A Vast Trove of Exposed Social Security Numbers May Put Millions at Risk of Identity Theft

A database left accessible to anyone online contained billions of records, including sensitive personal data that criminals appear to have not yet exploited...

Notepad++ Users, You May Have Been Hacked by China

Suspected Chinese state-backed hackers hijacked the Notepad++ update infrastructure to deliver a backdoored version of the popular free source code editor and note-taking app for Windows...

Jeffrey Epstein Had a ‘Personal Hacker,’ Informant Claims

Plus: AI agent OpenClaw gives cybersecurity experts the willies, China executes 11 scam compound bosses, a $40 million crypto theft has an unexpected alleged culprit, and more...

ICE Asks Companies About ‘Ad Tech and Big Data’ Tools It Could Use in Investigations

A new federal filing from ICE demonstrates how commercial tools are increasingly being considered by the government for law enforcement and surveillance...

US Judge Rules ICE Raids Require Judicial Warrants, Contradicting Secret ICE Memo

The ruling in federal court in Minnesota lands as Immigration and Customs Enforcement faces scrutiny over an internal memo claiming judge-signed warrants aren’t needed to enter homes without consent...

ICE Agents Are ‘Doxing’ Themselves

The alleged risks of being publicly identified have not stopped DHS and ICE employees from creating profiles on LinkedIn, even as Kristi Noem threatens to treat revealing agents’ identities as a crime...

ICE Details a New Minnesota-Based Detention Network That Spans 5 States

Internal ICE planning documents propose spending up to $50 million on a privately run network capable of shipping immigrants in custody hundreds of miles across the Upper Midwest...

US Hackers Reportedly Caused a Blackout in Venezuela

Plus: AI reportedly caused ICE to send agents into the field without training, Palantir’s app for targeting immigrants gets exposed, and more...

The Justice Department Released More Epstein Files—but Not the Ones Survivors Want

The DOJ says it still has “hundreds of thousands” of pages to review, as the latest Epstein files release spurred more pushback from Democratic lawmakers and other critics of the administration...

A Complete Guide to the Jeffrey Epstein Document Dumps

New records about the infamous sex offender are released seemingly every week. Here’s a quick rundown of who’s releasing the Epstein documents, what they contain—and what they’re releasing next...

The US Won't Sanction China for Salt Typhoon Hacking

Plus: Officials warn of a disturbingly stealthy Chinese malware specimen, a CISA nomination stalls, and more...

Amazon Is Using Specialized AI Agents for Deep Bug Hunting

Born out of an internal hackathon, Amazon’s Autonomous Threat Analysis system uses a variety of specialized AI agents to detect weaknesses and propose fixes to the company’s platforms...

US Border Patrol Is Spying on Millions of American Drivers

Plus: The SEC lets SolarWinds off the hook, Microsoft stops a historic DDoS attack, and FBI documents reveal the agency spied on an immigration activist Signal group in New York City...

How to Hack a Poker Game

This week on Uncanny Valley, we break down how one of the most common card shufflers could be altered to cheat, and why that matters—even for those who don’t frequent the poker table...

Hundreds of People With ‘Top Secret’ Clearance Exposed by House Democrats’ Website

A database containing information on people who applied for jobs with Democrats in the US House of Representatives was left accessible on the open web...

What the Huge AWS Outage Reveals About the Internet

Amazon Web Services experienced DNS resolution issues on Monday morning, taking down wide swaths of the web—and highlighting a long-standing weakness in the internet's infrastructure...

Feds Seize Record-Breaking $15 Billion in Bitcoin From Alleged Scam Empire

Officials in the US and UK have taken sweeping action against “one of the largest investment fraud operations in history,” confiscating a historic amount of funds in the process...

How to Set Up and Use a Burner Phone

Obtaining and using a true burner phone is hard—but not impossible. Here are the steps you need to take to protect your mobile communications based on the risks you face...

The Mysterious Shortwave Radio Station Stoking US-Russia Nuclear Fears

A popular shortwave Russian radio station dubbed “UVB-76” has been an enigma for decades. But its recent messages have turned it into a tool for Kremlin saber-rattling...

What Does Palantir Actually Do?

Palantir is often called a data broker, a data miner, or a giant database of personal information. In reality, it’s none of these—but even former employees struggle to explain it...

Leak Reveals the Workaday Lives of North Korean IT Scammers

Spreadsheets, Slack messages, and files linked to an alleged group of North Korean IT workers expose their meticulous job-planning and targeting—and the constant surveillance they're under...

Hackers Are Finding New Ways to Hide Malware in DNS Records

Newly published research shows that the domain name system—a fundamental part of the web—can be exploited to hide malicious code and prompt injection attacks against chatbots...

Apple Intelligence Is Gambling on Privacy as a Killer Feature

Many new Apple Intelligence features happen on your device rather than in the cloud. While it may not be flashy, the privacy-centric approach could be a competitive advantage...

Ross Ulbricht Got a $31 Million Donation From a Dark Web Dealer, Crypto Tracers Suspect

Crypto-tracing firm Chainalysis says the mysterious 300-bitcoin donation to the pardoned Silk Road creator appears to have come from someone associated with a different defunct black market: AlphaBay...

ICE Quietly Scales Back Rules for Courthouse Raids

A requirement that ICE agents ensure courthouse arrests don’t clash with state and local laws has been rescinded by the agency. ICE declined to explain what that means for future enforcement...

