Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Need some help with today’s Mini Crossword? I didn’t know 1-Across at all, so had to skip around today and fill in the others where I could. Want the answers? Read on. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Product that Wrigley manufactured before entering the chewing gum industry
Answer: SOAP

5A clue: Hemsworth or Pratt
Answer: CHRIS

7A clue: Superior to
Answer: ABOVE

8A clue: ___ buddies (close pals)
Answer: BOSOM

9A clue: Abominable Snowman
Answer: YETI

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: «Souvenir» from a scrape
Answer: SCAB

2D clue: «Here we go again …»
Answer: OHBOY

3D clue: Suddenly came up, as an issue
Answer: AROSE

4D clue: Bit of basketball footwork
Answer: PIVOT

6D clue: Vehicle that might frustrate highway drivers when it moves into the passing lane
Answer: SEMI

Major credit bureau TransUnion has suffered a data breach that exposed sensitive information belonging to 4.4 million customers, including names and Social Security numbers. 

The data breach took place on July 28. A TransUnion spokesperson told CNET that the incident was identified and contained within hours. The credit bureau is notifying people who may have been affected that their information could be exposed and sharing the actions the company is taking. 

Consumer rights law firm Wolf Haldenstein issued an alert on the breach and encouraged those who have received a notice and spot unusual activity on their credit report to reach out. 

Don’t miss any of our unbiased tech content and lab-based reviews. Add CNET as a preferred Google source on Chrome.

Two separate state filings shed more details on the situation. A court filing in Maine shows that TransUnion acknowledged unauthorized access from a third-party application that stored personal customer data. While the notice to consumers says that no credit information was accessed, «limited personal information» was exposed. However, another filing from Texas states that names of individuals, Social Security numbers, and birthdates were exposed in the breach. 

The TransUnion spokesperson further clarified that the breach involved a third-party application serving its U.S. consumer support operations, but did not include its core credit database or credit reports. The bureau has engaged third party cybersecurity experts for an independent forensics review.  

Even if you haven’t received a notice, if you’ve experienced unusual activity on your credit report, you can always freeze your credit for free, enable two-factor authentication or add a security key to your accounts.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a weird one. But once I caught the theme, the words were short and easy to unscramble. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. 

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Things are starting to take shape.

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Sophomores often take this.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

• TETRA, ONLY, MULE, CRATE, RATE, LESS, CRASS, ROTE, MOTE, POLE, MOLE, ANGEL, NICE, VASE, VASES, LANE, TOME, LOIN

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

• AREA, LINE, ANGLE, PLANE, POINT, CIRCLE, VOLUME

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is GEOMETRYCLASS. To find it, look for the G that’s three letters to the right on the top row, and wind down.