National security

Brooklyn resident Fabian Rogers knew he had to act in 2018 when his penny-pinching landlord suddenly attempted to install a facial recognition camera in the entrance of a rent-stabilized building he’d called home for years. Under the new security system, all tenants and their loved ones would be forced to submit to a face scan to enter the building. The landlord, like many others, tried to sell the controversial tech as a safety enhancement, but Rogers told Gizmodo he saw it as a sneaky attempt to jack up prices in a…

Sharon Bradford Franklin, U.S. Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board Chair, testifies during the House Judiciary Crime and Federal Government Surveillance Subcommittee hearing on FISAPhoto: Mariam Zuhaib (AP)Though some of lawmakers on the Hosue committee appeared surprised or even outraged over the prospect of US citizen data being sucked up during foreign surveillance operations, the experts clarified that the seeming loophole is actually a core foundation of Section 702. “Incidental collection,” Franklin told…

ASML Holding NV, where Van den Brink is now the chief technology officer, practically owns the market for a critical piece of equipment needed to produce the brains of everything that makes modern life possible — from cars and smartphones to computers, microwaves and airplanes. With the company’s high-end machines churning out chips that can also go into state-of-the-art weapons and artificial intelligence devices, ASML is effectively being treated as critical infrastructure for US national security and has…

House lawmakers are holding a hearing today that foreshadows months of fierce debate over one of the country’s most controversial warrantless surveillance programs. Rainn Wilson Would Be the Best Dungeon Master for Dungeons & Dragons | io9 InterviewMembers of Congress taking part in a House Judiciary Committee hearing Thursday are expected to grill Department of Justice officials over the FBI’s alleged abuses of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) to surveil US citizens and prominent political figures,…

Mike Lindell, the My Pillow Guy and prominent 2020 election denier, needs to lay out a lot more cushions on his legs to stop him from shooting himself in the foot. His mealy-mouthed rhetoric surrounding the “Big Lie” caused him to make easily-disproved proclamations and more than a few promises he could not keep. Two years ago, Lindell promised anybody a $5 million prize if they could prove that Chinese hackers did not mess with U.S. voting machines to elect President Joe Biden. On Wednesday, one cyber forensics expert…

Apple released an “extreme safety” measure bundled with iOS 16 last summer, and it’s targeted at sophisticated spyware that is usually deployed covertly against government agencies. It appears that Apple’s safety tool is effective, to a certain extent, against Pegasus — one of the most devastating surveillance attacks ever documented.  Citizen Lab, the security group based at the University of Toronto’s Munk School of Global Affairs & Public Policy, has detailed a pair of zero-click exploits that targeted iOS 15…

Last week, the U.S. government arrested a man accused of one the worst leaks of national security material in years. He’s not exactly Edward Snowden, though.According to federal prosecutors, the person responsible for leaking sensitive Pentagon material was none other than Jack Teixeira, a fresh-faced 21-year-old member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. Despite his youth, Teixiera was given a clearance to handle “Top Secret” compartmented information, a responsibility federal officials say he abused to…

WASHINGTON—The U.S. and the U.K. on Wednesday expanded the West’s net of economic sanctions encircling Russia, targeting a major metals firm and scores of other companies in an effort to cut off more of the international assets and finance channels still connecting Moscow’s economy to global trade and finance. Notable among the additions to the U.K. and U.S. Treasury, State and Commerce Department sanction and export control lists are a global network of firms and associates of…

A leaked intelligence briefing that emerged over the weekend seems to reveal a hacking episode carried out by a pro-Russian hacktivist group against a major Canadian gas pipeline.Teenage Cybercrime Gang LAPSUS$ Strikes AgainA glut of classified Pentagon documents have poured onto the internet in recent days in what is reputed to be a major leak of American national security secrets. The leaks, the source of which is still unknown, seem to reveal a broad swath of clandestine information—much of which relates to U.S. and…

ChatGPT is very simple to get started on. It’s free to sign up for, and you can either use your own email address or log in with your Google or Microsoft account. But you may have noticed that ChatGPT also asks for your phone number. Given all the concern over whether ChatGPT is safe to use, that may have thrown you for a loop, which begs the question — why does ChatGPT need your number after all? Hatice Baran / Unsplash Why ChatGPT requires a phone number Like many things you sign up for online, ChatGPT…