Security, Spoken

On Friday night, security researcher Tavis Ormandy of Google’s Project Zero announced on Twitter that he had found a Windows bug. Well, not just any bug. It was “crazy bad,” Ormandy wrote. “The worst Windows remote code exec in recent memory.” By Monday night, Microsoft had released an emergency patch, along with details of what the vulnerability entailed. And yes, it was every bit as scary as adv...

After a hacked US election covered in Russian fingerprints, it's easy to assume that Friday's megaleak of emails from France's president-elect Emmanuel Macron was the Kremlin's work, too. Russia, after all, has the motive, the means, and a very fresh track record of meddling in Western elections to sabotage center-left candidates. But this latest breach, for now, lacks conclusive fingerprints-and...

Congratulations! You've gotten through the week of the Google Docs phishing ploy that rocked the world, or at least a vocal corner of the media. Speaking of speaking out, FBI Director James Comey this week gave his most thorough explanation yet of the election-rocking Clinton investigation letter he gave last fall, though it's unlikely to satisfy critics. Oh, and apps can use your phone's mic to l...

A year after it was first announced, the United States-provided missile defense system meant to guard South Korea is fully operational. The device has sparked controversy and pushback from China, but it’s a powerful symbolic step that should provide some legitimate protection from an increasingly volatile North Korea. It also has some important limitations. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit...

FBI Director James Comey would like you to travel back in time with him for a minute. It's Friday morning, October 28. The day prior, members of his staff told Comey that they had found thousands of Hillary Clinton's private emails stored on Anthony Weiner's laptop, and needed a warrant to read them, thereby reopening the investigation into the Democratic presidential candidate's use of a private...

Today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company will hire 3,000 people to watch for violent footage posted to the site. The decision comes after two horrific videos caught global attention in recent weeks: a man uploaded a video of himself murdering a grandfather in Cleveland, and a man in Thailand hanged his infant and then himself in a Facebook Live video the authorities saw too late. Learn...

If you get a Google Doc link in your inbox today, scrutinize it carefully before you click—even if it looks like it comes from someone you trust. A nasty phishing scam that impersonates a Google Docs request has swept the internet today, including a decent chunk of media companies. You’ve heard “think before you click” a million times, but it really could save you from a whole lot of hassle. Googl...

Last year, Capt. Sean Ruddy and his team of operator-soldiers from the US Cyber Brigade entered a Locked Shields, a NATO-organized cyber-defense war game that pits teams from dozens of countries against “live-fire” attacks. It was their first time. And of the 19 countries represented, the US finished dead last. This week, they got their shot at redemption. Locked Shields challenges participating c...

It must have seemed like such a good bet, as far as extortion attempts go. Steal one of Netflix’s prized original series months before it’s slated to air, and shake the streaming company down under threat of releasing it. But as season five of Orange Is the New Black‘s recent appearance on torrenting site The Pirate Bay shows, it was a crime destined destined for failure, because it misunderstood...

It was a week full of revelations in the security world. A New York Times Uber story revealed that the company got in trouble with Apple over "fingerprinting" iPhones even after users deleted the app. It's a common enough practice, but Uber took it a few steps too far. And speaking of common practices, here's how to check which services have access to your Gmail and Facebook accounts-you might be...

The new Amazon Echo Look seems like a logical enough extension of Alexa, the company’s AI-powered digital assistant. Previously, Alexa lived inside speakers. Now, it’s in a camera. That progression belies just how much more the Echo Look could know about you than other Alexa hardware does—especially if Amazon ever unleashes the full power of its machine learnings smarts. Amazon envisions the Echo...

Once again Uber finds itself taking heat for questionable business practices. This time the company was using software to identify iPhones even after their owners deleted the Uber app, or even wiped the phones altogether. That technique, known as fingerprinting, isn’t uncommon—and shouldn’t be interpreted as tracking your every move. But Uber’s implementation crossed a line with Apple, in particul...

No one wants murder videos on Facebook. But no one wants Facebook to censor their baby videos, either. Technology isn’t ready to step in and tell the difference. So what are the legal options for stopping videos like the appalling killing uploaded last week from hitting Facebook? None of them will be easy for Americans to swallow. The country could regulate Facebook like it does traditional broadc...

