Security

Spec Ops

Meta Tapped a Pentagon Supplier to Prototype Face Recognition for Its Glasses

Rank One, whose board includes a former CIA deputy director and a former FBI science chief, supplied face recognition to Meta for internal development of its smart glasses app.

Dell Cameron and Dhruv Mehrotra

Security Roundup

The FCC Wants to Kill Burner Phones

Andy Greenberg and Lily Hay Newman

No Permission

Grok Is Still Hosting Sexualized Deepfakes of Famous Women

Matt Burgess

Cyberattacks and Hacks

CISA Tells US Agencies to Fix Security Bugs in as Little as 3 Days Thanks to AI Threats

“Defenders cannot afford to take weeks to patch,” one Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency official warned on Wednesday.

Lily Hay Newman

Anthropic Offers Mythos Upgrade for Cyber Partners and a ‘Safe’ Version for the Rest of You

Anthropic is releasing Claude Mythos 5 to trusted organizations and Claude Fable 5 to the public, a version it says can’t be used for cyberattacks.

Maxwell Zeff and Lily Hay Newman

Crypto-Funded Chinese Peptide Labs Are Booming

Plus: Hackers use Meta’s AI bots to hack Instagram accounts, Anthropic helps NSA hackers, a decades-long GPS satellite mystery may have been solved, and more.

Andy Greenberg, Dell Cameron, Dhruv Mehrotra, and Maddy Varner

Android Is Fighting Phone Scams With a New Feature to Prove Who’s Calling

Available for Android 12 and later, the anti-scam feature is baked into Google Dialer, which sends a silent “confirmation signal” to ensure whoever’s calling you is who they appear to be.

Lily Hay Newman

Privacy

Signal Alums Reveal ‘Encrypted Spaces,’ a System for Making Private Collaboration Apps

The new open-source project could serve as the basis for a future of apps with features as complex as Slack, Discord, or Google Docs—but with added protection against surveillance.

Andy Greenberg

Wrongful Arrest Exposes Failures in One of the Oldest Police Face-Recognition Tools in the US

The ACLU is suing two Florida police departments over the arrest of a Fort Myers man in a child-abduction case, saying officers treated a flawed face-recognition match as a near-certain ID.

Dell Cameron

Mapping Every Flock License Plate Reader Near US World Cup Stadiums

Most US World Cup stadiums are surrounded by surveillance cameras. Want to know if you’re being watched on your way to a match? These maps will help you.

Maddy Varner

Soccer Fans, You’re Being Watched

From anti-drone tech to face recognition, 2026 World Cup stadiums in the US, Canada, and Mexico are subjecting fans to an array of surveillance tech. Here’s what you need to know.

Vas Panagiotopoulos

Security Advice

You Can Disable Gemini in Chrome if It’s Freaking You Out

Chrome users were caught off guard by a 4-GB Google AI model baked into Chrome, sparking privacy concerns. The good news: You can easily uninstall it. The bad? You might not want to.

Lily Hay Newman

How the Internet Broke Everyone’s Bullshit Detectors

From AI-generated images to restricted satellite data, the systems used to verify what’s real online are struggling to keep up.

Gia Chaudry

How to Organize Safely in the Age of Surveillance

From threat modeling to encrypted collaboration apps, we’ve collected experts’ tips and tools for safely and effectively building a group—even while being targeted and tracked by the powerful.

Andy Greenberg and Lily Hay Newman

How to Protest Safely in the Age of Surveillance

Law enforcement has more tools than ever to track your movements and access your communications. Here’s how to protect your privacy if you plan to protest.

Andy Greenberg and Lily Hay Newman

Security News

Drug Sites Hijacked Spotify’s Search Ranking Through Fake Podcasts

A joint congressional report describes a spam operation that turned tens of thousands of fake podcasts into search-engine bait for illegal pharmacy and scam sites.

Dell Cameron

Trump Risks Key Surveillance Authority Over ‘Unqualified’ Spy-Chief Pick

US lawmakers are alarmed that Bill Pulte, a housing official with no intelligence experience, is poised to take charge of one of the government's most powerful surveillance tools.

Dell Cameron

Meta Deletes Face-Recognition System From Its Smart Glasses App After WIRED Report

The code WIRED identified is gone from the latest version of Meta AI, the companion app for the company’s smart glasses. Meta won’t say why or whether it’s coming back.

Dhruv Mehrotra and Dell Cameron

All the Ways Europe Is Ditching American Technology

A WIRED timeline shows how dozens of governments, companies, and other organizations across Europe are moving, or planning to shift, away from US Big Tech.

Matt Burgess