How to Get Facebook Without Ads—if It’s Available for You

Meta now offers users an ad-free option, but it’s only available in Europe for those who can afford the €10-a-month subscription...

Sandworm Hackers Caused Another Blackout in Ukraine—During a Missile Strike

Russia's most notorious military hackers successfully sabotaged Ukraine's power grid for the third time last year. And in this case, the blackout coincided with a physical attack...

Police Use of Face Recognition Is Sweeping the UK

Face recognition technology has been controversial for years. Cops in the UK are drastically increasing the amount they use it...

The GOP Presidential Debate Is Livestreaming on Rumble, Home to White Nationalist Nick Fuentes

The third GOP debate is sponsored by the Republican Jewish Coalition and will be livestreamed on a platform favored by one of America’s most notorious white nationalists...

This Is the Ops Manual for the Most Tech-Savvy Animal Liberation Group in the US

For the first time, guerrilla animal rights group Direct Action Everywhere reveals a guide to its investigative tactics and toolkit, from spy cams to night vision and drones...

Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023 Seeks to End Warrantless Police and FBI Spying

The Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023 pulls from past privacy bills to overhaul how police and the feds access Americans’ data and communications...

Internet Blackouts in Gaza Are a New Weapon in the Israel-Hamas War

Israel has said it’s prepared to disrupt internet service in Gaza, signaling a new age of warfare. In the past two weeks, the Palestinian territory has already suffered three communications shutdowns...

YouTube's Ad Blocker Detection Believed to Break EU Privacy Law

A complaint filed with the EU’s independent data regulator accuses YouTube of failing to get explicit user permission for its ad blocker detection system, potentially violating the ePrivacy Directive...

What a Bloody San Francisco Street Brawl Tells Us About the Age of Citizen Surveillance

When a homeless man attacked a former city official, footage of the onslaught became a rallying cry. Then came another video, and another—and the story turned inside out...

Intensified Israeli Surveillance Has Put the West Bank on Lockdown

The West Bank was Israel’s surveillance laboratory. Since the Israel-Hamas war began, Palestinian residents have been locked in for days at a time...

This Cheap Hacking Device Can Crash Your iPhone With Pop-Ups

Plus: SolarWinds is charged with fraud, New Orleans police face recognition has flaws, and new details about Okta’s October data breach emerge...

Microsoft Does Damage Control With Its New 'Secure Future Initiative'

Following a string of serious security incidents, Microsoft says it has a plan to deal with escalating threats from cybercriminals and state-backed hackers...

The UN Hired an AI Company to Untangle the Israeli-Palestinian Crisis

CulturePulse's AI model promises to create a realistic virtual simulation of every Israeli and Palestinian citizen. But don't roll your eyes: It's already been put to the test in other conflict zones...

The New Era of Social Media Looks as Bad for Privacy as the Last One

The slow-motion implosion of Elon Musk’s X has given rise to a slew of competitors, where privacy invasions that ran rampant over the past decade still largely persist...

How Telegram Became a Terrifying Weapon in the Israel-Hamas War

Hamas posted gruesome images and videos that were designed to go viral. Sources argue that Telegram’s lax moderation ensured they were seen around the world...

Apple, Google, and Microsoft Just Patched Some Spooky Security Flaws

Plus: Major vulnerability fixes are now available for a number of enterprise giants, including Cisco, VMWare, Citrix, and SAP...

This Cryptomining Tool Is Stealing Secrets

Plus: Details emerge of a US government social media-scanning tool that flags “derogatory” speech, and researchers find vulnerabilities in the global mobile communications network...

The Destruction of Gaza’s Internet Is Complete

As Israel increases its ground operation in Gaza, the last remaining internet and mobile connections have gone dark...

TikTok Streamers Are Staging ‘Israel vs. Palestine’ Live Matches to Cash In on Virtual Gifts

TikTokkers are using a little-known livestreaming feature to falsely represent Israelis and Palestinians—and the company is taking a cut of costly in-app gifts viewers give to participants...

Maine Mass Shooting Disinformation Floods Social Media as Suspect Remains at Large

In the hours following the worst mass shooting in Maine’s history, disinformation about the suspected gunman flooded social media with false claims that he had been arrested...

Okta's Latest Security Breach Is Haunted by the Ghost of Incidents Past

A recent breach of authentication giant Okta has impacted nearly 200 of its clients. But repeated incidents and the company’s delayed disclosure have security experts calling foul...

Elon Musk Mocked Ukraine, and Russian Trolls Went Wild

Inauthentic accounts on X flocked to its owner’s post about Ukrainian president Vlodymr Zelensky, hailing “Comrade Musk” and boosting pro-Russia propaganda...

The AI-Generated Child Abuse Nightmare Is Here

Thousands of child abuse images are being created with AI. New images of old victims are appearing, as criminals trade datasets...

A Powerful Tool US Spies Misused to Stalk Women Faces Its Potential Demise

Though often viewed as the “crown jewel” of the US intelligence community, fresh reports of abuse by NSA employees and chaos in the US Congress put the tool's future in jeopardy...

A Controversial Plan to Scan Private Messages for Child Abuse Meets Fresh Scandal

An EU government body is pushing a proposal to combat child sexual abuse material that has significant privacy implications. Its lead advocate is making things even messier...

They Cracked the Code to a Locked USB Drive Worth $235 Million in Bitcoin. Then It Got Weird

Stefan Thomas lost the password to an encrypted USB drive holding 7,002 bitcoins. One team of hackers believes they can unlock it—if they can get Thomas to let them...

