doors that the attacker may open slightly, and when you combine everything, you would have a door to a series of locked gates.

Why Do I Need a Bastion Host?

When it comes to teams working with many servers, deploying a bastion host (jump box) may be a clean and effective way to solve the long-term problem. With this method, you only expose SSH to the bastion, and the other servers accept it only when it’s from the bastion’s internal IP. This centralizes logging and makes auditing access far simpler.

Using a virtual private network (VPN) and a bastion host together is perfectly fine – and many solutions use both: a safe way to access the private network via a VPN, followed by use of a bastion host to restrict which servers can be accessed. Some teams may decide to forgo the bastion because they don’t have the manpower to manage one, and so use a combination of a VPN and a set of firewall rules that still quite a bit lowers the exposure, but without the extra effort.

Mistakes Leading to Leaving Cloud Servers Open

The Mistakes That Cause Leaving Cloud Servers Open: Even the safest development teams may have slip-ups from time to time. One of the most frequent is leaving staged, or test servers with relaxed firewall rules equivalent to those of the production environment – hackers don’t concern themselves with which environment they first land on. Another frequent error is reusing the same SSH key on several servers and clients, causing one hacked laptop to compromise all servers that key has access to.

Another common human error is not removing or changing access when someone leaves the team, so stale credentials remain valid and accessible. At last, putting trust in the strategy of “security through obscurity” – meaning one thinks that setting up the unusual port or hiding the hostname from the public is actually sufficient security – creates a wrong impression of security. This is mostly true; in reality, modern-day attackers scan all ports anyway, and there is no way to hide from them.

System Administrators Guide to Secure Remote Access 

Prohibit SSH password logins totally and depend exclusively on key-based authentication

  • Surely no one wants to type in the password every time; because of this, use only key-based authentication 
  • Deter the user from logging in as root by default and instead use the sudo command to do root tasks
  • A firewall or security group rule can provide great help with IP address-based restrictions on SSH logins 
  • For access that comes from untrusted sources or external networks, use a secure tunnel like a vpn or bastion host
  • Periodically change SSH keys and inspect access lists
  • Maintain records of login attempts and detect brute-force attacks as quickly as possible

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the principal means by which cloud servers suffer break-ins through remote access?

By far the biggest reason why this can happen is unauthorized password-based SSH logins that have been cracked by brute force. The scenario is most likely to develop where the administrator allows root login via password and leaves the default port open.

Sufficient security measures for the server via SSH keys: Do you think it is safe to rely only on key authentication? 

It is true that SSH keys drastically decrease the danger of a successful brute-force attack. However, if there is only key authentication on the server, there are still risks – the server administrator can always enable root login or disable the IP-based login restrictions. So it is recommended to always have these three in the server configuration: disabled root login, restricted access to known IPs, and rotating the keys regularly as the main components of meaningful protection. 

Is it really necessary to set up a separate VPN network while I am able to connect via SSH keys? 

A VPN gives extra security by first encrypting your computer traffic before it reaches your network, where the SSH connection will be used. This is mostly important when working on untrusted networks – like public wi-fi – where there is a threat of a potential hacker in your local network looking at your data.

Bastion host vs VPN as methods of accessing the server? 

The bastion host works by funneling SSH sessions from many users through a single, carefully monitored server point while the rest of the network (and mostly the servers) remains protected from the internet. At the same time, a vpn will fully encrypt the communication between the user and the corporate network or servers. The combination is very common among larger security teams as a part of the defense-in-depth principle. 

How often should SSH keys be rotated? 

The ideal period to change your SSH keys depends on the security practices of your organization, but generally a good practice is to change SSH keys between 90 and 180 days, or in the case that the user who had access with the key leaves or is no longer able to be contacted, such as when a team member leaves.

Why is only changing the port number for SSH enough to secure that port?

Changing the port reduces automated scanning noise in your logs but isn’t a real security control on its own — port scanners check all ports, so it should never replace key-based auth and firewall rules.

#Secure #Remote #Access #Cloud #ServerCloud,remote access

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