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Prime Day Is Next Week, but 61 Great Early Deals Are Already Here

Prime Day Is Next Week, but 61 Great Early Deals Are Already Here

Amazon Prime Day 2025 is fast approaching, and the sale is already underway on some items. To help you find the best early Prime Day deals, we’ve scoured Amazon for deals on the tech we love. As always, every deal we recommend here is on a product our reviewers have personally tested and approved—you won’t find any shoddy dupes or mystery brands here.

This year Prime Day runs for four days, July 8-11, rather than the usual two. That means there’s twice as long to suffer save. Twice as long to score a great deal on a new Amazon Fire Tablet, some AirPods, or a KitchenAid stand mixer.

Be sure to read our explainer on all the Amazon Prime perks you should be taking advantage of.

Updated Thursday, July 3, 2025: We’ve add deals on Amazon’s Kindle Essentials Bundle, Echo Spot, an Arlo security cam, two Tapo cams, the Jackery Explorer 300 power station, the Glimpse Sleep Mask, Brooklinen’s organic sheets, and more.


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Amazon Device Deals

Image may contain: Adapter, Electronics, and Computer

Amazon

Kindle Essentials Bundle including Kindle (2024), Black Fabric Cover, and Power Adapter

If you’re looking to get a new Kindle and want a case, then snag this handy essentials kit while it’s on sale for Prime Day. It includes the latest basic Kindle, a fabric cover, and a power adapter (which is also handy since Kindles only come with a charging cord, no adapter). The bundle only comes with a black Kindle, but you can choose from a couple of cover colors. —Nena Farrell

  • 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’s Echo Spot (7/10, WIRED Recommends) sits somewhere in between being a smart speaker and a smart display. There’s now a small screen on the top half of the device that shows the weather and your calendar or the song you’re playing, but skips other features that smart displays pack. But if you just want a little visual assistance without a full-on recipe guide, I think you’ll actually love this one. —Nena Farrell

Eero 6 Mesh System, 2 rectangular white devices on a wooden table, one facing front and the other backwards showing the ports

Photograph: Simon Hill

Amazon’s Eero Pro 6E (7/10, WIRED Recommends) is a tri-band mesh that adds the 6-GHz band to the familiar 2.4-GHz and 5-GHz bands. If you have a 1 Gbps or faster connection and lots of devices, this is a great mesh system for you. It performed extremely well in our tests, though the 6-Ghz band is short-range.

Amazon Fire Max 11 tablet

Photograph: Amazon

This deal is for the Fire Max 11 (5/10, WIRED Review) bundle, with keyboard. The Fire Max 11 is Amazon’s nicest Fire tablet, but if you’re thinking of doing work, keep in mind that Google’s various office apps won’t work. If you don’t need those, this is a serviceable tablet. The screen is bright and sharp enough, the speakers aren’t bad, and the cameras are 1080p.

Amazon Prime logo on a cardboard box

Photograph: Michael Melia/Alamy

Easily the best audiobook service, Amazon’s Audible Premium Plus gives you access to a library of Audible Originals, audiobooks, and podcasts, one credit per month to use on any audiobook title you fancy, and regular exclusive deals and discounts. Prime members can have three months for free right now (one month for non-Prime members), after which it costs $15 per month.

It may not be the best music streaming service, but Amazon Music Unlimited earned an honorable mention in our guide. Four months of free service for Prime members (three months for non-Prime members) will be enough to tempt some folks to try it.

Apple Prime Day Deals

  • Apple iPad 2025 models in various colors fanned out on a white background

    Photograph: Apple

  • Image may contain: Electronics, Mobile Phone, Phone, Iphone, Computer, Laptop, and Pc

    Photograph: Brenda Stolyar

The iPad (A16) (8/10, WIRED Recommends) has a USB-C port, a Touch ID sensor integrated into the power button, a 12-megapixel rear camera, and a 12-MP selfie camera in landscape mode (with support for Center Stage). You also get 5G on the cellular model. The A16 chip is the same one in the iPhone 14 Pro, iPhone 15, and iPhone 15 Plus. It’s plenty powerful, but there’s not enough RAM to support Apple Intelligence, making it the only iPad in the lineup without access to Apple’s artificial intelligence features (possibly a feature depending on your stance on AI).

