Airbnb Bans All Indoor Security Cameras

Starting at the end of April, Airbnb will no longer allow hosts to have security cameras inside their rental properties, citing a commitment to prioritizing guest privacy...

Google Is Getting Thousands of Deepfake Porn Complaints

Content creators are using copyright laws to get nonconsensual deepfakes removed from the web. With the complaints covering nearly 30,000 URLs, experts say Google should do more to help...

Russian Hackers Stole Microsoft Source Code—and the Attack Isn’t Over

Plus: An ex-Google engineer gets arrested for allegedly stealing trade secrets, hackers breach the top US cybersecurity agency, and X’s new feature exposes sensitive user data...

Meta Abandons Hacking Victims, Draining Law Enforcement Resources, Officials Say

A coalition of 41 state attorneys general says Meta is failing to assist Facebook and Instagram users whose accounts have been hacked—and they want the company to take “immediate action.”...

How to Turn Off Facebook’s Two-Factor Authentication Change

With Meta’s updated 2FA process, the company now automatically trusts devices you often use...

Inside Registered Agents Inc., the Shadowy Firm Pushing the Limits of Business Privacy

Registered Agents Inc. has for years allowed businesses to register under a cloak of anonymity. A WIRED investigation reveals that its secretive founder has taken the practice to an extreme...

Hackers Behind the Change Healthcare Ransomware Attack Just Received a $22 Million Payment

The transaction, visible on Bitcoin's blockchain, suggests the victim of one of the worst ransomware attacks in years may have paid a very large ransom...

The Privacy Danger Lurking in Push Notifications

Plus: Apple warns about sideloading apps, a court orders NSO group to turn over the code of its Pegasus spyware, and an investigation finds widely available security cams are wildly insecure...

Here Come the AI Worms

Security researchers created an AI worm in a test environment that can automatically spread between generative AI agents—potentially stealing data and sending spam emails along the way...

The UK’s GPS Tagging of Migrants Has Been Ruled Illegal

The UK’s privacy regulator says the government did not take into account the intrusiveness of ankle tags that continuously monitor a person’s location...

The Mysterious Case of the Missing Trump Trial Ransomware Leak

The notorious LockBit gang promised a Georgia court leak "that could affect the upcoming US election.” It didn't materialize—but the story may not be over yet...

Here Are the Google and Microsoft Security Updates You Need Right Now

Plus: Mozilla patches 12 flaws in Firefox, Zoom fixes seven vulnerabilities, and more critical updates from February...

Russia Attacked Ukraine's Power Grid at Least 66 Times to ‘Freeze It Into Submission’

Several of the strikes occurred far from the front lines of the conflict, indicating possible war crimes. Researchers say the attacks likely had devastating impacts on civilians...

The White House Warns Cars Made in China Could Unleash Chaos on US Highways

As Chinese automakers prepare to launch in the US, the White House is investigating whether cars made in China could pose a national security threat...

A Pornhub Chatbot Stopped Millions From Searching for Child Abuse Videos

Every time someone in the UK searched for child abuse material on Pornhub, a chatbot appeared and told them how to get help...

Biden Executive Order Bans Sale of US Data to China, Russia. Good Luck

The White House issued an executive order on Wednesday that aims to prevent the sale of Americans' data to “countries of concern,” including China and Russia. Its effectiveness may vary...

Dictators Used Sandvine Tech to Censor the Internet. The US Finally Did Something About It

Canada-based Sandvine has long sold its web-monitoring tech to authoritarian regimes. This week, the US sanctioned the company, severely limiting its ability to do business with American firms...

Change Healthcare Ransomware Attack: BlackCat Hackers Quickly Returned After FBI Bust

Two months ago, the FBI “disrupted” the BlackCat ransomware group. They're already back—and their latest attack is causing delays at pharmacies across the US...

The UK Is GPS-Tagging Thousands of Migrants

Ankle tags that constantly log a person’s coordinates are part of a growing cadre of experimental surveillance tools that countries around the world are trying out on new arrivals...

How the Pentagon Learned to Use Targeted Ads to Find Its Targets—and Vladimir Putin

Meet the guy who taught US intelligence agencies how to make the most of the ad tech ecosystem, "the largest information-gathering enterprise ever conceived by man."...

How a Right-Wing Controversy Could Sabotage US Election Security

Republicans who run elections are split over whether to keep working with the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency to fight hackers, online falsehoods, and polling-place threats...

A Vending Machine Error Revealed Secret Face Recognition Tech

A student investigation at the University of Waterloo uncovered a system that scanned countless undergrads without consent...

A Mysterious Leak Exposed Chinese Hacking Secrets

Plus: Scammers try to dupe Apple with 5,000 fake iPhones, Avast gets fined for selling browsing data, and researchers figure out how to clone fingerprints from your phone screen...

Here Are the Secret Locations of ShotSpotter Gunfire Sensors

The locations of microphones used to detect gunshots have been kept hidden from police and the public. A WIRED analysis of leaked coordinates confirms arguments critics have made against the technology...

Leak Reveals the Unusual Path of ‘Urgent’ Russian Threat Warning

The US Congress was preparing to vote on a key foreign surveillance program last week. Then a wild Russian threat appeared...

