Police took a digital rendering of a suspect's face, generated using DNA evidence, and ran it through a facial recognition system in a troubling incident reported for the first time by WIRED this week. The tactic came to light in a trove of hacked police records published by the transparency collective Distributed Denial of Secrets. Meanwhile, information about United States intelligence agencies … [Read more...]
Police Arrest Teen Said to Be Linked to Hundreds of Swatting Attacks
For more than a year, the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation has been hunting the person whom experts say is one of the most prolific swatters in American history. Law enforcement now believes they have finally arrested the person responsible.A 17-year-old from California is allegedly the swatter known as Torswats, according to sources familiar with the investigation. The teenager is … [Read more...]
The Pentagon Tried to Hide That It Bought Americans' Data Without a Warrant
United States officials fought to conceal details of arrangements between US spy agencies and private companies tracking the whereabouts of Americans via their cellphones. Obtaining location data from US phones normally requires a warrant, but police and intelligence agencies routinely pay companies instead for the data, effectively circumventing the courts.Ron Wyden, the US senator from Oregon, … [Read more...]
Big-Name Targets Push Midnight Blizzard Hacking Spree Back Into the Limelight
Microsoft and Hewlett-Packard Enterprise (HPE) both recently disclosed that they suffered corporate email breaches at the hands of Russia's “Midnight Blizzard” hackers.The group, which is tied to the Kremlin's SVR foreign intelligence, is specifically linked to SVR's APT 29 Cozy Bear, the gang that meddled in the United States 2016 presidential election, has conducted aggressive government and … [Read more...]
How a Group of Israel-Linked Hackers Has Pushed the Limits of Cyberwar
About eight minutes after 3 am on June 27, 2022, inside the Khouzestan steel mill near Iran's western coastline on the Persian Gulf, a massive lid lowered onto a vat of glowing, molten metal. Based on footage from a surveillance camera inside the plant, the giant vessel was several times taller than the two workers in gray uniforms and hardhats standing nearby, likely large enough to carry well … [Read more...]
Ring Will Stop Giving Cops a Free Pass on Warrantless Video Requests
Ring, the Amazon-owned home surveillance company known for its long history of partnering with police, announced today that it plans to shut down a controversial tool that allows law enforcement to ask users to share their footage without first obtaining a warrant.In a press release announcing its decision, Ring says it will begin “sunsetting” its Request for Assistance (RFA) tool, which allows … [Read more...]
Notorious Spyware Maker NSO Group Is Quietly Plotting a Comeback
On New Year’s Eve, NSO Group—the Israel-based company behind the Pegasus spyware, one of the world’s most sophisticated cyberweapons—quietly released a new transparency report.The 27-page document is carefully worded—even apologetic—and is intended to demonstrate resilience, progress, and responsibility to further strengthen the company’s human rights compliance program. It claims the company has … [Read more...]
HP CEO Says They Brick Printers That Use Third-Party Ink Because of … Hackers
Last Thursday, HP CEO Enrique Lores addressed the company's controversial practice of bricking printers when users load them with third-party ink. Speaking to CNBC Television, he said, "We have seen that you can embed viruses in the cartridges. Through the cartridge, [the virus can] go to the printer, [and then] from the printer, go to the network."That frightening scenario could help explain why … [Read more...]
Apple iOS 17.3: How to Turn on iPhone's New Stolen Device Protection
Apple today launched a new tool for iPhones to help reduce what a thief with your phone and passcode can access. The feature, called Stolen Device Protection, adds extra layers of protection to your iPhone when someone tries to access or change sensitive settings on your device. If someone tries to access passwords stored in Apple’s keychain, for instance, they won’t be able to unless they also … [Read more...]
Cops Used DNA to Predict a Suspect’s Face—and Tried to Run Facial Recognition on It
In 2017, detectives at the East Bay Regional Park District Police Department working a cold case got an idea, one that might help them finally get a lead on the murder of Maria Jane Weidhofer. Officers had found Weidhofer, dead and sexually assaulted, at Berkeley, California’s Tilden Regional Park in 1990. Nearly 30 years later, the department sent genetic information collected at the crime scene … [Read more...]
