Zack Whittaker
Security Editor
The Latest from Zack Whittaker
FEMA just tested the US national emergency alert system
Did you hear it? FEMA just ran its first nationwide test of the U.S. emergency alert system since the pandemic. The Federal Emergency Management Agency, or FEMA, tested both the Emergency Alert System
Apple confirms it will begin scanning iCloud Photos for child abuse images
Later this year, Apple will roll out a technology that will allow the company to detect and report known child sexual abuse material to law enforcement in a way it says will preserve user privacy. App
Passwordstate customers complain of silence and secrecy after cyberattack
It has been over three months since Click Studios, the Australian software house behind the enterprise password manager Passwordstate, warned its customers to “commence resetting all passwords.&
A Silicon Valley VC firm with $1.8B in assets was hit by ransomware
Advanced Technology Ventures, a Silicon Valley venture capital firm with more than $1.8 billion in assets under its management, was hit by a ransomware attack in July that saw cybercriminals steal per
Amazon will pay you $10 in credit for your palm print biometrics
How much is your palm print worth? If you ask Amazon, it’s about $10 in promotional credit if you enroll your palm prints in its checkout-free stores and link it to your Amazon account. Last yea
Calgary’s parking authority exposed drivers’ personal data and tickets
A review of the logs by TechCrunch found contact information, details of parking tickets and parking offenses, and some partial card payment numbers and expiry dates.
Court orders US Capitol rioter to unlock his laptop ‘with his face’
The FBI argued that compelling Guy Reffitt to unlock his computer by sitting in front of it 'would not run afoul of the defendant's Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.'
Despite controversies and bans, facial recognition startups are flush with VC cash
If efforts by states and cities to pass privacy regulations curbing the use of facial recognition are anything to go by, you might fear the worst for the companies building the technology. But a recen
A DNS outage just took down a large chunk of the internet
A large chunk of the internet dropped offline on Thursday. Some of the most popular sites, apps and services on the internet were down, including UPS and FedEx (which have since come back online), Air
This tool tells you if NSO’s Pegasus spyware targeted your phone
Over the weekend, an international consortium of news outlets reported that several authoritarian governments — including Mexico, Morocco and the United Arab Emirates — used spyware developed by N
US blames China for Exchange server hacks and ransomware attacks
The Biden administration and its allies have formally accused China of the mass-hacking of Microsoft Exchange servers earlier this year, which prompted the FBI to intervene as concerns rose that the h
An insurtech startup exposed thousands of sensitive insurance applications
A security lapse at insurance technology startup BackNine exposed hundreds of thousands of insurance applications after one of its cloud servers was left unprotected on the internet. BackNine might be
GSA blocks senator from reviewing documents used to approve Zoom for government use
The General Services Administration has denied a senator’s request to review documents Zoom submitted to have its software approved for use in the federal government. The denial was in response
Ring’s latest security updates are good, but still opt-in
Ring, the video doorbell maker dubbed the “largest civilian surveillance network the U.S. has ever seen,” is rolling out new but long overdue security and privacy features. The Amazon-own
New York City’s new biometrics privacy law takes effect
A new biometrics privacy ordinance has taken effect across New York City, putting new limits on what businesses can do with the biometric data they collect on their customers. From Friday, businesses
Evernote quietly disappeared from an anti-surveillance lobbying group’s website
In 2013, eight tech companies were accused of funneling their users’ data to the U.S. National Security Agency under the so-called PRISM program, according to highly classified government docume
Kaseya hack floods hundreds of companies with ransomware
On Friday, a flood of ransomware hit hundreds of companies around the world. A grocery store chain, a public broadcaster, schools, and a national railway system were all hit by the file-encrypting mal
A new ‘digital violence’ platform maps dozens of victims of NSO Group’s spyware
For the first time, researchers have mapped all the known targets, including journalists, activists, and human rights defenders, whose phones were hacked by Pegasus, a spyware developed by NSO Group.
An email sent by One Medical exposed hundreds of customers’ email addresses
Primary care company One Medical has apologized after it sent out an email that exposed hundreds of customers’ email addresses. The email sent out by One Medical on Wednesday asked to “ver
Microsoft says a third of its government data requests have secrecy orders
Microsoft’s customer security chief says as many as one-third of all government demands that the company receives for customer data are issued with secrecy clauses that prevents it from disclosi