The scourge of software supply chain attacks—an increasingly common hacking technique that hides malicious code in a widely used legitimate program—can take many forms. Hackers can penetrate an update server to seed out their malware, or even break into the network where the software was developed to corrupt it at …
Read More »The Incognito Mode Myth Has Fully Unraveled
If you still hold any notion that Google Chrome’s “Incognito mode” is a good way to protect your privacy online, now’s a good time to stop. Google has agreed to delete “billions of data records” the company collected while users browsed the web using Incognito mode, according to documents filed …
Read More »A Ghost Ship’s Doomed Journey Through the Gate of Tears
The ballistic missile hit the Rubymar on the evening of February 18. For months, the cargo ship had been shuttling around the Arabian Sea, uneventfully calling at local ports. But now, taking on water in the bottleneck of the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait, its two dozen crew issued an urgent call for …
Read More »Yogurt Heist Reveals a Rampant Form of Online Fraud
The saga of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange continued this week after the UK’s high court ordered a delay in his extradition to the United States. Assange faces 18 charges in the US, including 17 alleged violations of the Espionage Act—charges that have alarmed journalism watchdogs. The two judges who issued …
Read More »Jeffrey Epstein’s Island Visitors Exposed by Data Broker
Nearly 200 mobile devices of people who visited Jeffrey Epstein’s notorious “pedophile island” in the years prior to his death left an invisible trail of data pointing back to their own homes and offices. Maps of these visitations generated by a troubled international data broker with defense industry ties, discovered …
Read More »‘Malicious Activity’ Hits the University of Cambridge’s Medical School
The University of Cambridge is constantly ranked among the world’s top universities, with its medical school and vast research facilities among the very best. But for the past month, staff at the prestigious medical school have had work hampered following “malicious activity” on its computer network. An emailed “staff notice” …
Read More »Judges Block US Extradition of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange—for Now
The UK high court has extended WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s hope to avoid espionage charges in the United States, allowing Assange to further challenge his extradition from the UK to the US. In a ruling issued in London on Tuesday, two high court judges said that Assange will not be …
Read More »Chinese Hackers Charged in Decade-Long Global Spying Rampage
For years, China’s state-backed hackers have stolen huge troves of company secrets, political intelligence, and the personal information of millions of people. On Monday, officials in the United States and United Kingdom expanded the long list of hacking allegations, claiming China is responsible for breaching the UK’s elections watchdog and …
Read More »Apple Chip Flaw Leaks Secret Encryption Keys
The next time you stay in a hotel, you may want to use the door’s deadbolt. A group of security researchers this week revealed a technique that uses a series of security vulnerabilities that impact 3 million hotel room locks worldwide. While the company is working to fix the issue, …
Read More »The DOJ Puts Apple's iMessage Encryption in the Antitrust Crosshairs
For well over a decade, Apple has been praised by privacy advocates for its decision in 2011 to end-to-end encrypt iMessage, securing users' communications on the default texting app for all its devices so thoroughly that even Apple itself can't read their messages. This was years before WhatsApp switched on …
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