Even the CIA and NSA Use Ad Blockers to Stay Safe Online

Plus: The ransomware scourge continues, a massive botnet gets wounded, and more of the week’s top security news...

The Mueller Report Is Out. Read It Here

Attorney general William Barr has released the redacted Mueller report to Congress. You can read all 300-plus pages of it right here...

Hackers Can Steal a Tesla Model S in Seconds by Cloning Its Key Fob

Weak encryption in the cars' key fobs allows all-too-easy theft, but you can set a PIN code on your Tesla to protect it...

The Silk Road Creator’s Life Sentence Actually Boosted Dark Web Drug Sales

A new study raises questions about the deterrence value of harsh sentencing for dark web crimes. The post The Silk Road Creator’s Life Sentence Actually Boosted Dark Web Drug Sales appeared first on WIRED...

A Big Change in NSA Spying Marks a Win for American Privacy

The NSA won't collect the emails of US citizens just because they mention a foreign target. That's a big deal. The post A Big Change in NSA Spying Marks a Win for American Privacy appeared first on WIRED...

Suing to See the Feds’ Encrypted Messages? Good Luck

Conservative watchdog Judicial Watch is suing the EPA for staffers' Signal messages. It may hit the encrypted limits of federal transparency. The post Suing to See the Feds' Encrypted Messages? Good Luck appeared first on WIRED...

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...

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...

WhatsApp Adds Meta AI Chats That Are Built to Be Fully Private

The company says its new Incognito Chat allows you to use its AI chatbot without anyone else—including Meta—being able to access your conversations...

Meet Rassvet, Russia’s Answer to Starlink

With the launch of the first 16 satellites, Russia begins construction of a network for satellite internet that aims to cover the entire country by 2030. But getting there won’t be easy...

'No Kings’ Protests, Citizen-Run ICE Trackers Trigger Intelligence Warnings

Army intelligence analysts are monitoring civilian-made ICE tracking tools, treating them as potential threats, as immigration protests spread nationwide...

The US Is Building a One-Stop Shop for Buying Your Data

Plus: A mysterious hacking group’s secret client is exposed, Signal takes a swipe at Microsoft Recall, Russian hackers target security cameras to spy on aid to Ukraine, and more...

How to Win Followers and Scamfluence People

Format Boy makes a living teaching Yahoo Boys, notorious West African scammers, how to use AI and deepfake technology to ensnare their next victims...

Coinbase Will Reimburse Customers Up to $400 Million After Data Breach

Plus: 12 more people are indicted over a $263 million crypto heist, and a former FBI director is accused of threatening Donald Trump thanks to an Instagram post of seashells...

North Korean IT Workers Are Being Exposed on a Massive Scale

Security researchers are publishing 1,000 email addresses they claim are linked to North Korean IT worker scams that infiltrated Western companies—along with photos of men allegedly involved in the schemes...

The Signal Clone Mike Waltz Was Caught Using Has Direct Access to User Chats

A new analysis of TM Signal’s source code appears to show that the app sends users’ message logs in plaintext. At least one top Trump administration official used the app...

North Korea Stole Your Job

For years, North Korea has been secretly placing young IT workers inside Western companies. With AI, their schemes are now more devious—and effective—than ever...

ICE Is Paying Palantir $30 Million to Build ‘ImmigrationOS’ Surveillance Platform

In a document published Thursday, ICE explained the functions that it expects Palantir to include in a prototype of a new program to give the agency “near real-time” data about people self-deporting...

Trump’s Aggression Sours Europe on US Cloud Giants

Companies in the EU are starting to look for ways to ditch Amazon, Google, and Microsoft cloud services amid fears of rising security risks from the US. But cutting ties won’t be easy...

What Really Happened With the DDoS Attacks That Took Down X

Elon Musk said a “massive cyberattack” disrupted X on Monday and pointed to “IP addresses originating in the Ukraine area” as the source of the attack. Security experts say that's not how it works...

DOGE Now Has Access to the Top US Cybersecurity Agency

DOGE technologists Edward Coristine—the 19-year-old known online as “Big Balls”—and Kyle Schutt are now listed as staff at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency...

UK Secret Order Demands That Apple Give Access to Users’ Encrypted Data

Plus: Benjamin Netanyahu gives Donald Trump a golden pager, Hewlett Packard Enterprise blames Russian government hackers for a breach, and more...

DeepSeek’s Safety Guardrails Failed Every Test Researchers Threw at Its AI Chatbot

Security researchers tested 50 well-known jailbreaks against DeepSeek’s popular new AI chatbot. It didn’t stop a single one...

The Worst Hacks of 2024

From Chinese cyberspies breaching US telecoms to ruthless ransomware gangs disrupting health care for millions of people, 2024 saw some of the worst hacks, breaches, and data leaks ever...

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...