Front view of an open MacBook Air M.4. 15-Inch 2025, a thin silver laptop, showing the screen, keyboard, and touchpad.

Photograph: Luke Larsen

Apple

MacBook Air (M4, 2025)

Would it surprise you to know that this is the laptop I am typing on right now? Probably not. The Air is one of the most popular laptops around, and for good reason. You get a powerful, portable laptop with outstanding battery life for under a grand. If your workload is graphics-intensive, you might want to go for the 14- or 16-inch MacBook Pro, but for the rest of us, the Air is the Apple laptop to get.

Apple AirPods Pro 2, two white earbuds, in an open oval shaped case sitting on a wooden surface

Photograph: Christopher Null

Apple

AirPods Pro 2 (With USB-C)

Apple’s latest AirPods Pro (8/10, WIRED Recommends) are ubiquitous for good reason. They’ve now got USB-C in the charging case, and this latest version sounds better than ever before. They have an IP54 sweat- and dust-resistance rating, and the noise-canceling is top-tier. Pair that with six hours of juice and a case with a speaker to help use Apple’s “Find My” feature, and you have a winning combo.

Black and gold smartwatches with large digital screens

Photograph: Apple

The Watch Series 10 (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is the best Apple Watch for most people. It does not have blood oxygen sensing, which is truly preposterous given that almost every other fitness tracker on the planet has it, but it can tell if you have sleep apnea, which otherwise requires a disruptive sleep test to diagnose. The Series 10 is thinner and lighter, so it’s more comfortable to wear while sleeping, and it has fast charging, so it can track more of your activities during the day.

Multiple Apple Watch SE models with different watch faces and bands

Photograph: Apple

The gateway drug of Apple Watches, the entry-level SE is a compelling deal. It doesn’t have the latest standout health features, but it’s compatible with watchOS 11, so you’ll be able to take advantage of the new Vitals app, and it has the S8 chip, which offers support for features like Crash Detection. It remains the best Apple Watch for the money.

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Photograph: Beats 

The Beats Flex are the best headphones for Apple users under $100. They feature quick pairing, easy access to Siri, and seamless Apple Music integration, thanks to Apple’s W1 chip, which ensures a rock-solid wireless connection to iOS devices. We were able to get 12-hour-plus battery life, which is good enough for a few workdays of tunes between trips to the wall charger.

Side view of slim black over-the-ear headphones

Photograph: Amazon

The Beat Solo 4 headphones offer clear and buttery-smooth sound, with good instrumental separation. As you’d expect, there’s hands-free Siri and Apple Spatial Audio support, and they come with a compact carrying case for easy packing. Note that there’s no noise canceling or transparency mode, no auto pause feature, or water-resistance rating.

Anker MagGo Power Bank for Apple Watch, a white and silver rectangular device with a small strap on the side

Photograph: Simon Hill

Anker

MagGo Power Bank for Apple Watch

For those overnight trips it’s nice to have a power bank capable of charging up your Apple Watch. This Anker power bank has a handy pop-up Apple Watch charger that can deliver 5 watts and supports Nightstand mode. It also has a built-in USB-C cable and a USB-C port, so you can deliver up to 30 watts to your phone or another small device.

Two Samsung Galaxy Watch 7s side by side

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

Our top pick watch for Samsung fans, the Galaxy Watch7 features a nice rounded design—the accented 20-mm straps add a nice touch—though it is a little plain. This model infuses artificial intelligence algorithms to improve your health tracking data, like the Energy Score and updated sleep tracking capabilities.

