A New Map Shows the Inescapable Creep of Surveillance

The Atlas of Surveillance shows which tech law enforcement agencies across the country have acquired. It's a sobering look at the present-day panopticon...

15 Billion Stolen Logins Are Circulating on the Dark Web

Plus: Facebook's Roger Stone takedown, the BlueLeaks server seizure, and more of the week's top security news...

How to Switch to Signal and Bring All your Texts With You

Thinking of boosting your SMS security by switching to Signal? These tips make sure your messages come with you—even to a new phone...

Ripple20 Bugs Put Hundreds of Millions of IoT Devices at Risk

The so-called Ripple20 vulnerabilities affect equipment found in data centers, power grids, and more...

How to Clean Up Your Old Posts on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram

These tips and tools will help you scrub your social media profiles clean, or give you a fresh start without giving up your username and followers...

Coder-Turned-Kingpin Paul Le Roux Gets His Comeuppance

The programmer who became a flagrant drug lord and weapons trafficker was sentenced in New York City to 25 years in prison...

How Microsoft Dismantled the Infamous Necurs Botnet

A years-long investigation and global cooperation disrupted one of the biggest botnets ever...

Turn Off Siri on Your Lock Screen for Better iOS Security

Every new version of iOS seems to bring with it a fresh lock screen bypass. Head the next one off by shushing Siri on your lock screen...

Feds Charge NSA Contractor Accused of Exposing Russian Hacking

The arrest of an alleged source of a classified leak to the Intercept offers a lesson in the risks of spilling secrets. The post Feds Charge NSA Contractor Accused of Exposing Russian Hacking appeared first on WIRED...

What Is Ransomware? A Guide to the Global Cyberattack’s Scary Method

Ransomware is malware that locks your keyboard or computer to prevent you from accessing your data until you pay a ransom. The post What Is Ransomware? A Guide to the Global Cyberattack's Scary Method appeared first on WIRED...

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...

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...

Data Brokers’ and AI Firms’ Opt-Out Forms Are Built to Fail, Report Finds

A new study finds AI companies, defense firms, and dating apps are among 38 data collectors allegedly using manipulative design to confuse users while collecting their data...

Mysterious Database of 184 Million Records Exposes Vast Array of Login Credentials

The trove has now been taken down but included users’ logins for platforms including Apple, Google, and Meta, plus services from multiple governments...

CFPB Quietly Kills Rule to Shield Americans From Data Brokers

Russell Vought, acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, has canceled plans to more tightly regulate the sale of Americans’ sensitive personal data...

ICE’s Deportation Airline Hack Reveals Man ‘Disappeared’ to El Salvador

Plus: A DOGE operative’s laptop reportedly gets infected with malware, Grok AI is used to “undress” women on X, a school software company’s ransomware nightmare returns, and more...

US Customs and Border Protection Quietly Revokes Protections for Pregnant Women and Infants

CBP’s acting commissioner has rescinded four Biden-era policies that aimed to protect vulnerable people in the agency’s custody, including mothers, infants, and the elderly...

You Need to Create a Secret Password With Your Family

AI voice cloning and deepfakes are supercharging scams. One method to protect your loved ones and yourself is to create secret code words to verify someone’s identity in real time...

Russian Spies Jumped From One Network to Another Via Wi-Fi in an Unprecedented Hack

In a first, Russia's APT28 hacking group appears to have remotely breached the Wi-Fi of an espionage target by hijacking a laptop in another building across the street...

Inside the Booming ‘AI Pimping’ Industry

AI-generated influencers based on stolen images of real-life adult content creators are flooding social media...

Internet Archive Breach Exposes 31 Million Users

The hack exposed the data of 31 million users as the embattled Wayback Machine maker scrambles to stay online and contain the fallout of digital—and legal—attacks...

The NSA Has a Podcast—Here's How to Decode It

The spy agency that dared not speak its name is now the Joe Rogan of the SIGINT set. And the pod's actually worth a listen...

The Age of the Drone Police Is Here

A WIRED investigation, based on more than 22 million flight coordinates, reveals the complicated truth about the first full-blown police drone program in the US—and why your city could be next...

A US Company Enabled a North Korean Scam That Raised Money for WMDs

Wyoming’s secretary of state has proposed ways of “preventing fraud and abuse of corporate filings by commercial registered agents” in the aftermath of the scheme’s exposure...

