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...

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...

Identities of More Than 80 Americans Stolen for North Korean IT Worker Scams

The US Justice Department revealed the identity theft number along with one arrest and a crackdown on “laptop farms” that allegedly facilitate North Korean tech worker impersonators across the US...

US Supreme Court Upholds Texas Porn ID Law

In a 6-3 decision, the Supreme Court held that age verification for explicit sites is constitutional. In a dissent, Justice Elena Kagan warned it burdens adults and ignores First Amendment precedent...

Why We Made a Guide to Winning a Fight

Right now, everyone seems ready to throw down. More than ever, it’s important to fight smart—and not give up until you land a decisive blow...

The Trump Administration Sure Is Having Trouble Keeping Its Comms Private

In the wake of SignalGate, a knockoff version of Signal used by a high-ranking member of the Trump administration was hacked. Today on Uncanny Valley, we discuss the platforms used for government communications...

AI Code Hallucinations Increase the Risk of ‘Package Confusion’ Attacks

A new study found that code generated by AI is more likely to contain made-up information that can be used to trick software into interacting with malicious code...

New Jersey Sues Discord for Allegedly Failing to Protect Children

The New Jersey attorney general claims Discord’s features to keep children under 13 safe from sexual predators and harmful content are inadequate...

A Signal Update Fends Off a Phishing Technique Used in Russian Espionage

Google warns that hackers tied to Russia are tricking Ukrainian soldiers with fake QR codes for Signal group invites that let spies steal their messages. Signal has pushed out new safeguards...

Russia Is Going All Out on Election Day Interference

Along with other foreign influence operations—including from Iran—Kremlin-backed campaigns to stoke division and fear have gone into overdrive...

This Video Game Controller Has Become the US Military’s Weapon of Choice

After decades of relying on buttons, switches, and toggles, the Pentagon has embraced simple, ergonomic video-game-style controllers already familiar to millions of potential recruits...

The Quiet Rise of Real-Time Crime Centers

Cities across the US have established RTCCs that police say protect the rights of innocent people, but critics warn of creeping surveillance...

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...

How Mexico's ‘CJNG’ Drug Cartel Embraced AI, Drones, and Social Media

Drug kingpin Nemesio “El Mencho” Oseguera Cervantes may be dead, but the Jalisco cartel he ran for years will likely outlive him—thanks, in part, to the criminal group’s embrace of technology...

ICE Is Crashing the US Court System in Minnesota

Petitions demanding people get the chance to be released from ICE custody have overwhelmed courts throughout the US...

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...

ICE Agent’s ‘Dragging’ Case May Help Expose Evidence in Renee Good Shooting

The government has withheld details of the investigation of Renee Good’s killing—but an unrelated case involving the ICE agent who shot her could force new revelations...

The Paramilitary ICE and CBP Units at the Center of Minnesota's Killings

Two agents involved in the shooting deaths of US citizens in Minneapolis are reportedly part of highly militarized DHS units whose extreme tactics are generally reserved for war zones...

CBP Wants AI-Powered ‘Quantum Sensors’ for Finding Fentanyl in Cars

US Customs and Border Protection is paying General Dynamics to create prototype “quantum sensors,” to be used with an AI database to detect fentanyl and other narcotics...

Discovering the Dimensions of a New Cold War

The United States’ plan for dealing with Putin’s Russia and Xi’s China remains ill-defined among a shifting global order. That must change...

The US Must Stop Underestimating Drone Warfare

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

Chinese Crypto Scammers on Telegram Are Fueling the Biggest Darknet Markets Ever

Online black markets once lurked in the shadows of the dark web. Today, they’ve moved onto public platforms like Telegram—and are racking up historic illicit fortunes...

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...

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...

'Happy Gilmore' Producer Buys Spyware Maker NSO Group

Plus: US government cybersecurity staffers get reassigned to do immigration work, a hack exposes sensitive age-verification data of Discord users, and more...

Apple Announces $2 Million Bug Bounty Reward for the Most Dangerous Exploits

With the mercenary spyware industry booming, Apple VP Ivan Krstić tells WIRED that the company is also offering bonuses that could bring the max total reward for iPhone exploits to $5 million...

Vibe Coding Is the New Open Source—in the Worst Way Possible

As developers increasingly lean on AI-generated code to build out their software—as they have with open source in the past—they risk introducing critical security failures along the way...

