Stop ad-based location tracking
Tracking IDs baked into your mobile device reveal visits to abortion clinics and more.
Support the Internet Archive
Help out a critical resource for journalists as it experiences a series of digital attacks.
Chrome phases out popular ad blocker — what now?
It’s the Digital Security Training team at Freedom of the Press Foundation (FPF), with security news that keeps you, your sources, and your devices safe. If someone has shared this newsletter with you, please subscribe here.In the newsIn its push to rework permissions within Google Chrome desktop …
See, this is why we need encryption
U.S. intelligence agencies suggest China is involved in a breach of multiple major U.S. telecommunications providers.
Indicted NYC mayor forgets phone passcode
Eric Adams allegedly claimed that he had changed the passcode and told the FBI he did not remember it.
Discord boosts private call encryption
Discord announced its rollout of end-to-end encryption for voice and video calls in one-to-one and group direct messages, voice channels, and Go Live streams.
Apple seeks dismissal of NSO Group lawsuit
Apple has filed a motion to withdraw a lawsuit against NSO Group, an Israeli spyware company.
Telegram rethinks messaging on content moderation
Following the arrest of Telegram founder and CEO Pavel Durov, the messaging app modified its FAQ page to clarify some new rules.
City sues security researcher after revelations about ransomware attack
Columbus Mayor Andrew Ginther announced that the data was either “encrypted or corrupted.”
Telegram misrepresented amid founder’s arrest
The arrest of Telegram founder Pavel Durov has helped foster the mistaken notion that the app is a standard end-to-end encrypted messenger.
Data broker breach leaks Social Security numbers (again)
National Public Data confirmed nearly 3 billion records were affected.
Russia blocks access to Signal
The latest move means that the app has been removed from Google Play and Apple App Store in Russia.
Cloudflare hides abusive websites
The Spamhaus Project has released a blog criticizing Cloudflare — a content delivery network and cloud cybersecurity provider — for providing security services to abusive domains. These websites could contain spam, phishing links, malware, and even botnets.
Android spyware flies under the radar
The cybersecurity firm Kaspersky disclosed that at least five Google Play applications contained Mandrake, a sophisticated cyberespionage tool.
Google backtracks on ad privacy plan
Google has a habit of hitting the brakes on products and features — so much so that it’s become something of a meme to be “killed by Google.” This time it decided to backtrack on its long-standing plan to replace traditional tracking in its Chrome browser.
Beware fraudulent CrowdStrike emails
Last Friday, computer systems worldwide were taken down by a defective update from enterprise cybersecurity vendor CrowdStrike. In the wake of the outage, the U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency is warning of phishing emails, with attackers posing as CrowdStrike customer support.
What to do about AT&T breach
Around 110 million AT&T subscribers were affected by a data breach from May 1 to Oct. 31, 2022, TechCrunch reported.
Massive Authy leak, plus Proton Docs
The parent company for Authy, an application for two-factor authentication, has issued a critical security update to its Android and iOS users. According to BleepingComputer, hackers utilized leaked phone numbers from past data breaches to identify up to 33 million Authy users.
Eavesdropping on AirPods?
Apple released a firmware update patching a critical Bluetooth vulnerability in AirPods, AirPods Pro, AirPods Max, Powerbeats Pro, and Beats Fit Pro. According to its support page, an adversary in Bluetooth range could spoof as an intended source device for these wireless headphones. When the targeted headphones send a connection request to the spoofed device, it could eavesdrop on confidential conversations.
Mail surveillance is widespread
According to data unearthed in a congressional probe, more than 60,000 requests by federal investigators and police captured data on 312,000 letters and packages between 2015 and 2023.
When data brokers break
We often talk to newsrooms about dealing with data brokers — companies that aggregate and sell data from commercial and public records. According to recent reporting from TechCrunch, an alleged breach of a U.S. data broker impacted at least 300 million people. Their reporting suggests “mixed results” verifying the authenticity of the data.
Apple’s password app
In the hope of simplifying how customers can log into apps and websites, Apple has announced it will offer a new Passwords app in its upcoming versions of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS 15.
Oops, all breaches!
Data breach notification service “Have I Been Pwned?” has added the login information associated with 361 million email addresses. Have I Been Pwned owner Troy Hunt says as many as 151 million of these unique email addresses have never been seen in his database before. The website boasts tracking over 13.5 billion breach accounts. Some of these credentials are reportedly harvested from users’ devices infected with information-stealing malware.
Slack trains AI models on user data
Over this past week, Slack published a blog post defending its privacy practices following widespread criticism over its use of customer data to train its global AI models. At the moment, organizations are required to opt out to prevent their messages, content, and files from being mined to develop Slack’s AI.
Crossfire over messaging security
Johns Hopkins cryptography professor Matthew Green explains that “the cryptography behind Signal (also used in WhatsApp and several other messengers) is open source and has been intensively reviewed by cryptographers. When it comes to cryptography, this is pretty much the gold standard.” By comparison, Telegram does not provide end-to-end encryption protection by default and only offers it as an option in one-on-one “Secret Chat” mode.
