Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Security Flaws Could Allow Hackers to Change Certified PDF Contracts

Researchers recently discovered security flaws in PDFs that could allow a savvy hacker to surreptitiously manipulate or deface the contents of certified documents. While the vulnerabilities in question have already been patched by most reader applications, the new research provides a weird little look at how online goons could mess with your docs, should they … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

‘Clearview AI’ Hit With Legal Complaints In 5 Countries, Accused of Face Recognition Abuse

Clearview AI, the American maker of a controversial facial recognition tool used mostly by police, is facing a downpour of legal complaints across Europe as of Thursday, alleging scopious privacy violations based on internal documents showing the company’s algorithm at work. Complaints filed with privacy watchdogs in five countries—France, Austria, Italy, Greece and the United … Continued

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Hacktivist Targets Citizen, Leaking Crime App’s Scraped Data to the Dark Web

“Fuck snitches, fuck Citizen, fuck Andrew Frame and remember, kids: Cops are not your friends,” someone on the dark web recently wrote. That same person claims to have scraped and leaked data from the aforementioned crime reporting app—including information about some 1.7 million public safety “incidents” recorded and cataloged by the company, Motherboard first reported. … Continued

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The Indian Government Wants to Break Messaging Encryption, WhatsApp’s Suing

WhatsApp is taking India’s government to court over a new mandate that it claims will lead to mass surveillance of users in the company’s biggest market.  Reuters was first to report on the suit filed in Dehli’s high court, which WhatsApp confirmed to Gizmodo on Wednesday. The suit is WhatsApp’s attempt to push back against … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

D.C. Police Surveilled Clowns on Social Media, Leaked Docs Show

A few years ago, intelligence personnel with the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington D.C. spent some unknown amount of time and money monitoring the online accounts of people dressed like clowns. A recent data breach involving the MPD has revealed a 14-page internal report titled “SOCIAL MEDIA CLOWN THREATS.” Dated October 2016, the doc shows … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Citizen App’s Unhinged Private Security Firm Would Like to Patrol Cities With Police Powers

Last week, neighborhood snitch app Citizen was reported by Motherboard to be testing an on-demand private security force that would respond to user-submitted “incidents.” The plans are a considerable escalation of the app’s existing business model, which relies on police scanners and user reports to create live maps of rumored criminal activity. One of Citizen’s … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Japan’s Top Dating App Got Hacked

One of Japan’s most widely used dating apps recently suffered a cyberattack, potentially exposing the personal information of close to 2 million people, a new report from Bloomberg shows. Omiai (which translates to “matchmaking” in English) is a popular dating service wherein men must pay a monthly fee—¥3,980, or $37—while women are allowed to set up … Continued

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‘Terms & Conditions Apply’ Is a Game That Dares You to Opt-Out

“Help! I’m stuck in a terms and conditions factory. Please accept the terms and conditions to release me.” This disclaimer from hell is just one of the 29 awaiting you in “Terms and Conditions Apply,” a new project meant to gamify the frustrating experience of trying to opt-out of tracking and ad-targeting across the web. … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Drug Dealer Taken Down by ‘His Love of Stilton Cheese’

Many men have scaled the perilous ranks of the underworld, soaring to the heights of criminality, only to be laid low by their own personal failings: hubris, ambition, greed. Also the love of cheese, apparently. Police recently identified and arrested a prolific British drug dealer using only an encrypted text message he had sent that … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

In Nod to Dystopian Fiction, Citizen Wants to Send Private Security Teams to Your Neighborhood

In what truly seems like a dystopian nightmare come to life, the public safety alert app Citizen apparently has plans to hire teams of security contractors to respond to app users’ incident response requests—a sort of Blackwater-ification of local public safety that can surely only lead to good things. When it started back in 2016, … Continued

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Researchers Are Trying to Create an Unhackable Computer Processor

The CPU is classically considered “the brain” of a computer because, like the human head, it contains all of the circuits responsible for receiving and executing commands. However, like the rest of a machine, CPUs are not infallible. In fact, they can be fairly easy to hack. Recent years have shown egregious examples of hardware … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

Bipartisan Privacy Bill Promising Easier Opt-Outs and Tech Transparency Actually Has a Chance of Passing

A bipartisan group of senators is pushing forward a privacy bill meant to offer some much-needed transparency on the data being hoovered by our digital devices. And for once, a bill like this actually has a chance of passing. This week, Senator Amy Klobuchar reintroduced the 2019 Social Media Privacy Protection and Consumer Rights Act to … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

The Dark Patterns Tipline Wants to Hear How Sites Manipulate You

If you’re fed up with apps and websites using shitty psychological tactics—aka dark patterns—to coerce you into clicking, then good news: there’s finally a way to put them on blast. Consumer Reports teamed up with a cavalcade of researchers and policy wonks to roll out the Dark Patterns Tip Line on Tuesday, a project that … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

‘Bizarro,’ a New Banking Trojan, Is Sweeping Through Europe

Meet “Bizarro.” It’s a new banking trojan currently sweeping through Europe and large parts of South America, attempting to pilfer consumer financial information and mobile crypto wallets as it goes. If you haven’t had the pleasure of encountering one before, banking trojans are a special kind of malware used by cybercriminals to steal banking credentials … Continued

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Before Going Underground, Hackers Behind the Colonial Attack Cleared $90 Million in Bitcoin

New research into the ransomware gang who attacked the Colonial Pipeline shows just how much money they were able to extort during a short-lived crime spree: about $90 million in approximately seven months. DarkSide, which recently announced it was closing down its operations and going underground (at least for now), was operational for less than … Continued

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California City Settles for $350,000 After Suing Bloggers for Opening Dropbox Links It Sent Them

The city of Fullerton, California, has agreed to settle for $350,000 in a lawsuit brought by two bloggers it falsely accused of breaking into the municipal government’s Dropbox account. In reality, administrators just sent the intrepid journalists a public link that the city would have preferred they didn’t click. Ars Technica reported that Joshua Ferguson … Continued

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Leaked Police Docs Show a Lot of Disturbing but Mostly Dumb Plans Made by the Boogaloo Bois

A recent leak from the Metropolitan Police Department in Washington D.C. reveals ongoing surveillance of right-wing activists in the wake of the deadly Jan. 6th Capitol riot and the lead-up to President Joe Biden’s inauguration. The documents in question were stolen several weeks ago by the ransomware gang Babuk. According to leaked chats between police … Continued

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CAPTCHAs May Soon Go Extinct

Are you a human? It’s an age-old question made more pressing by the ability for millions of computers to shut down websites or snipe auctions out from under regular, non-robotic buyers. What’s more, proving you’re a human reduces spam, abuse, and even theft. But the way we currently tell if someone is human online — … Continued

Tech NewsPrivacy and Security

EufyCam Users Should Turn Off Their Security Cams Immediately

In the latest privacy woe to hit security cam owners, folks using Anker’s EufyCam products are reporting unwarranted access to random people’s camera feeds. Eufy hasn’t addressed any specific issues but acknowledged there’s a bug and a fix. On Reddit and across multiple Eufy community forums, users are describing being logged into stranger’s cameras, giving them full … Continued

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DarkSide, We Hardly Knew Ya: Ransomware Gang Behind Pipeline Hack ‘Quits’ the Business

Less than 24 hours after President Joe Biden announced that the U.S. would seek to disrupt the operations of those responsible for the Colonial Pipeline attack, the gang in question seems to be ducking for cover—and claims it will shut down its criminal operation, at least for now. In posts made online Thursday, the ransomware … Continued