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Before yesterdayWIRED

The $2.3 Billion Tornado Cash Case Is a Pivotal Moment for Crypto Privacy

By Andy Greenberg
Tuesday’s verdict in the trial of Alexey Pertsev, a creator of crypto-privacy service Tornado Cash, is the first in a string of cases that could make it much harder to skirt financial surveillance.

A Vast New Data Set Could Supercharge the AI Hunt for Crypto Money Laundering

By Andy Greenberg
Blockchain analysis firm Elliptic, MIT, and IBM have released a new AI model—and the 200-million-transaction dataset it's trained on—that aims to spot the “shape” of bitcoin money laundering.

The Biggest Deepfake Porn Website Is Now Blocked in the UK

By Matt Burgess
The world's most-visited deepfake website and another large competing site are stopping people in the UK from accessing them, days after the UK government announced a crackdown.

The Real-Time Deepfake Romance Scams Have Arrived

By Matt Burgess
Watch how smooth-talking scammers known as “Yahoo Boys” use widely available face-swapping tech to carry out elaborate romance scams.

How to Stop Your Data From Being Used to Train AI

By Matt Burgess, Reece Rogers
Some companies let you opt out of allowing your content to be used for generative AI. Here’s how to take back (at least a little) control from ChatGPT, Google’s Gemini, and more.

Glassdoor Wants to Know Your Real Name

By Amanda Hoover
Anonymous, candid reviews made Glassdoor a powerful place to research potential employers. A policy shift requiring users to privately verify their real names is raising privacy concerns.

There Are Dark Corners of the Internet. Then There's 764

By Ali Winston
A global network of violent predators is hiding in plain sight, targeting children on major platforms, grooming them, and extorting them to commit horrific acts of abuse.

US Lawmaker Cited NYC Protests in a Defense of Warrantless Spying

By Dell Cameron
A closed-door presentation for House lawmakers late last year portrayed American anti-war protesters as having possible ties to Hamas in an effort to kill privacy reforms to a major US spy program.

Binance’s Top Crypto Crime Investigator Is Being Detained in Nigeria

By Andy Greenberg
Tigran Gambaryan, a former crypto-focused US federal agent, and a second Binance executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, have been held in Abuja without passports for two weeks.

Airbnb Bans All Indoor Security Cameras

By Amanda Hoover, Matt Burgess
Starting at the end of April, Airbnb will no longer allow hosts to have security cameras inside their rental properties, citing a commitment to prioritizing guest privacy.

Meta Abandons Hacking Victims, Draining Law Enforcement Resources, Officials Say

By Dell Cameron
A coalition of 41 state attorneys general says Meta is failing to assist Facebook and Instagram users whose accounts have been hacked—and they want the company to take “immediate action.”

Inside Registered Agents Inc., the Shadowy Firm Pushing the Limits of Business Privacy

By William Turton, Dhruv Mehrotra
Registered Agents Inc. has for years allowed businesses to register under a cloak of anonymity. A WIRED investigation reveals that its secretive founder has taken the practice to an extreme.

Here Come the AI Worms

By Matt Burgess
Security researchers created an AI worm in a test environment that can automatically spread between generative AI agents—potentially stealing data and sending spam emails along the way.

The White House Warns Cars Made in China Could Unleash Chaos on US Highways

By Aarian Marshall, Will Knight
As Chinese automakers prepare to launch in the US, the White House is investigating whether cars made in China could pose a national security threat.

The Notorious Lockbit Ransomware Gang Has Been Disrupted by Law Enforcement

By Matt Burgess
LockBit’s website, infrastructure, and data have been seized by law enforcement—striking a huge blow against one of the world’s most prolific ransomware groups.

London Underground Is Testing Real-Time AI Surveillance Tools to Spot Crime

By Matt Burgess
In a test at one station, Transport for London used a computer vision system to try and detect crime and weapons, people falling on the tracks, and fare dodgers, documents obtained by WIRED show.

The Mystery of the $400 Million FTX Heist May Have Been Solved

By Andy Greenberg
An indictment against three Americans suggests that at least some of the culprits behind the theft of an FTX crypto fortune may be in custody.

US Lawmakers Tell DOJ to Quit Blindly Funding ‘Predictive’ Police Tools

By Dell Cameron
Members of Congress say the DOJ is funding the use of AI tools that further discriminatory policing practices. They're demanding higher standards for federal grants.

How to Opt Out of Comcast’s Xfinity Storing Your Sensitive Data

By Reece Rogers
One of America’s largest internet providers may collect data about your political beliefs, race, and sexual orientation to serve personalized ads.

Child Abusers Are Getting Better at Using Crypto to Cover Their Tracks

By Andy Greenberg
Crypto tracing firm Chainalysis found that sellers of child sexual abuse materials are successfully using “mixers” and “privacy coins” like Monero to launder their profits and evade law enforcement.

