In his years-long career developing software for power grids, Stan McHann had never before heard the ominous noise that rang out last Wednesday. Standing in the middle of a utility command center, he flinched as a cyberattack tripped the breakers in all seven of the grid's low voltage substations, plunging the system into darkness. "I heard all the substations trip off and it was just like bam bam bam bam bam bam bam bam," McHann says. "The power’s out. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx....
Nov 14, 2018•14 min
For two hours Monday, internet traffic that was supposed to route through Google's Cloud Platform instead found itself in quite unexpected places, including Russia and China. But while the haphazard routing invoked claims of traffic hijacking—a real threat, given that nation states could use the technique to spy on web users or censor services—the incident turned out to be a simple mistake with outsized impacts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices...
Nov 14, 2018•5 min
During a speech at the annual UNESCO Internet Governance Forum in Paris Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron announced the “Paris Call for Trust and Security in Cyberspace,” a new initiative designed to establish international norms for the internet, including good digital hygiene and the coordinated disclosure of technical vulnerabilities. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Nov 13, 2018•5 min
Did you hear? There was an election this week! Not only does that mean the 2020 campaign has officially started (help!) but also that we saw a ton of misinformation trying to affect the vote. That includes from the secretary of state of Georgia, who accused his Democratic opponent of hacking the state's voter roles, even though all evidence strongly suggests that's not the case. At least, though, law enforcement had a massive coordinated effort to protect the election from actual hacking. Learn ...
Nov 13, 2018•4 min
There comes a period of time in every beloved gadget's life—some more prolonged than others—when you need to think about replacing the electronic device that's given you so much loyal service, whether it's a smartphone, a laptop, a digital camera, or anything in between. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Nov 12, 2018•8 min
Sue Gordon, the principal deputy director of national intelligence, wakes up every day at 3 am, jumps on a Peloton, and reads up on all the ways the world is trying to destroy the United States. By the afternoon noon, she has usually visited the Oval Office and met with the heads of the 17 intelligence agencies to get threat reports. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Nov 12, 2018•9 min
In December 2016, Georgia secretary of state Brian Kemp accused the Department of Homeland Security of attempting to hack his office's systems, which include the Georgia voter registration database. Six months later, the DHS inspector general concluded that the allegations were unfounded; someone on a DHS computer had simply visited Georgia Secretary of State website. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Nov 08, 2018•8 min
David Weiner counts himself lucky. Sure, he waited an hour to vote at the Brooklyn Public Library along with, he estimates, several hundred other New Yorkers Tuesday afternoon. But, hey, at least he arrived when the last ballot scanner officially broke. That meant he could just fill out his ballot and shove it in a box. The people in line in front of him, the ones who’d been waiting to use that last ballot scanner, said they'd been in line for twice as long. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail...
Nov 07, 2018•6 min
After Russia's misinformation campaign rattled the 2016 United States election season, scrutiny over this year's midterms has been intense. And while foreign cybersecurity threats have so far been relatively muted, an unclassified government report obtained by The Boston Globe this week indicates more than 160 suspected election-related incidents since the beginning of August, ranging from suspicious login attempts to compromised municipal networks. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/...
Nov 07, 2018•9 min
The day before the midterm elections, Facebook took down a virulently anti-immigrant ad paid for by President Donald Trump, which mischaracterizes refugees walking through Mexico toward the US as violent criminals. “America’s future depends on you,” the voiceover says, ending with a plea to “vote Republican.” NBC also took the ad off air on Monday after criticism from stars of NBC shows. And even Fox News stopped airing it on Monday, too. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices...
Nov 06, 2018•6 min
It’s true: Facebook has experienced a number of security-related issues lately, including a breach disclosed in September that compromised at least 30 million accounts. But that incident doesn’t explain why tens of thousands of private Facebook messages reportedly ended up for sale on an internet forum the same month, according to the BBC Russian Service. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Nov 06, 2018•5 min
As websites and web apps have grown in complexity, so have their demands: They want access to your webcam to make video calls, they want to know where in the world you are to serve up local information, and so on. In fact, websites now ask for almost as many permissions as the apps on your phone do, though you might not be as familiar with how to manage them. We'll show you how. We'll also explain how to restrict the cookies and other data websites can save locally on your laptop. Learn about yo...
Nov 05, 2018•7 min
The midterm elections are just a few days away. Though historically the president’s party takes a beating in the House and Senate, that’s far from assured this year. Will the midterms be a rebuke or an endorsement of the Trump administration? On November 6, you will decide. As 2016 emphatically demonstrated, elections are also a major battleground for information warfare. Coordinated misinformation campaigns focus not just on individual candidates but also the electoral system itself. Learn abou...
Nov 05, 2018•12 min
Over two days during the summer of 2009, experts from inside and outside Google met to forge a roadmap for how the company would approach user privacy. At the time, Google was under fire for its data collection practices and user tracking. The summit was designed to codify ways that users could feel more in control. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Nov 02, 2018•20 min
Beware of Chinese spies offering laptops, women, or educational stipends—and especially watch out for odd LinkedIn requests. On Tuesday, the Justice Department unsealed new charges against 10 Chinese intelligence officers and hackers who it says perpetrated a years-long scheme to steal trade secrets from aerospace companies. The case continues an impressive tempo from the Justice Department, as it continues to try curb China's massive, wide-ranging, and long-running espionage campaign. Learn abo...
