privacy – Page 2 – The News Desk

The Startup That Transformed the Hack-for-Hire Industry

19Nov

By adminNo Comments

Technology

The Startup That Transformed the Hack-for-Hire Industry

If you’re looking for a long read to while away your weekend, we’ve got you covered. First up, WIRED senior reporter Andy Greenberg reveals the wild story behind the three teenage hackers who created the Mirai botnet code that ultimately took down a huge swath of the internet in 2016. WIRED contributor Garrett Graff pulls from his new book on UFOs to lay out the proof that the 1947 “discovery” of aliens in Roswell, New Mexico, never really happened. And finally, we take a deep dive into the communities that are solving cold cases using face recognition and other AI.That’s not all. Each week, we round up the security and privacy stories we didn’t report in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories, and stay safe out there.For years, mercenary hacker companies like NSO G...

Snoop Dogg says he’s giving up ‘smoke.’ It caught some of his fans off guard

18Nov

By adminNo Comments

Entertainment

Snoop Dogg says he’s giving up ‘smoke.’ It caught some of his fans off guard

NEW YORK -- Asking for privacy, hip-hop legend and longtime marijuana enthusiast Snoop Dogg says he's going to stop smoking — though he didn't specify exactly what that might mean."After much consideration and conversation with my family, I've decided to give up smoke," Snoop wrote in a message shared on Instagram and X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, on Thursday. “Please respect my privacy at this time.”The rapper and entrepreneur, who has become known for his own weed-related ventures over the years, provided no additional details in his brief announcement, which came the week after a new marijuana-adjacent product was introduced bearing his name. Representatives for the 52-year-old Snoop, born Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., did not immediately respond to The Associated Press' re...

Senate Leaders Plan to Prolong NSA Surveillance Using a Must-Pass Bill

10Nov

By adminNo Comments

Technology

Senate Leaders Plan to Prolong NSA Surveillance Using a Must-Pass Bill

Leaders in the United States Senate have been discussing plans to extend Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) beyond its December 31 deadline by amending must-pass legislation this month.A senior congressional aide tells WIRED that leadership offices and judiciary sources have both disclosed that discussions are underway about saving the Section 702 program in the short term by attaching an amendment extending it to a bill that is sorely needed to extend federal funding and avert a government shutdown one week from now.The program, last extended in 2018, is due to expire at the end of the year. Without a vote to reauthorize 702, the US government will lose its ability to obtain year-long “certifications” compelling telecommunications companies to wiretap oversea...

Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023 Seeks to End Warrantless Police and FBI Spying

8Nov

By adminNo Comments

Technology

Government Surveillance Reform Act of 2023 Seeks to End Warrantless Police and FBI Spying

In 1763, the radical journalist and colonial sympathizer John Wilkes published issue no. 45 of North Briton, a periodical of anonymous essays known for its virulent anti-Scottish drivel—and for viciously satirizing a British prime minister until he quit his job. The fallout from the subsequent plan of the British king, George III, to see Wilkes put in irons for the crime of being too good at lambasting his own government reverberates today, particularly in the nation whose founders once held Wilkes up as an idol, plotting a revolt of their own.Wilkes’ arrest boiled the Americans’ blood. Reportedly, the politician-cum-fugitive had invited the king’s men into his home to read the warrant for his arrest aloud. He quickly tossed it aside. At trial, Wilkes explained its most insidious feature:...

YouTube’s Ad Blocker Detection Believed to Break EU Privacy Law

7Nov

By adminNo Comments

Technology

YouTube’s Ad Blocker Detection Believed to Break EU Privacy Law

When YouTube detects an ad blocker or other privacy tool that blocks ads as part of its functions, you'll see a warning stating that “Ad blockers violate YouTube's Terms of Service” or “Ad blockers are not allowed on YouTube.” There are a few different versions of this message, including some that entirely prevent you from playing videos and others that allow you to view a number of videos with your blocker enabled before streaming is blocked.A pop-up asking you to turn off your ad blocker is hardly an unusual sight on the internet, but could it be against the law?All versions of YouTube's ad blocker detection that WIRED is aware of use a JavaScript program that runs in the client browser, although YouTube says that it could use non-invasive server-side methods to identify if a video ad s...

