Security

Paranoia Made Me a Better Computer User

“You don’t want to end up on the Wall of Sheep.” That’s the last thing my editor told me before I flew to Las Vegas to hang out at the infamous hacker convention DEF CON. A week later, I found myself standing in front of the wall, looking frantically for my name and password. Despite…

Privacy & Security Adam Clark Estes

Dropbox Refuses to Explain Its Mysterious Child Porn Detection Software

Recently a US Army reservist was arrested for sharing child pornography. Here’s what makes his story different from dozens of others: He’d been turned in by Dropbox. Dropbox has a habit of turning inpedophiles, as it turns out. The why of turning in people who share and hoard abusive images that exploit children is obvious,…

Tech News Kate Knibbs

Small Wireless Car Devices Allow Hackers to Take Control of a Vehicle’s Brakes

Last month, security researchers showed the world that a car can be hijacked from thousands of miles away using its internet-connected entertainment system. As if that wasn’t disturbing enough, there may be an even simpler way to take remote control of somebody else’s car: By hacking into small, internet-enabled device people plug directly into the…

Privacy & Security Maddie Stone

Oracle Deleted Its Insane Rant Against Security Hackers But You Can Read It Here

Oracle’s security chief Mary Ann Davidson published a rambling screed today against the security research industry, bug bounties, and reverse engineering on the company’s corporate blog. Oracle took it down, but the rant is one of the most impressively incoherent jeremiads to come out of Silicon Valley. And that’s saying something. Security researchers regularly reverse…

Privacy & Security Kate Knibbs

I Watched Hackers Pull Off a Real Life Ocean’s 11 Heist

The scene was set: a surveillance camera, a safe full of money in a Las Vegas casino, a pair of thieves with lock picking tools and a laptop. I watched in awe as the skinny geeks clipped wires and rewired the feed so that it would loop ad infinitum. Basically, they recreated the climax of…

Movies Adam Clark Estes

China Is Reportedly Reading the Obama Administration’s Personal Emails

Chinese spies have breached the personal email accounts of many top Obama Administration officials and have been reading their emails since 2010, according to a report from NBC. This has got to be bad for Hillary Clinton, whose use of personal email address as Secretary of State during that time is now under FBI investigation.…

Privacy & Security Kate Knibbs

$32 Worth of Electronics Can Open Almost Any Keyless Car Door or Garage

Here’s another great reason to lock your doors, hide under some sheets, and never leave your home again. Samy Kamkar, already well known for cracking Master combination locks, has built a $32 wireless device that can intercept and steal the wireless codes used to open keyless car doors and garages. At DefCon in Las Vegas,…

Privacy & Security Andrew Liszewski

9 Facts About Computer Security That Experts Wish You Knew

Every day, you hear about security flaws, viruses, and evil hacker gangs that could leave you destitute — or, worse, bring your country to its knees. But what’s the truth about these digital dangers? We asked computer security experts to separate the myths from the facts. Here’s what they said. 1. Having a strong password…

Privacy & Security Annalee Newitz

Retweets Kinda are Endorsements if You’re Retweeting ISIS

You can claim your retweets aren’t endorsements, but if you’re retweeting known terrorists on a regular basis, the feds may just use that as evidence to arrest you. A detailed report by the Huffington Post describes the myriad ways in which the FBI is ramping up its monitoring of social media, including, yes, busting people…

Privacy & Security Maddie Stone

Russians Blamed for Cyberattack on Pentagon Email Systems

Russia is the leading suspect behind a cyberattack that prompted the Pentagon to take an unclassified email system offline last month. According to NBC News, that the email system has been offline ever since. The breach occurred around July 25th and affected about 4,000 military and civilian personnel who work for the Joint Chiefs of…

Privacy & Security Maddie Stone

Tim Cook’s $700k Security Spending Is Small Compared To Other Major CEOs

The Apple nerd community is buzzing about how much the company pays for Tim Cook’s security. $700,000 to protect just one guy! The thing no one seems to be mentioning? Other tech companies spend a lot more on CEO security. If we compare the amount Apple spends on Cook’s security to what companies like Oracle…

Tech News Matt Novak

Hackers Can Hijack Electric Skateboards Now

At this point, it feels like everything that can be hacked, will be hacked: Computers, phones, industrial systems, cars, baby monitors, and now…electric skateboards. Security researchers Richo Healy and Mike Ryan developed an electric skateboard exploit they call, amusingly enough, FacePlant. The hack allows them to completely take control of a $1500 Boosted e-skateboard. They…

Privacy & Security Kate Knibbs

There’s a Firefox Exploit in the Wild—You Should Update Right Now

Mozilla has published a blog post explaining that a Firefox exploit is running in the wild that can search for and upload files from your computer—but you can install and update to solve the problem right now. Mozilla expalins that the vulnerability “comes from the interaction of the mechanism that enforces JavaScript context separation (the…