Apple iOS 17.4: iMessage Gets Post-Quantum Encryption in New Update

Useful quantum computers aren’t a reality—yet. But in one of the biggest deployments of post-quantum encryption so far, Apple is bringing the technology to iMessage...

Anne Neuberger, a Top White House Cyber Official, Sees the 'Promise and Peril' in AI

Anne Neuberger, the Biden administration’s deputy national security adviser for cyber, tells WIRED about emerging cybersecurity threats—and what the US plans to do about them...

Signal Finally Rolls Out Usernames, So You Can Keep Your Phone Number Private

We tested the end-to-end encrypted messenger’s new feature aimed at addressing critics’ most persistent complaint. Here’s how it works...

The Notorious Lockbit Ransomware Gang Has Been Disrupted by Law Enforcement

LockBit’s website, infrastructure, and data have been seized by law enforcement—striking a huge blow against one of the world’s most prolific ransomware groups...

The Danger Lurking Just Below Ukraine's Surface

The widespread use of mines has left Ukrainians scrambling to find ways to clear the explosives. New efforts to develop mine-clearing technology may help them push back Russia's invading forces...

How to Not Get Scammed Out of $50,000

Plus: State-backed hackers test out generative AI, the US takes down a major Russian military botnet, and 100 hospitals in Romania go offline amid a major ransomware attack...

SpaceX Launched Military Satellites Designed to Track Hypersonic Missiles

The prototype satellites hitched a ride on a Falcon 9 rocket...

Leak of Russian ‘Threat’ Part of a Bid to Kill US Surveillance Reform, Sources Say

A surprise disclosure of a national security threat by the House Intelligence chair was part of an effort to block legislation that aimed to limit cops and spies from buying Americans' private data...

Elon Musk’s X Gave Check Marks to Terrorist Group Leaders, Report Says

A new report cited 28 “verified” accounts on X that appear to be tied to sanctioned groups or individuals...

Section 702 Surveillance Fight Pits the White House Opposite Reproductive Rights

Prominent advocates for the rights of pregnant people are urging members of Congress to support legislation that would ban warrantless access to sensitive data as the White House fights against it...

‘AI Girlfriends’ Are a Privacy Nightmare

Romantic chatbots collect huge amounts of data, provide vague information about how they use it, use weak password protections, and aren’t transparent, new research from Mozilla says...

A Backroom Deal Looms Over Section 702 Surveillance Fight

Top congressional lawmakers are meeting in private to discuss the future of a widely unpopular surveillance program, worrying members devoted to reforming Section 702...

Satellite Images Point to Indiscriminate Israeli Attacks on Gaza’s Health Care Facilities

New research finds that Israel’s attacks on Gaza damaged hospitals and other medical facilities at the same rate as other buildings, potentially in violation of international law...

The Hidden Injustice of Cyberattacks

Cyberattacks and criminal scams can impact anyone. But communities of color and other marginalized groups are often disproportionately impacted and lack the support to better protect themselves...

2054, Part VI: Standoff at Arlington

“This eruption of violence had been brewing for years, through successive economic collapses, pandemics, and the utter dysfunction that had become American life.” An exclusive excerpt from 2054: A Novel...

A Celebrated Cryptography-Breaking Algorithm Just Got an Upgrade

Two researchers have improved a well-known technique for lattice basis reduction, opening up new avenues for practical experiments in cryptography and mathematics...

How 3 Million ‘Hacked’ Toothbrushes Became a Cyber Urban Legend

Plus: China’s Volt Typhoon hackers lurked in US systems for years, the Biden administration’s crackdown on spyware vendors ramps up, and a new pro-Beijing disinformation campaign gets exposed...

2054, Part V: From Tokyo With Love

“Had this all been contrived? Had his life become a game in which everyone knew the rules but him?” An exclusive excerpt from 2054: A Novel...

Epik, the Far Right's Favorite Web Host, Has a Shadowy New Owner

Known for doing business with far-right extremist websites, Epik has been acquired by a company that specializes in helping businesses keep their operations secret...

London Underground Is Testing Real-Time AI Surveillance Tools to Spot Crime

In a test at one station, Transport for London used a computer vision system to try and detect crime and weapons, people falling on the tracks, and fare dodgers, documents obtained by WIRED show...

I Stopped Using Passwords. It's Great—and a Total Mess

Passkeys are here to replace passwords. When they work, it’s a seamless vision of the future. But don’t ditch your old logins just yet...

2054, Part IV: A Nation Divided

“The people are in the streets. We can’t ignore them any longer. Really, we have little choice. Either we heal together, or we tear ourselves apart.” An exclusive excerpt from 2054: A Novel...

Ransomware Payments Hit a Record $1.1 Billion in 2023

After a slowdown in payments to ransomware gangs in 2022, last year saw total ransom payouts jump to their highest level yet, according to a new report from crypto-tracing firm Chainalysis...

2054, Part III: The Singularity

“You’d have an incomprehensible level of computational, predictive, analytic, and psychic skill. You’d have the mind of God.” An exclusive excerpt from 2054: A Novel...

WhatsApp Chats Will Soon Work With Other Encrypted Messaging Apps

New EU rules mean WhatsApp and Messenger must be interoperable with other chat apps. Here’s how that will work...