Security

Everything We Know About the Army’s Uncanny Chatbots

Sgt. Star is the U.S. Army’s dedicated marketing and recruitment chatbot, and he isn’t going to turn whistleblower any time soon. There’s no use threatening him for answers either—he’s programmed to report that kind of hostility to the Army Criminal Investigation Division. Last year, EFF began to look at how the government deploys chatbots to…

Privacy & Security David Maass - EFF

Your Touchscreen Usage Is So Unique It Can Be Used as a Password

It turns out that your seemingly random taps, swipes, and other finger gestures on a touchscreen display might not be so random after all. In fact, the way you interact with a touchscreen is so unique that researchers at Georgia Tech have successfully created software that can lock down your tablet if someone else pokes…

Privacy & Security Andrew Liszewski

Google Street View Accidentally Made an Algorithm That Cracks CAPTCHAs

House numbers on Google Street View can turn up as blobby, blurry things, so its engineers built a pretty crazy neural network to decipher them. Except this algorithm also turns out to be very very good at deciphering other blobby, blurry texts—like CAPTCHAs, which it cracks with 99 percent accuracy. Take that, human. Earlier this…

Tech News Sarah Zhang

Bill Gates’ New Patent Would Keep Glassholes From Spying on Your Screens

Google’s big Glass free-for-all has come and gone, but whether or not anyone actually bought the damn thing, cameras are popping up all over the place, and people are starting to get (perhaps rightfully) paranoid. Fortunately there could be tech in the future to save your screens from prying camera eyes. And Bill Gates has…

Privacy & Security Ashley Feinberg

A Google Glass App That Helps the Watchers Watch the Watchmen

If you’re committed to avoiding the gaze of the ever-growing number of cameras recording our every move, Google Glass hardly seems like a sensible purchase. That is, unless your face-computer can steer you around each camera’s field of view. Enter Sander Veenhof’s new Glass app, Watch Your Privacy. Now, you and your Glass can watch…

Tech News Bob Sorokanich

The Smartphone Industry Pledge That Could Stop Your Phone Being Stolen

The likes of Apple, Google, Microsoft and other major figures in the smartphone industry have signed a pledge that will make it harder to steal cell phones—from July 2015, at least. The pledge sees the companies promise to enable every smartphone user with the ability to remotely brick and wipe their phones when they’re stolen.…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

How to Check If Your Android Device Could Be Hacked via Heartbleed

Heartbleed is causing heartache on hundreds of servers all over the internet, but security researchers have also warned that the bug could allow direct hacks of Android, too. Here’s how to check if your device is at risk. While researchers at security firm Symantec happily report that the major browsers don’t rely on the OpenSSL…

Tech News Jamie Condliffe

Try the Super-Secure USB Drive OS That Edward Snowden Insists on Using

We all know that Edward Snowden insists on secure email, but he’s also very picky about his operating systems, too. In fact, he uses a free, super-secure version of Linux—called Tails—that fits on a USB stick and can be used on any computer without leaving a trace. Linux installs on USB sticks are nothing new,…

Privacy & Security Jamie Condliffe

NYT: Obama Lets the NSA Exploit Some Internet Flaws

Over the weekend, it was revealed that President Obama thinks that when the National Security Agency discovers major flaws in Internet security, they should be allowed to exploit it if there’s a “a clear national security or law enforcement need.” The comment was revealed to the New York Times by “senior administration officials” on Saturday.…

Privacy & Security Jamie Condliffe

Cybersecurity As A War Against Haunted Objects

We’ve already covered the insane case of a Chinese restaurant menu that served as a successful point of infiltration for hackers to access the private computers of an unnamed oil company, so I won’t go into much more detail. However, there was a brief moment in the original New York Times story that deserves a…

Privacy & Security Geoff Manaugh

An Interactive Map Showing Global Cyberattacks In Real Time

Security firm Kaspersky Lab has launched an interactive cyberthreat map that visualizes cyber security incidents occurring worldwide in real time. A quick glance shows that the world is a pretty scary place. The interactive map is a promotional tool created by Kaspersky Lab, but it’s fascinating nonetheless. Threats displayed include malicious objects detected during on-access…

io9 George Dvorsky

Report: NSA Used Heartbleed to Spy on People for Years

It’s true. After days of speculation over whether the NSA knew about the Heartbleed vulnerability that affected as many as two thirds of the websites on the internet, two anonymous sources tell Bloomberg that the NSA didn’t just know about it, they used it to gather intelligence. Well, you may be wondering, why wouldn’t they?…

Privacy & Security Adam Clark Estes

How a Great Logo Helped Make You Actually Care About Heartbleed

You might not understand the how Heartbleed works, but you definitely heard about it this week. And with it, that drippy, maroon, bleeding heart logo—which is part of what made the story so memorable. In fact, the way Heartbleed was presented by the team that discovered it is a model for how technology issues should…

Tech News Mario Aguilar

Credit Card-Reading Spy Camera Found in the NYC Subway

Be careful on the subway. Sure, the platforms are safer than ever, and the cars are even pretty clean. But credit card thieves seem to come up with a new way to steal your personal information every day. The latest ploy: a card-reading spy camera, hiding above the MetroCard machine. The MTA just put out…

Privacy & Security Adam Clark Estes

How Secure Are Your Favorite Websites?

