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...

A Special Diamond Is the Key to a Fully Open Source Quantum Sensor

Quantum sensors can be used in medical technologies, navigation systems, and more, but they’re too expensive for most people. That's where the Uncut Gem open source project comes in...

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...

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...

4 Arrested Over Scattered Spider Hacking Spree

Plus: An “explosion” of AI-generated child abuse images is taking over the web, a Russian professional basketball player is arrested on ransomware charges, and more...

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...

‘They're Not Breathing’: Inside the Chaos of ICE Detention Center 911 Calls

Records of hundreds of emergency calls from ICE detention centers obtained by WIRED—including audio recordings—show a system inundated by life-threatening incidents, delayed treatment, and overcrowding...

Truth Social Crashes as Trump Live-Posts Iran Bombing

The social network started experiencing global outages within minutes of Donald Trump posting details of a US military strike on Iran...

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...

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...

License Plate Readers Are Leaking Real-Time Video Feeds and Vehicle Data

Misconfigured license-plate-recognition systems reveal the livestreams of individual cameras and the wealth of data they collect about every vehicle that passes by them...

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...

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...

US Officials Recommend Encryption Apps Amid Chinese Telecom Hacking

Plus: Russian spies keep hijacking other hackers’ infrastructure, Hydra dark web market admin gets life sentence in Russia, and more of the week’s top security news...

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...

The War on Passwords Is One Step Closer to Being Over

“Passkeys,” the secure authentication mechanism built to replace passwords, are getting more portable and easier for organizations to implement thanks to new initiatives the FIDO Alliance announced on Monday...

ICE Signs $2 Million Contract With Spyware Maker Paragon Solutions

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s one-year contract with Paragon’s US subsidiary comes amid the Biden administration’s years-long crackdown on commercial spyware vendors...

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...

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...

US Senators Secretly Work to Block Safeguards Against Surveillance Abuse

Senator Mark Warner is trying to pass new limits on when the government can wiretap Americans. At least two senators are quietly trying to stop him...

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...

Amazon Is Investigating Perplexity Over Claims of Scraping Abuse

AWS hosted a server linked to the Bezos family- and Nvidia-backed search startup that appears to have been used to scrape the sites of major outlets, prompting an inquiry into potential rules violations...

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...

ICE Records Reveal How Agents Abuse Access to Secret Data

Documents obtained by WIRED detail hundreds of investigations by the US agency into alleged database misuse that includes harassment, stalking, and more...

FBI Conducted 3.4 Million Warrantless Searches of Americans' Data

Plus: Trump backers breach election systems, Microsoft tracks Russia's war prep, a new Facebook leak reveals a mess, and Bored Ape Yacht Club gets hacked...

The Quiet Way Advertisers Are Tracking Your Browsing

Cookies are on the way out—but not enough is being done about browser fingerprinting. So what is it?...

Russia’s Internet Censorship Machine Is Going After Tor

The attempt to block the site, which helps users mask their online activity, is the latest step in the country's efforts to control the internet...

CBP Facility Codes Sure Seem to Have Leaked Via Online Flashcards

The Quizlet flashcards, which WIRED found through basic Google searches, seem to include sensitive information about gate security at Customs and Border Protection locations...

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...

AI Is Here to Replace Nuclear Treaties. Scared Yet?

The last major nuclear arms treaty between the US and Russia just expired. Some experts believe a combination of satellite surveillance, AI, and human reviewers can take its place. Others, not so much...

An AI Toy Exposed 50,000 Logs of Its Chats With Kids to Anyone With a Gmail Account

AI chat toy company Bondu left its web console almost entirely unprotected. Researchers who accessed it found nearly all the conversations children had with the company’s stuffed animals...

6 Best VPN Services (2026), Tested and Reviewed

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

Fears Mount That US Federal Cybersecurity Is Stagnating—or Worse

Government staffing cuts and instability, including this year’s prolonged shutdown, could be hindering US digital defense and creating vulnerabilities...

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...

The US Must Stop Underestimating Drone Warfare

The future of conflict is cheap, rapidly manufactured, and tough to defend against...

The Destruction of a Notorious Myanmar Scam Compound Appears to Have Been ‘Performative’

Myanmar’s military has been blowing up parts of the KK Park scam compound. Experts say the actions are likely for show...

DHS Kept Chicago Police Records for Months in Violation of Domestic Espionage Rules

The Department of Homeland Security collected data on Chicago residents accused of gang ties to test if police files could feed an FBI watchlist. Months passed before anyone noticed it wasn’t deleted...

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...

Anthropic Has a Plan to Keep Its AI From Building a Nuclear Weapon. Will It Work?

Anthropic partnered with the US government to create a filter meant to block Claude from helping someone build a nuke. Experts are divided on whether its a necessary protection—or a protection at all...

Apple’s Big Bet to Eliminate the iPhone’s Most Targeted Vulnerabilities

Alongside new iPhones, Apple released a new security architecture on Tuesday: Memory Integrity Enforcement aims to eliminate the most frequently exploited class of iOS bugs...

Defense Department Scrambles to Pretend It’s Called the War Department

President Donald Trump said the so-called Department of War branding is to counter the “woke” Department of Defense name...

No, Trump Can’t Legally Federalize US Elections

The United States Constitution is clear: President Donald Trump can’t take control of the country’s elections. But he can sow confusion and fear...

Phone Searches at the US Border Hit a Record High

Customs and Border Protection agents searched nearly 15,000 devices from April through June of this year, a nearly 17 percent spike over the previous three-month high in 2022...

Inside the Multimillion-Dollar Gray Market for Video Game Cheats

Gaming cheats are the bane of the video game industry—and a hot commodity. A recent study found that cheat creators are making a fortune from gamers looking to gain a quick edge...

Ex-NSA Chief Paul Nakasone Has a Warning for the Tech World

At the Defcon security conference in Las Vegas on Friday, Nakasone tried to thread the needle in a politically fraught moment while hinting at major changes for the tech community around the corner...