Tech Deals

  • Image may contain: Computer, Electronics, Laptop, Pc, Computer Hardware, Computer Keyboard, Hardware, Monitor, and Screen

    Photograph: Microsoft

  • Image may contain: Computer, Electronics, Laptop, Pc, Computer Hardware, Computer Keyboard, Hardware, and Tablet Computer

    Photograph: Brenda Stolyar

Microsoft

Surface Laptop Copilot+ PC (7th Edition, 2024)

The Surface Laptop (7th Edition) is the best Surface device for most people. If you’re looking for a lightweight and reliable Windows PC with good battery life, look no further. This deal is on the higher-end 13-inch model, with a Snapdragon X Elite processor, 16-GB RAM, and a 1-TB SSD. Performance was excellent in our testing, although this is not a machine for graphics-intensive tasks like video editing or gaming.

Silver laptop opened and showing the Wired website on the screen

Photograph: Dan Thorp-Lancaster

The Acer Aspire Go 14 (7/10, WIRED recommends) won’t win any style or performance awards, but it holds up well as an incredibly affordable Windows laptop. The one major thing it has going for it is fantastic battery life. I was able to hit upwards of 14 hours on a charge, which could make this a great budget option for students who need something that’ll last a whole day on campus. —Luke Larsen

Image may contain: Computer, Electronics, Laptop, Pc, Computer Hardware, Hardware, Monitor, Screen, and Plant

Photograph: Julian Chokkattu

HP’s Chromebook Plus x360 is a good 2-in-1 Chromebook. Its design is nondescript, but the Intel Core i3 chip is plenty speedy for Chromebook workloads, it’s lightweight, and the 2-in-1 design means you can watch movies in tent mode. The speakers sound decent and get surprisingly loud, and the 1,920 X 1,200-pixel resolution is sharp on this 14-inch IPS LCD panel.

TP-Link Deco BE85 router

Photograph: Linksys

This Wi-Fi 7 mesh router offers expansive coverage and is very fast on all bands. You get a good selection of multi-gig Ethernet ports and it’s easy to set up and use. The downside is the price, but this deal helps out with that. You’ll need a HomeShield Pro subscription for online protection and full parental controls.

Philips Hue Light Strip box

Photograph: Philips

Philips Hue

Gradient Smart Lightstrip

With impressive brightness and rich colors, this light strip is easily configurable via the Hue app. There are countless animated scenes to choose from, and it syncs with music or your TV screen when paired with a Play HDMI Sync Box. You can extend or cut this versatile light strip to fit any space, but it’s best tucked away in a recessed spot to reflect light. However, it doesn’t look terrible if you do get a glimpse, thanks to the diffuser. —Simon Hill

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 at up to 2K and 30 frames per second, has a 150-degree field of view, and connects directly to your Wi-Fi. The Tapo app detects motion (person, pet, vehicle) and enables you to set activity zones and privacy zones. Slip a microSD card in for local recording or subscribe to Tapo Care for 30-day video cloud storage. It lacks HDR but is still a top camera and runner-up in our best outdoor security cameras guide. —Simon Hill

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

Photograph: Simon Hill

Baseus

Mini Retractable USB-C Cable

Avoid tangles with this smart retractable cable from Baseus. It’s one of the best USB-C cables you can get, comes in a few fun colors, and has a flat cable rolled up inside a circular case. Pull the USB-C ends and you can fix it at preset lengths (1.1, 1.9, 2.7, or 3.3 feet). When you’re done, just pull and release and it coils back up neatly inside the case. It’s good for charging at up to 100 watts. —Simon Hill

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

Photograph: Simon Hill

This little power bank has a 25,000-mAh capacity and can deliver up to 165 watts to two devices (it tops out at 100 watts for a single device connected via USB-C). The retractable cable is nice, and the clever braided 1-foot USB-C cable doubles as a carry loop. It has a display to show the remaining battery, charging rate in and out, battery temperature, and health.

Ugreen Power Bank

Photograph: Ugreen

Ugreen’s 145-watt charger, with 25,000-mAh battery, is surprisingly compact for the power it provides. There are two USB-C ports and one USB-A port. What sets the Ugreen apart is that you can actually draw 145 watts while charging. That works out to one USB-C port at 100 W and the other at 45 W.