The Hamas Threat of Hostage Execution Videos Looms Large Over Social Media

Hamas has threatened to broadcast videos of hostage executions. With the war between Israel and Hamas poised to enter a new phase, are social platforms ready?...

The 23andMe User Data Leak May Be Far Worse Than Believed

Plus: IT workers secretly funnel money to North Korea, a court in the US upholds keyword search warrants, and WhatsApp gets a passwordless upgrade on Android...

The Dangerous Mystery of Hamas’ Missing ‘Suicide Drones’

Hamas has long touted its military drones, but little is known about the true scale of the threat. The answer may have consequences for people on both sides of the Israel-Gaza border...

Citing Hamas, the US Wants to Treat Crypto "Mixers" as Suspected Money Launderers

With a new emphasis on the Hamas attacks on Israel, the US Treasury has proposed designating foreign cryptocurrency “mixer” services as money launderers and national security threats...

Who’s Responsible for the Gaza Hospital Explosion? Here’s Why It’s Hard to Know What’s Real

A flood of false information, partisan narratives, and weaponized “fact-checking" has obscured efforts to find out who’s responsible for an explosion at a hospital in Gaza...

Elon Musk’s Main Tool for Fighting Disinformation on X Is Making the Problem Worse, Insiders Claim

X is promoting Community Notes to solve its disinformation problems, but some former employees and people who currently contribute notes say it’s not fit for that purpose...

They Supported Air Strike Victims. Then They Were Doxed and Arrested

Myanmar’s military junta is increasing surveillance and violating basic human rights. The combination of physical and digital surveillance is reaching dangerous new levels...

Deepfake Porn Is Out of Control

New research shows the number of deepfake videos is skyrocketing—and the world's biggest search engines are funneling clicks to dozens of sites dedicated to the nonconsensual fakes...

The US Congress Was Targeted With Predator Spyware

Plus: Hamas raised millions in crypto, Exxon used hacked data, and more...

Rumors of a ‘Global Day of Jihad’ Have Unleashed a Dangerous Wave of Disinformation

The rapid spread of violent videos and photos, combined with a toxic stew of mis- and disinformation, now threatens to spill over into real-world violence...

US House Republicans Had Their Phones Confiscated to Stop Leaks

In an attempt to wrest control from raucous far-right hardliners amid the fight for a new House speaker, Republican Party leaders are instituting phone bans to keep backroom deals secret...

HTTP/2 Rapid Reset: A New Protocol Vulnerability Will Haunt the Web for Years

Dubbed “HTTP/2 Rapid Reset,” the flaw requires issuing patches to virtually every web server around the world before the problem can be eradicated...

New Clues Suggest Stolen FTX Funds Went to Russia-Linked Money Launderers

Whoever looted FTX on the day of its bankruptcy has now moved the stolen money through a long string of intermediaries—and eventually some that look Russian in origin...

A Graphic Hamas Video Donald Trump Jr. Shared on X Is Actually Real, Research Confirms

A video posted by Donald Trump Jr. showing Hamas militants attacking Israelis was falsely flagged in a Community Note as being years old, thus making X's disinformation problem worse, not better...

The UN Risks Normalizing Internet Censorship

The United Nations' top internet governance body will allegedly host its next two annual meetings in countries known for repressive internet policies and human rights abuses...

Elon Musk Is Personally Undermining X’s Efforts to Curb Israel-Hamas War Disinformation

X’s Trust and Safety team says it’s working to remove false information related to the Israel-Hamas war. Meanwhile, Elon Musk is sharing conspiracies and chatting with QAnon promoters...

Google Makes Passkeys Default, Stepping Up Its Push to Kill Passwords

Google is making passkeys, the emerging passwordless login technology, the default option for users as it moves to make passwords “obsolete.”...

Activist Hackers Are Racing Into the Israel-Hamas War—for Both Sides

Since the conflict escalated, hackers have targeted dozens of government websites and media outlets with defacements and DDoS attacks, and attempted to overload targets with junk traffic to bring them down...

The Israel-Hamas War Is Drowning X in Disinformation

People who have turned to X for breaking news about the Israel-Hamas conflict are being hit with old videos, fake photos, and video game footage at a level researchers have never seen...

Inside FTX’s All-Night Race to Stop a $1 Billion Crypto Heist

The same chaotic day FTX declared bankruptcy, someone began stealing hundreds of millions of dollars from its coffers. A WIRED investigation reveals the company’s “very crazy night” trying to stop them...

Israel's Failure to Stop the Hamas Attack Shows the Danger of Too Much Surveillance

Hundreds dead, thousands wounded—Hamas’ surprise attack on Israel shows the limits of even the most advanced and invasive surveillance dragnets as full-scale war erupts...

Apple's Encryption Is Under Attack by a Mysterious Group

Plus: Sony confirms a breach of its networks, US federal agents get caught illegally using phone location data, and more...

White Supremacist Active Clubs Are Breeding on Telegram

A “friendlier” front for racist extremism has spread rapidly across the US in recent months, as active club channels network on Telegram's encrypted messaging app...

23andMe User Data Stolen in Targeted Attack on Ashkenazi Jews

At least a million data points from 23andMe accounts appear to have been exposed on BreachForums. While the scale of the campaign is unknown, 23andMe says it's working to verify the data...