Lawmakers Are Out for Blood After a Hack of the SEC’s X Account Causes Bitcoin Chaos

By Joel Khalili
The US Securities and Exchange Commission is under pressure to explain itself after its X account was compromised, leading to wild swings in the bitcoin market.

The SEC’s Official X Account Was ‘Compromised’ and Used to Post Fake Bitcoin News

By Andrew Couts, Andy Greenberg
The US financial regulator says its official @SECGov account was “compromised,” resulting in an “unauthorized” post about the status of Bitcoin ETFs.

The Most Dangerous People on the Internet in 2023

By WIRED Staff
From Sam Altman and Elon Musk to ransomware gangs and state-backed hackers, these are the individuals and groups that spent this year disrupting the world we know it.

Congress Sure Made a Lot of Noise About Kids’ Privacy in 2023—and Not Much Else

By Matt Laslo
Members of the US Congress touted improvements to children’s privacy protections as an urgent priority. So why didn’t they do anything about it?

A Major Ransomware Takedown Suffers a Strange Setback

By Lily Hay Newman
After an 18-month rampage, global law enforcement finally moved against the notorious Alphv/BlackCat ransomware group. Within hours, the operation faced obstacles.

McDonald’s Ice Cream Machine Hackers Say They Found the ‘Smoking Gun’ That Killed Their Startup

By Andy Greenberg
Kytch, the company that tried to fix McDonald’s broken ice cream machines, has unearthed a 3-year-old email it says proves claims of an alleged plot to undermine their business.

End-to-End Encrypted Instagram and Messenger Chats: Why It Took Meta 7 Years

By Lily Hay Newman
Mark Zuckerberg personally promised that the privacy feature would launch by default on Messenger and Instagram chat. WIRED goes behind the scenes of the company’s colossal effort to get it right.

The Binance Crackdown Will Be an 'Unprecedented' Bonanza for Crypto Surveillance

By Andy Greenberg
Binance’s settlement requires it to offer years of transaction data to US regulators and cops, exposing the company—and its customers—to a “24/7, 365-days-a-year financial colonoscopy.”

A New Trick Uses AI to Jailbreak AI Models—Including GPT-4

By Will Knight
Adversarial algorithms can systematically probe large language models like OpenAI’s GPT-4 for weaknesses that can make them misbehave.

Anduril’s New Drone Killer Is Locked on to AI-Powered Warfare

By Will Knight
Autonomous drones are rapidly changing combat. Anduril’s new one aims to gain an edge with jet power and AI.

OpenAI’s Custom Chatbots Are Leaking Their Secrets

By Matt Burgess
Released earlier this month, OpenAI’s GPTs let anyone create custom chatbots. But some of the data they’re built on is easily exposed.

Telegram’s Bans on Extremist Channels Aren't Really Bans

By Vittoria Elliott
A WIRED analysis of more than 100 restricted channels shows these communities remain active, and content shared within them often spreads to channels accessible to the public.

DOJ Charges Binance With Vast Money-Laundering Scheme and Sanctions Violations

By Andy Greenberg
From Russia to Iran, the feds have charged Binance with conducting well over $1 billion in transactions with sanctioned countries and criminal actors.

How to Turn Off Facebook’s Two-Factor Authentication Change

By Reece Rogers
With Meta’s updated 2FA process, the company now automatically trusts devices you often use.

Social Media Sleuths, Armed With AI, Are Identifying Dead Bodies

By Deidre Olsen
Poverty, fentanyl, and lack of public funding mean morgues are overloaded with unidentified bodies. TikTok and Facebook pages are filling the gap—with AI proving a powerful and controversial new tool.

How to Get Facebook Without Ads—if It’s Available for You

By Reece Rogers
Meta now offers users an ad-free option, but it’s only available in Europe for those who can afford the €10-a-month subscription.

The GOP Presidential Debate Is Livestreaming on Rumble, Home to White Nationalist Nick Fuentes

By David Gilbert
The third GOP debate is sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition and will be livestreamed on a platform favored by one of America’s most notorious white nationalists.

This Is the Ops Manual for the Most Tech-Savvy Animal Liberation Group in the US

By Andy Greenberg
For the first time, guerrilla animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere reveals a guide to its investigative tactics and toolkit, from spy cams to night vision and drones.

YouTube's Ad Blocker Detection Believed to Break EU Privacy Law

By K.G. Orphanides
A complaint filed with the EU’s independent data regulator accuses YouTube of failing to get explicit user permission for its ad blocker detection system, potentially violating the ePrivacy Directive.

Intensified Israeli Surveillance Has Put the West Bank on Lockdown

By Tom Bennett
The West Bank was Israel’s surveillance laboratory. Since the Israel-Hamas war began, Palestinian residents have been locked in for days at a time.

The UN Hired an AI Company to Untangle the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis

By David Gilbert
CulturePulse's AI model promises to create a realistic virtual simulation of every Israeli and Palestinian citizen. But don't roll your eyes: It's already been put to the test in other conflict zones.

