Google Will Use AI to Guess People’s Ages Based on Search History

Plus: A former top US cyber official loses her new job due to political backlash, Congress is rushing through a bill to censor lawmakers’ personal information online, and more...

How WIRED Analyzed the Epstein Video

On this episode of Uncanny Valley, we dive into the differences between what the US government said about a Jeffrey Epstein video it released and the story told by its metadata...

Adoption Agency Data Exposure Revealed Information About Children and Parents

A trove of 1.1 million records left accessible on the open web shows how much sensitive information can be created—and made vulnerable—during the adoption process...

DHS Tells Police That Common Protest Activities Are ‘Violent Tactics’

DHS is urging law enforcement to treat even skateboarding and livestreaming as signs of violent intent during a protest, turning everyday behavior into a pretext for police action...

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...

Taiwan Is Rushing to Make Its Own Drones Before It's Too Late

Unmanned vehicles are increasingly becoming essential weapons of war. But with a potential conflict with China looming large, Taiwan is scrambling to build a domestic drone industry from scratch...

TVs at HUD Played an AI-Generated Video of Donald Trump Kissing Elon Musk’s Feet

On Monday morning, TV sets at the headquarters of the Department of Housing and Urban Development played the seemingly AI-generated video on loop, along with the words “LONG LIVE THE REAL KING.”...

Elon Musk’s DOGE Is Being Sued Under the Privacy Act: What to Know

At least eight ongoing lawsuits related to the so-called Department of Government Efficiency’s alleged access to sensitive data hinge on the Watergate-inspired Privacy Act of 1974. But it’s not airtight...

DOGE Teen Owns ‘Tesla.Sexy LLC’ and Worked at Startup That Has Hired Convicted Hackers

Experts question whether Edward Coristine, a DOGE staffer who has gone by “Big Balls” online, would pass the background check typically required for access to sensitive US government systems...

US Names One of the Hackers Allegedly Behind Massive Salt Typhoon Breaches

Plus: New details emerge about China’s cyber espionage against the US, the FBI remotely uninstalls malware on 4,200 US devices, and victims of the PowerSchool edtech breach reveal what hackers stole...

Hackers Likely Stole FBI Call Logs From AT&T That Could Compromise Informants

A breach of AT&T that exposed “nearly all” of the company’s customers may have included records related to confidential FBI sources, potentially explaining the bureau’s new embrace of end-to-end encryption...

Congress Again Fails to Limit Scope of Spy Powers in New Defense Bill

The National Defense Authorization Act passed today, but lawmakers stripped language that would keep the Trump administration from wielding unprecedented authority to surveil Americans...

The Top Cybersecurity Agency in the US Is Bracing for Donald Trump

Staffers at the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency tell WIRED they fear the new administration will cut programs that keep the US safe—and “persecution.”...

The Simple Math Behind Public Key Cryptography

The security system that underlies the internet makes use of a curious fact: You can broadcast part of your encryption to make your information much more secure...

Police Arrest UnitedHealthcare CEO Shooting Suspect, App Developer Luigi Mangione

Luigi Mangione, a 26-year-old graduate of the University of Pennsylvania, was apprehended on Monday after visiting a McDonald's in Altoona, Pennsylvania...

The Real Story of “The Order”

The new film about an FBI agent chasing a white supremacist terror cell is based on a true story—and one that connects the headlines of 40 years ago to those of today...

The Pressure Is on for Big Tech to Regulate the Broken Digital Advertising Industry

Brands have been at the mercy of the algorithm when it comes to where their ads appear online, but they’re about to get more control...

Teen Behind Hundreds of Swatting Attacks Pleads Guilty to Federal Charges

Alan Filion, believed to have operated under the handle “Torswats,” admitted to making more than 375 fake threats against schools, places of worship, and government buildings around the United States...

764 Terror Network Member Richard Densmore Sentenced to 30 Years in Prison

The 47-year-old Michigan man, who pleaded guilty to sexually exploiting a child, was highly active in the online criminal network called 764, which the FBI now considers a “tier one” terrorism threat...

Apple Vision Pro’s Eye Tracking Exposed What People Type

The Vision Pro uses 3D avatars on calls and for streaming. These researchers used eye tracking to work out the passwords and PINs people typed with their avatars...

Telegram CEO Pavel Durov’s Arrest Linked to Sweeping Criminal Investigation

French authorities detained Durov to question him as part of a probe into a wide range of alleged violations—including money laundering and CSAM—but it remains unclear if he will face charges...

Apple Prototypes and Corporate Secrets Are for Sale Online—If You Know Where to Look

On the hunt for corporate devices being sold secondhand, a researcher found a trove of Apple corporate data, a Mac Mini from the Foxconn assembly line, an iPhone 14 prototype, and more...

How Infostealers Pillaged the World’s Passwords

Infostealer malware is swiping millions of passwords, cookies, and search histories. It’s a gold mine for hackers—and a disaster for anyone who becomes a target...

Don’t Fall for CrowdStrike Outage Scams

Swindlers are spinning up bogus websites in an attempt to dupe people with “CrowdStrike support” scams following the security firm's catastrophic software update...

Hackers Leaking Taylor Swift Tickets? Don’t Get Your Hopes Up

Plus: Researchers uncover a new way to expose CSAM peddlers, OpenAI suffered a secret cyberattack, cryptocurrency thefts jump in 2024, and Twilio confirms hackers stole 33 million phone numbers...