Orange rectangular device with rounded corners and thick case sitting on teal cushioned surface

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

LaCie’s padded drives are great for travel. They’ll stand up to considerable abuse in your bag, and the SSD versions like this one are plenty fast enough for backups on the go. This drive has been supplanted by the new LaCie Rugged SSD Pro5, which is quite a bit faster, but this version is still great and a steal at this price.

Western Digital Black SN850X NVMe Solid State Drive

Photograph: Western Digital

Western Digital

SN850X NVMe Solid State Drive

The best deal here is the 8-TB version of this blazing-fast drive. Western Digital claims up to 7,300 MB/s read speeds, and in benchmark tests, this drive’s results came very close. To take full advantage of the speed, you’ll need a system that supports the PCIe 4.0 SSD standard, but this is a great drive if you want to upgrade a gaming system.

Black notched memory card on blue vinyl

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

Lexar

128GB Professional 2000x SDXC Memory Card

I’ve been shooting with Lexar’s Professional 2000x SDXC Memory Cards for eight years now, and the very first one I ever bought is still going strong. It’s also still one of the fastest cards I have. The UHS-II (U3) speeds go up to (and sometimes over) Lexar’s claimed 300MB/s, and it has no trouble with 5.2K video.

Overhead view of a Nikon Z6 Three, a black digital camera, showing the front side's lens and small dial on the upper left

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

Nikon

Z6III Mirrorless Camera

The Nikon Z6 III (8/10, WIRED Recommends) features Nikon’s 24-megapixel partially stacked CMOS sensor, a very fast and accurate 3D subject-tracking system, and ProRes encoding for video—making it one of the best hybrid, photo/video cameras on the market. It’s our favorite Nikon mirrorless camera.

TV and Soundbar Deals

Samsung S95D, a large screen tv with the screen showing a bird emerging out of water in slow motion

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

Samsung’s flagship S95D OLED TV (8/10, WIRED Recommends) stands out among the best TVs due to its matte-like screen. This can make black levels look less dramatic in some lighting, but it does wonders for bright rooms, dissipating even direct reflections. The TV matches that with searing brightness, deep and vivid colors, excellent picture processing, and tons of features like a built-in hub for cloud gaming. Now near its lowest price ever, it’s a great buy. —Ryan Waniata

Front view of Sony Bravia Theater Quad: 4 silver thin rectangular shaped devices and a small black box-shaped device

Photograph: Amazon

Sony’s Theater Quad system (8/10, WIRED Recommends) is a unique soundbar-style solution, offering some of the best single-box 3D immersion you can buy in a discreet profile designed to disappear on your wall. Each of the four iconspicuous rectangles harbors four drivers, filling your room with cinematic sound. It’s a tough ask at full price, but if you want thrilling cinematics from a system no one sees coming, now’s the time to pounce. —Ryan Waniata

Image may contain: Lamp, Computer Hardware, Electronics, Hardware, Chair, Furniture, Indoors, Interior Design, and Screen

Sony’s slick and capable Bravia Theater 9 soundbar is an also-ran on our best soundbars list due to a price that stretches beyond its spoils compared to top rivals. At a sizable discount, then, the Theater 9 goes from a yellow light to green, offering slick, single-bar Dolby Atmos and surround sound performance, intuitive control, and a spare HDMI 2.1 input for a game console. —Ryan Waniata

Outdoor Deals

White plastic birdhouse with feeder inside and a camera

Courtesy of Birdfy

Netvue

Birdfy Plastic Smart Bird Feeder

I’ve been testing smart bird feeders daily for almost a year now, and I can say definitively that no smart feeder is perfect. However, if you want something at the intersection of reliability, features, and affordability, this feeder, the top pick in our guide to the Best Smart Bird Feeders, is your best bet. This model is especially appealing as it comes with both a lifetime subscription and a solar panel to keep it charged. —Kat Merck

