A Vending Machine Error Revealed Secret Face Recognition Tech

A student investigation at the University of Waterloo uncovered a system that scanned countless undergrads without consent...

A Mysterious Leak Exposed Chinese Hacking Secrets

Plus: Scammers try to dupe Apple with 5,000 fake iPhones, Avast gets fined for selling browsing data, and researchers figure out how to clone fingerprints from your phone screen...

2054, Part IV: A Nation Divided

“The people are in the streets. We can’t ignore them any longer. Really, we have little choice. Either we heal together, or we tear ourselves apart.” An exclusive excerpt from 2054: A Novel...

2054, Part III: The Singularity

“You’d have an incomprehensible level of computational, predictive, analytic, and psychic skill. You’d have the mind of God.” An exclusive excerpt from 2054: A Novel...

YouTube, Discord, and ‘Lord of the Rings’ Led Police to a Teen Accused of a US Swatting Spree

For nearly two years, police have been tracking down the culprit behind a wave of hoax threats. A digital trail took them to the door of a 17-year-old in California...

Google Just Denied Cops a Key Surveillance Tool

Plus: Apple tightens anti-theft protections, Chinese hackers penetrate US critical infrastructure, and the long-running rumor of eavesdropping phones crystallizes into more than an urban legend...

How to Stop Google From Deleting Your Inactive Account

Your inactive profiles, like Gmail or Docs, could turn into digital dust later this year. A few clicks can save them...

New Clues Suggest Stolen FTX Funds Went to Russia-Linked Money Launderers

Whoever looted FTX on the day of its bankruptcy has now moved the stolen money through a long string of intermediaries—and eventually some that look Russian in origin...

You Need to Update Google Chrome or Whatever Browser You Use

Plus: Spyware-packing ads, TikTok GDPR violations, Elon Musk investigations, and more...

The US Congress Has Trust Issues. Generative AI Is Making It Worse

Senators are meeting with Silicon Valley's elite to learn how to deal with AI. But can Congress tackle the rapidly emerging tech before working on itself?...

A Huge Scam Targeting Kids With Roblox and Fortnite 'Offers' Has Been Hiding in Plain Sight

The wide-ranging scams, often disguised as game promotions, can all be linked back to one network...

GitHub’s Hardcore Plan to Roll Out Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)

GitHub has spent two years researching and slowly rolling out its multifactor authentication system. Soon it will be mandatory for all 100 million users—with no opt-out...

How to Use Discord’s Family Center With Your Teens

The popular communication platform launched a new child safety tool for parents. Here’s what the feature does and doesn’t include...

Russia’s Notorious Troll Farm Disbands

Plus: A French bill would allow spying via phone cameras, ATM skimmers target welfare families, and Japan’s largest cargo port gets hit with ransomware...

Update Your iPhone Right Now to Fix 2 Apple Zero Days

Plus: Discord has a child predator problem, fears rise of China spying from Cuba, and hackers try to blackmail Reddit...

Clop Hacking Rampage Hits US Agencies and Exposes Data of Millions

The ransomware gang Clop exploited a vulnerability in a file transfer service. The flaw is now patched, but the damage is still coming into focus...

A Massive Vaccine Database Leak Exposes IDs of Millions of Indians

Personal information, including ID documents and phone numbers, have been released on Telegram...

Toyota Leaked Vehicle Data of 2 Million Customers

The FBI disables notorious Russia-linked malware, the EU edges toward a facial recognition ban, and security firm Dragos has an intrusion of its own...

The High-Stakes Scramble to Stop Classified Leaks

AI tools? A porn filter, but for Top Secret documents? Just classifying less stuff? US lawmakers are full of ideas but lack a silver bullet...

Montana’s Looming TikTok Ban Is a Dangerous Tipping Point

The state is poised to be the first in the US to block downloads of the popular app, which could ignite a precarious chain reaction for digital rights...

US Border Protection Is Finally Able to Check E-Passport Data

After 16 years, the agency has implemented the software to cryptographically verify digital passport data—and it’s already caught a dozen alleged fraudsters...

Most Criminal Cryptocurrency Funnels Through Just 5 Exchanges

The crypto money-laundering market is tighter than at any time in the past decade, and the few big players are moving a “shocking” amount of currency...

All the Data Apple Collects About You—and How to Limit It

Cupertino puts privacy first in a lot of its products. But the company still gathers a bunch of your information...

A Siemens S7-1500 Logic Controller Flaw Raises the Specter of Stuxnet

More than 120 models of Siemens' S7-1500 PLCs contain a serious vulnerability—and no fix is on the way...

