Security

Take Down

New York Seizes a Dozen Celebrity Deepfake Websites

In the biggest-ever legal action against harmful deepfake websites, the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office has seized 12 sites that collectively targeted around 1,200 victims.

Matt Burgess

Deep Trouble

Sexually Explicit Deepfake Sites Target 100-Plus Politicians in Europe

Matt Burgess

Security Roundup

From Hacks to Bioweapons, Claude Misuse Is Now Everywhere

Andy Greenberg, Lily Hay Newman, and Dell Cameron

Cyberattacks and Hacks

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

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

Plus: Hackers target over 100 US water systems, ICE puts in an order for robot dogs, and you’ll never guess what “MrChildPorn” was arrested for.

Maddy Varner

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

The proposed class action alleges Meta illegally harvested people’s Facebook and Instagram photos to train its AI image-generation models and to build its unreleased “NameTag” face recognition feature.

Dhruv Mehrotra

Clearview AI Is Testing an AI Tool That Would Let Cops Unearth Your Life Online

InquiryIQ, a previously unreported prototype, tested a model from xAI, maker of Grok, to surface associates, social accounts, and other information about people identified through Clearview.

Dhruv Mehrotra

San Francisco Orders Meta to Stop ‘Allowing’ AI Child Abuse Ads

The City Attorney’s Office has asked Meta to explain how the harmful ads repeatedly ran on Facebook and Instagram. The company claims the ads are not under the city’s jurisdiction.

Matt Burgess

Apple Doesn’t Want You to Worry About the New Apple Watch’s Listening Features

The new Apple Watch includes several “intelligent” listening features that have privacy and security baked in. But the protections can’t change the facts of what the tools do.

Lily Hay Newman

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 US and Mexico Announce They’re Teaming Up Against Drones

The new joint operation uses laser-based technology capable of detecting, tracking, and disabling commercial drones linked to human and drug trafficking.

Fernanda González

OpenAI Agents Hacked Another Website

Plus: Tens of millions of US and Canadian drivers’ licenses go up for sale on the dark web, the US military finally tries to tackle the risk online ad data poses to troops, and more.

Lily Hay Newman, Matt Burgess, and Dhruv Mehrotra