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Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Man With No Work Experience Will Now Arbitrate Your Reality
If you’re worried about the fact that disinformation seems to have diseased most Americans’ minds, don’t worry. Prince Harry, the millionaire heir to the British throne, has got you covered. It has been announced that the Duke of Sussex has been recruited by a disinfo-focused research unit developed by the Aspen Institute—that glistening global non-profit … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Guns.com Gets Hacked, Spilling Gun Owner Information All Over the Dark Web
Watch out, firearm lovers. The subtly-named guns.com, a place where Americans can go to pick out whatever stylish boomstick they like and have it shipped straight to their neck of the woods, seems to have a pretty awful data breach on its hands. Back in January, a hacker temporarily disabled the company’s website, interfering with … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
A Cyberattack Allegedly Knocked Insurance Giant CNA Offline
CNA Financial, one of the largest insurance providers in the U.S., is currently experiencing widespread network disruptions. The company’s website isn’t working, nor can its phone lines be reached. Employee services have been down for at least 48 hours, said a source close to the company. Sources suggest that the firm has been hit with … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Oil Giant Shell Hacked Thanks to Flaw-Ridden Accellion System
Royal Dutch Shell, the petrochemical giant (and one of the largest companies in the world), is the latest in a string of high-profile victims to have suffered a data breach in connection with beleaguered cloud provider Accellion. Shell announced last week that a “data security incident” had occurred involving its use of Accellion’s secure file-transfer … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsStartups
This Startup Is Using Drones to Conduct Airplane Inspections
Aircraft inspection is the important, federally-mandated process of checking recently flown planes for signs of damage. Commercial airliners incur all sorts of wear and tear as they travel the skies, so it’s crucial to identify and track what it looks like. In recent years, the aviation industry has sought to modernize this process by investing … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Tesla: Now a National Security Threat to China
Members of the People’s Liberation Army desperate to drive to work with all the style and panache afforded by Elon Musk’s overhyped cars are apparently out of luck. Citing “national security” concerns, the Chinese government has reportedly banned the use of Tesla vehicles by state and military employees on certain government properties. Per reports from … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Your House Key? Researchers Are Working on a Way to Hack It
In a study published last year, researchers with the National University of Singapore laid out what is essentially a high-tech solution for breaking and entering. The method, which is being called the “SpiKey” attack, is quite novel. It leverages acoustical analysis of the noises a key makes when it enters a lock to virtually simulate … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Right-Wing ‘Troll’ Chuck Johnson Claims He Cofounded Facial Recognition Giant Clearview AI
Chuck Johnson, the conservative activist, writer, and founder of several failed web platforms, is known to swim in a cesspool of right-wing drama. The 32-year-old allegedly played a role in former President Trump’s transition team, has connections to Breitbart and Matt Gaetz, and has long enjoyed the role of far-right provocateur (he was one of … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Cybercrime Is Booming and It’s Costing America Billions
The FBI’s annual Internet Crime Report is out and it shows that hackers and other cybercriminals ran wild during 2020, breaking new records and likely costing Americans billions of dollars. The bureau says it received “a record number of complaints” and reported losses through its Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), which collects, analyzes, and publicizes … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
This Surveillance Company Claims It Can Track Nearly Any Car in Real-Time
A defense contractor that claims to have access to motor vehicle location data on a global scale says it wants to use that data to help U.S. federal agencies conduct more efficient spying and military operations. The Ulysses Group, which offers “cutting edge operational and intelligence services, support, and equipment” to government clients, says it … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Russia ‘Amplified’ the Hunter Biden Story and Spread Election Conspiracy Theories, Intel Agencies Claim
Russia wants America to hate Hunter Biden. That, and other odd claims, are at the heart of a newly declassified report from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (DNI), meant to examine the role of foreign influence in the 2020 U.S. Presidential election. The 15-page report, published Tuesday, says multiple foreign governments used … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
A Hacker Just Stole $5.7 Million From Social Token Startup Roll
Over the weekend, hackers stole millions of dollars in crypto from Roll, a social currency startup that allows so-called “creatives” to launch and manage their own Ethereum blockchain-based money systems. According to the company, someone managed to get inside its “hot wallet” early Sunday morning, making off with the equivalent of $5.7 million in currencies. … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsNews
Apparently the Pentagon Is Thinking of Giving Jetpacks a Try
If you need further proof that we are living in a literal science fiction movie right now, look no further than the fact that the U.S. Defense Department is thinking about strapping jetpacks onto its special forces cadres. Well, actually the term they are using is “portable personal air mobility system,” but you get the … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Researchers Are Working on a Virtual Phone Virus That ‘Mimics’ the Spread of Covid-19
In an effort to assist the evolving science of contact tracing, researchers have created a virtual phone virus that is meant to “mimic” the spread of Covid-19. By “infecting” phones within a controlled environment, the researchers hope to gain a better understanding of the trajectory of viruses as they proliferate within a given population. Academics … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsNews
Minor League Baseball Reportedly Experimenting with Robot Umpires
The seeds of the robot apocalypse are apparently being sown in Minor League Baseball. Or rather, the minor leagues appear to be one more sector of society where automation is being used to “augment” and then potentially replace human labor. This week, the MLB announced that it plans to “expand testing of the Automatic Ball-Strike … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Hackers Now Ruining Your Ability to Get Drunk, Too
Hackers, those pilfering rogues, are now threatening something much more valuable than our money or our data: our goddamn alcohol. A cyberattack has reportedly brought production at one of the nation’s largest breweries, Molson Coors, to a standstill. On Thursday, the beer giant revealed in a regulatory filing that an attack had “caused and may … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Hackers Are Swarming Microsoft Exchange
Those Microsoft Exchange security flaws you may have heard about are really getting pummeled. If ever there was a time for cybersecurity reporters to trot out metaphors involving phrases like “blood in the water” and maybe “deranged swarm of piranhas,” it might be right now. At least 10 separate advanced persistent threat actors (a fancy … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsNews
Terry Crews Has His Own Cryptocurrency Because Why Not?
Soon you could be spending money minted by Terry Crews—certainly an exciting piece of news if that’s been an ambition of yours. The former NFL player, actor, and game show host just launched his own social currency via the startup Roll, a platform that allows so-called “creatives” to crypto-monetize themselves and their own content via … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Hackers Target Surveillance Firm, Exposing 150,000 Live Camera Feeds in Hospitals, Jails, and Tesla
A hacker group claims to have recently broken into the networks of cloud-based surveillance firm Verkada, a Silicon Valley startup that sells and manages security systems to thousands of organizations across the country. Once inside the firm’s walls, the hackers were able to use its 150,000 live camera feeds to peer into the internal workings … Continued
By Lucas Ropek -
Tech NewsPrivacy and Security
Security Flaw in iPhone App Could Have Let Anyone Listen To Your Recordings
In terms of privacy nightmares, this one is pretty bad: a glaring security flaw in a popular iPhone call recorder app would have let literally anyone listen to a user’s recordings if they knew their target’s phone number. The app in question, Call Recorder, claims to have over a million global downloads. This makes it … Continued
By Lucas Ropek