Wired

What Is Cyberwar? The Complete WIRED Guide

Not so long ago, stories about cyberwar started with scary hypotheticals: What if state-sponsored hackers were to launch widespread attacks that blacked out entire cities? Crippled banks and froze ATMs across a country? Shut down shipping firms, oil refineries, and factories? Paralyzed airports and hospitals? Today, these scenarios are no longer hypotheticals: Every one of those events has now actually occurred. Incident by catastrophic incident, cyberwar has left the pages…

August 23, 2019
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The Fight Against Robocalls Gets Powerful New Allies

The bitter fight against robocalls has raged for years, but today it gets a boost from significant players: attorneys general from all 50 US states and the District of Columbia, working in concert with a dozen major telecoms, including AT&T, T-Mobile, Verizon, and Comcast. The group has collectively agreed to a set of anti-robocalling “principles,” which comprise both technical steps phone carriers can implement and expanded law enforcement efforts. Combined,…

August 23, 2019
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The Android 10 Privacy and Security Upgrades You Should Know About

Google has long grappled with data privacy gaffes and internal instability, but through it all the company has consistently improved the security and privacy of Android. Given, the operating system’s 2.5 billion users, that’s no small task. With the release of Android 10 in just a few few weeks, the new iteration of data and privacy features is coming into even sharper focus. The privacy and security tools new to…

August 22, 2019
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Shh! No Hacking the Census in the Library

The 2020 United States Census will be the first to request a majority of Americans to respond online. The benefits are obvious. A digitized census is more efficient than the 230-year-old paper method, streamlining the processing of individual data for a population that has increased nearly a hundredfold since 1790, to 330 million. But connecting the country’s biggest and most important questionnaire to the internet also creates vulnerabilities to hacks….

August 22, 2019
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Firefox and Chrome Fight Back Against Kazakhstan’s Spying

Against the backdrop of China, Russia, and Iran working to sequester their own private, national internets, other countries like Kazakhstan have experimented with similar balkanization and internet-control initiatives. Kazakhstan first piloted a monitoring system in 2015 that would offer access to all web traffic within the country, even encrypted data. After fierce debate and some legal hurdles over the years, the government implemented a test of this draconian screening system…

August 21, 2019
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Facebook’s New Privacy Feature Comes With a Loophole

By default, Facebook tracks what you do even when you’re not on Facebook, like the products you shop for, the political candidates you donate to, and the porn you watch, using tools like Facebook Pixel, a small piece of code deposited on millions of websites across the internet. The social network uses that information to target you with personalized ads—a business model that is now worth billions of dollars. But…

August 21, 2019
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A Huge Ransomware Attack Messes With Texas

Early on August 16, a total of 23 local government organizations in Texas were hit by a coordinated ransomware attack. The type of ransomware has not been revealed, and Texas officials asserted that no state networks were compromised in the attack. ARS TECHNICA This story originally appeared on Ars Technica, a trusted source for technology news, tech policy analysis, reviews, and more. Ars is owned by WIRED’s parent company, Condé…

August 20, 2019
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The Lightning YubiKey Is Here to Kill Passwords on Your iPhone

Though there are other authentication dongles out there, YubiKeys are largely the face of the physical two-factor authentication movement. Unfortunately, to date it’s also been unavailable for the most high-profile smartphone in the world. But today manufacturer Yubico is releasing the first Lightning port YubiKey for use with iPhones and iPads. It’s been a long time coming. First announced in January, the Lightning YubiKey has been in the works for…

August 20, 2019
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Finally, a Lightning YubiKey to Kill Password Clutter on Your iPhone

Though there are other authentication dongles out there, YubiKeys are largely the face of the physical two-factor authentication movement. Unfortunately, to date it’s also been unavailable for the most high-profile smartphone in the world. But today manufacturer Yubico is releasing the first Lightning port YubiKey for use with iPhones and iPads. It’s been a long time coming. First announced in January, the Lightning YubiKey has been in the works for…

August 20, 2019
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China Attacks Hong Kong Protesters With Fake Social Posts

In response to widespread pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong, the Chinese government launched an online disinformation campaign casting the protesters as members of ISIS and cockroaches, according to disclosures made by Twitter and Facebook on Monday. Since the two social networks are blocked on mainland China, the propaganda efforts appear designed to influence perception of the protests overseas. Solidarity demonstrations backing Hong Kong have taken place around the world in…

August 20, 2019
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