In recent years, the animal liberation group Direct Action Everywhere has carried out some of the most brazen and tech-savvy operations and investigations to ever target the animal agriculture industry. It has rescued pigs, goats, ducks, and chickens from factory farms and slaughterhouses in midnight intrusions; captured virtual reality footage …
Read More »YouTube’s Ad Blocker Detection Believed to Break EU Privacy Law
Privacy campaigner Alexander Hanff claims that YouTube’s new ad blocker detection is illegal under European law, and he's taking the fight to the European Commission. On November 6, German Pirate Party MEP Patrick Breyer addressed Hanff’s claim to the European Commission, formally requesting a legal position as to whether “protection …
Read More »A New US Privacy Bill Seeks to End Warrantless Police and FBI Spying
In 1763, the radical journalist and colonial sympathizer John Wilkes published issue no. 45 of North Briton, a periodical of anonymous essays known for its virulent anti-Scottish drivel—and for viciously satirizing a British prime minister until he quit his job. The fallout from the subsequent plan of the British king, …
Read More »Internet Blackouts in Gaza Are a New Weapon in the Israel-Hamas War
Since Hamas’ tragic October attack on Israel that killed at least 1,400 people, the country’s retaliation in Gaza has led to more than 10,000 deaths, according to unverified claims from the Hamas-run Gazan Health Ministry, and broad destruction of the community's basic utilities and infrastructure. This includes its internet and …
Read More »This Cheap Hacking Device Can Crash Your iPhone With Pop-Ups
As the Israel-Hamas war continues, with Israeli troops moving into the Gaza Strip and encircling Gaza City, one piece of technology is having an outsized impact on how we see and understand the war. Messaging app Telegram, which has a history of lax moderation, has been used by Hamas to …
Read More »Microsoft Does Damage Control With Its New ‘Secure Future Initiative’
Today, in a blog post and email to employees, Microsoft is announcing a broad vision for tackling the cybersecurity challenges that have increasingly plagued the company and its customers in recent years. Known as the Secure Future Initiative, the plan leans heavily on artificial intelligence tools as a “game changer” …
Read More »This Cryptomining Tool Is Stealing Secrets
As the Israel-Hamas war raged on this week and Israel expanded its ground invasion of the Gaza Strip, the territory's compromised internet infrastructure and access to connectivity went fully dark on Friday, leaving Palestinians without access to ground or mobile data connections. Meanwhile, researchers are bracing for the fallout if …
Read More »The Destruction of Gaza’s Internet Is Complete
For more than three weeks, Gaza has faced an almost total internet blackout. The cables, cell towers, and infrastructure needed to keep people online have been damaged or destroyed as Israel launched thousands of missiles in response to Hamas attacking Israel and taking hundreds of hostages on October 7. Then, …
Read More »Okta’s Latest Security Breach Is Haunted by the Ghost of Incidents Past
On Friday, October 20, the identity management platform Okta said it suffered an intrusion in its customer support system. As an access and authentication service, a breach of Okta always comes with risks to other organizations, and the company confirmed that “certain Okta customers” were affected. Okta tells WIRED that …
Read More »A Powerful Tool US Spies Misused to Stalk Women Faces Its Potential Demise
The federal law authorizing a vast amount of the United States government’s foreign intelligence collection is set to expire in two months, a deadline that threatens to mothball a notoriously extensive surveillance program currently eavesdropping on the phone calls, text messages, and emails of no fewer than a quarter million …
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