Here’s the Truth About Whether Meta’s NameTag Face Recognition Tech ‘Exists’

Since WIRED reported on Meta’s NameTag face recognition system, company executives have made confusing and conflicting remarks about its very existence...

A Leak of San Francisco Police Drone Footage Exposes the New Reality of Urban Surveillance

The SFPD’s exposure of hours of videos from drone platform Skydio reveals how broadly it’s watching the city from above—and how the results can spill online...

AI Found a Root Bug in Linux That Everyone Missed for 15 Years

Plus: The Pentagon is training amateurs to become part of its hacker army, a Flock license plate reader error led to cops surrounding a car reviewer, and more...

A Majority of European Lawmakers Voted Against Letting Big Tech Read Our Messages. They’re Going to Anyway

Companies will once again be allowed to scan citizens’ personal texts, emails, and social media messages via the “Chat Control” bill to find child abuse material online...

Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay Celebrities

An MSG database tracked and categorized hundreds of celebs, famous Knicks superfans, and even some of Taylor Swift’s wedding guests. Labels included “LGBTQIA,” “DO NOT HOST,” and low to high “risk.”...

OnlyFans Models Are Accidentally Making Hacked Government Websites Disappear

Scammers are hijacking government websites to upload ads for “leaked” OnlyFans content. Thousands of copyright complaints from adult creators are helping people avoid malicious links...

What Happens if China Hacks the US Water Supply? I Went to a Secret War Game to Find Out

Burst water mains. Evacuated hospitals. In a closed-door simulation, insurers played out their response to a mass disruption by China’s Volt Typhoon hackers—and found a nightmare scenario...

ICE’s Internal Watchdog Is Now Investigating Online Critics

The Office of Professional Responsibility has opened more than 100 cases over what ICE officials call “incidents of doxing and threats” against ICE employees...

Security Roundup: Apple’s Hide My Email Service Fails to Hide Your Email

Plus: Alleged Scattered Spider hacking member extradited, dozens of license plate reader errors, and Indian officials are concerned about WhatsApp’s username rollout...

EU Politicians Investigated Pegasus Spyware. Then It Ended Up on One of Their Phones

“It is a direct attack on the rule of law,” says one European Parliament member of the new findings from Citizen Lab...

Claude Helped a Hacker Find a Way to Issue Tickets to Almost Every US Music Festival

A researcher found that using Anthropic’s Claude Opus 4.7, he could break into the website of Front Gate—used by every festival from Lollapalooza to Bonnaroo—and freely issue any ticket he chose...

Meta Contractors Posed as Teens to Prompt Rival Chatbots About Suicide, Sex, and Drugs

Hundreds of contractors working on a project for Meta pretended to be kids in order to see how other chatbots like Gemini and ChatGPT would respond to high-risk subjects, WIRED found...

Top Google Security Staff Warn Search Data Could Be Hacked if EU Rules Change

Europe’s pro-competition proposals could see Google Search and Android systems opened up. The company claims there are serious privacy flaws...

Security News This Week: LastPass Users Had Their Data Stolen—Again

Plus: Former national security advisor John Bolton pleads guilty in classified-materials case, Microsoft helps take down major infostealer infrastructure, and more...

The Pentagon Is Looking Into the Dialog Data Exposure for Unmasking National Security Officials

Exposed records from the private group included the personal information of a senior White House intelligence official and an active-duty special operations officer...

British Police Built a Sprawling Crime-Prediction Machine. Some Results Couldn’t Be Trusted

As UK police embrace the AI revolution, a WIRED investigation reveals the messy inside story of one region’s experiment with predictive analytics...

Dialog Claims It Was Hacked. A Misconfigured Website Left Its Members Exposed

The private events group, cofounded by Peter Thiel, says a “criminal” hacker is behind a breach that exposed members’ personal details. WIRED found no evidence a break-in was needed to access the files...

OpenAI Launches Full-Scale Effort to Patch Open-Source Bugs as It Takes on Anthropic’s Mythos

Amid concerns about AI models’ cybersecurity capabilities, OpenAI revealed an improved version of GPT-5.5-Cyber and its “Patch the Planet” initiative to fix open-source software bugs...

World Cup Scams Are Getting Harder to Spot

From fake tickets to cloned websites, AI is magnifying World Cup scams. Can fans distinguish between what’s real and what’s not?...

A Critical Deadline Is Approaching for Windows and Linux Security

The cryptographic keys that secure your computer’s boot sequence will start to expire on June 24. Here’s what that means for you...

Hackers Claim to Leak Stolen Madison Square Garden Data

Plus: Gay bars in San Francisco using face scanners, France quits Palantir, Apple plans to change its private email, and more...

How the Peter Thiel-Linked Dialog Club Secretly Ranks Its Members

Leaked files show the invite-only network grades members by their money and fame, shaping who’s in, who’s out, and who pays...

How to Watch the Knicks Parade on NYC Traffic Surveillance Cameras

Artist Morry Kolman will be livestreaming feeds of the NBA champions’ ticker-tape parade from NYC’s traffic cameras—and this time, the city’s Department of Transportation isn’t demanding he stop...

The UK Will Scan Asylum-Seekers’ Faces for Age Checks—Despite Knowing the Tech Is Flawed

Internal Home Office tests of age-verification technology show the risks of life-altering errors. It’s moving forward anyway...

Leak Exposes Members of Peter Thiel’s Secretive ‘Dialog’ Society

More than 200 of the world's elites registered for a retreat whose agenda runs from panels on cult-building and sex to prepping for World War III. An associated app offers matchmaking...