Privacy & Security Jamie Condliffe

This App Will Tell You If Your Phone Has the ‘Stagefright’ Bug

Worried about the security of your Android? You probably should be. But the guys that discovered the Stagefright vulnerability have now released an app that that will tell you if your phone is at risk. While Google has already created a fix—with some fanfare—currently only Nexus devices have been updated. If you use any other…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

This Zombie Printer Was Hacked To Broadcast Radio Waves

All electronic devicesemit radio waves when they’re powered on, even if they don’t connect to the internet or Bluetooth. Governments have been using these accidental waves to spy on each other since the 1960s—but this week, a computer scientist at the Black Hat hacker conference took the idea way further than we’d thought possible. If…

Privacy & Security Kelsey Campbell-Dollaghan

Another Android Bug That Lets Hackers Control Your Phone With One Text

Just when the world was starting to chill out about Stagefright, some Israeli hackers announced more bad news. Just like Stagefright, there’s another Android vulnerability that lets hackers take control of a phone with a single text. What’s worse is that there’s not an easy fix. Announced today at the Black Hat security conference in…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

A Breathalyzer Bike Lock Makes You Blow Clean Before Cycling

You might chuckle at the idea of a drunk cyclist, but since they often share the road with motorists, they can be just as dangerous as an inebriated driver. So if you don’t trust yourself to leave your bike locked up after having one too many, this bike lock will only open after you use…

Gadgets Andrew Liszewski

It’s Crazy How Much Cell Information Cops Think They Can Just Seize

A federal appeals court just ruled that the government needs a warrant to obtain cell phone location records from your service provider. It’s the third ruling at this level on the matter, and the first that says a warrant is indeed necessary. Warrantless tracking of this kind is now more likely to be heard by…

Privacy & Security Mario Aguilar

Google’s Fixing the Hangouts Hack With ‘Biggest Software Update Ever’

Security researchers scared the shit out of Android users last week when they revealed a vulnerability that let hackers control your phone with a single text. In a session at Black Hat, Google’s Adrian Ludwig just explained exactly how it’s being fixed, calling it the biggest software update in history. He seems pretty chill about…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

Germany Backs off Treason Charge for Journalists with Leaked Documents

Germany’s Justice Minister Heiko Maas just fired the country’s top prosecutor Harald Range. This came in the wake of a public battle over how Range was handling a treason investigation launched against journalists who released government documents about a surveillance program. The German justice ministry has been investigating two journalists from Netzpolitik.org on a possible…

Privacy & Security Mario Aguilar

Paranoia Made Me a Better Computer User

Dropbox Refuses to Explain Its Mysterious Child Porn Detection Software

Small Wireless Car Devices Allow Hackers to Take Control of a Vehicle’s Brakes

Oracle Deleted Its Insane Rant Against Security Hackers But You Can Read It Here

I Watched Hackers Pull Off a Real Life Ocean’s 11 Heist

China Is Reportedly Reading the Obama Administration’s Personal Emails

$32 Worth of Electronics Can Open Almost Any Keyless Car Door or Garage

9 Facts About Computer Security That Experts Wish You Knew

Retweets Kinda are Endorsements if You’re Retweeting ISIS

Russians Blamed for Cyberattack on Pentagon Email Systems

Tim Cook’s $700k Security Spending Is Small Compared To Other Major CEOs

Hackers Can Hijack Electric Skateboards Now

There’s a Firefox Exploit in the Wild—You Should Update Right Now

This App Will Tell You If Your Phone Has the ‘Stagefright’ Bug

This Zombie Printer Was Hacked To Broadcast Radio Waves

Another Android Bug That Lets Hackers Control Your Phone With One Text

A Breathalyzer Bike Lock Makes You Blow Clean Before Cycling

It’s Crazy How Much Cell Information Cops Think They Can Just Seize

Google’s Fixing the Hangouts Hack With ‘Biggest Software Update Ever’

Germany Backs off Treason Charge for Journalists with Leaked Documents

Ahead of the SpaceX IPO, xAI Has Now Shed All 11 of Its Non-Elon Musk Founders

Do ‘Disclosure Day’ Prep With a Spielberg Sci-Fi Marathon

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Ranking 2016’s Superhero Debuts, 10 Years Later

Fourth Most Populous Country in the World Bans Most Social Media for Kids

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‘Steel Ball Run’ Will Return This Year…Eventually

‘The Mummy 4’ Is Getting the Family Back Together

Sonos Play Review: Call It a Comeback

Sonos Era 100 SL Review: The Cheapest Way Into Wired Sonos Sound

Asus ROG’s Massive Swift OLED Gaming Monitor Epitomizes Excess in the Best Way

The Ikea Varmblixt Smart Lamp Fills a Donut Hole in My Life

Nothing Headphone A vs. Headphone 1: Which Pair of ANC Wireless Headphones Wins?

Asus ROG’s Cetra Open Wireless Gaming Earbuds Might Be Better Than Wearing a Headset

Nintendo’s Talking Flower Is Annoying as Hell. I Love It

Level Lock Pro Review: As Good as a Secret Smart Lock Gets

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