By Dell Cameron, Andrew Couts — March 16th 2024 at 13:00
Plus: The operator of a dark-web cryptocurrency “mixing” service is found guilty, and a US senator reveals that popular safes contain secret backdoors.
For months, US lawmakers have examined every side of a historic surveillance debate. With the introduction of the SAFE Act, all that’s left to do now is vote.
Every US president has the ability to invoke “emergency powers” that could give an authoritarian leader the ability to censor the internet, restrict travel, and more.
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.
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.
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.
The Pentagon says it’s not hiding aliens, but it stops notably short of saying what it is hiding. Here are the key questions that remain unanswered—some answers could be weirder than UFOs.
By Amanda Hoover, Matt Burgess — March 11th 2024 at 14:38
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.
Content creators are using copyright laws to get nonconsensual deepfakes removed from the web. With the complaints covering nearly 30,000 URLs, experts say Google should do more to help.
By Dhruv Mehrotra, Andrew Couts — March 9th 2024 at 14:00
Plus: An ex-Google engineer gets arrested for allegedly stealing trade secrets, hackers breach the top US cybersecurity agency, and X’s new feature exposes sensitive user data.
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.”
By William Turton, Dhruv Mehrotra — March 5th 2024 at 19:17
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.
The transaction, visible on Bitcoin's blockchain, suggests the victim of one of the worst ransomware attacks in years may have paid a very large ransom.
By Andy Greenberg, Andrew Couts, Matt Burgess — March 2nd 2024 at 14:00
Plus: Apple warns about sideloading apps, a court orders NSO group to turn over the code of its Pegasus spyware, and an investigation finds widely available security cams are wildly insecure.
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 UK’s privacy regulator says the government did not take into account the intrusiveness of ankle tags that continuously monitor a person’s location.
The notorious LockBit gang promised a Georgia court leak "that could affect the upcoming US election.” It didn't materialize—but the story may not be over yet.
Several of the strikes occurred far from the front lines of the conflict, indicating possible war crimes. Researchers say the attacks likely had devastating impacts on civilians.
The White House issued an executive order on Wednesday that aims to prevent the sale of Americans' data to “countries of concern,” including China and Russia. Its effectiveness may vary.
Canada-based Sandvine has long sold its web-monitoring tech to authoritarian regimes. This week, the US sanctioned the company, severely limiting its ability to do business with American firms.
Two months ago, the FBI “disrupted” the BlackCat ransomware group. They're already back—and their latest attack is causing delays at pharmacies across the US.
Ankle tags that constantly log a person’s coordinates are part of a growing cadre of experimental surveillance tools that countries around the world are trying out on new arrivals.
Meet the guy who taught US intelligence agencies how to make the most of the ad tech ecosystem, "the largest information-gathering enterprise ever conceived by man."
Republicans who run elections are split over whether to keep working with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to fight hackers, online falsehoods, and polling-place threats.
Plus: Scammers try to dupe Apple with 5,000 fake iPhones, Avast gets fined for selling browsing data, and researchers figure out how to clone fingerprints from your phone screen.
By Dhruv Mehrotra, Joey Scott — February 23rd 2024 at 01:18
The locations of microphones used to detect gunshots have been kept hidden from police and the public. A WIRED analysis of leaked coordinates confirms arguments critics have made against the technology.
Useful quantum computers aren’t a reality—yet. But in one of the biggest deployments of post-quantum encryption so far, Apple is bringing the technology to iMessage.
Anne Neuberger, the Biden administration’s deputy national security adviser for cyber, tells WIRED about emerging cybersecurity threats—and what the US plans to do about them.
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.
The widespread use of mines has left Ukrainians scrambling to find ways to clear the explosives. New efforts to develop mine-clearing technology may help them push back Russia's invading forces.
Plus: State-backed hackers test out generative AI, the US takes down a major Russian military botnet, and 100 hospitals in Romania go offline amid a major ransomware attack.
A surprise disclosure of a national security threat by the House Intelligence chair was part of an effort to block legislation that aimed to limit cops and spies from buying Americans' private data.
By Dell Cameron, Andrew Couts — February 14th 2024 at 16:05
Prominent advocates for the rights of pregnant people are urging members of Congress to support legislation that would ban warrantless access to sensitive data as the White House fights against it.
Romantic chatbots collect huge amounts of data, provide vague information about how they use it, use weak password protections, and aren’t transparent, new research from Mozilla says.
Top congressional lawmakers are meeting in private to discuss the future of a widely unpopular surveillance program, worrying members devoted to reforming Section 702.
New research finds that Israel’s attacks on Gaza damaged hospitals and other medical facilities at the same rate as other buildings, potentially in violation of international law.
Cyberattacks and criminal scams can impact anyone. But communities of color and other marginalized groups are often disproportionately impacted and lack the support to better protect themselves.
By Elliot Ackerman, Admiral James Stavridis — February 12th 2024 at 11:00
“This eruption of violence had been brewing for years, through successive economic collapses, pandemics, and the utter dysfunction that had become American life.” An exclusive excerpt from 2054: A Novel.
Two researchers have improved a well-known technique for lattice basis reduction, opening up new avenues for practical experiments in cryptography and mathematics.
By Andy Greenberg, Dhruv Mehrotra — February 10th 2024 at 14:00
Plus: China’s Volt Typhoon hackers lurked in US systems for years, the Biden administration’s crackdown on spyware vendors ramps up, and a new pro-Beijing disinformation campaign gets exposed.
Known for doing business with far-right extremist websites, Epik has been acquired by a company that specializes in helping businesses keep their operations secret.
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.
By Elliot Ackerman, Admiral James Stavridis — February 8th 2024 at 11:00
“The people are in the streets. We can’t ignore them any longer. Really, we have little choice. Either we heal together, or we tear ourselves apart.” An exclusive excerpt from 2054: A Novel.
After a slowdown in payments to ransomware gangs in 2022, last year saw total ransom payouts jump to their highest level yet, according to a new report from crypto-tracing firm Chainalysis.
By Elliot Ackerman, Admiral James Stavridis — February 7th 2024 at 11:00
“You’d have an incomprehensible level of computational, predictive, analytic, and psychic skill. You’d have the mind of God.” An exclusive excerpt from 2054: A Novel.
By Elliot Ackerman, Admiral James Stavridis — February 6th 2024 at 11:00
“If molecules really were the new microchips, the promise of remote gene editing was that the body could be manipulated to upgrade itself.” An exclusive excerpt from 2054: A Novel.
By Elliot Ackerman, Admiral James Stavridis — February 5th 2024 at 11:00
“They had, quite swiftly, begun an algorithmic scrub of any narrative of the president suffering a health emergency, burying those stories.” An exclusive excerpt from 2054: A Novel.
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