Security

Pin Pwn

ATM Flaws Reveal Key Weaknesses in the Software Supply Chain

A security researcher discovered nine vulnerabilities impacting ATM encryption and authentication software. But the problems extend far beyond your local cash machine.

Lily Hay Newman

Security Roundup

The Cybersecurity Apocalypse Is Coming in ‘Months,’ AI Giants Warn

Maddy Varner

Made in China

Microsoft Teams Has Become a Haven for Scammers in China

Zeyi Yang

Cyberattacks and Hacks

What We Still Don’t Know About OpenAI’s Hugging Face Hack

The AI giant acknowledges that it could have done far more to prevent its AI agents from going rogue. But it still fails to explain why it didn't see this fiasco coming.

Maxwell Zeff and Lily Hay Newman

FBI Disrupts Chinese Proxy Tools Used in Mass Hacking of US Agencies and Infrastructure

China’s hacking campaign targeted NASA, the Federal Reserve, the US Senate, the Justice Department, and more, according to the DOJ.

Andy Greenberg

China Is Strapping ‘Digital Bombs’ to Civilian Infrastructure—Is the US Ready?

This week on Uncanny Valley, senior writer Andy Greenberg discusses his coverage of a war game simulating a cyberattack from the Chinese hacking group Volt Typhoon.

Brian Barrett and Andy Greenberg

OpenAI Overhauls Safety Protocols After Its AI Agents Went Rogue

The ChatGPT maker says its upcoming Astra model may have reached “critical” cyber capabilities, prompting it to halt a significant number of training runs while it tightens internal safeguards.

Maxwell Zeff

Privacy

How an Atlanta Suburb Ended Up Sharing Flock Data With More Than 2,000 Organizations

Alpharetta, Georgia, cops share data with thousands of Flock users, ranging from federal agencies to a fish and wildlife commission. The reasons why show how vast—and invasive—the network has become.

Caroline Haskins

A Georgia Cop Used Flock to Track 2 Other Cops: His Ex and Her Friend

After an affair with a fellow police officer ended, a Georgia cop used Flock to track her movements—and those of a man whose vehicle often showed up near hers, internal investigation records show.

Caroline Haskins

Reverse-Lookup Service Exposed Millions of Photos of People’s Faces

The people-search tool ClarityCheck says its reverse image search service is “private and secure”—but it left a database containing more than 9 million image files exposed.

Lily Hay Newman and Matt Burgess

Flock Has a Powerful New AI Tool for Police. We Got Its Code

Flock’s surveillance cameras have already sparked outrage. WIRED reconstructed its next-generation AI system, already in use by some police, to confirm it goes much further than tracking license plates.

Dhruv Mehrotra and Dell Cameron

Security Advice

The Password Managers You Should Use Instead of Your Browser

Keep your logins locked down with our favorite password management apps for PC, Mac, Android, iPhone, and web browsers.

Scott Gilbertson

You Can Disable Gemini in Chrome if It’s Freaking You Out

Chrome users were caught off guard by a 4-GB Google AI model baked into Chrome, sparking privacy concerns. The good news: You can easily uninstall it. The bad? You might not want to.

Lily Hay Newman

How the Internet Broke Everyone’s Bullshit Detectors

From AI-generated images to restricted satellite data, the systems used to verify what’s real online are struggling to keep up.

Gia Chaudry

How to Organize Safely in the Age of Surveillance

From threat modeling to encrypted collaboration apps, we’ve collected experts’ tips and tools for safely and effectively building a group—even while being targeted and tracked by the powerful.

Andy Greenberg and Lily Hay Newman

Security News

The County Prosecutors Who Became ICE Informants

Illinois prosecutors shared defendants’ personal data with federal immigration agents without criminal warrants, public disclosure, or legislative oversight.

Aura Bogado

Your Expired Visa Card Could Be ‘Zombified’ to Make Contactless Payments

Plus: Apple sends out an “unprecedented” number of spyware warnings, Ukraine hits a Russian ecommerce giant with cyber and drone attacks, and more.

Andy Greenberg and Lily Hay Newman

Meta Ran Ads for an App That Promised to Nudify Female Politicians

One advertisement featured a pornographic video with a deepfake closely resembling a prominent US politician. Apple removed the app from the App Store after an inquiry from WIRED.

Vittoria Elliott and Matt Burgess

CBP Workers Allegedly Used Government Databases to Spy on Exes, Crushes, and Colleagues

Records obtained by WIRED detail hundreds of allegations of Customs and Border Protection workers misusing internal tools to look up romantic interests and track colleagues’ cell phones.

Yulia Almazova