‘Largest Botnet Ever’ Tied to Billions in Stolen Covid-19 Relief Funds

The US says a Chinese national operated the “911 S5” botnet, which included computers worldwide and was used to file hundreds of thousands of fraudulent Covid claims and distribute CSAM, among other crimes...

Microsoft Deploys Generative AI for US Spies

Plus: China is suspected in a hack targeting the UK’s military, the US Marines are testing gun-toting robotic dogs, and Dell suffers a data breach impacting 49 million customers...

‘TunnelVision’ Attack Leaves Nearly All VPNs Vulnerable to Spying

TunnelVision is an attack developed by researchers that can expose VPN traffic to snooping or tampering...

You Should Update Apple iOS and Google Chrome ASAP

Plus: Microsoft patches over 60 vulnerabilities, Mozilla fixes two Firefox zero-day bugs, Google patches 40 issues in Android, and more...

WhatsApp Chats Will Soon Work With Other Encrypted Messaging Apps

New EU rules mean WhatsApp and Messenger must be interoperable with other chat apps. Here’s how that will work...

US Lawmakers Want to Use a Powerful Spy Tool on Immigrants and Their Families

Legislation set to be introduced in Congress this week would extend Section 702 surveillance of people applying for green cards, asylum, and some visas—subjecting loved ones to similar intrusions...

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

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...

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

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?...

The Dangerous Mystery of Hamas’ Missing ‘Suicide Drones’

Hamas has long touted its military drones, but little is known about the true scale of the threat. The answer may have consequences for people on both sides of the Israel-Gaza border...

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

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

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...

The US Congress Was Targeted With Predator Spyware

Plus: Hamas raised millions in crypto, Exxon used hacked data, and more...

23andMe User Data Stolen in Targeted Attack on Ashkenazi Jews

At least a million data points from 23andMe accounts appear to have been exposed on BreachForums. While the scale of the campaign is unknown, 23andMe says it's working to verify the data...

Massive MGM and Caesars Hacks Epitomize a Vicious Ransomware Cycle

Cyberattacks on casinos grab attention, but a steady stream of less publicized attacks leave vulnerable victims struggling to recover...

Top US Spies Meet With Privacy Experts Over Surveillance 'Crown Jewel'

Civil rights groups say efforts to get US intelligence agencies to adopt privacy reforms have largely failed. Without those changes, renewal of a post-911 surveillance policy may be doomed...

This Tool Lets Hackers Dox Almost Anyone in the US

The US Secret Service’s relationship with the Oath Keepers gets revealed, Tornado Cash cofounders get indicted, and a UK court says a teen is behind a Lapsus$ hacking spree...

The Last Hour Before Yevgeny Prigozhin's Plane Crash

Russia tightly controls its information space—making it hard to get accurate information out of the country. But open source data provides some clues about the crash...

The Bold Plan to Create Cyber 311 Hotlines

UT-Austin will join a growing movement to launch cybersecurity clinics for cities and small businesses that often fall through the cracks...

A Mysterious Group Has Ties to 15 Years of Ukraine-Russia Hacks

Kaspersky researchers have uncovered clues that further illuminate the hackers’ activities, which appear to have begun far earlier than originally believed...

Google Is Rolling Out Passkeys, the Password-Killing Tech, to All Accounts

The tech industry’s transition to passkeys gets its first massive boost with the launch of the alternative login scheme for Google’s billions of users...

The Hacker Who Hijacked Matt Walsh’s Twitter Was Just ‘Bored’

The breach of the right-wing provocateur was simply a way of “stirring up some drama,” the attacker tells WIRED. But the damage could have been much worse...

Online Sleuths Untangle the Mystery of the Nord Stream Sabotage

Open source intelligence researchers are verifying and debunking opaque claims about who ruptured the gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea...

I Got Investigated by the Secret Service. Here's How to Not Be Me

Don't drink and tweet...

The World’s Real ‘Cybercrime’ Problem

From US state laws to the international stage, definitions of “cybercrime” remain vague, broad, and increasingly entrenched in our legal systems...

What to Do When Your Boss Is Spying on You

Employee monitoring increased with Covid-19’s remote work—and stuck around for back-to-the-office...

The Push to Ban TikTok in the US Isn’t About Privacy

Lawmakers are increasingly hellbent on punishing the popular social network while efforts to pass a broader privacy law have dwindled...