Fujitsu Bugs That Sent Innocent People to Prison Were Known ‘From the Start’
Software flaws were allegedly hidden from lawyers of wrongly convicted UK postal workers. Source: wired.com … [Read more...]
Security News This Week: US Agencies Urged to Patch Ivanti VPNs That Are Actively Being Hacked
A major coordinated disclosure this week called attention to the importance of prioritizing security in the design of graphics processing units (GPUs). Researchers published details about the “LeftoverLocals” vulnerability in multiple brands and models of mainstream GPUs—including Apple, Qualcomm, and AMD chips—that could be exploited to steal sensitive data, such as responses from AI systems. … [Read more...]
How to Opt Out of Comcast’s Xfinity Storing Your Sensitive Data
Your internet service provider could have a good idea of who you’re planning to vote for in the 2024 election as well as the gender of the last person you slept with—and it’s saving that information for later. Major internet providers, like Comcast’s Xfinity, stockpile more revealing data than users might initially realize.For example, Xfinity customers are automatically opted in to allow the … [Read more...]
‘Stablecoins’ Enabled $40 Billion in Crypto Crime Since 2022
Stablecoins, cryptocurrencies pegged to a stable value like the US dollar, were created with the promise of bringing the frictionless, border-crossing fluidity of Bitcoin to a form of digital money with far less volatility. That combination has proved to be wildly popular, rocketing the total value of stablecoin transactions since 2022 past even that of Bitcoin itself.It turns out, however, that … [Read more...]
How a 27-Year-Old Codebreaker Busted the Myth of Bitcoin’s Anonymity
Just over a decade ago, Bitcoin appeared to many of its adherents to be the crypto-anarchist holy grail: truly private digital cash for the internet.Satoshi Nakamoto, the cryptocurrency’s mysterious and unidentifiable inventor, had stated in an email introducing Bitcoin that “participants can be anonymous.” And the Silk Road dark-web drug market seemed like living proof of that potential, enabling … [Read more...]
A Flaw in Millions of Apple, AMD, and Qualcomm GPUs Could Expose AI Data
As more companies ramp up development of artificial intelligence systems, they are increasingly turning to graphics processing unit (GPU) chips for the computing power they need to run large language models (LLMs) and to crunch data quickly at massive scale. Between video game processing and AI, demand for GPUs has never been higher, and chipmakers are rushing to bolster supply. In new findings … [Read more...]
The Sad Truth of the FTC's Location Data Privacy Settlement
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reached a settlement last week with an American data broker known to sell location data gathered from hundreds of phone apps to the US government, among others. According to the agency, the company ignored in some cases the requests of consumers not to do so, and more broadly failed to ensure that users were notified of how their harvested data would be … [Read more...]
A Bloody Pig Mask Is Just Part of a Wild New Criminal Charge Against eBay
After the security firm Mandiant had its X account compromised earlier this month, the US Securities and Exchange Commission dealt with a similar intrusion this week. Attackers wrested control of the agency’s account for more than half an hour and posted false information during that time about a highly anticipated SEC regulatory decision on a Bitcoin financial product. The incident was … [Read more...]
How to Stop Your X Account From Getting Hacked Like the SEC's
This week, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) suffered an embarrassing—and market-moving—breach in which a hacker gained access to its X social media account and published fake information about a highly anticipated SEC announcement related to bitcoin. The agency regained control of its account and deleted the post in under an hour, but the situation is troubling, … [Read more...]
Child Abusers Are Getting Better at Using Crypto to Cover Their Tracks
For those who trade in child sexual exploitation images and videos in the darkest recesses of the internet, cryptocurrency has been both a powerful tool and a treacherous one. Bitcoin, for instance, has allowed denizens of that criminal underground to buy and sell their wares with no involvement from a bank or payment processor that might reveal their activities to law enforcement. But the public … [Read more...]
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