Security

Ballmer Yelled His Email Address at Ballmeriffic Clippers Event

The former Microsoft head-honcho and now owner of the Los Angles Clippers sportsball club took to the stage for the first time since dropping $2 billion on the team. There was fanfare! There was Ballmer Yelling™! Personal contact information was revealed! Wait what? https://gizmodo.com/29-new-ballmer-friendly-logos-for-the-la-clippers-1622214009 According to multiple sources, Steve Ballmer revealed his email address so…

Privacy & Security Mario Aguilar

Why Chinese Hackers Stole 4.5 Million US Hospital Records

This month’s installment of Chinese hackers stealing your data focuses on breaches at an especially scary type of venue: hospitals. A massive hospital empire that mostly serves small towns and rural areas reports that hackers lifted 4.5 million patient records earlier this year. You might be surprised by what the hackers were after. The attack…

Privacy & Security Adam Clark Estes

How to Safely Use Your Phone at a Protest

With major protests in the news again, we decided it’s time to update our cell phone guide for protestors. A lot has changed since we last published this report in 2011, for better and for worse. On the one hand, we’ve learned more about the massive volume of law enforcement requests for cell phone—ranging from…

Privacy & Security Eva Galperin & Parker Higgins - EFF

Pro Hackers Could Be Spying on You Through YouTube

Bad news, dudes and dudettes. It’s getting increasingly straight-forward for deep-pocketed hackers to buy commercial-grade equipment so sophisticated that it can infect your computer with malware when you do something as innocuous as watching cat videos on YouTube. This is why it’s time to encrypt your shit. Morgan Marquis-Boire, a celebrated hacker turned security researcher,…

Tech News Adam Clark Estes

One of the Best Cybersecurity Minds on Earth Uses a Pager Not a Phone

Dan Geer is world-renowned cyber security researcher. He’s Chief Information Security Officer at In-Q-Tel, a non-profit venture capital firm. Hid company invests in technology to support the CIA. He’s knows his shit. And he uses a pager instead of a smartphone. The Washington Post spoke to Geer after the keynote speech at last week’s Black…

Privacy & Security Jamie Condliffe

Snowden: The NSA Accidentally Turned Off Syria’s Internet

Remember when the Syrian government shut down the entire country’s internet a little under two years ago? Well, thanks to Edward Snowden’s recent Wired interview, we now know that may not quite be what happened. In fact, according to Snowden, it was the NSA who flipped the switch. In the midst of the Syrian civil…

Privacy & Security Ashley Feinberg

Why You Still Can’t Text 911

Just this past Friday, the FCC voted to require all mobile carriers and “interconnected text providers” (i.e. iMessage) to allow their customers to text 911 by by next year. Which would be great except for one, itty-bitty little problem: The FCC can’t do actually anything about it. While the federal government does (theoretically) have jurisdiction…

Privacy & Security Ashley Feinberg

A Farmer’s Terrifying DIY Guard-Bot Scares Off Bears with 25,000 Volts

Turkish farmer and amateur inventor Mustafa Karasungur cares more about protecting his crops from bears than basic safety. So using parts he could scrounge around his local town, he built a robotic sentry for his farm that terrifies bears and even shocks them with 25,000 volts of electricity. From this day on his pic-a-nic baskets…

Privacy & Security Andrew Liszewski

How Digital Security Is Being Inspired By Nature

Cyber security is vital in our modern digital world, but it’s not ruled entirely by traditional computing techniques. In fact, it’s learning from the natural world—and something called The Danger Theory could help keep our computers safe. In fact, The Danger Theory is really quite new itself—a piece of cutting edge immunology which explains how…

Privacy & Security Jamie Condliffe

Google Boosts Secure Sites in Search Results

In a bold and welcome move to protect users, Google announced on Wednesday that they have started prioritizing sites offering HTTPS (HTTP over TLS) in their page ranking algorithm. Google’s Online Security Blog explains that domains with transport layer encryption have a slight advantage in search results, and the preference may grow stronger in the…

Tech News BILL BUDINGTON -- EFF

Yahoo and Google Working Together on Unified Encrypted Email For 2015

Google hasbeen working towards offering end-to-end encryption for Gmail. But now, it’s teaming up with Yahoo to make both webmail services encrypted in such a way that they both work together. Yahoo has been a little slower to the encryption party than Google. But yesterday Alex Stamos, Yahoo’s chief information officer, announced at the Black…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

Your Breath Reveals a Hidden Image On These Anti-Counterfeiting Labels

The war on counterfeit products is fought using highly detailed printing, watermarks, and even holograms on packaging, but the latest weapon will also include your breath. Researchers at the University of Michigan and in South Korea have developed a thin film featuring invisible images and features only revealed when blasted with humid air, made using…

Privacy & Security Andrew Liszewski

The FBI Is Infecting Tor Users with Malware to Catch Kiddie Porn Creeps

Tor’s had a tough week. Just a few days ago, the organization made the difficult announcement that an attack on their system likely stripped users of anonymity. Now, Wired reports that the FBI effort has been running a campaign to identify Tor users by installing malware on their computersfor years, virtually uncheckedby the courts. The…

Privacy & Security Adam Clark Estes

How Google Hunts Down Child Porn In Gmail

After yesterday’s news that Google caught a sex offender who’d left no virtual trace of his misdeeds outside of his Gmail account, people were understandably a little conflicted about what that meant in terms of privacy. Now, the company has come out to (every so slightly) clarify their methods: It’s not you they’re tracking, but…

Tech News Ashley Feinberg

Airport Screenings Won’t Prevent Ebola From Spreading

Nigerian authorities have just confirmed a second case of Ebola, prompting the government to announce that it is increasing health screenings at airports to contain the disease. Unfortunately, the likelihood of detecting whether someone is infected is quite small. [Image: United Nations] When you hear about screenings being conducted, you might imagine a brief medical…

io9 Mark Strauss

Researcher Can Hack Airplanes Through In-Flight Entertainment Systems

If you’re about to get on an airplane, you might want to wait until you land before you read this post. Because cyber security whiz Ruben Santamarta says hehas devised a method that can give hackers access to a passenger jet’s satellite communications equipment through the passenger Wi-Fi and in-flight entertainment systems*. Santamarta will present…

Privacy & Security Adam Clark Estes

Wirelessly Hacking–And Unlocking–Cars Is Easier Than It Should Be

At the Black Hat security conference later this week, an Australian security researcher will reveal a method for wirelessly unlocking a car with nothing but some radio equipment and ingenuity. It’s not an easy hack, and there are a lot of caveats. But it’s certainly a lot easier than it should be. See for yourself.…

Privacy & Security Adam Clark Estes

Internet-Connected Appliances Are a Hacker’s Dream Come True

The web-connected appliances on the “internet of things” promise to make life way more convenient for you and me. But according to a security study by Hewlett-Packard, the most popular smart devices are about as secure as an unlocked screen door. Think twice before you share your street address with your TV. Researchers at HP’s…

Privacy & Security Bob Sorokanich

Federal Employee Gets Fired After Writing An Article Criticizing Nukes

For 17 years, James Doyle was a nuclear policy specialist at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Then he wrote an article that made the case for getting rid of nuclear weapons. After that, his computer was seized, he was accused of releasing classified information, and then he was fired. What happened? Top image: French Test,…

io9 Mark Strauss

The Common Facebook Scams You Should Never Click On

It’s been a little sad to watch Facebook devolve from being a squeaky clean site full of people you love to a spam-ridden wasteland. And with a fifth of the world’s population using the site, you can be sure the spam is going to keep coming. So you need all the help you can get…

Social Media Adam Clark Estes

Ballmer Yelled His Email Address at Ballmeriffic Clippers Event

Why Chinese Hackers Stole 4.5 Million US Hospital Records

How to Safely Use Your Phone at a Protest

Pro Hackers Could Be Spying on You Through YouTube

One of the Best Cybersecurity Minds on Earth Uses a Pager Not a Phone

Snowden: The NSA Accidentally Turned Off Syria’s Internet

Why You Still Can’t Text 911

A Farmer’s Terrifying DIY Guard-Bot Scares Off Bears with 25,000 Volts

How Digital Security Is Being Inspired By Nature

Google Boosts Secure Sites in Search Results

Yahoo and Google Working Together on Unified Encrypted Email For 2015

Your Breath Reveals a Hidden Image On These Anti-Counterfeiting Labels

The FBI Is Infecting Tor Users with Malware to Catch Kiddie Porn Creeps

How Google Hunts Down Child Porn In Gmail

Airport Screenings Won’t Prevent Ebola From Spreading

Researcher Can Hack Airplanes Through In-Flight Entertainment Systems

Wirelessly Hacking–And Unlocking–Cars Is Easier Than It Should Be

Internet-Connected Appliances Are a Hacker’s Dream Come True

Federal Employee Gets Fired After Writing An Article Criticizing Nukes

The Common Facebook Scams You Should Never Click On

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

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JD Vance Says UFOs Are Actually Demons

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Amazon Clears Out Govee LED Smart Light Bulbs (2-Pack) at a Record Low, Each Bulb Costs Just a Few Dollars

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

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

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

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