Security, Spoken

The Google Pixel 3 has all the betterments you would expect from a flashy flagship smartphone: great camera, zippy processor, smarter AI. It also, though, comes with an unexpected bonus, one that works so deeply in the background you’ll likely never even know it’s there. The Titan M chip may be small and discreet, but it helps make the Pixel 3 and its beefier sibling, the Pixel 3 XL, among the mos...

When Facebook announced at the end of September that it had suffered a data breach that ultimately affected 30 million accounts, it seemed, perhaps, like the work of sophisticated nation state hackers. But a new report from The Wall Street Journal suggests spammers as the culprit instead. That shouldn't make you feel that much better, though, given just how much damage criminals can do with the ki...

In 2013, cybersecurity firm Mandiant published a blockbuster report on a state-sponsored hacking team known as APT1, or Comment Crew. The Chinese group achieved instant infamy, tied to the successful hacks of more than 100 US companies and the exfiltration of hundreds of terabytes of data. They also vanished in the wake of being exposed. Now, years later, researchers from security firm McAfee say...

One nice thing about using web-based services is that you rarely need to take charge. You just sign up for an account, and instantly access your data from anywhere on any device without having to know how the internet works, much less how to configure a server. But that lack of control over the process is also, increasingly, the problem. Companies hold your data on their servers, which means it co...

After two weeks of investigation, Facebook announced additional details on Friday of how attackers carried out a massive breach of the social network that compromised accounts for tens of millions of users. The company downgraded its estimate of how many users had their access tokens stolen from an original estimate of at least 50 million to 30 million—and shed new light on exactly how an attack o...

When you give an organization your data, and then that data gets exposed or stolen, you probably want to know about it. Seems simple enough. If a friend lost your sweater, you'd expect him to tell you. But a seemingly endless parade of massive data exposures—including, most recently, at Facebook and Google—reveal just how complicated that practice of disclosure can be. Learn more about your ad cho...

With the exception of President Trump’s legal team, no one has been watching the Mueller investigation more closely than Garrett Graff. Graff, a historian and journalist, wrote the book on Robert Mueller (literally), has interviewed him probably more than any other journalist, and covers the investigation for WIRED. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The good news: A recent scourge of fake Adobe installers really does update you to the latest version of Flash. The bad news: It places cryptomining malware on your machine in the meantime. The Hack Researchers at Palo Alto Networks this week warned of the latest evolution in both cryptojacking and fake Flash updates, two popular forms of cyber malfeasance united in one unpleasant parcel. Learn mo...

At the end of last month, Facebook made a bombshell disclosure: As many as 90 million of its users may have had their so-called access tokens—which keep you logged into your account, so you don't have to sign in every time—stolen by hackers. Friday, the company put the actual number at 30 million. Here's how to see if you were one of them, and if so, what the hackers got from your account. Learn m...

For years, the Kremlin's increasingly aggressive hackers have reached across the globe to hit targets with everything from simple phishing schemes to worms built from leaked NSA zero day vulnerabilities. Now, law enforcement agencies in the US and Europe have detailed another, far more hands-on tactic: Snooping on Wi-Fi from a vehicle parked a few feet away from a target office—or even from a lapt...

The first step in solving any problem is admitting there is one. But a new report from the US Government Accountability Office finds that the Department of Defense remains in denial about cybersecurity threats to its weapons systems. Specifically, the report concludes that almost all weapons that the DoD tested between 2012 and 2017 have “mission critical” cyber vulnerabilities. Learn more about y...

Cybersecurity researchers regularly disclose the bugs they find in different applications and websites across the internet. Sometimes, these vulnerabilities are incredibly complicated to exploit, evidence more of a researcher's expertise than something the average consumer should worry about. In other scenarios, analysts find simple holes that a novice could use to steal information. This is a cas...

A major report from Bloomberg on Thursday describes an infiltration of the hardware supply chain, allegedly orchestrated by the Chinese military, that reaches an unprecedented geopolitical scope and scale—and may be a manifestation of the tech industry's worst fears. If the details are correct, it could be a nearly impossible mess to clean up. "This is a scary-big deal," says Nicholas Weaver, a se...

Google announced on Monday that it is shuttering its Google+ social network, following revelations in a Wall Street Journal report that the company did not disclose a recently discovered bug that had exposed data from up to 500,000 Google+ users users since 2015. In the same breath, the company introduced new tools to give users more control over the data they share with apps and services that con...

Donald Trump plans to text you Wednesday, whether you want him to or not. The first nationwide test of the government’s Presidential Alert system will unfold at 2:18 pm ET, when every cell phone user in the United States will receive a text message from FEMA saying, “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcast...

Near the end of September, before the United Nations, President Donald Trump leveled an extraordinary charge: China was attempting to “meddle” and “interfere” in the upcoming US election. A senior intelligence official repeated the claim on a subsequent call with reporters. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The sales intelligence firm Apollo sent a notice to its customers last week disclosing a data breach it suffered over the summer. "On discovery, we took immediate steps to remediate our systems and confirmed the issue could not lead to any future unauthorized access," cofounder and CEO Tim Zheng wrote. "We can appreciate that this situation may cause you concern and frustration." In fact, the scal...

You lock your phone so other people can't access it. But how you lock your phone is an important factor in whether law enforcement can compel you to unlock it. Apple's year-old Face ID system is no exception. On Sunday, Forbes reported the first known example of law enforcement anywhere using a suspect's face to unlock a phone during an investigation. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcas...

Facebook has received ample blame for the historic data breach that allowed hackers to not only take over the accounts of at least 50 million users, but also access third-party websites those users logged into with Facebook. But what makes it so much worse is that fixing the issue is, in many ways, out of Facebook's hands. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Malware on Apple's MacBook and iMac lines is more prevalent than some users realize; it can even hide in Apple's curated Mac App Store. But the relatively strong defenses of macOS make it challenging for malware authors to persist long-term on Apple computers, even if they can get an initial foothold. Additionally, the avenues available for lurking on macOS are so well known at this point that tec...

At 2:18 PM ET today, millions of people in America will get a text message that reads, "Presidential Alert.” The text is a test of FEMA’s Wireless Emergency Alerts System. If you click on the text, you’ll see the words: “THIS IS A TEST of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System. No action is needed.” As we reported, this test is the evolution of long-standing national effort to create the per...

Thanks to a push over the last few years, led by Google and others, encrypted HTTPS connections protect more data than ever as it passes between web servers and browsers. But another fundamental component of web browsing too often remains unencrypted: the Domain Name System connections that act as the address lookups of the internet. In Android 9, also known as Android Pie, Google has added a feat...

Cloud services host vast quantities of valuable information, making them perpetually attractive targets for hackers. Attackers regularly develop new and clever ways to access cloud accounts—or find ones that have been left exposed—and exfiltrate data. Those in charge of protecting cloud accounts have their own methods of shoring up defenses and securing account perimeters. Learn more about your ad...

As the controversy surrounding the Supreme Court confirmation for Judge Brett Kavanaugh escalates, the online conversation around it has started to feel less like a debate and more like a war. That’s because it is one. WIRED OPINION ABOUT P.W. Singer and Emerson T. Brooking are the authors of LikeWar: The Weaponization of Social Media, out Oct 2, 2018. It's been more than three decades since the a...

Facebook’s privacy problems severely escalated Friday when the social network disclosed that an unprecedented security issue, discovered September 25, impacted almost 50 million user accounts. Unlike the Cambridge Analytica scandal, in which a third-party company erroneously accessed data that a then-legitimate quiz app had siphoned up, this vulnerability allowed attackers to directly take over us...