I love Python, so I maybe somewhat biassed about this article on Dropbox’s Blog: Thank You, Guido

After upgrading to MacOS Catalina, I could no longer connect to open WiFI networks, specifically hotel networks and coffee shops. Previously, when connecting to one of these networks, a dialog would appear to ask for confirmation, a username/password combination, etc. No longer with Catalina.

After some extensive searching on the internet, the solution I found is launching the Captive Network Assistant manually. I wrote a small bash script to launch it from the command line on a terminal window:

#!/bin/bash

/System/Library/CoreServices/Captive\ Network\ Assistant.app/Contents/MacOs/Captive\ Network\ Assistant

(You should always use some kind of VPN when connecting to non-encrypted public networks.)

US-CERT on the August/September 2018 ATM hacks which affected several nations:

(…) all of the compromised switch application servers were running unsupported IBM Advanced Interactive eXecutive (AIX) operating system versions beyond the end of their service pack support dates;

This is the typical example of short-term thinking. Someone/some comittee decides not to spend on a supported version of a particular software, but don’t consider what the downside could be.