You're Not Ready

Seems bad out there. Unfortunately, it can always get worse. From evil hacker AI to world-changing cyberattacks, WIRED envisions the future you haven't prepared for...

Cybercriminals Allegedly Used a StubHub Backdoor to Steal Taylor Swift Tickets

Plus: The world’s “largest illicit online marketplace” gets hit by regulators, police seize the Garantex crypto exchange, and scammers trick targets by making up ransomware attacks...

Trump’s Spy Chief Urged to Declassify Details of Secret Surveillance Program

Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, has long held anti-surveillance views. Now she oversees a key surveillance program she once tried to dismantle...

Google Ad-Tech Users Can Target National Security ‘Decision Makers’ and People With Chronic Diseases

Google enables marketers to target people with serious illnesses and crushing debt—against its policies—as well as the makers of classified defense technology, a WIRED investigation has found...

The Collapse of USAID Is Already Fueling Human Trafficking and Slavery at Scammer Compounds

The dismantling of USAID by Elon Musk's DOGE and a State Department funding freeze have severely disrupted efforts to help people escape forced labor camps run by criminal scammers...

The Trial at the Tip of the Terrorgram Iceberg

Atomwaffen Division cofounder and alleged Terrorgram Collective member Brandon Russell is facing a potential 20-year sentence for an alleged plot on a Baltimore electrical station. His case is only the beginning...

A New Jam-Packed Biden Executive Order Tackles Cybersecurity, AI, and More

US president Joe Biden just issued a 40-page executive order that aims to bolster federal cybersecurity protections, directs government use of AI—and takes a swipe at Microsoft’s dominance...

Inside the Black Box of Predictive Travel Surveillance

Behind the scenes, companies and governments are feeding a trove of data about international travelers into opaque AI tools that aim to predict who’s safe—and who’s a threat...

Secret Phone Surveillance Tech Was Likely Deployed at 2024 DNC

Data WIRED collected during the 2024 Democratic National Convention strongly suggests the use of a cell-site simulator, a controversial spy device that intercepts sensitive data from every phone in its range...

Californians Say X Blocked Them From Viewing Amber Alert About Missing 14-Year-Old

Many people reported they hit a screen preventing them from seeing the alert unless they signed in...

Why the US Military Can't Just Shoot Down the Mystery Drones

Small, easily weaponizable drones have become a feature of battlefields from the Middle East to Ukraine. Now the threat looms over the US homeland—and the Pentagon's ability to respond is limited...

As the Mastermind of Far-Right ‘Active Clubs’ Goes to Prison, His Violent Movement Goes Global

The white supremacist Robert Rundo faces years in prison. But the “Active Club” network he helped create has proliferated in countries around the world, from Eastern Europe to South America...

She Escaped an Abusive Marriage—Now She Helps Women Battle Cyber Harassment

Inspired by her own experience of abuse, Nighat Dad fights for women’s social and digital rights in Pakistan and beyond...

Senators Warn the Pentagon: Get a Handle on China’s Telecom Hacking

In a letter to the Department of Defense, senators Ron Wyden and Eric Schmitt are calling for an investigation into fallout from the Salt Typhoon espionage campaign...

Malicious Ads in Search Results Are Driving New Generations of Scams

The scourge of “malvertising” is nothing new, but the tactic is still so effective that it's contributing to the rise of investment scams and the spread of new strains of malware...

Russia’s Ballistic Missile Attack on Ukraine Is an Alarming First

This is the first time Russia has used its so-called Oreshnik intermediate-range ballistic missile in combat. The launch also serves as a warning to the West...

Andrew Tate’s ‘Educational Platform’ Was Hacked

Plus: The worst telecom hack in US history rolls on, iPhones are harder to break into, and more of the week’s top security news...

Florida Man Accused of Hacking Disney World Menus, Changing Font to Wingdings

Plus: Cops take down a notorious infostealer, Strava leaks world leaders’ locations, and a hacking scandal is causing chaos in Italy...

Cybercriminals Pose a Greater Threat of Disruptive US Election Hacks Than Russia or China

A report distributed by the US Department of Homeland Security warned that financially motivated cybercriminals are more likely to attack US election infrastructure than state-backed hackers...

First Israel’s Exploding Pagers Maimed and Killed. Now Comes the Paranoia

The explosion of thousands of rigged pagers and walkie-talkies will likely make Hezbollah operatives fear any means of electronic communication. It’s having the same effect on the Lebanese population...

Apple’s New Passwords App May Solve Your Login Nightmares

Apple is launching its first stand-alone password manager app in iOS 18. Here’s what you need to know...

Therapy Sessions Exposed by Mental Health Care Firm’s Unsecured Database

Video and audio of therapy sessions, transcripts, and other patient records were accidentally exposed in a publicly accessible database operated by the virtual medical company Confidant Health...

YubiKeys Are a Security Gold Standard—but They Can Be Cloned

Security researchers have discovered a cryptographic flaw that leaves the YubiKey 5 vulnerable to attack...

The US Navy Has Run Out of Pants

Plus: The US intelligence community formally blames Iran for Trump campaign hack, aircraft-tracking platform FlightAware says a “configuration error” exposed sensitive user data, and more...

Google Researchers Found Nearly a Dozen Flaws in Popular Qualcomm Software for Mobile GPUs

The vulnerabilities, which have been patched, may have novel appeal to attackers as an avenue to compromising phones...