Toys “R” Us Is Back—Now With More Surveillance\!

Reports about the toy store using cameras to track shoppers caused an uproar, but the companies behind the tech insist their systems are trained to ignore kids...

So Much For the Deep State Plot Against Donald Trump

Inspector general Michael Horowitz's report shows that the FBI's investigation of ties between Russia and the Trump campaign was both justified and without political bias...

We’re all Just Starting to Realize the Power of Personal Data

This year revealed consumers have a lot more to learn about what happens to their information online...

This Company Wants to Use the Blockchain to Stop Phishing

MetaCert has classified 10 billion URLs as either safe, a suspected source of phishes, or unknown...

iTunes Doesn't Encrypt Downloads—on Purpose

While HTTPS has made the web at large a much safer place, Apple has chosen to forgo it for iTunes and App Store downloads...

Helm Wants You to Control Your Own Data Again

Helm hopes to make running your own private, encrypted server easy for everyone...

Palmer Luckey Is Just Getting Started

The Oculus founder on virtual reality, defense tech, biohacking an injured toe...

Sweden Drops Assange’s Rape Case—But He’s Not Walking Free

The Swedish decision only brings into focus Assange's core conflict with the US government. The post Sweden Drops Assange's Rape Case---But He's Not Walking Free appeared first on WIRED...

A Hacker May Have Deepfaked Trump’s Chief of Staff in a Phishing Campaign

Plus: An Iranian man pleads guilty to a Baltimore ransomware attack, Russia’s nuclear blueprints get leaked, a Texas sheriff uses license plate readers to track a woman who got an abortion, and more...

This Russian Tech Bro Helped Steal $93 Million and Landed in US Prison. Then Putin Called

In the epic US-Russian prisoner swap last summer, Vladimir Putin brought home an assassin, spies, and another prized ally: the man behind one of the biggest insider trading cases of all time...

The Breach of a Face Recognition Firm Reveals a Hidden Danger of Biometrics

Outabox, an Australian firm that scanned faces for bars and clubs, suffered a breach that shows the problems with giving companies your biometric data...

'ArcaneDoor' Cyberspies Hacked Cisco Firewalls to Access Government Networks

Sources suspect China is behind the targeted exploitation of two zero-day vulnerabilities in Cisco’s security appliances...

ChatGPT Spit Out Sensitive Data When Told to Repeat ‘Poem’ Forever

Plus: A major ransomware crackdown, the arrest of Ukraine’s cybersecurity chief, and a hack-for-hire entrepreneur charged with attempted murder...

Secretive White House Surveillance Program Gives Cops Access to Trillions of US Phone Records

A WIRED analysis of leaked police documents verifies that a secretive government program is allowing federal, state, and local law enforcement to access phone records of Americans who are not suspected of a crime...

A Spy Agency Leaked People's Data Online—Then the Data Was Stolen

The National Telecommunication Monitoring Center in Bangladesh exposed a database to the open web. The types of data leaked online are extensive...

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

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...

Security News This Week: US Energy Firm Targeted With Malicious QR Codes in Mass Phishing Attack

New research reveals the strategies hackers use to hide their malware distribution system, and companies are rushing to release mitigations for the “Downfall” processor vulnerability on Intel chips...

Teens Hacked Boston Subway’s CharlieCard to Get Infinite Free Rides—and This Time Nobody Got Sued

In 2008, Boston’s transit authority sued to stop MIT hackers from presenting at the Defcon hacker conference on how to get free subway rides. Today, four teens picked up where they left off...

Apple Expands Its On-Device Nudity Detection to Combat CSAM

Instead of scanning iCloud for illegal content, Apple’s tech will locally flag inappropriate images for kids. And adults are getting an opt-in nudes filter too...

This Hacker Tool Can Pinpoint a DJI Drone Operator's Exact Location

Every DJI quadcopter broadcasts its operator's position via radio—unencrypted. Now, a group of researchers has learned to decode those coordinates...

How a Saxophonist Tricked the KGB by Encrypting Secrets in Music

Using a custom encryption scheme within music notation, Merryl Goldberg and three other US musicians slipped information to Soviet performers and activists known as the Phantom Orchestra...

LA Police Are Collecting Detainees' Social Media Information

According to new documents, officers ask people they stop for their Facebook and Twitter account details, and then feed the data into Palantir...

California Man Stole 620,000 iCloud Photos in Search of Nudes

Plus: The T-Mobile hacker, another big bad Microsoft bug, and more of the week’s top security news...