Hydroflask Bottle

Photograph: Dick’s Sporting Goods 

Hydro Flask

Standard Mouth Water Bottle

Hydro Flask has several types of bottles and caps available in a bunch of fun color options. You can choose one color for the bottle, another for the lid, and depending on which one you’re getting, yet another for the strap or straw. In our years of testing, this has proved the most durable water bottle. —Boutayna Chokrane

Small pizza oven sitting on a black shelf outdoors beside a house

Photograph: Adrienne So

Ninja

8-in-1 Woodfire Outdoor Oven

Ninja’s cute and compact outdoor oven (7/10, WIRED Review) is temperature accurate, versatile, and adds a touch of smokiness without you needing to mess with the complexity (or size) of a full smoker. It’s idiot-proof and affordable; we love it for decks and those with limited outdoor cooking space, since you can do a lot of things with it. —Adrienne So

Image may contain: Appliance, Cooler, Device, Electrical Device, and Mailbox

Yeti reinvented the cooler, and we thank them for it. The roto-molded Tundra is built like a tank with 3-inch-thick insulated walls, and in our testing it kept ice frozen for six days in blazing 90-degree-Fahrenehit heat while stored in direct sunlight on WIRED reviewer Adrienne So’s deck. I managed to get five days out of it in the insane humidity of Florida in the spring. A Yeti hard-sided cooler is the best cooler around. Note that this deal is only on the one, wine-colored Tundra. —Scott Gilbertson

Yeti Hopper Flip 8 Cooler, a blue padded device holding canned beverages, leaning against a black golf bag sitting in the grass

Photograph: Ryan Waniata

I like this Yeti for the wide mouth and heavy zipper that never sticks. It’s free-standing, and at 14.25 inches wide, it’s the perfect size for bungeeing to the top of a paddleboard or bike rack. It has both a grab handle on top and a shoulder strap, which provide plenty of points to carabiner a small dry bag or pair of flip-flops. As with the above deal, this is limited to a single color: “Key Lime.” —Ryan Waniata

Weber Jumbo Portable Grill

Photograph: Weber

Of all the portable charcoal grills I’ve tested, the Weber Jumbo Joe remains my favorite. It strikes the best balance of affordability, features, and ease of use. It’s big enough (18.5 inches in diameter) to smoke two racks of ribs or to fit burgers and corn for six people (admittedly, this was crowded), but small enough that you’ll still have room in the trunk for a cooler and camping supplies. —Scott Gilbertson

Prime Day Is Next Week, but 61 Great Early Deals Are Already Here

Photograph: Biolite

BioLite

FirePit+ Smokeless Portable FirePit

Biolite’s FirePit+ is a sleek, portable, mesh box with removable legs, a hibachi-style grill, and an ash bin. It has a rechargeable 10,400 mAh battery that can power 51 air jets for up to 26 hours. This allows you to precisely control the flame, and to some extent, the heat of the fire. The FirePit+ can burn charcoal or wood and, thanks to the fans, you don’t need a charcoal chimney and you’ll never struggle to get a fire burning. —Scott Gilbertson

Image may contain: Grass, Plant, Lawn, Device, Appliance, Cooler, and Electrical Device

Photograph: Simon Hill

Jackery

Explorer 2000 Plus

Our favorite portable power station, the Explorer 2000 Plus, has everything you need. It’s got plenty of ports, supports fast charging, and the 2,042-watt-hour capacity will keep you running for days. You can charge it speedily from your AC outlet, but it also works with solar panels, like Jackery’s SolarSaga 200-W Solar Panel. Just be aware that it weighs a hefty 62 pounds. —Simon Hill

Jackery Explorer 300 Plus, a large grey square battery-shaped device with handle on top, outlets on the front face, and a small screen.

