Drones have changed war. Small, cheap, and deadly robots buzz in the skies high above the world’s battlefields, taking pictures and dropping explosives. They’re hard to counter. ZeroMark, a defense startup based in the United States, thinks it has a solution. It wants to turn the rifles of frontline soldiers …
Read More »A US Company Enabled a North Korean Scam That Raised Money for WMDs
For years, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has been unraveling what it asserts is a scam perpetrated by agents of North Korea, which used fake companies employing real IT workers to funnel money back to the regime’s military. An American company played a key role in creating shell companies used …
Read More »Russians Love YouTube. That’s a Problem for the Kremlin
In December 2020, Vladimir Putin held his end-of-the-year press conference as normal. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic still raging in Russia and worldwide, the president insisted that things would be OK. He had set aside 350 billion rubles ($4.8 billion) “to give social benefits to people, families, both children, doctors, and …
Read More »How Donald Trump Could Weaponize US Surveillance in a Second Term
Every president of the United States has within their grasp the power of a vast surveillance state that has grown significantly over the past few decades and has beaten back any real effort to rein it in. Through America’s numerous enigmatic intelligence agencies, presidents possess the ability to dive deeply …
Read More »Mysterious Hack Destroyed 600,000 Internet Routers
If you have a crypto wallet containing a fortune but forgot the password, all may not be lost. This week, a pair of researchers revealed how they cracked an 11-year-old password to a crypto wallet containing roughly $3 million in bitcoins. With a lot of skill and a bit of …
Read More »Chinese National Charged for Taking Drone Photos of Classified US Navy Nuclear Submarines
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 …
Read More »Ecuador Is Literally Powerless in the Face of Drought
Ecuador is in trouble: Drought has shrunk its reservoirs, and its hydroelectric dams have had to power down. The government has been forced to cut electricity to homes for hours at a stretch, and in mid-April, President Daniel Noboa declared a 60-day state of emergency. Since then, homeowners have been …
Read More »Microsoft’s New Recall AI Tool May Be a ‘Privacy Nightmare’
Sex, drugs, and … Eventbrite? A WIRED investigation published this week uncovered a network of spammers and scammers pushing the illegal sale of controlled substances like Xanax and oxycodone, escort services, social media accounts, and personal information on the event management platform. Making matters worse, Eventbrite’s recommendation algorithm promoted posts …
Read More »WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange Can Appeal His Extradition to the US, British Court Says
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange can appeal his extradition to the United States, a British court has said. Two judges at the High Court in London today said Assange can officially challenge his extradition order from the United Kingdom in the long-running dispute over the leaking and publication of military secrets. …
Read More »Secrecy Concerns Mount Over Spy Powers Targeting US Data Centers
Last month, US president Joe Biden signed a surveillance bill enhancing the National Security Agency’s power to compel US businesses to wiretap communications going in and out of the country. The changes to the law have left legal experts largely in the dark as to the true limits of this …
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