North Korean Hackers Deploy New Linux Espionage Toolkit
The stealthy toolkit embeds a backdoor in HAProxy and targets automotive and media organizations in South Korea for long-term surveillance. The post North Korean Hackers Deploy New Linux Espionage Toolkit appeared first on SecurityWeek .
Researching Employment Scams
Researchers built a fake company to study fake employee scams .
Wireless Routers as Motion Detectors
Comcast has added motion detection as a feature to its wireless routers: The feature sends push notifications to users when motion is detected near a connected device, such as a TV or printer. It has different settings for when people are home, asleep, or away. The Xfinity app also lets users see live motion activity and a feed of recent activity.
Rewiring Democracy Series on The Renovator
Nathan E. Sanders and I are writing a series of essays on real-world examples of democratic technologies for The Renovator . I haven’t been posting the full text on the blog because they’re a bit long, but here are links.
Brave browser adds email aliases to help users evade tracking
The latest version of the Brave browser, 1.94, introduces a feature called 'Email Aliases' that allows users to generate disposable email addresses when signing up to a new service. [...]
Android 17 adds ECH support to make web browsing harder to track
Google is introducing new network security protections in Android 17 to strengthen connection privacy, address cellular vulnerabilities, and protect the privacy of users' home networks. [...]
NovaCookies Campaigns Abuse Genuine Docusign Notifications to Steal Microsoft 365 Sessions
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed details of a new adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) phishing toolkit called NovaCookies that's used as a proxy to redirect Microsoft 365 sign-ins, while capturing authenticated sessions in the process. In a report shared with The Hacker News ahead of publication, Island characterized the $320/month service as a subscription-based phishing…
Spyware for Babies
The New York Times has a long article ( alt link ) on surveillance systems aimed at babies. They are increasingly using AI. Nanit and its rivals want to own 24/7 health tracking for the sub-four-foot set.
'NovaCookies' Kit Steals Microsoft 365 Sessions for $320 a Month
The adversary-in-the-middle (AitM) phishing service lowers the barrier to entry for actors to create attacks and steal more than just user credentials.
TikTok reaches $400M settlement with US over COPPA violations
The U.S. Department of Justice announced a $400 million settlement with TikTok, ByteDance, and affiliated companies over allegations that they violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA). [...]
Criminal Deception in Silicon Valley
Interesting paper : Abstract: With entrepreneurial fraud cases on the rise, we investigate how entrepreneurs carry out criminal deception , employing deceptive means to defraud audiences. Analyzing court data from Silicon Valley ventures and their founders prosecuted for fraud between 2000 and 2023, our findings reveal that entrepreneurs carry out criminal deception through a…
TikTok Reaches $400 Million Settlement With US Justice Department Over Children’s Privacy
TikTok will pay $300 million immediately and another $100 million after an order vacates an earlier consent decree against its predecessor company, Musical.ly. The post TikTok Reaches $400 Million Settlement With US Justice Department Over Children’s Privacy appeared first on SecurityWeek .
TikTok Agrees to $400 Million Settlement in U.S. Child Privacy Lawsuit
The U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) announced on Friday that ByteDance-owned TikTok will pay $400 million to settle a 2024 lawsuit accusing the company of violating child privacy laws in the country. As part of the settlement, the social media platform will pay $300 million immediately, and an additional $100 million "upon entry of an order vacating a prior consent decree…
Police Are Hiding Their Use of Flock Surveillance Cameras
A usage policy for Flock license plate reader cameras tells police not to talk about the cameras: When cops use Flock to arrest someone in Wapello County, Iowa, they don’t want them to know. A usage policy for the automated license plate reader cameras in the county tells police, in no uncertain terms, to keep them a secret: “DO NOT MENTION ALPR USAGE TO THE…
SilkParasite Espionage Campaign Targets Central Asian Governments with Five New RATs
A previously unreported cyber espionage operation dubbed SilkParasite has been observed targeting government bodies in Central Asia. The intrusion set makes use of seven remote access tool (RAT) families, five of which have never been previously documented: DriveSilkRAT, CookiETagRAT, NomadRAT, GoginRAT, and NodeEdgeRAT. SilkParasite, first discovered in late 2025, is assessed…
ICE Collecting DNA Samples
ICE collected nearly a million DNA samples last year.
Hacking Public Wi-Fi DNS to Steal Credentials
Criminals are hacking into public Wi-Fi devices—at hotels, conference centers, and so on—around the world and changing their DNS settings. The goal is to redirect users to fake login pages and steal their credentials.
Upcoming Speaking Engagements
This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I’m speaking, signing books, and participating in panel discussions at LAcon V in Anaheim, California, USA. My full schedule is here . I’m speaking online (via Zoom) at a League of Women Voters event on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, at 5 PM ET.
Who’s Tracking You? Use This New Service to Find Out
It can be daunting to determine who's responsible for showing ads on the websites we visit, or who's harvesting data from the mobile apps we use every day. That information is already semi-public, but it is not easily parsed and traditionally much of it has remained walled away in the hands of large advertising platforms. Not anymore: A powerful and free new service called…
AmnesiaStealer macOS Malware Steals Data, Controls Browser Sessions
The Rust-based macOS infostealer harvests users’ passwords, keychain information, Chromium-based browser data, and Safari cookies. The post AmnesiaStealer macOS Malware Steals Data, Controls Browser Sessions appeared first on SecurityWeek .