Photograph: Simon Hill

Cute and compact, this portable battery has a fold-out handle, a 288-WH capacity, and weighs 8.3 pounds. It has two USB-C ports (18 W and 100 W), one USB-A (15 W), a car port (120 W), and an AC outlet (300 W, 600 W surge). That’s enough to keep your small gadgets going, and when the power runs out, simply unfurl the book-sized 40-watt solar panel. It took me around eight hours to charge it from the sun. —Simon Hill

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

Photograph: Scott Gilbertson

Sawyer

Squeeze Water Filter

When I’m not testing something else, this is the backpacking water filtration system I use, and it’s never let me down. It’s our top pick for ultralight hikers and backpackers. It weighs just 3 ounces and has a filtration level of 0.1 microns (which gets rid of E. coli, salmonella, giardia, cryptosporidium, and other common problems). The Squeeze also connects to any 28-mm diameter soda bottle (your basic 20-ounce Coke bottle, for example). —Scott Gilbertson

Hand holding small black and red device with a thick antenna and small screen

Photograph: Kieran Alger

I have yet to do a trip with a satellite communicator, but I do understand why people use them. If I were to bring one along, this is the one I’d get. It’s tiny, light (3.5 ounces), and easily stashable. It utilizes the super-fast Iridium satellite network, so you can send a rapid SOS from pretty much anywhere. There are extra features like waypoints and interval tracking, and it plays nice with compatible Garmin watches. —Scott Gilbertson

Best Home Deals

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

Photograph: Amazon

KitchenAid

Artisan Series 5 Quart Stand Mixer

The Artisan is a design classic, but it doesn’t just look great, it performs as well. It’s got plenty of power, and the tilt head lifts smoothly so you can change attachments. You get four attachments in total, including a dough hook, a wire whip, a pastry beater, and a flex edge beater that manages to get right up to the sides of the bowl so no cake mixture is left behind. —Kat Merck

Instant Pot Instant Vortex 9-quart Air Fryer with VersaZone Technology sitting on a white table in front of a brick wall

Photograph: Matthew Korfhage

Instant Pot

Instant Vortex 9-quart Air Fryer with VersaZone Technology

The Instant Vortex Air Fryer is great for large families, and it’s the best-performing dual-zone basket fryer we’ve tested. The operation is intuitive—hard to come by among dual-basket devices whose recipes sometimes require very strange math or irritating button-presses. —Matthew Korfhage

Image may contain: Electrical Device, Microphone, Device, and Appliance

Courtesy of Dyson

The best budget Dyson vac, the Digital Slim is basic, but powerful. It lacks some of the features on newer models. For example, instead of a single power button, it still has a trigger you have to hold down while vacuuming. You’ll do get a Motorbar cleaner head, a combination tool, and a crevice tool in the box. It’s not compatible with fancier accessories like the Laser Slim Fluffy cleaner head that shoots out a green laser to spot microscopic dust. We have seen the price dip lower on sale, but this is still a solid deal. —Nena Farrell

  • Image may contain: Blanket

    Courtesy of Brooklinen

  • Image may contain: Home Decor, Linen, Bed, Furniture, Napkin, Blanket, and Cushion

    Photograph: Nena Farrell

Brooklinen

Organic Cotton Sheets

If you want to switch to organic bedding on a budget, our favorite organic sheets from Brooklinen are on sale right now for Prime Day, along with the rest of Brooklinen’s Amazon storefront. These sheets are light and crisp, and just a touch softer than Brooklinen’s non-organic percale sheets. You’re getting the best of everything in one set. —Nena Farrell

Buffy Breeze Comforter in white draped over a low platform bed with wooden headboard in a large loft with a potted plant and window in the left corner

Photograph: Buffy

I keep this blanket on my bed all year long. It’s an honorable mention in our down comforter buying guide. The down alternative comforter’s shell and fill are made with eucalyptus, which makes it nice and cooling in the summer, but the blanket itself is heavy and warm enough that it works well in winter too. It’s basically perfect. It also has loops for a duvet. —Louryn Strampe

Small black air purifier beside another white device with a cat standing on top

Photograph: Lisa Wood Shapiro

Shark

NeverChange Air Purifier

As seen in our guide to the Best Air Purifiers, Shark’s NeverChange doesn’t sport a filter you never have to change, but it does last up to five years. WIRED reviewer Lisa Wood Shapiro found that this is only true in very small rooms, but it’s still a great deal on a decent air purifier, which now comes in fun colors like green and lavender. (Those ones aren’t on sale, though.) —Kat Merck