Heartbleed is a scary thing. Aside from the violent-sounding name, the vulnerability in OpenSSL security protocols spans the entire internet and affects most of the sites we know, love, and use on a daily basis. Even outside of Heartbleed, not all security protocols are created equal. So how do you know who to trust? Well,…

Privacy & Security Adam Clark Estes

The Heartbleed-Vulnerable Passwords You Need to Change Right Now

By now, chances are you’ve already heard about the preposterously huge security hole in SSL. You’ve also probably heard how it could easily have left you exposed to all sorts of nefarious activity over the past few years. Now, thanks to Mashable, we also have a better idea of exactly which websites had the flaw.…

Privacy & Security Ashley Feinberg

Android Now Offers Routine Malware Surveillance For Your Phone

It’s no secret that Android apps can get a little shifty, but having the freedom to explore that is part of what makes Android great. Now Google is helping you stay even safer by keeping a constant eye on whether or not any of your apps are doing anything they shouldn’t be. This security-minded move…

Tech News Eric Limer

How Heartbleed Works: The Code Behind the Internet’s Security Nightmare

By now you’ve surely heard of Heartbleed, the hole in the internet’s security that exposed countless encrypted transactions to any attacker who knew how to abuse it. But how did it actually work? Once you break it down, it’s actually incredibly simple. And a little hilarious. But mostly terrifying. You can read our overview of…

Privacy & Security Eric Limer

The Simple Secruity Measure That Could’ve Stopped Heartbleed Dead

We learned yesterday of a catastrophic bug, nicknamed “Heartbleed,” that has critically threatened the security of some HTTPS sites since 2011. By some estimates, Heartbleed affects 2 out of 3 web servers on the Internet. Heartbleed isn’t a bug in the design of HTTPS itself but rather the result of a simple programming error in…

Privacy & Security Yan Zhu - EFF

Heartbleed: Why the Internet’s Gaping Security Hole Is So Scary

In the past 15 or so years, we’ve all learned to feel pretty safe on the internet. BigSite.com is surely handling your credit card information safely, at least as safely as any brick and mortar store. Maybe don’t be so sure; there’s been a bug lurking in one of the internet’s most important security measures…

Privacy & Security Eric Limer

Everything We Know About the Army’s Uncanny Chatbots

Your Touchscreen Usage Is So Unique It Can Be Used as a Password

Google Street View Accidentally Made an Algorithm That Cracks CAPTCHAs

Bill Gates’ New Patent Would Keep Glassholes From Spying on Your Screens

A Google Glass App That Helps the Watchers Watch the Watchmen

The Smartphone Industry Pledge That Could Stop Your Phone Being Stolen

How to Check If Your Android Device Could Be Hacked via Heartbleed

Try the Super-Secure USB Drive OS That Edward Snowden Insists on Using

NYT: Obama Lets the NSA Exploit Some Internet Flaws

Cybersecurity As A War Against Haunted Objects

An Interactive Map Showing Global Cyberattacks In Real Time

Report: NSA Used Heartbleed to Spy on People for Years

How a Great Logo Helped Make You Actually Care About Heartbleed

Credit Card-Reading Spy Camera Found in the NYC Subway

How Secure Are Your Favorite Websites?

The Heartbleed-Vulnerable Passwords You Need to Change Right Now

Android Now Offers Routine Malware Surveillance For Your Phone

How Heartbleed Works: The Code Behind the Internet’s Security Nightmare

The Simple Secruity Measure That Could’ve Stopped Heartbleed Dead

Heartbleed: Why the Internet’s Gaping Security Hole Is So Scary

‘The Mummy 4’ Is Getting the Family Back Together

JD Vance Says UFOs Are Actually Demons

Breville Barista Express Espresso Machine Hits Its Lowest Price of the Year for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale, Cut Your Daily Coffee Costs at Home

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

The First Proper ‘Ghost in the Shell’ Trailer Is a ’90s Anime Fever Dream

JBL PartyBox Club 120 Speaker Drops Back to Black Friday Pricing for Amazon’s Big Spring Sale Only

YouTuber Resolves Fraternal Disagreement With Excavator and Hilariously Large Sword

Should We Be Hyped—or Freaked Out—About Nuclear Microreactors?

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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