How Apple Intelligence’s Privacy Stacks Up Against Android’s ‘Hybrid AI’

Generative AI is seeping into the core of your phone, but what does that mean for privacy? Here’s how Apple’s unique AI architecture compares to the “hybrid” approach adopted by Samsung and Google...

Section 702: The Future of the Biggest US Spy Program Hangs in the Balance

The US Congress will this week decide the fate of Section 702, a major surveillance program that will soon expire if lawmakers do not act. WIRED is tracking the major developments as they unfold...

How to Stop Your X Account From Getting Hacked Like the SEC's

The US Securities and Exchange Commission and security firm Mandiant both had their X accounts breached, possibly due to changes to X’s two-factor authentication settings. Here’s how to fix yours...

Jon Kyl Will Take McCain's Senate Seat

The governor of Arizona announced Tuesday that Jon Kyl will replace the Senate seat vacated by the late John McCain. He may now further push to regulate tech giants like Facebook...

OpenAI Didn’t Notice Its AI Agents Using a Message Board to Plan Their Hacking Spree

At the Black Hat security conference, the AI giant revealed new details about how its agents went rogue, hacked several other companies—and did it all right under the company’s nose...

The Most Dangerous AI Hacking Techniques Still Have Humans in the Loop

Security researcher James Kettle tried to push the limit of AI’s hacking abilities—and discovered how effective it can be when combined with human expertise...

Meta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Imagery

More than 50 offending image and video ads were published across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Threads, according to Meta’s ad library data. Some ran as recently as this week...

Landmark Deal Would Officially Add Laser Weapons to US Army Arsenal

Facing a growing drone threat, the Pentagon is poised to sign a first-of-its-kind contract for “Enduring High Energy Lasers”—and make directed energy weapons an official part of the Army’s kit...

ICE Collected Nearly 1 Million People’s DNA Last Year—Including Young Children

Internal documents show ICE's DNA collection has skyrocketed in the second Trump administration. Now hundreds of thousands of people never convicted of a crime are in an FBI criminal database forever...

OpenAI Models Escaped Containment and Hacked Hugging Face

The cybersecurity-focused models, including GPT-5.6 Sol, broke out of a testing sandbox, exploited a zero-day, and gained access to the open internet to pull off the attack...

OpenAI Rolls Out ‘Advanced’ Security Mode for At-Risk Accounts

OpenAI is rolling out Advanced Account Security for people concerned that their ChatGPT or Codex accounts could be potential targets of phishing attacks...

A $20 Billion Crypto Scam Market Faces a New Government Crackdown

The Telegram-based Xinbi Guarantee black market sells services that help prop up scam operations. British officials just hit the highly lucrative marketplace with sweeping sanctions...

Here’s What a Google Subpoena Response Looks Like, Courtesy of the Epstein Files

The US Justice Department disclosures give fresh clues about how tech companies handle government inquiries about your data...

Crypto-Funded Human Trafficking Is Exploding

The use of cryptocurrency in sales of human beings for prostitution and scam compounds nearly doubled in 2025, according to a conservative estimate. Many of the deals are happening in plain sight...

Iran’s Digital Surveillance Machine Is Almost Complete

After more than 15 years of draconian measures, culminating in an ongoing internet shutdown, the Iranian regime seems to be staggering toward its digital surveillance endgame...

Here’s the Company That Sold DHS ICE’s Notorious Face Recognition App

Immigration agents have used Mobile Fortify to scan the faces of countless people in the US—including many citizens...

6 Best VPN Services (2026), Tested and Reviewed

Every VPN says it’s the best, but only some of them are telling the truth...

Revealed: Leaked Chats Expose the Daily Life of a Scam Compound’s Enslaved Workforce

A whistleblower trapped inside a “pig butchering” scam compound gave WIRED a vast trove of its internal materials—including 4,200 pages of messages that lay out its operations in unprecedented detail...

DOGE May Have Misused Social Security Data, DOJ Admits

Plus: The FAA blocks drones over DHS operations, Microsoft admits it hands over Bitlocker encryption keys to the cops, and more...

Hundreds of Millions of Audio Devices Need a Patch to Prevent Wireless Hacking and Tracking

Flaws in how 17 models of headphones and speakers use Google’s one-tap Fast Pair Bluetooth protocol have left devices open to eavesdroppers and stalkers...

The New Surveillance State Is You

Privacy may be dead, but civilians are turning conventional wisdom on its head by surveilling the cops as much as the cops surveil them...

This Hacker Conference Installed a Literal Antivirus Monitoring System

At New Zealand's Kawaiicon cybersecurity convention, organizers hacked together a way for attendees to track CO2 levels throughout the venue—even before they arrived...

A Simple WhatsApp Security Flaw Exposed 3.5 Billion Phone Numbers

By plugging tens of billions of phone numbers into WhatsApp’s contact discovery tool, researchers found “the most extensive exposure of phone numbers” ever—along with profile photos and more...

Mexico City Is the Most Video-Surveilled Metropolis in the Americas

Despite 83,000 public cameras, crime in Mexico City remains high—and widespread surveillance raises myriad ethical issues...

CBP Searched a Record Number of Phones at the US Border Over the Past Year

The total number of US Customs and Border Protection device searches jumped by 17 percent over the 2024 fiscal year, but more invasive forensic searches remain relatively rare...