ICE Is Buying Access to Credit Card Records
Through data brokers, ICE is buying the information you provided to open a credit card.
Apple iCloud Private Relay Can Expose Real IPs Through WebKit Proxy Bypasses
Cybersecurity researchers have disclosed a security issue with Apple's iCloud Private Relay tool that can expose a user's real IP address. Introduced with iOS 15, iCloud Private Relay employs a dual-hop architecture to ensure users' privacy by routing their Safari web traffic through two relays so that no single third-party, including Apple, can determine where the request is…
Hijacked Hotel Wi-Fi Pushes Fake Updates to Deliver Surveillance Malware
A fake browser update served over hijacked hotel Wi-Fi has been used to deliver CornFlake, a remote access trojan (RAT) that can capture webcam images, microphone audio, and keystrokes, Microsoft said in its latest report. Researchers track the operation as CaptiveCrunch and attribute it to Storm-2945. It assesses Storm-2945 to be an operational sub-cluster of Midnight…
American Being Prosecuted for Wiping His Phone Before Handing It Over to Border Officials
He’s being prosecuted for giving border officials a code that wiped his phone : The case centers on a feature included in GrapheneOS, a custom Android operating system that runs in place of the software on most modern Google Pixel devices. Tunick’s attorneys confirmed GrapheneOS was running on his phone. The software feature allows the device owner to set a…
Axon Is Another License Plate Surveillance Company
Governments are switching, but I’m not sure it makes a difference : …some municipalities, including Denver, Colorado, are ditching their Flock arrays. But keep in mind that if they’re only switching from Flock to another brand of license-plate readers, like Axon, it’s like a gambling addict trying to kick the habit by switching from FanDuel to…
Friday Squid Blogging: Illex Squid Catch in the Falklands
Lower catch this year . As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered. Blog moderation policy.
MIT to Become Hotbed of AI Video Surveillance
It’s a lot : According to information obtained by The Tech , MIT is spending over $3 million on more than 500 AI surveillance cameras in academic buildings, residence halls, and outdoor areas along Memorial Drive. Installation of the new cameras, along with the wiring and infrastructure that will support them, began November 2025 and will likely continue until September…
On Flock License Plate Tracking Cameras
A recent story of a writer who was mistakenly identified, tracked, and arrested using data from Flock cameras has gone viral. The New Jersey plates that were allegedly stolen from the LA dealer were 34 03 DTM , not 34 10 DTM . But when the police report was created and the plate was entered into Flock’s system, it was just recorded as 34 DTM .
The Future of Age Verification: Your Face Never Leaves Your Device
As age verification laws expand worldwide, organizations face growing pressure to protect users' privacy while meeting regulatory requirements. Incode explains how on-device age estimation verifies age without transmitting or storing facial images, reducing biometric privacy risks while supporting compliance. [...]
Friday Squid Blogging: Squid Washing Up on Cape Cod Beach
Lots of articles about this . As usual, you can also use this squid post to talk about the security stories in the news that I haven’t covered. Blog moderation policy.
Fake Coding Tests Deliver OtterCookie-Aligned Malware Hidden in SVG Flag Images
North Korean threat actors linked to the Contagious Interview campaign have been observed employing steganography in SVG image files to conceal malicious payloads as part of a campaign using fake job postings and coding challenges. "Any user who ran the project ended up with a four-stage payload aligned with OTTERCOOKIE: a browser credential and crypto wallet stealer, a file…
Protecting Privacy in an AI Era
Daniel Solove argues in the Wall Street Journal (alternate link ) that giving people control of their personal data is not an effective way to regulate privacy in this era. Instead, we need to hold companies accountable for their actions, similar to what we do with food and drug companies. Measures such as rigorous data minimization, fiduciary duties, liability for negligent…
A Video Screen That Is Also a Camera
Amazing : Researchers from ETH Zurich in Switzerland, however, managed to create a new type of pixel that can simultaneously do both. This hypercharged pixel, called a Fourier pixel, can generate and sense arbitrary light fields and tap into a pixel’s full potential for carrying information by manipulating light’s intensity, oscillation phases, and polarization.…
Upcoming Speaking Engagements
This is a current list of where and when I am scheduled to speak: I’m speaking (virtually) at the Policy-Relevant Privacy Research Workshop in Calgary, Canada, on Monday, July 20, 2026. I’m speaking at Boston Leadership Exchange in Boston, Massachusetts, USA, on Wednesday, July 22, 2026. I’m speaking at Cognitive Security Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, USA.
AI Surveillance and Social Progress
In the near future, AI -powered surveillance systems will be able to track everything we do in public, and much of what we do in private. And if we do something wrong—shoplift, litter, jaywalk, you name it—the system will notice, retain it, tie it to your official government record, communicate that fact to you, and provide real-time alerts to any relevant…