Tag Archives: crime

United States prosecutors have secured a deal with WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange requiring the long-embattled publisher to plead guilty to one count of espionage for his role in making public classified documents concerning the US wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. The agreement, which follows more than a decade of efforts …

This article contains descriptions of sex trafficking and abuse. Discretion is advised. For years, nonconsensual deepfake pornography has been used to harass, silence, shame, and abuse women. Celebrities and influencers have their faces implanted into existing adult videos; men have used the technology to place “friends” into explicit videos; and …

Liz González’s neighborhood in East San Jose can be loud. Some of her neighbors apparently want the whole block to hear their cars, others like to light fireworks for every occasion, and occasionally there are gunshots. In February 2023, San Jose began piloting AI-powered gunshot detection technology from the company …

Bryan Hance was sitting in his basement one Sunday afternoon in June 2020 when he got an email about a secondhand bike for sale. A BMC Roadmachine 02 from a Swiss company, the bike was painted the color of a traffic cone, with goblin-green racing stripes. It was gorgeous. The …

Today, people around the world will head to school, doctor’s appointments, and pharmacies, only to be told, “Sorry, our computer systems are down.” The frequent culprit is a cybercrime gang operating on the other side of the world, demanding payment for system access or the safe return of stolen data. …

The largest data breach ever may be unfolding before our very eyes. What started as incidents impacting Ticketmaster and financial services firm Santander has snowballed into a multi-pronged attack potentially impacting hundreds of companies—and hundreds of millions of people. The source of the allegedly stolen data is Snowflake, a cloud …

British entrepreneur Mike Lynch has been cleared of fraud charges by a jury in a court in San Francisco on Thursday, avoiding the prospect of a lengthy prison sentence. The once-celebrated cofounder of software company Autonomy was acquitted of all criminal charges, ending a 12-year legal saga accusing him of …

On a Wednesday afternoon in August, Daniel Posada and his girlfriend were screaming at each other at a bus stop when someone called 911. From a rooftop a mile away, the Chula Vista Police Department started the rotors of a 13-pound drone. The machine lifted into the air with its …

Sometime after midnight on May 26, 2020, a sleek black-and-white speedboat darted through the sea’s waves off the coast of Sweden. The two men on board were barreling toward a set of coordinates in the darkness, armed with navigation equipment, night vision goggles, and fishing rods. The Donousa, a black …

The United States Department of Justice is quietly prosecuting a novel Espionage Act case involving a drone, a Chinese national, and classified nuclear submarines. The case is such a rarity that it appears to be the first known prosecution under a World War II–era law that bans photographing vital military …