  • Image may contain: Device, Appliance, Electrical Device, and Washer

    Photograph: Petkit

  • Image may contain: Tape

    Photograph: Molly Higgins

This automatic litter box (8/10 WIRED Recommends) uses a camera and AI technology to monitor litter box usage, and actually lets you see your cat’s stool to help more closely monitor their health. The connected app logs and monitors usage, including the number of times used and the average duration. At $750, this usually pricey upgrade is the lowest we’ll probably see this year. —Molly Higgins

  • Image may contain: Electronics, Speaker, Cup, and Camera

    Photograph: Molly Higgins

  • Image may contain: Electronics, Speaker, and Camera

    Courtesy of Petcube

I love this pet camera from Petcube—it’s already super-affordable before the APD discount, and it has 360 PTZ rotation capabilities, 1080p HD resolution, 8X digital zoom, two-way audio, and night vision. The camera feed rotates smoothly, and the wide fish-eye-like lens and panning abilities allow you to see pretty much the entire room. For a little over 50 bucks, this is the best pet camera you can buy at this price point. —Molly Higgins

  • Image may contain: Electronics, Camera, and Webcam

    Photograph: Molly Higgins

  • Image may contain: Electronics, Person, Camera, Animal, Canine, Dog, Mammal, Pet, Speaker, and Webcam

    Photography: Imilab

Imilab

C30 Dual Security Camera

This dual camera has 3K high definition, with 360-degree rotation up top, and a stationary camera below for even more coverage (plus it can be mounted upside down). There’s also live view and two-way chat, night vision, and 6X zoom. AI detection alerts to things like barks, meows, loud noises, and fire, so you can receive notifications for anything alarming. I love that the dual cameras let me keep an eye on my pets (and everything else) while away. At $60, this is a great deal for a super nice pet cam. —Molly Higgins

Rectangular cylindrical security camera sitting on a wooden surface

Photograph: Simon Hill

Folks with a Ring doorbell seeking security inside the home can keep everything in one app with this camera. The Ring Indoor Cam (2nd Gen) records crisp 1080p footage at 24 frames per second, boasts color night vision, and has a privacy shutter you can swivel around. You get motion alerts and two-way audio, the pre-roll captures a few seconds before each event, and there’s even a built-in siren. It’s two for the price of one with this deal! —Simon Hill

Oval shaped indoor security camera by Arlo with white base and black front, sitting on wooden surface

Photograph: Simon Hill

Arlo

Essential Indoor Security Camera (2nd Gen)

Offering everything you want, including crisp 2K video at 24 frames per second, two-way audio, and a compact design that includes a privacy shutter, this is the upgrade pick in our best indoor security cameras guide and it’s no wonder. The Arlo app is swift to load, offers excellent notifications, and supports two-factor authentication, so you can log in with your fingerprint or face, phone permitting. We’ve seen discounts before but never this low. The only catch is the pricey subscription. —Simon Hill

Image may contain: Electronics, Camera, and Webcam

Photograph: Simon Hill

Compact and affordable, with an IP66 rating, this security camera can be used indoors or out, though it does have to be plugged in. The starlight sensor enables color night vision. It also offers smart detection (people, pets, and vehicles), up to 2K resolution, and slightly laggy two-way audio. You can record locally on a microSD card or subscribe for cloud storage. This versatile device also has a magnetic mount and tiny dual spotlights. —Simon Hill

Apple AirTags

Photograph: Amazon

AirTags can be a bit divisive, but they’re the best way to keep tabs on your stuff if you have an iPhone. Set up with the Find My app, and you’ll always know where everything is.