The pitch has plenty of appeal: Sign up for our service, and we’ll automatically unsubscribe you from all those pesky email lists. For free! Except, not quite; as it turns out, you end up paying in privacy. That’s just one revelation from a bombshell New York Times look at Uber, which showed how Unroll.me, the service described above, scans the email accounts of its users for information as granul...

As end-to-end encrypted messaging apps have exploded in popularity, several well-known services have added encrypted calls as well. Why not, right? If it works for text-based chat, voice seems like a natural extension. If only it were that easy. Encrypting calls has plenty of value, keeping conversations strictly between the two parties. They can circumvent government wiretaps, or criminal snoopin...

A tense weekend of brinksmanship between the United States and North Korea culminated in a failed missile test from the reclusive dictatorship. And while the busted launch does highlight the country’s long-term commitment to advancing its warfare capabilities, it also shouldn’t cause undo alarm. In fact, it was something close to routine. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/...

Phishing attacks can make even crusading technovangelists paranoid. One wrong click can put you out a ton of cash, or cause a corporate breach. And they evolve constantly. Case in point: A cunning new exploit makes malicious phishing websites appear to have the sameURL asknown and trusted destinations. You knowby now to check your browser while visitinga site to besure it sportsthelittle green pad...

National security experts and North Korea watchers say the reclusive countrymay test a nuclear bomb on Saturday, the ‘Day of the Sun’ holiday that marks the birthday of national father Kim Il-sung. The Hermit Kingdom’s recent saber-rattling prompted the United States to dispatch the Vinson carrier group as a show of force, and President Trump has not ruled out a pre-emptive strike. Learn more abou...

It feels like all weeks in security news are overstuffed lately, and this one's no exception. It started with a bang, or more of a blare, as all of Dallas's dozens of tornado sirens were hacked to sound off at once. And it ended with a boom, as the US dropped the Moab ('Mother of All Bombs,' colloquially), a 22,600 pound bomb, for the first time. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoi...

When the US dropped a 22,600-pound bomb near suspected ISIS tunnels in Afghanistan’s Nangarhar province on Thursday, the blast from the explosion would have rushed into the furthest reaches of the mountain complex about a mile away. The GBU-43, known as Moab—short for Massive Ordnance Air Blast, or, colloquially, Mother of All Bombs—is the largest non-nuclear, non-penetrating bomb in the US arsena...

It’s easy for all sides to read too much into the news tat FBI reportedly obtained a warrant to surveil former Trump foreign policy adviser Carter Page. Those convinced of Trump’s Russia ties may see validation, and proof of a grander conspiracy. Others may see this lending credence to Trump’s allegations that the Obama administration ordered illegal, politically motivated surveillance in the heat...

Windows Vista was not a popular Microsoft release. We can just say it. Launched in 2007 (after a few delays), it was the first Windows overhaul since the well-loved XP release in 2001. Six years is a long time to make people wait, no matter how great the replacement. And Vista, well, was not great. A decade later, Microsoft's finally pulling the plug on support tomorrow. Which means, if you're som...

Filing and paying taxes can be frustrating enough without the looming threat of identity theft and refund fraud. But tax scams have become so prevalent, you’ve likely received a bogus call, text message, or email in the last few years. As painful as it is to add another item on the tax to-do list this year, working to protect yourself from cons and digital attacks could really save you money and t...

Well, we sent 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles smack into a Syrian airbase this week. But other stuff happened too! The week started off with some clever hack revelations, including a backdoor that Russians have used for two decades, and an ATM hack that just takes a drill hole and $15 worth of gear. And some particularly industrious hackers took over a Brazilian bank's entire online footprint for a fe...

On Thursday night, two US Navy warships fired 59 Tomahawk cruise missiles at a Syrian airbase after President Bashar al-Assad’s regime used chemical weapons earlier this week against civilians. For months, Donald Trump has espoused a hands-off approach to intervening in the Middle Eastern country’s six-year-long civil war, yet it took just 24 hours for the president to reverse course and launch Am...