Europe Is Building a Huge International Facial Recognition System

Lawmakers advance proposals to let police forces across the EU link their photo databases—which include millions of pictures of people’s faces...

Feds Allege Destructive Russian Hackers Targeted US Refineries

The Justice Department unsealed indictments against four alleged Russian hackers said to have targeted US energy infrastructure for nearly a decade...

How Ukraine's Internet Can Fend Off Russian Attacks

The besieged country's complex internet infrastructure has evolved to promote resiliency...

An ‘Unhinged’ Putin Threatens Dangerous Escalation in Ukraine

With no off-ramp in sight, Russia’s leader has put the country’s nuclear forces on alert...

Now Is a Good Time to Update Your Recovery Email Addresses

You know those “emergency” email addresses you can use to get into your email and other accounts in case you're locked out? Make sure they're up-to-date...

You Can Now Ditch the Password on Your Microsoft Account

You no longer need a long string of characters to access Windows and Office 365...

Clearview AI Is Testing an AI Tool That Would Let Cops Unearth Your Life Online

InquiryIQ, a previously unreported prototype, tested a model from xAI, maker of Grok, to surface associates, social accounts, and other information about people identified through Clearview...

You Can Now Destroy Flock Cameras for Cash in GTA V

A new GTA mod lets you smash and shoot Flock’s automatic license plate readers around the fictional Los Santos...

Reverse-Lookup Service Exposed Millions of Photos of People’s Faces

The people-search tool ClarityCheck says its reverse image search service is “private and secure”—but it left a database containing more than 9 million image files exposed...

Sensitive Info Goes Into ‘No Reply’ Emails Constantly. This Guy Sees It All

Two security researchers bought cheap domains—including noreply.net and deleteduser.com—and set up email listening services. Hundreds of companies are sending them corporate secrets...

For Taylor Swift, Madison Square Garden’s Controversial Cameras Briefly Went Dark

MSG’s sprawling surveillance system can monitor guests down to the second. Its owners made an exception for the pop star’s rehearsal dinner...

Meta Is Warned That Facial Recognition Glasses Will Arm Sexual Predators

More than 70 organizations, including the ACLU, EPIC, and Fight for the Future, say the AI smart glasses feature would endanger abuse victims, immigrants, and LGBTQ+ people...

How the Internet Broke Everyone’s Bullshit Detectors

From AI-generated images to restricted satellite data, the systems used to verify what’s real online are struggling to keep up...

‘We Were Not Ready for This’: Lebanon's Emergency System Is Hanging by a Thread

In Lebanon, nearly 1 in 5 people has been displaced by Israeli attacks, leaving the government to manage a modern crisis without modern digital infrastructure...

What Happens When a Nuclear Site Is Hit?

As strikes continue on Iran’s nuclear facilities, the real danger isn’t the explosion, but what happens if critical safety systems fail—and how that risk could spread across the Gulf...

Unmasking the Paramilitary Agents Behind Trump’s Violent Immigration Crackdown

A WIRED analysis of DHS records identified dozens of specialized federal agents who used force against US civilians during the largest known deployment of its kind in US history...

Your Body Is Betraying Your Right to Privacy

Attachment to smart devices and biometric surveillance leaves Americans more vulnerable to police searches than ever. Left unchecked it will only get worse...

How Journalists Are Reporting From Iran With No Internet

After strikes killed senior Iranian officials, Iran cut off internet access. Journalists are relying on satellite links, encrypted apps, and smuggled footage to report from inside the country...

Hacked Prayer App Sends ‘Surrender’ Messages to Iranians Amid Israeli and US Strikes

As Israeli airstrikes hit Tehran this morning, Iranians received mysterious push notifications saying that “help is on the way,” promising amnesty if they surrender...

The El Paso No-Fly Debacle Is Just the Beginning of a Drone Defense Mess

Fears over a drug cartel drone over Texas sparked a recent airspace shutdown in El Paso and New Mexico, highlighting just how tricky it can be to deploy anti-drone weapons near cities...

Moltbook, the Social Network for AI Agents, Exposed Real Humans’ Data

Plus: Apple’s Lockdown mode keeps the FBI out of a reporter’s phone, Elon Musk’s Starlink cuts off Russian forces, and more...

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...

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...

Dozens of ICE Vehicles in Minnesota Lack ‘Necessary’ Lights and Sirens

A contract justification published in a federal register on Tuesday says that 31 ICE vehicles operating in the Twin Cities area “lack the necessary emergency lights and sirens” to be “compliant.”...

The Age of the All-Access AI Agent Is Here

Big AI companies courted controversy by scraping wide swaths of the public internet. With the rise of AI agents, the next data grab is far more private...

NYPD Sued Over Possible Records Collected Through Muslim Spying Program

The New York Police Department's “mosque-raking” program targeted Muslim communities across NYC. Now, as the city's first Muslim mayor takes office, one man is fighting—again—to fully expose it...

2 Men Linked to China’s Salt Typhoon Hacker Group Likely Trained in a Cisco ‘Academy’

The names of two partial owners of firms linked to the Salt Typhoon hacker group also appeared in records for a Cisco training program—years before the group targeted Cisco’s devices in a spy campaign...

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...

Your Data Might Determine How Much You Pay for Eggs

A newly enacted New York law requires retailers to say whether your data influences the price of basic goods like a dozen eggs or toilet paper, but not how...

Poems Can Trick AI Into Helping You Make a Nuclear Weapon

It turns out all the guardrails in the world won’t protect a chatbot from meter and rhyme...

WIRED Roundup: DHS’s Privacy Breach, AI Romantic Affairs, and Google Sues Text Scammers

In this episode of Uncanny Valley, we discuss our scoop about how the Department of Homeland Security illegally collected Chicago residents’ data for months, as well as the news of the week...

This Is the Platform Google Claims Is Behind a 'Staggering’ Scam Text Operation

Google is suing 25 people it alleges are behind a “relentless” scam text operation that uses a phishing-as-a-service platform called Lighthouse...

Hack Exposes Kansas City’s Secret Police Misconduct List

A major breach of the Kansas City, Kansas, Police Department reveals, for the first time, a list of alleged officer misconduct including dishonesty, sexual harassment, excessive force, and false arrest...

This Is the Nuclear-Powered Ship Deployed in Trump’s War on Drug Boats

The USS Gerald R. Ford is a $13 billion aircraft carrier sailing to the Caribbean with nuclear propulsion, an electromagnetic plane launcher, and 90 aircraft onboard...

No, ICE (Probably) Didn’t Buy Guided Missile Warheads

A federal contracting database lists an ICE payment for $61,218 with the payment code for “guided missile warheads and explosive components.” But it appears ICE simply entered the wrong code...

Cybercriminals Have a Weird New Way to Target You With Scam Texts

Scammers are now using “SMS blasters” to send out up to 100,000 texts per hour to phones that are tricked into thinking the devices are cell towers. Your wireless carrier is powerless to stop them...

US Investment in Spyware Is Skyrocketing

A new report warns that the number of US investors in powerful commercial spyware rose sharply in 2024 and names new countries linked to the dangerous technology...

What Is a Passkey? Here’s How to Set Up and Use Them (2025)

Passkeys were built to enable a password-free future. Here's what they are and how you can start using them...

The Era of AI-Generated Ransomware Has Arrived

Cybercriminals are increasingly using generative AI tools to fuel their attacks, with new research finding instances of AI being used to develop ransomware...

Russia Is Cracking Down on End-to-End Encrypted Calls

Plus: ICE agents accidentally add a random person to a sensitive group chat, Norwegian intelligence blames the Kremlin for hacking a dam, and new facial recognition vans roam the UK...

It Looks Like a School Bathroom Smoke Detector. A Teen Hacker Showed It Could Be an Audio Bug

A pair of hackers found that a vape detector often found in high school bathrooms contained microphones—and security weaknesses that could allow someone to turn it into a secret listening device...

The Person in Charge of Testing Tech for US Spies Has Resigned

IARPA director Rick Muller is departing after just over a year at the R&D unit that invests in emerging technologies of potential interest to agencies like the NSA and the CIA, WIRED has learned...

The Dangerous Truth About the ‘Nonlethal’ Weapons Used Against LA Protesters

While they can cause serious injuries, “nonlethal” weapons are regularly used in the United States to disperse public demonstrations, including at the recent ICE protests in Los Angeles...

A Researcher Figured Out How to Reveal Any Phone Number Linked to a Google Account

Phone numbers are a gold mine for SIM swappers. A researcher found how to get this precious piece of information through a clever brute-force attack...

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...

A Silicon Valley VC Got Israel Starlink Access Within Days of October 7 Attack

During a webinar hosted by Israel’s Defense Ministry, Sequoia Capital partner Shaun Maguire discussed helping connect Israel with SpaceX’s Starlink satellite internet far earlier than was known...

Signal Clone Used by Mike Waltz Pauses Service After Reports It Got Hacked

The communications app TeleMessage, which was spotted on former US national security adviser Mike Waltz's phone, has suspended “all services” as it investigates reports of at least one breach...

Mike Waltz Has Somehow Gotten Even Worse at Using Signal

A photo taken this week showed Mike Waltz using an app that looks like—but is not—Signal to communicate with top officials. "I don't even know where to start with this," says one expert...

Using Starlink Wi-Fi in the White House Is a Slippery Slope for US Federal IT

The ad hoc addition to the otherwise tightly controlled White House information environment could create blind spots and security exposures while setting potentially dangerous precedent...

$1.4 Billion Stolen From ByBit in Biggest Crypto Theft Ever

Plus: Apple turns off end-to-end encrypted iCloud backups in the UK after pressure to install a backdoor, and two spyware apps expose victim data—and the identities of people who installed the apps...