The T-Mobile Breach Is Much Worse Than It Had to Be

The vast majority of victims weren’t even T-Mobile customers. Now their information is for sale on the dark web...

Ransomware Hit Another Pipeline Firm—and 70GB of Data Leaked

LineStar Integrity Services was hacked around the same time as Colonial Pipeline, but radical transparency activists have brought the attack to light...

Android 12 Will Let You Fine-Tune Permissions for Apps

A new privacy dashboard and “app hibernation” are coming to Google's mobile operating system...

2034, Part VI: Crossing the Red Line

“Eventually, the Americans would find them. But by then it would be too late.”...

A ‘Magical Bug’ Exposed Any iPhone in a Hacker's Wi-Fi Range

A Google researcher found flaws in Apple's AWDL protocol that would have allowed for a complete device takeover...

The iOS Covid App Ecosystem Has Become a Privacy Minefield

An analysis of nearly 500 Covid-related apps worldwide shows major differences in how much data they expect you to give up...

An Engineer Gets 9 Years for Stealing $10M From Microsoft

The defendant tried—and failed—to use bitcoin to cover his tracks...

One Clear Message From Voters This Election? More Privacy

Ballot measures were approved in California to restrict commercial use of user data and in Michigan to require warrants for searches of electronic information...

A Deepfake Porn Bot Is Being Used to Abuse Thousands of Women

An AI tool that “removes” items of clothing from photos has targeted more than 100,000 women, some of whom appear to be under the age of 18...

A Dangerous Year in America Enters Its Most Dangerous Month

Seven distinct factors between now and the election threaten to combine, compound, and reinforce each other in unpredictable ways...

Companies Can Track Your Phone’s Movements to Target Ads

Brands are seeking new ways to customize messages. A startup that gathers data on when you pick up your phone, or when you go out on a run, can help...

Hackers Target Porn Site Visitors Using Flash and Internet Explorer

Plus: Ransomware holds up schools, Zoom adds two-factor, and more of the week's top security news...

Trump's TikTok Drama Is a Distraction

As the White House zeroes in on a single app, some experts say more pressing issues are going by the wayside...

Zoom's End-to-End Encryption Will Be for Paying Customers Only

The videoconferencing company says it wants to be able to work with law enforcement to catch bad actors on its platform...

The Weird Partisan Math of Vote-by-Mail

Research says that expanding mail-in voting doesn’t help Democrats. So why are Republicans so afraid of it?...

How to Avoid the Worst Online Scams

Phishing, malware, and more only escalate in times of uncertainty. Here's how to protect yourself...

Hundreds of Chrome Extensions Secretly Uploaded Private Data

A researcher discovered that hundreds of extensions in the Web Store were part of a long-running malvertising and ad-fraud scheme...

Intel Is Patching the Patch for the Patch for Its ‘Zombieload’ Flaw

Intel's made two attempts to fix the microprocessor vulnerability it was warned about 18 months ago. Third time’s the charm?...

Amazon Takes a Swipe at PayPal's $4 Billion Acquisition

The retail giant warned holiday shoppers that Honey, a popular browser extension, was a “security risk.” Honey denies the claim...

Trump's Ukraine Delusion, Tesla's Ford Showdown, and More News

Catch up on the most important news from today in two minutes or less...

Trump's Ukraine Server Delusion Is Spreading

Even secretary of state Mike Pompeo has given credence to Trump's demonstrably wrong theory that Ukraine hacked the DNC...

How Iran's Government Shut Off the Internet

After years of centralizing internet control, Iran pulled the plug on connectivity for nearly all of its citizens...

Scammers Are Exploiting a Firefox Bug to Freeze Your Browser

Fraudulent tech-support sites are causing the browser to lock up and display a disturbing message. Force quitting is the only way out...

After 6 Years in Exile, Edward Snowden Explains Himself

In a new memoir and interview, the world’s most famous whistle-blower elucidates as never before why he stood up to mass surveillance—and his love for an internet that no longer exists...

The Air Force Will Embed Airmen at Carnegie Mellon University

Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson expounds on surveillance, drones, and the cutting edge of plane-painting...

GoDaddy Takes Down 15,000 Spammy 'Snake Oil' Subdomains

You know those ads hawking bogus brain pills? Security researchers just helped take out a bunch of the spammers behind them...

Intra Gives Older Versions of Android Important DNS Protections

Alphabet subsidiary Jigsaw is using a new app to give DNS encryption protections to any Android smartphone from the last seven years...