The New Era of Social Media Looks as Bad for Privacy as the Last One

By Vittoria Elliott
The slow-motion implosion of Elon Musk’s X has given rise to a slew of competitors, where privacy invasions that ran rampant over the past decade still largely persist.

TikTok Streamers Are Staging ‘Israel vs. Palestine’ Live Matches to Cash In on Virtual Gifts

By David Gilbert
TikTokkers are using a little-known livestreaming feature to falsely represent Israelis and Palestinians—and the company is taking a cut of costly in-app gifts viewers give to participants.

Elon Musk Mocked Ukraine, and Russian Trolls Went Wild

By Matt Burgess
Inauthentic accounts on X flocked to its owner’s post about Ukrainian president Vlodymr Zelensky, hailing “Comrade Musk” and boosting pro-Russia propaganda.

The AI-Generated Child Abuse Nightmare Is Here

By Matt Burgess
Thousands of child abuse images are being created with AI. New images of old victims are appearing, as criminals trade datasets.

They Cracked the Code to a Locked USB Drive Worth $235 Million in Bitcoin. Then It Got Weird

By Andy Greenberg
Stefan Thomas lost the password to an encrypted USB drive holding 7,002 bitcoins. One team of hackers believes they can unlock it—if they can get Thomas to let them.

The Hamas Threat of Hostage Execution Videos Looms Large Over Social Media

By David Gilbert
Hamas has threatened to broadcast videos of hostage executions. With the war between Israel and Hamas poised to enter a new phase, are social platforms ready?

Citing Hamas, the US Wants to Treat Crypto "Mixers" as Suspected Money Launderers

By Andy Greenberg
With a new emphasis on the Hamas attacks on Israel, the US Treasury has proposed designating foreign cryptocurrency “mixer” services as money launderers and national security threats.

Who’s Responsible for the Gaza Hospital Explosion? Here’s Why It’s Hard to Know What’s Real

By David Gilbert
A flood of false information, partisan narratives, and weaponized “fact-checking" has obscured efforts to find out who’s responsible for an explosion at a hospital in Gaza.

Elon Musk’s Main Tool for Fighting Disinformation on X Is Making the Problem Worse, Insiders Claim

By Vittoria Elliott, David Gilbert
X is promoting Community Notes to solve its disinformation problems, but some former employees and people who currently contribute notes say it’s not fit for that purpose.

Deepfake Porn Is Out of Control

By Matt Burgess
New research shows the number of deepfake videos is skyrocketing—and the world's biggest search engines are funneling clicks to dozens of sites dedicated to the nonconsensual fakes.

US House Republicans Had Their Phones Confiscated to Stop Leaks

By Matt Laslo
In an attempt to wrest control from raucous far-right hardliners amid the fight for a new House speaker, Republican Party leaders are instituting phone bans to keep backroom deals secret.

New Clues Suggest Stolen FTX Funds Went to Russia-Linked Money Launderers

By Andy Greenberg
Whoever looted FTX on the day of its bankruptcy has now moved the stolen money through a long string of intermediaries—and eventually some that look Russian in origin.

A Graphic Hamas Video Donald Trump Jr. Shared on X Is Actually Real, Research Confirms

By David Gilbert
A video posted by Donald Trump Jr. showing Hamas militants attacking Israelis was falsely flagged in a Community Note as being years old, thus making X's disinformation problem worse, not better.

Elon Musk Is Personally Undermining X’s Efforts to Curb Israel-Hamas War Disinformation

By David Gilbert
X’s Trust and Safety team says it’s working to remove false information related to the Israel-Hamas war. Meanwhile, Elon Musk is sharing conspiracies and chatting with QAnon promoters.

The Israel-Hamas War Is Drowning X in Disinformation

By David Gilbert
People who have turned to X for breaking news about the Israel-Hamas conflict are being hit with old videos, fake photos, and video game footage at a level researchers have never seen.

Inside FTX’s All-Night Race to Stop a $1 Billion Crypto Heist

By Andy Greenberg
The same chaotic day FTX declared bankruptcy, someone began stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from its coffers. A WIRED investigation reveals the company’s “very crazy night” trying to stop them.

White Supremacist Active Clubs Are Breeding on Telegram

By David Gilbert
A “friendlier” front for racist extremism has spread rapidly across the US in recent months, as active club channels network on Telegram's encrypted messaging app.

How Neuralink Keeps Dead Monkey Photos Secret

By Dell Cameron, Dhruv Mehrotra
Elon Musk’s brain-chip startup conducted years of tests at UC Davis, a public university. A WIRED investigation reveals how Neuralink and the university keep the grisly images of test subjects hidden.

Predictive Policing Software Terrible at Predicting Crimes

By Aaron Sankin, Surya Mattu
A software company sold a New Jersey police department an algorithm that was right less than 1 percent of the time.
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