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Car Subscription Features Raise Your Risk of Government Surveillance, Police Records Show
Records reviewed by WIRED show law enforcement agencies are eager to take advantage of the data trails generated by a flood of new internet-connected vehicle features...
Microsoft’s Recall AI Tool Is Making an Unwelcome Return
Microsoft held off on releasing the privacy-unfriendly feature after a swell of pushback last year. Now it’s trying again, with a few improvements that skeptics say still aren't enough...
The School Shootings Were Fake. The Terror Was Real
The inside story of the teenager whose “swatting” calls sent armed police racing into hundreds of schools nationwide—and the private detective who tracked him down...
Hey, Maybe It's Time to Delete Some Old Chat Histories
Your messages going back years are likely still lurking online, potentially exposing sensitive information you forgot existed. But there's no time like the present to do some digital decluttering...
Microsoft’s AI Recall Tool Is Still Sucking Up Credit Card and Social Security Numbers
Plus: The US indicts North Koreans in fake IT worker scheme, file-sharing firm Cleo warns customers to patch a vulnerability amid live attacks, and more...
Top US Consumer Watchdog Has a Plan to Fight Predatory Data Brokers
A new proposal by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau would use a 54-year-old privacy law to impose new oversight of the data broker industry. But first, the agency must survive Elon Musk...
The AI Machine Gun of the Future Is Already Here
The Pentagon is pursuing every available option to keep US troops safe from the rising tide of adversary drones, including a robotic twist on its standard-issue small arms...
Huge Microsoft Outage Linked to CrowdStrike Takes Down Computers Around the World
A software update from cybersecurity company CrowdStrike appears to have inadvertently disrupted IT systems globally...
Inside a Violent Gang's Ruthless Crypto-Stealing Home Invasion Spree
More than a dozen men threatened, assaulted, tortured, or kidnapped 11 victims in likely the worst-ever crypto-focused serial extortion case of its kind in the US...
He Trained Cops to Fight Crypto Crime—and Allegedly Ran a $100M Dark-Web Drug Market
The strange journey of Lin Rui-siang, the 23-year-old accused of running the Incognito black market, extorting his own site’s users—and then refashioning himself as a legit crypto crime expert...
ShotSpotter Keeps Listening for Gunfire After Contracts Expire
Internal emails suggest that the company continued to provide gunshot data to police in cities where its contracts had been canceled...
‘Malicious Activity’ Hits the University of Cambridge’s Medical School
Multiple university departments linked to the Clinical School Computing Service have been inaccessible for a month. The university has not revealed the nature of the “malicious activity.”...
The DOJ Puts Apple's iMessage Encryption in the Antitrust Crosshairs
Privacy and security are an Apple selling point. But the DOJ’s new antitrust lawsuit argues that Apple selectively embraces privacy and security features in ways that hurt competition—and users...
Automakers Are Telling Your Insurance Company How You Really Drive
Plus: The operator of a dark-web cryptocurrency “mixing” service is found guilty, and a US senator reveals that popular safes contain secret backdoors...
US Lawmaker Cited NYC Protests in a Defense of Warrantless Spying
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...
Airbnb Bans All Indoor Security Cameras
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...
How to Not Get Scammed Out of $50,000
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...
How 3 Million ‘Hacked’ Toothbrushes Became a Cyber Urban Legend
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...
Ring Will Stop Giving Cops a Free Pass on Warrantless Video Requests
The Amazon-owned home surveillance company says it is shuttering a feature in its Neighbors app that allows police to request footage from users. But it’s not shutting out the cops entirely...
The Sad Truth of the FTC's Location Data Privacy Settlement
The FTC forced a data broker to stop selling “sensitive location data.” But most companies can avoid such scrutiny by doing the bare minimum, exposing the lack of protections Americans truly have...
A Bloody Pig Mask Is Just Part of a Wild New Criminal Charge Against eBay
Plus: Chinese officials tracked people using AirDrop, Stuxnet mole’s identity revealed, AI chatbot hacking, and more...
Congress Sure Made a Lot of Noise About Kids’ Privacy in 2023—and Not Much Else
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?...
Telegram’s Bans on Extremist Channels Aren't Really Bans
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...