A New Phone Scanner That Detects Spyware Has Already Found 7 Pegasus Infections

The mobile device security firm iVerify has been offering a tool since May that makes spyware scanning accessible to anyone—and it’s already turning up victims...

Emergency Vehicle Lights Can Screw Up a Car's Automated Driving System

Newly published research finds that the flashing lights on police cruisers and ambulances can cause “digital epileptic seizures” in image-based automated driving systems, potentially risking wrecks...

These Guys Hacked AirPods to Give Their Grandmas Hearing Aids

Three technologists in India used a homemade Faraday cage and a microwave oven to get around Apple’s location blocks...

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...

Inside Sophos' 5-Year War With the Chinese Hackers Hijacking Its Devices

Sophos went so far as to plant surveillance “implants” on its own devices to catch the hackers at work—and in doing so, revealed a glimpse into China's R&D pipeline of intrusion techniques...

The Untold Story of Trump's Failed Attempt to Overthrow Venezuela's President

A successful CIA hack of Venezuela's military payroll system, insider fights for spy agency resources, and messy opposition politics: A WIRED investigation reveals a secret Trump-era attempt to oust autocratic ruler Nicolás Maduro...

GPS Jamming Is Screwing With Norwegian Planes

So much jamming is taking place in northeastern Norway, regulators no longer want to know...

A Mysterious Hacking Group Has 2 New Tools to Steal Data From Air-Gapped Machines

It's hard enough creating one air-gap-jumping tool. Researchers say the group GoldenJackal did it twice in five years...

Did a Chinese University Hacking Competition Target a Real Victim?

Participants in a hacking competition with ties to China’s military were, unusually, required to keep their activities secret, but security researchers say the mystery only gets stranger from there...

A Creative Trick Makes ChatGPT Spit Out Bomb-Making Instructions

Plus: New evidence emerges about who may have helped 9/11 hijackers, UK police arrest a teen in connection with an attack on London’s transit system, and Poland’s spyware scandal enters a new phase...

Hackers Threaten to Leak Planned Parenthood Data

Plus: Kaspersky’s US business sold, Nigerian sextortion scammers jailed, and Europe’s controversial encryption plans return...

When War Came to Their Country, They Built a Map

The Telegram channel and website Deep State uses public data and insider intelligence to power its live tracker of Ukraine’s ever-shifting front line...

Nearly All Google Pixel Phones Exposed by Unpatched Flaw in Hidden Android App

A fix is coming, but data analytics giant Palantir says it’s ditching Android devices altogether because Google’s response to the vulnerability has been troubling...

The Hacker Who Hunts Video Game Speedrunning Cheaters

Allan “dwangoAC” has made it his mission to expose speedrunning phonies. At the Defcon hacker conference, he’ll challenge one record that's stood for 15 years...

ATM Software Flaws Left Piles of Cash for Anyone Who Knew to Look

Six vulnerabilities in ATM-maker Diebold Nixdorf’s popular Vynamic Security Suite could have been exploited to control ATMs using “relatively simplistic attacks.”...

Watch How a Hacker’s Infrared Laser Can Spy on Your Laptop’s Keystrokes

Hacker Samy Kamkar is debuting his own open source version of a laser microphone—a spy tool that can invisibly pick up the sounds inside your home through a window, and even the text you’re typing...

How One Bad CrowdStrike Update Crashed the World’s Computers

A defective CrowdStrike update sent computers around the globe into a reboot death spiral, taking down air travel, hospitals, banks, and more with it. Here’s how that’s possible...

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...

Hackers Claim to Have Leaked 1.1 TB of Disney Slack Messages

A hacker group called “NullBulge” says it stole more than a terabyte of Disney’s internal Slack messages and files from nearly 10,000 channels in an apparent protest over AI-generated art...

The Tech Crash Course That Trains US Diplomats to Spot Threats

The US State Department is training diplomats in cybersecurity, privacy, telecommunications, and other technology issues, allowing them to advance US policy abroad...

The Mystery of AI Gunshot-Detection Accuracy Is Finally Unraveling

How accurate are gunshot detection systems, really? For years, it's been a secret, but new reports from San Jose and NYC show these systems have operated well below their advertised accuracy rates...

Apple Is Coming for Your Password Manager

Plus: A media executive is charged in an alleged money-laundering scheme, a ransomware attack disrupts care at London hospitals, and Google’s former CEO has a secretive drone project up his sleeve...

The Snowflake Attack May Be Turning Into One of the Largest Data Breaches Ever

The number of alleged hacks targeting the customers of cloud storage firm Snowflake appears to be snowballing into one of the biggest data breaches of all time...

AI Is Your Coworker Now. Can You Trust It?

Generative AI tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot are becoming part of everyday business life. But they come with privacy and security considerations you should know about...

Mysterious Hack Destroyed 600,000 Internet Routers

Plus: A whistleblower claims the Biden administration falsified a report on Gaza, “Operation Endgame” disrupts the botnet ecosystem, and more...