Security News > 2022 > August > Janet Jackson music video declared a cybersecurity exploit

The music video for Janet Jackson's 1989 song "Rhythm Nation" has been recognized as a cybersecurity vulnerability after Microsoft reported it can crash old laptop computers.

The story detailed how "A major computer manufacturer discovered that playing the music video for Janet Jackson's 'Rhythm Nation' would crash certain models of laptops."

Sometimes playing the video on one laptop would crash another nearby laptop.

This is mysterious because the song isn't actually that bad. Investigation revealed that all the crashing laptops shared the same 5400rpm hard disk drive.

Hardly anybody listens to Janet Jackson anymore.

Owners of laptops with old, slow, hard disks therefore need to be very careful if they hear Janet Jackson tunes while they work - which is why we've not included a link to "Rhythm Nation" in this story.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2022/08/18/janet_jackson_video_crashes_laptops/