AI Scam Calls: How to Protect Yourself, How to Detect

AI tools are getting better at cloning people’s voices, and scammers are using these new capabilities to commit fraud. Avoid getting swindled by following these expert tips...

A Breakthrough Online Privacy Proposal Hits Congress

While some states have made data privacy gains, the US has so far been unable to implement protections at a federal level. A new bipartisan proposal called APRA could break the impasse...

Best Privacy Browsers (2024): Brave, Safari, Ghostery, Firefox, DuckDuckGo

Ad trackers are out of control. Use a browser that reins them in...

Identity Thief Lived as a Different Man for 33 Years

Plus: Microsoft scolded for a “cascade” of security failures, AI-generated lawyers send fake legal threats, a data broker quietly lobbies against US privacy legislation, and more...

A Vigilante Hacker Took Down North Korea’s Internet. Now He’s Taking Off His Mask

As “P4x,” Alejandro Caceres single-handedly disrupted the internet of an entire country. Then he tried to show the US military how it can—and should—adopt his methods...

The Mystery of ‘Jia Tan,’ the XZ Backdoor Mastermind

The thwarted XZ Utils supply chain attack was years in the making. Now, clues suggest nation-state hackers were behind the persona that inserted the malicious code...

The XZ Backdoor: Everything You Need to Know

Details are starting to emerge about a stunning supply chain attack that sent the open source software community reeling...

The Incognito Mode Myth Has Fully Unraveled

To settle a years-long lawsuit, Google has agreed to delete “billions of data records” collected from users of “Incognito mode,” illuminating the pitfalls of relying on Chrome to protect your privacy...

A Ghost Ship’s Doomed Journey Through the Gate of Tears

Millions lost internet service after three cables in the Red Sea were damaged. Houthi rebels deny targeting the cables, but their missile attack on a cargo ship, left adrift for months, is likely to blame...

You Should Update Apple iOS and Google Chrome ASAP

Plus: Microsoft patches over 60 vulnerabilities, Mozilla fixes two Firefox zero-day bugs, Google patches 40 issues in Android, and more...

Yogurt Heist Reveals a Rampant Form of Online Fraud

Plus: “MFA bombing” attacks target Apple users, Israel deploys face recognition tech on Gazans, AI gets trained to spot tent encampments, and OSINT investigators find fugitive Amond Bundy...

Jeffrey Epstein’s Island Visitors Exposed by Data Broker

A WIRED investigation uncovered coordinates collected by a controversial data broker that reveal sensitive information about visitors to an island once owned by Epstein, the notorious sex offender...

‘Malicious Activity’ Hits the University of Cambridge’s Medical School

Multiple university departments linked to the Clinical School Computing Service have been inaccessible for a month. The university has not revealed the nature of the “malicious activity.”...

Judges Block US Extradition of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange—for Now

A high court in London says the WikiLeaks founder won’t be extradited “immediately” and the US must provide more “assurances” about any extradition...

Chinese Hackers Charged in Decade-Long Global Spying Rampage

US and UK officials hit Chinese hacking group APT31 with sanctions and criminal charges after they targeted thousands of businesses, politicians, and critics of China...

Apple Chip Flaw Leaks Secret Encryption Keys

Plus: The Biden administration warns of nationwide attacks on US water systems, a new Russian wiper malware emerges, and China-linked hackers wage a global attack spree...

The DOJ Puts Apple's iMessage Encryption in the Antitrust Crosshairs

Privacy and security are an Apple selling point. But the DOJ’s new antitrust lawsuit argues that Apple selectively embraces privacy and security features in ways that hurt competition—and users...

Hackers Found a Way to Open Any of 3 Million Hotel Keycard Locks in Seconds

The company behind the Saflok-brand door locks is offering a fix, but it may take months or years to reach some hotels...

Some of the Most Popular Websites Share Your Data With Over 1,500 Companies

Cookie pop-ups now show the number of “partners” that websites may share data with. Here's how many of these third-party companies may get your data from some of the most popular sites online...

Glassdoor Wants to Know Your Real Name

Anonymous, candid reviews made Glassdoor a powerful place to research potential employers. A policy shift requiring users to privately verify their real names is raising privacy concerns...

Automakers Are Telling Your Insurance Company How You Really Drive

Plus: The operator of a dark-web cryptocurrency “mixing” service is found guilty, and a US senator reveals that popular safes contain secret backdoors...

Sinking Section 702 Wiretap Program Offered One Last Lifeboat

For months, US lawmakers have examined every side of a historic surveillance debate. With the introduction of the SAFE Act, all that’s left to do now is vote...

The ‘Emergency Powers’ Risk of a Second Trump Presidency

Every US president has the ability to invoke “emergency powers” that could give an authoritarian leader the ability to censor the internet, restrict travel, and more...

There Are Dark Corners of the Internet. Then There's 764

A global network of violent predators is hiding in plain sight, targeting children on major platforms, grooming them, and extorting them to commit horrific acts of abuse...

Porn Sites Need Age-Verification Systems in Texas, Court Rules

The US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has vacated an injunction against an age-verification requirement to view internet porn in Texas...

US Lawmaker Cited NYC Protests in a Defense of Warrantless Spying

A closed-door presentation for House lawmakers late last year portrayed American anti-war protesters as having possible ties to Hamas in an effort to kill privacy reforms to a major US spy program...

Binance’s Top Crypto Crime Investigator Is Being Detained in Nigeria

Tigran Gambaryan, a former crypto-focused US federal agent, and a second Binance executive, Nadeem Anjarwalla, have been held in Abuja without passports for two weeks...

The 4 Big Questions the Pentagon’s New UFO Report Fails to Answer

The Pentagon says it’s not hiding aliens, but it stops notably short of saying what it is hiding. Here are the key questions that remain unanswered—some answers could be weirder than UFOs...

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...