January 6 Report: 11 Details You May Have Missed

The January 6 Committee’s 841-page report will go down as one of the most important documents in US history. These key details stand out...

The Dangerous Digital Creep of Britain's ‘Hostile Environment’

The UK's use of technology to enforce its hard-line immigration policy brings the border into every facet of migrants' lives...

Telehealth Sites Put Addiction Patient Data at Risk

New research found pervasive use of tracking tech on substance-abuse-focused health care websites, potentially endangering users in a post-Roe world...

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...

IRS Seizes Another Silk Road Hacker’s $3.36 Billion Bitcoin Stash

A year after a billion-dollar seizure of the dark web market's crypto, the same agency found a giant trove hidden under a different hacker's floorboards...

You Need to Update Google Chrome, Windows, and Zoom Right Now

Plus: Important patches from Apple, VMWare, Cisco, Zimbra, SAP, and Oracle...

How Vice Society Got Away With a Global Ransomware Spree

Vice Society has a superpower that’s allowed it to quietly carry out attacks on schools and hospitals around the world: mediocrity...

Binance Hackers Minted $569M in Crypto—Then It Got Complicated

Plus: The US warns of a mysterious military contractor breach, a "poisoned" version of the Tor Browser is tracking Chinese users, and more...

The Uber Data Breach Conviction Shows Security Execs What Not to Do

Former Uber security chief Joe Sullivan’s conviction is a rare criminal consequence for an executive’s handling of a hack...

The US May Soon Learn What a ‘Kid-Friendly’ Internet Looks Like

The California Age-Appropriate Design Code would launch a huge online privacy experiment. And it won’t just affect children...

Inside the World’s Biggest Hacker Rickroll

As a graduation prank, four high school students hijacked 500 screens across six school buildings to troll their classmates and teachers...

The Android 13 Privacy Settings You Should Update Now

Google’s new mobile operating system has arrived. Take back some control with these privacy and security tips...

Flaw in the VA Medical Records Platform May Put Patients at Risk

The Veterans Affairs’ VistA software has a vulnerability that could let an attacker “masquerade as a doctor,” a security researcher warns...

The Feds Gear Up for a Privacy Crackdown

Plus: Cisco gets hit by ransomware, Twilio gets phished, a new way to fight email spammers, and much more...

Meta Just Happens to Expand Messenger’s End-to-End Encryption

The company says an expansion of privacy features in Messenger is unrelated to a high-profile Nebraska abortion case...

A Privacy Panic Flares Up in India After Police Pull Payment Data

Nonprofit donors had their information given to law enforcement without consent, highlighting limited data protections in the world’s largest democracy...

Gun Database Breach Leaks Details on Thousands of Owners

Plus: Indian hacker-for-hire groups, Chinese student espionage efforts, and more...

Here’s Why You’re Still Stuck in Robocall Hell

Despite major progress fighting spam and scams, the roots of the problem go far deeper than your phone company’s defenses...

‘How Are They Weapons? That’s Only a Flashlight!’

During the protests in Hong Kong, young people carried laser pointers, umbrellas, and plastic ties—objects that sometimes led to their arrest, and years of legal limbo...

The Surveillance State Is Primed for Criminalized Abortion

A new report lays out existing US police surveillance capabilities that can easily be repurposed to monitor pregnant people...

AMD Gave Google Cloud Rare Access to Its Tech to Hunt Chip Flaws

By working together, the companies say they’re better able to find security flaws in Google Cloud’s Confidential Computing infrastructure...

Data Brokers Track Abortion Clinic Visits for Anyone to Buy

Plus: Russia rerouted internet in occupied Ukraine, Grindr sold its users' location data to ad networks, and more...

How to Protect Your Digital Privacy if Roe v. Wade Falls

Reproductive rights are still largely guaranteed in the United States. Here are some key privacy concepts to adopt in the event that they're not...

How Russia's Invasion Triggered a US Crackdown on Its Hackers

The Biden White House is using “all of the levers of national power” to counter—or preempt—cyberattacks by Russia’s most dangerous hacker groups...

WatchGuard Didn't Explicitly Disclose a Flaw Exploited by Hackers

The security vendor kept a critical vulnerability in its firewall appliances quiet even as it was under attack from a Russian hacking group...

Hackers Find a New Way to Deliver Devastating DDoS Attacks

Cybercriminals are exploiting a fleet of more than 100,000 misconfigured servers to knock websites offline...