The New Era of Social Media Looks as Bad for Privacy as the Last One

2Nov

By adminNo Comments

Technology

The New Era of Social Media Looks as Bad for Privacy as the Last One

When Elon Musk took over Twitter in October 2022, experts warned that his proposed changes—including less content moderation and a subscription-based verification system—would lead to an exodus of users and advertisers. A year later, those predictions have largely borne out. Advertising revenue on the platform has declined 55 percent since Musk’s takeover, and the number of daily active users fell from 140 million to 121 million in the same time period, according to third-party analyses.As users moved to other online spaces, the past year could have marked a moment for other social platforms to change the way they collect and protect user data. “Unfortunately, it just feels like no matter what their interest or cultural tone is from the outset of founding their company, it's just not enou...

This Cryptomining Tool Is Stealing Secrets

28Oct

By adminNo Comments

Technology

This Cryptomining Tool Is Stealing Secrets

As the Israel-Hamas war raged on this week and Israel expanded its ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, the territory's compromised internet infrastructure and access to connectivity went fully dark on Friday, leaving Palestinians without access to ground or mobile data connections. Meanwhile, researchers are bracing for the fallout if Hamas makes good on its threats to distribute hostage execution videos online. And TikTokkers are using a niche livestreaming feature and exploiting the Israeli-Hamas conflict to collect virtual gifts from viewers, a portion of which goes to the social media company as a fee.As the worst mass shooting in Maine's history unfolded this week and the gunman remained at large, disinformation about the situation and the suspect flooded social media, adding to the a...

A Powerful Tool US Spies Misused to Stalk Women Faces Its Potential Demise

24Oct

By adminNo Comments

Technology

A Powerful Tool US Spies Misused to Stalk Women Faces Its Potential Demise

A federal law authorizing a vast amount of the United States military’s foreign intelligence collection is set to expire in two months, pulling the plug on history’s most prolific eavesdropping operation and the primary means by which US spies intercept the private communications of people deemed threatening, or simply interesting, by the US government—the world’s foremost surveillant.The US National Security Agency (NSA) relies heavily on the statute, Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, when compelling the cooperation of communications giants that oversee huge swaths of the world’s internet traffic, intercepting hundreds of millions of phone calls and email messages each year, and eavesdropping on the personal conversations of targeted foreign individuals and anyone...

The 23andMe User Data Leak May Be Far Worse Than Believed

21Oct

By adminNo Comments

Technology

The 23andMe User Data Leak May Be Far Worse Than Believed

With the Israel-Hamas war intensifying by the day, many people are desperate for accurate information about the conflict. Getting it has proven difficult. This has been most apparent on Elon Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, where insiders say even the company’s primary fact-checking tool, Community Notes, has been a source of disinformation and is at risk of coordinated manipulation.Case in point: An explosion at a hospital in Gaza on Tuesday was followed by a wave of mis- and disinformation around the cause. In the hours following the explosion, Hamas blamed Israel, Israel blamed militants in Gaza, mainstream media outlets repeated both sides’ claims without confirmation either way, and people posing as open source intelligence experts rushed out dubious analyses. The result was a toxic mix o...

16Oct

By adminNo Comments

Technology

Deepfake Porn Is Out of Control

Many of the websites make it clear they host or spread deepfake porn videos—often featuring the word deepfakes or derivatives of it in their name. The top two websites contain 44,000 videos each, while five others host more than 10,000 deepfake videos. Most of them have several thousand videos, while some only list a few hundred. Some videos the researcher analyzed have been watched millions of times.The research also identified an additional 300 general pornography websites that incorporate nonconsensual deepfake pornography in some way. The researcher says “leak” websites and websites that exist to repost people’s social media pictures are also incorporating deepfake images. One website dealing in photographs claims it has “undressed” people in 350,000 photos.Measuring the full scale of...