Overhead selfie from the neck up of a person with pink hair wearing a tie-dye Blissy Sleep Mask while laying on a purple pillow with a grey bed headboard behind them

Photograph: Louryn Strampe

This is the best sleep mask overall. It’s affordable and stylish, with many different colors to choose from. It’s also soft, lightweight, and breathable thanks to its mulberry silk construction. The elastic band isn’t too tight, and the mask does a solid job at blocking out most light. And I like that it comes with a drawstring case, so I don’t misplace it easily. —Louryn Strampe

Image may contain: Hair, Person, Adult, Accessories, Glasses, Pink Hair, Smoke Pipe, Bracelet, and Jewelry

Photograph: Louryn Strampe

Bellissima

Italia Diffon Supreme Ionic XL

This is the best diffuser for curly hair. I reach for it all the time. The hourglass design makes it easy to hold and maneuver around your noggin, and it’s easy to store, too, thanks to its compact design. It doesn’t dry your hair super-fast compared to other dryers—it added about 10 minutes to my normal drying time—but the sleek, frizz-free curls are worth it. —Louryn Strampe

Top: Overhead selfie from the neck up of a person with pink hair wearing a Turtle Glimpse Sleep Mask, a two layer mask with grey cover and purple underlayer. Bottom: View of the eye cushions inside the mask.

Photograph: Louryn Strampe

This awesome sleep mask has an outer flap that lets you peer into the outside world. It still does a good job of blocking out light, but when you need to check the time or want to figure out what that weird airplane noise was, you don’t have to completely remove the eye mask to do it. It also comes with earplugs and a carrying case, and the mask has a silky, cooling exterior that puts me right to sleep. —Louryn Strampe

GHD Platinum plus 1

Photograph: Amazon

GHD has something of a cult following due to its reliability and unique features like a single temperature setting (365 degrees Fahrenheit) and fun little chime to let you know it’s heated up. We tout it as a more affordable alternative to the popular GHD Chronos (7/10, WIRED Review) in our guide to the Best Hair Straighteners, and at $73 off, it’s about as good a deal as you’re going to find on a GHD. —Kat Merck

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

Photograph: Amazon

Waterpik

Cordless Advanced 2.0 Water Flosser

This cordless powerhouse is compact, waterproof (yes, you can use it in the shower), and charges fast in four hours. It offers three pressure settings, four tips, and a 360-degree rotating handle that gets into every nook of your mouth. The water reservoir runs for about 45 seconds per fill, just enough for a thorough clean. It also comes with a microfiber travel bag, tip case, water plug, and universal voltage. It’s ideal for neat freaks or frequent travelers. —Boutayna Chokrane

Philips Sonicare 4100 Toothbrush

Photograph: Philips

Philips

Philips Sonicare 4100 Electric Toothbrush

There are countless Philips Sonicare electric toothbrushes to choose from, but I keep coming back to the trusty 4100. Its gentle vibrations are easier on gums than the more aggressive oscillating brushes. You get a two-minute timer, two intensity settings, and a pressure sensor to protect your enamel. Battery life is excellent, lasting about two weeks per charge, and the built-in BrushSync tech lets you know when it’s time to replace the head. It’s simple, smart, and under $50. —Boutayna Chokrane

  • Image may contain: Brush, Device, Tool, Electrical Device, Microphone, Appliance, and Blow Dryer

    Courtesy of Revlon

  • Image may contain: Brush, Device, Tool, Appliance, Blow Dryer, Electrical Device, and Microphone

    Photograph: Nena Farrell

  • Image may contain: Clothing, Long Sleeve, Sleeve, Blouse, Adult, Person, Head, Face, Photography, Portrait, and Knitwear

    Photograph: Nena Farrell

Revlon

Revlon One-Step Volumizer Plus

We’ve loved the Revlon One-Step Volumizer Plus (8/10, WIRED Recommends) for a while. It dries and styles in one go with a 2-inch oval barrel and four heat modes (including a cool setting). The detachable head makes it easy to pack or stash in a drawer, and the ceramic titanium tech reduces heat exposure by 50 percent. It’s a smarter (and safer) upgrade from the original version—which had recall issues overseas—and a cheaper alternative to Drybar tools. —Boutayna Chokrane

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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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