Security, Spoken

Back in 2012, the US Supreme Court ruled that it's illegal for the police to attach a GPS tracking device to someone's car without a warrant. But what if you find a GPS tracking device on your car? Can you remove it? ARS TECHNICA This story originally appeared on Ars Technica, a trusted source for technology news, tech policy analysis, reviews, and more. Ars is owned by WIRED's parent company, Con...

It's increasingly common for the data that passes between your browser and a website's server to be encrypted with HTTPS, which makes it impossible for outside snoops to read. But you don't get that protection if the URL drops that crucial "S" after HTTP. And while some mechanisms do redirect you to an encrypted version of a site, they often do so only after exposing that initial request. The make...

Android users are groaning and websites are moaning, but first: a cartoon about what to do with a broken laptop. Here's the news you need to know, in two minutes or less. Want to receive this two-minute roundup as an email every weekday? Sign up here! Today’s News 146 new vulnerabilities all come preinstalled on Android phones Security firm Kryptowire discovered 146 vulnerabilities—across 29 Andro...

When you buy an Android smartphone, it’s rarely pure Android. Manufacturers squeeze in their own apps or give it a fresh coat of interface. Carriers do it too. The resulting stew of preinstalled software and vanilla Android sometimes turns out to be rancid, putting flaws and vulnerabilities on the phone before you even take it out of the box. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices....

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In 2016 Brendan Eich, the controversial creator of the JavaScript programming language and cofounder and former CTO of Mozilla, announced the launch of a new browser called Brave. The pitch was simple but ambitious: Brave would block invasive ads and tracking scripts, but it would also show its own, privacy-friendly ads in their place. And it would cut both publishers and users in on the proceeds....

Android has a bit of a malware problem. The open ecosystem's flexibility also makes it relatively easy for tainted apps to circulate on third-party app stores or malicious websites. Worse still, malware-ridden apps sneak into the official Play Store with disappointing frequency. After grappling with the issue for a decade, Google is calling in some reinforcements. Learn more about your ad choices....

It's not yet prime time for 5G networks, which still face logistical and technical hurdles, but they're increasingly coming online in major cities worldwide. Which is why it's especially worrying that new 5G vulnerabilities are being discovered almost by the dozen. At the Association for Computing Machinery's Conference on Computer and Communications Security in London today researchers are presen...

In charges released Wednesday, the Justice Department accused two former Twitter employees, Ahmad Abouammo and Ali Alzabarah, of abusing their internal system privileges to spy on target users and pass the information they collected to Saudi Arabia. The criminal complaint also alleges that it was trivial for them to do so—a chilling reminder of how much damage an insider can cause. Learn more abou...

Valentine’s Day is a high-pressure event dreaded by millions—precisely the type of holiday you may not want to relive, unless you sell flowers for a living. But that’s exactly what happened to many people across the United States on Thursday, when they awoke to find that their phones had suddenly sent or received text messages originally intended to be sent around February 14. Learn more about you...

Pour one out for the OG Google Pixel 1. This month's Android security patches are out, and while you'll find bulletins covering the Pixel 2, 3, and 4, the original Google Pixel didn't make the cut. Google is ending support this month. ARS TECHNICA This story originally appeared on Ars Technica, a trusted source for technology news, tech policy analysis, reviews, and more. Ars is owned by WIRED's p...

Scammers are actively exploiting a bug in Firefox that causes the browser to lock up after displaying a message warning that the computer is running a pirated version of Windows that has been hacked. The message, which appears without any any user interaction upon visiting a site, reads: Please stop and do not close the PC … The registry key of your computer is locked. Why did we block your comput...

With hackers deploying sophisticated attacks against operating systems, processors, and even firmware, manufacturers have increasingly turned to a tamper-resistant processor—or part of one—often called a "secure enclave" to stymie all sorts of attacks. They place in that immutable chip the "root of trust" on a device, relying on it to run cryptographic checks every time the system starts to make s...

Facebook is refining while Google is designing, but first, a cartoon about when smartphones go rogue. Here's the news you need to know, in two minutes or less. Want to receive this two-minute roundup as an email every weekday? Sign up here! Today’s Headlines Google is helping design an open source, ultra-secure chip Hackers seem to launch new attacks every day, but a new kind of chip could provide...

Officials around the United States have spent the last three years scrambling to harden election and voting infrastructure against the disinformation campaigns, phishing attacks, and system probing that plagued 2016. With exactly one year to go until the 2020 presidential election, local and state boards of election have made significant progress on improving digital defenses. Learn more about you...

When Microsoft revealed last May that millions of Windows devices had a serious hackable flaw known as BlueKeep—one that could enable an automated worm to spread malware from computer to computer—it seemed only a matter of time before someone unleashed a global attack. As predicted, a BlueKeep campaign has finally struck. But so far it's fallen short of the worst case scenario. Learn more about yo...

Nothing motivates me more in acquiring weapons for the Air Force than foreign military threats. Stealth fighters, satellite-guided missiles, and silent submarines were once unique US capabilities; now our troops must face them on future battlefields. WIRED OPINION ABOUT Dr. Will Roper is the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. Learn more about your ad ch...

WhatsApp just took a hard new line against the malware industry, suing notorious Israeli surveillance contractor NSO Group for attacks on more than a thousand of its users. The case could mark a turning point in Silicon Valley's fight against private-sector espionage mercenaries. But before it can convince a court that NSO engaged in criminal hacking, WhatsApp may have to win a thorny legal argume...

After months of revelations and apologies, all the major smart assistant makers have revamped how they handle human review of audio snippets. Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple Siri, and Microsoft Cortana were all using third-party contractors to transcribe and vet recorded snippets, adding some human brain power to underlying machine learning algorithms. But the backlash over the lack of trans...

Ransomware has steadily become one of the most pervasive cyberattacks in the world. And while high-profile global meltdowns like 2017’s NotPetya strain garner the most attention, localized attacks have devastating consequences as well. Look no further than the cities of Atlanta and Baltimore, whose online operations ground to a halt after ransomware takeovers. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

Russia's state-sponsored hackers have a few predictable fixations: NATO-country embassies. Hillary Clinton. Ukraine. But a less expected target has somehow remained in their sights for more than three years: the Olympics—and specifically anyone who would dare to accuse Russian athletes of cheating. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

TikTok, the app that revolves around sharing short video clips, is in a unique position. It’s arguably the first international social media platform to have built a massive audience in the United States, where it’s been downloaded more than 110 million times since its founding in 2017. TikTok has offices in California near competitors like Snapchat, Instagram, and YouTube, but it’s owned by ByteDa...

When you think of online security, hopefully by now two-factor authentication springs to mind. WIRED certainly pushes the feature every chance we get. And for good reason! It's a solid protection against common web attacks like phishing and credential stuffing. But when Chris Coyne and Max Krohn, who previously cofounded OKCupid, launched their own digital identity and encrypted chat platform in 2...

In March, police in an Atlanta suburb embarked on a surveillance experiment they hoped would reduce crime in the area. Along public roads near the local Six Flags amusement park, officers from the Cobb County Police Department installed 13 solar-powered automatic license plate readers from Flock Safety, an Atlanta-based startup on a mission to “eliminate non-violent crime. Learn more about your ad...

Politicians are bickering and NASA is tinkering, but first: a cartoon tackling the problem of robot discrimination. Here's the news you need to know, in two minutes or less. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices