National security

TikTok has been making headlines as of late, but not for reasons pertaining to the content on the app. Instead, several governments across the globe have been looking into the app’s origins and even calling for bans in some cases. Currently, TikTok is in something of a state of limbo in a lot of regions as different governments work on creating litigation and inspecting its roots. Recently, the U.S. held a congressional hearing with TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew over privacy and security concerns — causing many citizens to…

Immigration and Customs Enforcement reportedly used a little-known administrative subpoena more than 100,000 times over six years to request information from schools, abortion clinics, and newspapers, all without first procuring warrants from judges. Pentagon Employees Too Horny to Follow RulesThe massive database of subpoenas, first revealed by Wired, is just the latest example of ICE and other federal agencies finding creative loopholes to sidestep privacysafeguards. Though details of the requests remain obscure,…

Europol this week issued a stark warning highlighting the risks posed by criminals as  they get to grips with the new wave of advanced AI chatbots. In a post shared online this week, Europe’s law enforcement agency described how tools such as OpenAI’s ChatGPT and GPT-4, and Google’s Bard, will be increasingly used by criminals looking for new ways to con members of the public. It identified three specific areas that concern it most. First up is fraud and social engineering, where emails are sent to targets…

A security researcher was recently able to change the top results in Microsoft’s Bing search engine and access any user’s private files, potentially putting millions of users at risk — and all it took was logging into an unsecured web page. The exploit was discovered by researcher Hillai Ben-Sasson at their team at Wiz, a cloud security firm. According to Ben-Sasson, it would not only allow an attacker to change Bing search results, but would also grant them access to millions of users’ private files and data.…

There’s no doubt that ChatGPT is a revolutionary advance in the usefulness and potential for any computer or smartphone connected to the internet, but is it safe to use? There are some big concerns about the overall evolution of generative AI, with some tech leaders even calling for a pause in development. But for the individual, safety is a relative term, particularly when it comes to tools. So, here’s everything to consider before you jump in. Privacy and financial leaks In at least one instance, chat…

Kawakami “was afraid that Nishimura could be arrested by the police,” says Sei, author of the upcoming book The World of 2 Channel. Sei recently interviewed Kawakami. “So he dismissed Nishimura as a director.” The two, however, remained friends, he says.In November 2014, according to Sei’s reporting, Dwango bought out Nishimura’s stake in Niconico for an undisclosed amount. In January 2015, Poole announced his retirement from 4chan. By July, Nishimura was in talks to buy the website. In those conversations was Good Smile…

Clearview AI, the shady US facial recognition firm whose surveillance tech is used by at least 2,400 law enforcement agencies, says police have run nearly a million searches using its service. The company’s database of images scraped from social media sites now reportedly numbers around 30 billion, a staggering 50% increase from figures reported just last year. Despite repeated fines and years of pushback from civil liberties organizations, the figures suggest business is still booming for Clearview.Should Facial…

Despite their reputation for security, Macs can still get viruses, and that’s just been proven by a malicious new Mac malware that can steal your credit card info and send it back to the attacker, ready to be exploited. It’s a reminder to be careful when opening apps from unknown sources. The malware, dubbed MacStealer, was discovered by Uptycs, a threat research firm. It hoovers up a wide array of your personal data, including the iCloud Keychain password database, credit card data, cryptocurrency wallet…

The FBI’s cybersecurity division has been purchasing bulk internet data from a little-known tech firm based in Florida, Motherboard reports. Team Cymru, which calls itself a “global leader in cyber threat intelligence,” sells access to bulk web traffic and claims it can provide clients access to a “super majority of all activity on the internet.” It has previously been found selling its services to a number of other federal agencies. Motherboard came into the details of the FBI’s contract with the company via a Freedom…

Most Generation Z voters in a new poll say that while they are concerned about the Chinese government’s potential influence over the popular video-sharing app TikTok, they oppose a full federal ban on the platform.  A new poll from SocialSphere found 51 percent of Gen Z voters — defined as ages 18-26 — are concerned that TikTok is owned by China-based parent company ByteDance, which has been reported to have close ties to the Chinese Communist Party. Sixty-four percent of millennial voters — defined as ages 27 to 42…