Heritage Foundation Uses Bogus Stat to Push a Trans Terrorism Classification

By inflating numbers and narrowing definitions, Heritage promotes a false link between transgender identity and violence in its push for the FBI to create a new terrorism category...

How to Use 1Password's Travel Mode at the Border (2025)

Travel Mode not only hides your most sensitive data—it acts as if that data never existed in the first place...

How China’s Propaganda and Surveillance Systems Really Operate

A series of corporate leaks show that Chinese technology companies function far more like their Western peers than one might imagine...

Cindy Cohn Is Leaving the EFF, but Not the Fight for Digital Rights

After 25 years at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Cindy Cohn is stepping down as executive director. In a WIRED interview, she reflects on encryption, AI, and why she’s not ready to quit the battle...

ICE Has Spyware Now

Plus: An AI chatbot system is linked to a widespread hack, details emerge of a US plan to plant a spy device in North Korea, your job’s security training isn’t working, and more...

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...

SSA Whistleblower’s Resignation Email Mysteriously Disappeared From Inboxes

Less than 30 minutes after the Social Security Administration’s chief data officer resigned following a whistleblower complaint, recipients could no longer access the resignation email...

What to Know About Traveling to China for Business

Recent developments and an escalating trade war have made travel to cities like Beijing challenging but by no means impossible...

Trump Officials Want to Prosecute Over the ICEBlock App. Lawyers Say That’s Unconstitutional

The platform, which allows users to anonymously share the locations of ICE agents, is currently the third-most-downloaded iPhone app...

What Satellite Images Reveal About the US Bombing of Iran's Nuclear Sites

The US concentrated its attack on Fordow, an enrichment plant built hundreds of feet underground. Aerial photos give important clues about what damage the “bunker-buster” bombs may have caused...

Black Basta: The Fallen Ransomware Gang That Lives On

After a series of setbacks, the notorious Black Basta ransomware gang went underground. Researchers are bracing for its probable return in a new form...

Rumble Among 15 Targets of Texas Attorney General’s Child Privacy Probe

Texas has become a leading enforcer of internet rules. Its latest probe includes some platforms that privacy experts describe as unusual suspects...

With Threats to Encryption Looming, Signal’s Meredith Whittaker Says ‘We’re Not Changing’

At WIRED’s The Big Interview event, the president of the Signal Foundation talked about secure communications as critical infrastructure and the need for a new funding paradigm for tech...

Hackers Stalked Me by Hijacking a Smartwatch for Kids

Security researchers tracked and eavesdropped on a WIRED reporter using vulnerabilities in a pink plastic smartwatch. It’s just one piece of a deeply insecure supply chain of GPS-enabled gadgets...

The Instant Smear Campaign Against Border Patrol Shooting Victim Alex Pretti

Within minutes of the shooting, the Trump administration and right-wing influencers began disparaging the man shot by a federal immigration officer on Saturday in Minneapolis...

Grok Is Pushing AI ‘Undressing’ Mainstream

Paid tools that “strip” clothes from photos have been available on the darker corners of the internet for years. Elon Musk’s X is now removing barriers to entry—and making the results public...

Border Patrol Bets on Small Drones to Expand US Surveillance Reach

Federal records show CBP is moving from testing small drones to making them standard surveillance tools, expanding a network that can follow activity in real time and extend well beyond the border...

3 Best VPN for iPhone (2025), Tested and Reviewed

There are dozens of iPhone VPNs at your disposal, but these are the services that will actually keep your browsing safe...

Chatbots Are Pushing Sanctioned Russian Propaganda

ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, and Grok are serving users propaganda from Russian-backed media when asked about the invasion of Ukraine, new research finds...

When Face Recognition Doesn’t Know Your Face Is a Face

An estimated 100 million people live with facial differences. As face recognition tech becomes widespread, some say they’re getting blocked from accessing essential systems and services...

These Are the 15 New York Officials ICE and NYPD Arrested in Manhattan

More than a dozen elected officials were arrested in or around 26 Federal Plaza in New York City, where ICE detains people in what courts have ruled are unsanitary conditions...

This Microsoft Entra ID Vulnerability Could Have Been Catastrophic

A pair of flaws in Microsoft's Entra ID identity and access management system could have allowed an attacker to gain access to virtually all Azure customer accounts...

A DHS Data Hub Exposed Sensitive Intel to Thousands of Unauthorized Users

A misconfigured platform used by the Department of Homeland Security left national security information—including some related to the surveillance of Americans—accessible to thousands of people...