‘Dangerous’ AI Models Are Coming No Matter What

The US government crackdown on Anthropic’s Claude Fable 5 and Mythos 5 hides a glaring truth: AI models with advanced hacking capabilities will soon be the norm...

Meta Tapped a Pentagon Supplier to Prototype Face Recognition for Its Glasses

Rank One, whose board includes a former CIA deputy director and a former FBI science chief, supplied face recognition to Meta for internal development of its smart glasses app...

The FCC Wants to Kill Burner Phones

Plus: AI bug hunting fuels Microsoft’s biggest-ever Patch Tuesday, ShinyHunters ransomware gang exploits an Oracle zero-day, and more...

Grok Is Still Hosting Sexualized Deepfakes of Famous Women

A WIRED investigation found dozens of “nudified” deepfake images and videos on Grok's website, including nonconsensual depictions of celebrities and at least one prominent US politician...

Drug Sites Hijacked Spotify’s Search Ranking Through Fake Podcasts

A joint congressional report describes a spam operation that turned tens of thousands of fake podcasts into search-engine bait for illegal pharmacy and scam sites...

Signal Alums Reveal ‘Encrypted Spaces,’ a System for Making Private Collaboration Apps

The new open-source project could serve as the basis for a future of apps with features as complex as Slack, Discord, or Google Docs—but with added protection against surveillance...

CISA Tells US Agencies to Fix Security Bugs in as Little as 3 Days Thanks to AI Threats

“Defenders cannot afford to take weeks to patch,” one Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency official warned on Wednesday...

Trump Risks Key Surveillance Authority Over ‘Unqualified’ Spy-Chief Pick

US lawmakers are alarmed that Bill Pulte, a housing official with no intelligence experience, is poised to take charge of one of the government's most powerful surveillance tools...

Wrongful Arrest Exposes Failures in One of the Oldest Police Face-Recognition Tools in the US

The ACLU is suing two Florida police departments over the arrest of a Fort Myers man in a child-abduction case, saying officers treated a flawed face-recognition match as a near-certain ID...

Soccer Fans, You’re Being Watched

From anti-drone tech to face recognition, 2026 World Cup stadiums in the US, Canada, and Mexico are subjecting fans to an array of surveillance tech. Here’s what you need to know...

Mapping Every Flock License Plate Reader Near US World Cup Stadiums

Most US World Cup stadiums are surrounded by surveillance cameras. Want to know if you’re being watched on your way to a match? These maps will help you...

Amnesty International Warns That World Cup Fans Face Potential Human Rights Violations

The organization claims that the FIFA tournament could have impacts on the rights of local people and visiting soccer fans in all three host countries...

Anthropic Offers Mythos Upgrade for Cyber Partners and a ‘Safe’ Version for the Rest of You

Anthropic is releasing Claude Mythos 5 to trusted organizations and Claude Fable 5 to the public, a version it says can’t be used for cyberattacks...

Meta Deletes Face-Recognition System From Its Smart Glasses App After WIRED Report

The code WIRED identified is gone from the latest version of Meta AI, the companion app for the company’s smart glasses. Meta won’t say why or whether it’s coming back...

All the Ways Europe Is Ditching American Technology

A WIRED timeline shows how dozens of governments, companies, and other organizations across Europe are moving, or planning to shift, away from US Big Tech...

Crypto-Funded Chinese Peptide Labs Are Booming

Plus: Hackers use Meta’s AI bots to hack Instagram accounts, Anthropic helps NSA hackers, a decades-long GPS satellite mystery may have been solved, and more...

Meta Silently Added Face-Recognition Code for Its Smart Glasses to Millions of Phones

Code reviewed by WIRED uncovered an unreleased face-recognition system embedded in Meta’s smart glasses platform. It’s designed to identify people via biometric data stored on users’ phones...

xAI Asks Court to Strip Alleged Grok Deepfake Nudes Victims of Anonymity

Four people suing Elon Musk's AI firm under pseudonyms due to the risks of being identified may face a difficult choice: Reveal your real names, or drop the lawsuit...

Android Is Fighting Phone Scams With a New Feature to Prove Who’s Calling

Available for Android 12 and later, the anti-scam feature is baked into Google Dialer, which sends a silent “confirmation signal” to ensure whoever’s calling you is who they appear to be...

The Manhattan Institute Helped Kill DEI. Now It’s Coming for Protests

The right-wing think tank is actively pushing “civil terrorism”—increasing penalties for minor crimes committed while people engage in constitutionally protected free speech...

The Romance Scammer Who Made a Small Fortune Posing as a WWE Superstar

In this excerpt from WIRED Book Club pick The Yahoo Boys, journalist Carlos Barragán traces one scammer’s journey from flop to fortune...

Websites Can Now Spy on You Through Your Hard Drive

Thanks to the newly detailed FROST technique, telltale SSD activity can be measured in the browser using simple JavaScript...

Cybercrime Crew Claims It Hacked Mike Lindell’s MyPillow

Plus: A ransomware group is now stealing data in person, BusPatrol wants to hand its license plate surveillance data to the cops, and more...

The White House’s Aliens.gov Site Brags That ICE Arrested More Than 700 US Citizens

The website, which compares human beings to extraterrestrials, touts arrest numbers from the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration crackdown. But some of its details are really out there...

The Pentagon Knew Enemies Could Track Troops’ Phones for Years. Now They Are

The US military has long known that cheap fixes could stop location data from exposing its troops. It adopted almost none—and now says adversaries are using the data to target soldiers during a war...