Zack Whittaker
Security Editor
The Latest from Zack Whittaker
Privacy.com, a virtual payment card startup, raises $10.2M in Series A
Virtual card payment startup Privacy.com has raised $10.2 million in a Series A fundraise, the company announced Wednesday. The round was led by Teamworthy Ventures, with participation from Tusk Ventu
WhatsApp hit by brief outage, leaving users unable to send or receive messages
WhatsApp was briefly down Tuesday, with users unable to send or receive messages on the Facebook-owned end-to-end encrypted messaging app. Affected users may have seen that WhatsApp was “connect
Decrypted: As tech giants rally against Hong Kong security law, Apple holds out
It’s not often Silicon Valley gets behind a single cause. Supporting net neutrality was one, reforming government surveillance another. Last week, Big Tech took up its latest: halting any cooper
CBP says it’s ‘unrealistic’ for Americans to avoid its license plate surveillance
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has admitted that there is no practical way for Americans to avoid having their movements tracked by its license plate readers, according to its latest privacy asses
Smartwatch hack could trick patients to ‘take pills’ with spoofed alerts
Vulnerabilities could have let hackers send medication reminders to patients as often as they wanted.
Data brokers track everywhere you go, but their days may be numbered
Everywhere you go, you are being followed. Not by some creep in a raincoat, but by the advertisers wanting to sell you things. The more advertisers know about you — where you go, which shops you vis
TikTok saw a rise in government demands for user data
Late last year, TikTok’s parent company ByteDance joined the raft of American tech giants that publish the number of government demands for user data and takedown requests by releasing its own n
Trump’s sudden reversal on student visas will be felt in Silicon Valley
The Trump administration's sudden policy reversal on student visas are likely to have unintended side effects across the U.S.
Decrypted: Police hack criminal phone network; Randori raises $20M Series A
Last week was, for most Americans, a four-day work week. But a lot still happened in the security world. The U.S. government’s cybersecurity agencies warned of two critical vulnerabilities — o
Microsoft secretly seized domains used in COVID-19-themed email cyberattacks
A court granted Microsoft's request to take control of the domains used by the scammers.
Secretive data startup Palantir has confidentially filed for an IPO
As the coronavirus pandemic spread throughout the world, Palantir pitched its technology to bring big data to tracking efforts.
US tech giants halt Hong Kong police help
Facebook and Twitter have confirmed they have suspended processing demands for user data from Hong Kong authorities following the introduction of a new Beijing-imposed national security law. A spokesp
How Have I Been Pwned became the keeper of the internet’s biggest data breaches
When Troy Hunt launched Have I Been Pwned in late 2013, he wanted it to answer a simple question: Have you fallen victim to a data breach? Seven years later, the data-breach notification service proce
Zoom misses its own deadline to publish its first transparency report
How many government demands for user data has Zoom received? We won’t know until “later this year,” an updated Zoom blog post now says. The video conferencing giant previously said i
Decrypted: Police leaks, iOS 14 kills ad-tracking, anti-encryption bill
What would the world look like if encryption were outlawed? If three Republican senators get their way, it might just happen. Under the guise of national security, the Senate Judiciary Committee pushe
FCC formally declares Huawei, ZTE ‘national security threats’
The Federal Communication Commission has declared Chinese telecom giants Huawei and ZTE “national security threats,” a move that will formally ban U.S. telecom companies from using federal
US government agency warns of fresh Palo Alto VPN security flaw
The U.S. government is warning that foreign nation-state hackers will “likely attempt” to exploit a new “critical”-rated security vulnerability found in a number of widely used
Four views: How will the work visa ban affect tech and which changes will last?
Four TechCrunch staffers discuss the potential impacts of the government's decision to halt all new work visas through the end of the year.
A domestic violence prevention app backed by Dr. Phil exposed victims’ distress recordings
Back in 2013, Robin McGraw, wife of U.S. television personality Dr. Phil, launched an app to help domestic violence victims covertly signal for distress. It was quickly heralded as a potential lifesav
Google’s piecemeal privacy changes now let users auto-delete their data
Google said Wednesday it’s making a handful of privacy changes for users. In a blog post, the search giant said it’ll make it easier for users to go “incognito” and pause data