Google’s New Titan Security Key Adds Another Piece to the Password-Killing Puzzle
The new generation of hardware authentication key includes support for cryptographic passkeys as Google pushes adoption of the more secure login alternative...
Internet Blackouts in Gaza Are a New Weapon in the Israel-Hamas War
Israel has said it’s prepared to disrupt internet service in Gaza, signaling a new age of warfare. In the past two weeks, the Palestinian territory has already suffered three communications shutdowns...
Maine Mass Shooting Disinformation Floods Social Media as Suspect Remains at Large
In the hours following the worst mass shooting in Maine’s history, disinformation about the suspected gunman flooded social media with false claims that he had been arrested...
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...
How to Stop Google Bard From Storing Your Data and Location
Checking out this AI chatbot's new features? Make sure to keep these privacy tips in mind during your interactions...
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...
The Mystery of Chernobyl’s Post-Invasion Radiation Spikes
Soon after Russian troops invaded Ukraine in February 2022, sensors in the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone reported radiation spikes. A researcher now believes he’s found evidence the data was manipulated...
A Massive Vaccine Database Leak Exposes IDs of Millions of Indians
Personal information, including ID documents and phone numbers, have been released on Telegram...
9 Years After the Mt. Gox Hack, Feds Indict Alleged Culprits
Plus: Instagram’s CSAM network gets exposed, Clop hackers claim credit for MOVEit Transfer exploit, and a $35 million crypto heist has North Korean ties...
The US Post Office Is Spying on the Mail. Senators Want to Stop It
The USPS carries out warrantless surveillance on thousands of parcels every year. Lawmakers want it to end—right now...
Apple's iOS 16.4: Security Updates Are Better Than New Emoji
Plus: Microsoft Outlook and Android patch serious flaws, Chrome and Firefox get fixes, and much more...
Crypto Was Afraid to Show Its Face at SXSW 2023
Any mention of crypto was deliberately veiled at this year’s festival. And that strategy might catch on...
Crypto Buyers Beware: 1 in 4 New Tokens of Any Value Is a Scam
And according to tracing firm Chainalysis, one very prolific scammer ran at least 264 of those scams in 2022 alone...
Netflix’s US Password-Sharing Crackdown Isn’t Happening—Yet
Accidental revisions to a US Help Center page sparked confusion about the streamer's next moves. But restrictions on account sharing are still coming soon...
The Untold Story of a Crippling Ransomware Attack
More than two years ago, criminals crippled the systems of London’s Hackney Council. It's still fighting to recover...
T-Mobile's New Data Breach Shows Its $150 Million Security Investment Isn't Cutting It
The mobile operator just suffered at least its fifth data breach since 2018, despite promising to spend a fortune shoring up its systems...
The Most Dangerous People on the Internet in 2022
From SBF to the GRU, these were the most disruptive forces of online chaos this year...
Elon Musk’s Twitter Files Are a Feast for Conspiracy Theorists
From QAnon influencers to @catturd, the very online right sees exactly what they want to see in the CEO’s orchestrated disclosure...
The Hunt for the Dark Web’s Biggest Kingpin, Part 5: Takedown
After months of meticulous planning, investigators finally move in to catch AlphaBay’s mastermind red-handed. Then the case takes a tragic turn...
Russia’s New Cyberwarfare in Ukraine Is Fast, Dirty, and Relentless
Security researchers see updated tactics and tools—and a tempo change—in the cyberattacks Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency is inflicting on Ukraine...
The Race to Find the Nord Stream Saboteurs
Damage to the pipeline that runs between Russia and Germany is being treated as deliberate. Finding out what happened may not be straightforward...
Scans of Students’ Homes During Tests Are Deemed Unconstitutional
An Ohio judge ruled that such surveillance to prevent cheating could form a slippery slope to more illegal searches...
A New Tractor Jailbreak Rides the Right-to-Repair Wave
A hacker has formulated an exploit that provides root access to two popular models of the company’s farm equipment...
The Danger of License Plate Readers in Post-Roe America
Known as ALPRs, this surveillance tech is pervasive across the US—and could soon be used by police and anti-abortion groups alike...
Brave Now Lets You Customize Search Results—for Better or Worse
The privacy-focused company's new Goggles tool allows users to weed out the noise—whatever that might mean...