Matt Burgess / is on Nostr

Security writer, WIRED. Privacy, data, surveillance, cyber. Keen runner.

Last Notes

2024-09-06 12:50:56

NEW: Details of people's therapy sessions—including reports, video and audio recordings—have been exposed by a healthcare company.
These included people mentioning sexual abuse and highly sensitive subjects. The exposed database has now been closed down
https://www.wired.com/story/confidant-health-therapy-records-database-exposure/ #cybersecurity #privacy #news #technology

2024-02-06 17:40:34

NEW: WhatsApp will soon make it possible to chat with people who use other messaging apps. It's revealed some more details on how that will work.
— Apps will need to sign an agreement with Meta, then connect to its servers.
— Meta wants people to use the Signal Protocol, but also says other encryption protocols can be used if they can meet WhatsApp's standards
— WhatsApp has been testing with Matrix in recent months, although nothing is agreed yet. Swiss app Threema says it won't become interoperable
https://www.wired.com/story/whatsapp-interoperability-messaging/ #tech #whatsapp #dma #infosec #news #technology

2023-10-07 07:51:17

Genetic testing firm 23andMe has suffered a data breach.
1 million data points exclusively about Ashkenazi Jews have been advertised for sale on a cybercrime forum. There's also information about hundreds of thousands of users of Chinese descent.
It appears to be a credential stuffing attack—where previously leaked logins and passwords from other sites are tried on 23andMe—with the attackers then scraping data from profiles
@npub1jpj…dkzf's story has all the details we know so far:
https://www.wired.com/story/23andme-credential-stuffing-data-stolen/ #cybersecurity #news #tech #23andme #infosec

2023-10-03 10:05:58

NEW: Food prices in Europe have been soaring. Earlier this year, the Austrian government said it would build a price database to let people compare costs at different supermarkets. It said this would take months to make and only include a small number of product categories.
Within 2 hours, @npub10r2…w6yx had built a first prototype, pulling the data from supermarket's websites, and open sourced the project. Now Heisse Preise lists 177,000 products from 10 chains.
The transparency has allowed prices to be compared: and the results appear to show supermarkets are watching each other and adjusting their prices based on others. The competition authority is investigating and already said new laws should make supermarkets publish proper APIs with full item data
https://www.wired.com/story/heisse-preise-food-prices/
#opensource #data #tech #news

2023-08-31 09:03:39

New: In early 2022, a mysterious leaker published a huge cache of information from inside the Russian cybercrime group Trickbot. For months, me and @npub1jpj…dkzf have worked to uncover the real world identity of one of the gang's central members, putting a face to the anonymous activity.
Bentley, also known as Maksim Galochkin, is one of the top couple of members of Trickbot and is responsible for managing 21 people who make sure its ransomware works properly. He's a cryptocurrency enthusiast, hates working from home, and has a history of launching IT companies in Russia.
We also dive into the inner workings of the group and their links to the Russian state.
https://www.wired.com/story/trickbot-trickleaks-bentley/
#infosec #cybersecurity #cybercrime #tech #news

2023-08-12 11:51:19

For the last three years, hackers have been logging into one honeypot setup by security researchers. When they do, the researchers have recorded their screens, every mouse click, keyboard tap, and also grabbed clipboard data.
This has resulted in more than 100 hours of data on the behaviour of cyber criminals. Here’s what can be learned from it
https://www.wired.com/story/hacker-honeypot-go-secure/ #cybersecurity #cybercrime #windows #infosec #blackhat

2023-08-10 12:32:26

New: In January, the source code of Russian tech giant Yandex was leaked. 45GB of code detailing the inner workings of its search engine, maps, taxi apps, and dozens of other services was made available.
Now a new analysis of the code for Yandex's highly powerful behavioural advertising system reveals how the company uses people's data. The research shines a light on Yandex's creepy data practices, including how much data it gathers and combines behind the scenes.
And as Yandex inches closer to becoming a Russian-owned company, there are mounting concerns how the Kremlin could weaponize this data
https://www.wired.com/story/yandex-leaks-crypta-ads/
#data #privacy #infosec #cybersecurity