Nov 01, 2018•19 min
11 people were killed and six others—including four police officers—injured Saturday when a gunman opened fire during a baby-naming ceremony at the Tree of Life Congregation, a Synagogue in Pittsburgh. The shooter, Robert Bowers, 46, surrendered to the police and was taken to the hospital, a local councilwoman told the The New York Times. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Nov 01, 2018•6 min
On Friday, Facebook shut down another network of 82 accounts, pages, and groups that have been posing as US and UK citizens since 2016. The network, which Facebook said it discovered a week ago and originated in Iran, spread memes, articles, and other posts about political topics in the US and UK, including race relations, the upcoming midterm election in the US, and the recent confirmation hearings for Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. They also hosted seven events. Learn about your ad cho...
Oct 31, 2018•7 min
Mac malware is more common than Apple generally likes to admit. But a new protection in the company's specialized T2 security chip hints at a sophisticated type of attack that the company may be trying to preempt. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Oct 31, 2018•5 min
A key part of what makes Signal the leading encrypted messaging app is its effort to minimize the amount of data or metadata each message leaves behind. The messages themselves are fully encrypted as they move across Signal's infrastructure, and the service doesn't store logs of information like who sends messages to each other, or when. On Monday, the nonprofit that develops Signal announced a new initiative to take those protections even further. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/a...
Oct 30, 2018•4 min
Police have arrested 56-year-old Cesar Sayoc in connection with 13 explosive devices sent to prominent Democrats and CNN this week. Attorney General Jeff Sessions confirmed the arrest during a press conference on Friday, while FBI director Christopher Wray detailed how law enforcement officers tracked him down so quickly. Sayoc was arrested Friday outside an AutoZone in Plantation, Florida. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices...
Oct 30, 2018•7 min
The most popular video game in the world is Fortnite—which makes Fortnite scams a potentially very profitable endeavor. And while that point may seem obvious, the extent of Fortnite fakes on the web, along with how convincingly they mimic their inspirations, may still surprise you. Fortnite opportunists have plagued the internet since the game’s launch; WIRED has previously looked at the scourge of fake app downloads connected to the game’s controversial Android launch. Learn about your ad choic...
Oct 29, 2018•5 min
In December, researchers spotted a new family of industrial control malware that had been used in an attack on a Middle Eastern energy plant. Known as Triton, or Trisis, the suite of hacking tools is one of only a handful of known cyberweapons developed specifically to undermine or destroy industrial equipment. Now, new research from security firm FireEye suggests that at least one element of the Triton campaign originated from Russia. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices...
Oct 29, 2018•7 min
Three days after last Christmas, a 25-year-old Los Angeles man named Tyler Barriss allegedly called police in Wichita, Kansas, and pretended that he’d murdered his father and was holding hostages in a house near the city’s downtown. Barriss thought the house belonged to an avid Call of Duty gamer he wanted to harass, but he was mistaken about the address. (WIRED has published a detailed account of the case. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices...
Oct 26, 2018•6 min
It's no secret that President Donald Trump tweets at all hours, and calls friends and advisors late into the night. But a New York Times report indicates that, thanks in part to Trump's use of a personal iPhone, Chinese and Russian spies are listening in on his calls. That other countries would want to spy on Trump should come as no surprise. The US certainly does its share of surveillance on world leaders. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices...
Oct 26, 2018•6 min
This week, apparent explosive devices have targeted the mailboxes of former President Barack Obama, former Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, philanthropist George Soros, and cable news network CNN. Additional reports of suspicious packages have continued to emerge Wednesday, and the situation is still developing. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices
Oct 25, 2018•8 min
A cascade of explosive devices and suspicious packages targeting the homes of prominent Democrats and the New York offices of CNN were intercepted Wednesday morning, sending the internet's misinformation machine into a tailspin. Two packages were intercepted en route to the homes of President Barack Obama and former President and First Lady Bill and Hillary Clinton. Another, containing a pipe bomb and an envelope of white powder, was discovered in the CNN building mailroom. Learn about your ad c...
Oct 25, 2018•10 min
Call it the era of misinformation. Call it a crisis of trust. If you must, call it fake news. The truth is that in 2018, hot-button news events are immediately weaponized online by interested parties, whether that’s foreign actors trying to undermine democracy, local politicians trying to rally their base, spammers trying to make a quick buck, even trolls in it for the old-fashioned lulz—or all of the above. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices...
Oct 24, 2018•9 min
I understand that it’s easy to dismiss Tyler Barriss as a monster who should never be granted a platform to tell his own story. He took pleasure in terrorizing strangers with his hoaxes, and his alleged actions—calling authorities in Wichita, Kansas, and pretending that he was holding a family hostage—led to an innocent man being shot dead by police last December. Barriss' reaction to Andrew Finch’s death has betrayed a chilling lack of empathy. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-c...
Oct 24, 2018•5 min
In September 2017, barely two months before Virginians went to the polls to pick a new governor, the state’s board of elections convened an emergency session. The crisis at hand? Touchscreen voting machines. They’d been bought back in the early aughts, when districts across the country, desperate to avoid a repeat of the 2000 “hanging chads” fiasco, decided to go digital. But the new machines were a nightmare, prone to crashes and—worse—hacking. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-c...
Oct 23, 2018•4 min
On Friday afternoon, the Justice Department announced that Russia and the world’s most interesting catering company continue to attack the United States online—and that Russian Twitter trolls had even defended the efforts of special counsel Robert Mueller earlier this year. Prosecutors unsealed a September criminal complaint against Elena Alekseevna Khusyaynova, a 44-year-old Russian woman from St. Petersburg. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices...
Oct 23, 2018•10 min
