Security, Spoken

In a highly anticipated decision released Friday, the US Supreme Court updated Fourth Amendment protections for the digital era. In a 5-4 ruling, the court decided in Carpenter v. United States that the government generally needs a warrant in order to access cell site location information, which is automatically generated whenever a mobile phone connects to a cell tower and stored by wireless carr...

What's that? A week with nearly as much good news as bad in the world of privacy and security? It's true! Especially the privacy part. On Friday, the Supreme Court issued a hotly anticipated ruling in Carpenter v. United States, establishing that the government will need to get a warrant if it wants to track your location with cell sites. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/...

Lawmakers in California have introduced a sweeping privacy bill to the state legislature that would give Californians unprecedented control over their data and reign in the power of their Silicon Valley neighbors. Introduced by state assemblyman Ed Chau and state senator Robert Hertzberg, the bill would allow California residents to find out what information businesses and data brokers collect abo...

In 2015, the United States and China agreed to a digital truce that banned hacking private companies to steal trade secrets. And though the agreement has been touted as a success, it hasn't stopped Chinese state-sponsored hackers from pushing the envelope of acceptable behavior. Moreover, it certainly hasn't slowed types of hacking that fall outside the purview of the accord. Lately, it seems, tha...

Seven weeks after Iran's conservative-led judiciary banned the secure communications app Telegram inside the country, Iranians are still reeling from the change. Though Telegram has critics in the security community, it has become wildly popular in Iran over the last few years as a way of communicating, sharing photos and documents, and even doing business. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

This past winter, malware ripped through the Pyeongchang Olympics, disrupting Wi-Fi, shutting down the Olympics website, and causing generalized digital havoc. The so-called [Olympic Destroyer attack](https://www.wired.com/story/olympic-destroyer-malware-pyeongchang-opening-ceremony/] gained infamy, too, for using a number of false flags to muddy attribution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visi...

In March, artist and programmer Brannon Dorsey became interested in a retro web attack called DNS rebinding, teaching himself how to illicitly access controls and data by exploiting known browser weaknesses. It's a vulnerability that researchers have poked at on and off for years—which is one reason Dorsey couldn't believe what he found. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/a...

In a highly anticipated report released Thursday, the Department of Justice's Office of the Inspector General found that political bias within the Federal Bureau of Investigation didn't influence the outcome of its 2016 probe into Hillary Clinton's private email server. As part of their investigation, inspector general Michael Horowitz and his team reviewed 1. Learn more about your ad choices. Vis...

A Portland woman recently told a local news outlet that her Amazon Echo device had gone rogue, sending a recording of a private conversation to a random person in her contact list. On Thursday, two senators tasked with investigating consumer privacy sent a letter to Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos demanding answers. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Apple has spent much of its promotional push behind iOS 12 so far focused on features that range from silently useful, like Safari’s new privacy powers, to off-puttingly quirky, like animoji tongue-tracking. But on Monday the company detailed an upcoming iPhone upgrade with real-world consequences: It will communicate your exact location to 911 operators when you call, saving valuable time when ev...

Days after President Donald Trump met with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un in Singapore, the president touted the strength of the two leaders' relationship. "I can now call him," he told reporters at the White House on Friday. "I gave him a very direct number. He can now call me if he has any difficulty. We have communication. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Did you hear? There was a summit this week! A good ol’ fashioned meeting of world powers, in which North Korea promised to denuclearize for at least the seventh time in the last 30 years. In the process, President Donald Trump says he gave North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un his direct phone number, which if true was a terrible idea. Oh, and even if North Korea does actually go through with ditching...

It's been nearly five years since the FBI surrounded Ross Ulbricht in the science fiction section of a San Francisco library, arrested him, and grabbed the laptop from which he had run the dark web drug bazaar known as the Silk Road. Ulbricht went on trial in a New York courtroom, and is currently serving a life sentence without parole. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/ad...

Encrypted communication used to be too complicated for mainstream use, but approachable apps like WhatsApp and Signal have become a no-brainer for digital privacy. With all of their security-minded features, like disappearing messages and identity-confirming safety numbers, secure chat apps can rightfully give you peace of mind. You should absolutely use them. As the adage goes, though, there's no...

A Russian sports official earlier this year estimated that as many as 2 million people would flock to the country during the World Cup, the month-long celebration of soccer—or football, fine—that kicks off today in Moscow. If you’re one of them, have fun! But also maybe leave your laptop at home. Yes, traveling to and between Russia’s 11 World Cup host cities should provide marvels aplenty. Learn...

Throughout the Trump administration, the State Department has repeatedly called for the "complete, verifiable, and irreversible denuclearization” of North Korea. Heading into Donald Trump and Kim Jong Un's diplomatic negotiations in Singapore, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo reaffirmed this ambition on Monday. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Your email spam filter works overtime to keep sketchy investing opportunities and cheap Viagra offers out of your inbox, but you've probably seen some scams sneak through. That's because email fraud operations are a multibillion-dollar business, often run by Nigerian-based syndicates that have members—not to mention targets—around the world. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.c...

The nuclear summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un has concluded, with each securing something they value. The US will suspend the joint military exercises with South Korea that rattle the Hermit Kingdom. And North Korea has promised to denuclearize. At some point. Probably. But if the past is any sort of prologue, you shouldn't hold your breath. On the face of i...

One of them jailbroke Nintendo handhelds in a former life. Another has more than one zero-day exploit to his name. A third signed on just prior to the devastating Shadow Brokers leak. These are a few of the members of the Windows red team, a group of hackers inside Microsoft who spend their days finding holes in the world’s most popular operating system. Without them, you’d be toast. Learn more ab...

"Oops, your files have been encrypted!" This was the chilling message that greeted hundreds of thousands of computer users last summer. The WannaCry ransomware attack brought production to a standstill at Renault factories across France, put lives at risk by attacking hospitals in the UK, and cost companies around the world billions of dollars in lost revenue. WIRED OPINION ABOUT Jens Stoltenberg...

As hard as it is to believe at this point, the week really did start with Apple's WWDC keynote. It feels like a lifetime ago! You can get a full recap here, but the two main security takeaways are that Safari is the best mainstream privacy browser now, and that it looks like Apple's going to slow down, take a breath, and try to release some major updates without quite so many bugs. Learn more abou...

British security researcher Marcus Hutchins, who was indicted and arrested last summer for allegedly creating and conspiring to sell the Kronos banking trojan, now faces four additional charges. Hutchins, also called MalwareTech and MalwareTechBlog, is well-known in the security community for slowing the spread of WannaCry ransomware as it tore through the world's PCs in May 2017. Learn more about...

Facebook has found itself the subject of another privacy scandal, this time involving privacy settings. A glitch caused up to 14 million Facebook users to have their new posts inadvertently set to public, the company revealed Thursday. The bug, which reportedly occurred while Facebook was testing a new feature, went live on May 18. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoic...

In January 2014, Google made a fundamental change to its search product: It started showing answers to user queries directly in so-called snippets, no further clicks required. But what started out as a time-saver has morphed into a repeated source of misleading and outright false information, thanks to Google's frequent reliance on untrusted sources. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcast...

During a nearly four-hour grilling before Parliament Wednesday, Alexander Nix, former CEO of the now defunct data firm Cambridge Analytica, faced the ghosts of his past. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices