National security

As a potential TikTok ban looms, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) gave her response in a unique way: by posting her first video on the social media platform. “This is not only my first TikTok, but it is a TikTok about TikTok,” Ocasio-Cortez said in her introduction, adding “Do I believe TikTok should be banned? No.” The New York Democrat said banning the popular video-sharing app would be an “unprecedented” move. “I think it’s important to discuss how unprecedented of a move this would be. The…

Apple AirTags can be useful for things like finding your keys or keeping tabs on luggage. But it’s also well-established that the small quarter-sized tracking devices, can be employed in some less-than-savory ways. People have sued over AirTags being used to enable stalking. Police have claimed the devices have even popped up in murder cases.Yet a new report suggests that federal law enforcement might be applying AirTags for their own ends. The Drug Enforcement Agency used an Apple tracker to conduct suspect surveillance…

Apple raised some eyebrows late last year when the company revealed that it actively works with law enforcement officials in cases involving the misuse of its object tracker. The admission came after a litany of cases where AirTag trackers were exploited for stalking and theft. Apple even got slapped with a lawsuit for the whole drama. But it appears that other government agencies have also grown a taste for deploying AirTag trackers to assist with their investigations. According to Forbes, the Drug Enforcement…

We sometimes hear how inserting a mysterious USB drive into a computer carries the risk of infecting the machine with harmful software. But for one journalist in Ecuador, the consequences were even more alarming. When Lenin Artieda received a package containing a USB drive earlier this week, the journalist felt that connecting it to his computer was worth the risk, after all, it might have contained the details of a good story. But when he did so, the diminutive device exploded. Artieda, who also works as a…

March has been brutal for TikTok. Last week, the UK joined the US, Canada, and Belgium in banning TikTok on government devices. And FBI director Christopher Wray warned lawmakers that misinformation spread through the app can “divide Americans.” At the start of the month, Senate intelligence chair Mark Warner unveiled a new measure, the Restrict Act, which would enable the US commerce secretary to ban TikTok and any other tech from six “hostile” nations that the US intelligence community deems a national security…

Ferrari has been targeted by a hacker who is threatening to release data linked to its customers unless the automaker hands over a ransom payment. Ferrari said it’s refusing to pay up. In a statement posted online on Monday, the company said it had been “recently contacted by a threat actor” who is demanding payment to prevent the release of customer details that include names, addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers. Customers’ payment details, bank account numbers, and details of Ferrari cars owned or…

TikTok said on Monday the short-video sharing app now has 150 million monthly active users in the United…

In the future, it might be a new mobile game or an algorithm helping students study at home. It could be the latest graphics card or exercise bike, or an app that pairs families with puppies. With fewer and fewer aspects of life going untouched by technology, it could be practically anything. Right now, it's TikTok, with its billions of users worldwide. US Senator Mark Warner (D-Virginia) wants the United States armed with the ability to take swift action against technology companies suspected of cavorting with foreign…

The harnessed power of the subatomic world could soon upend the modern computing industry. Quantum computers are all over the news, and fundamental work on the theory that gave rise to them even won last year’s Nobel Prize. But the one place you might not hear about them is inside a physics classroom. And if we have any hope of creating a technology-literate population and developing a workforce for this emerging field, that needs to change. What’s a quantum computer? Unlike the computer sitting on your desk, which…

FBI Director Christopher Wray on Wednesday reaffirmed to lawmakers that TikTok poses a national security and privacy concern, potentially collecting and controlling the data of millions of Americans and swaying public opinion. Wray, who was testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee on worldwide threats, agreed with lawmakers that TikTok, which is owned by Chinese-based company ByteDance, has the ability to collect information on American citizens if it wanted to. Wray was responding to questions…