Taylor Hatmaker
Taylor is a writer at TechCrunch. Taylor has reported on the tech industry for eight long, weird years. Most recently, she was the tech editor of the Daily Dot.
At TechCrunch, Taylor mostly writes about policy. Her editorial interests include privacy, censorship, digital activism, futurist consumer tech, science, and LGBTQ issues. You can contact her about those things but not boring things at taylor.hatmaker@techcrunch.com.
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Latest from Taylor Hatmaker
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DOJ backs down from request for IP addresses that visited Trump protest website
The Department of Justice has dropped its request for the IP addresses of visitors to an anti-Trump inauguration protest website. The news is a win for DreamHost, which went public with the situation last week, riling privacy advocates who decried the DOJ request for IP addresses that had visited disruptj20.org as dangerously broad. Read More
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Users dump AccuWeather iPhone app after learning it sends location data to a third party
AccuWeather’s iOS app may be up to something fishy. Security researcher Will Strafach published a warning about the popular weather app’s behavior on Medium and users appear to be paying attention. I would find this less concerning if the AccuWeather's permission dialog mentioned tracking your home/work location, where you travel, etc. — Will Strafach (@chronic) August… Read More
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Industrial hack can turn powerful machines into killer robots
When we imagine the existential threat to humanity posed by automation, we usually think of the negative impact on the workforce, not robots literally bludgeoning us to death. In a post titled “Exploiting Industrial Collaborative Robots,” security researchers at IOActive detail how popular models of consumer and industrial robots have already been compromised in such a way that… Read More
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Google and ProPublica team up to build a national hate crime database
Few things are certain in 2017’s fraught national climate, but hate certainly doesn’t look to be going away. In partnership with ProPublica, Google News Lab is launching a new tool to track hate crimes across America. Powered by machine learning, the Documenting Hate News Index will track reported hate crimes across all 50 states, collecting data from February 2017 onward. Data… Read More
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Tech is not winning the battle against white supremacy
Content warning: This post contains racial slurs, homophobic language and very graphic depictions of racism and violence. Read More
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Security researcher Marcus Hutchins pleads not guilty, returns to Twitter
After being nabbed by the FBI while leaving DefCon, the security researcher who singlehandedly neutralized the WannaCry malware attack earlier this year is back online. Marcus Hutchins appeared for his arraignment at a federal court in Wisconsin on Monday where he entered a not guilty plea and successfully argued that he should be allowed internet access. Read More
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Google drops domain hosting for infamous neo-Nazi site the Daily Stormer
After GoDaddy told the Daily Stormer to get lost, the neo-Nazi news site chose Google as a new home for its controversial domain. Now, Google too has given the site the boot. Read More
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Facebook password stealing software comes packed with a trojan that steals your passwords
Facebook malware is nothing new, but an emerging threat offers some unique karmic retribution. In an unpublished report, security researchers at Sydney-based LMNTRIX Labs have identified software advertising itself as a Facebook password stealer that injects malicious code in the background once downloaded, making the user vulnerable to having their own credentials stolen. Read More
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See how your country’s internet speeds stack up in this new monthly global ranking
Long the gold standard for bragging rights about your blazing broadband speeds, Speedtest.net has plenty of data to work with. Now, it wants to open up a new segment of that data to everyone, allowing users to compare aggregate speed reports from countries around the globe. The data will be compiled into a monthly report called the Speedtest Global Index, available now. Read More
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More pseudo-ransomware attacks are probably on the way
The last few months saw some major malware moments, most notably the WannaCry and NotPetya (a.k.a. ExPetr/Nyetya/Petya) attacks. Kaspersky Labs’ quarterly report suggests that the trend is likely here to stay for now, as waves of increasingly sophisticated hacks further the veiled aims of shadowy individual actors and governments alike. Read More
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WannaCry hero heads into Tuesday hearing as the security community crowdfunds his defense
Over the weekend, the security community raised legal funds for Marcus Hutchins, the researcher famed for stopping the spread of the malware known as WannaCry. Hutchins, also known as MalwareTech, was arrested by the FBI last week for his alleged role in disseminating Kronos, a banking trojan that first wrought havoc in 2014. Read More
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FBI arrests WannaCry hero for alleged role in Kronos banking malware
A malware researcher hailed as a hero earlier this year has been arrested by the FBI for his alleged role in distributing the banking malware known as Kronos. Marcus Hutchins, also known as @malwaretechblog, was detained and then arrested by the bureau at the airport as he was leaving the Def Con hacking conference in Las Vegas. Read More
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New border wall bill draws on Palmer Luckey’s new defense company
After being ousted from the VR empire he built, Oculus founder Palmer Luckey is wasting no time on his next project: building the wall. As CNN reports, Luckey’s newfound interest in defense is evident in the Secure Miles with All Resources and Technology (SMART) Act, proposed by Texas Representative Will Hurd. Read More
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HBO got hacked and some Game of Thrones materials are bubbling up online
HBO confirms it was the target of a hack, though the company doesn’t appear to be quite sure what the damage is yet. So far, episodes of the HBO series Room 104 and Ballers have trickled out online. Though new episodes of its bloody centerpiece Game of Thrones have yet to surface, the leak reportedly contains writing suspected to be either a treatment or a script of an upcoming GoT episode. Read More
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Kaspersky Lab releases free antivirus software in global push
Kaspersky Lab has launched a free version of its antivirus software in the U.S. with plans for a global rollout over the next four months. Called Kaspersky Free, the software provides the core essentials, including email and desktop antivirus protection, the ability to quarantine infected files, as well as automated updates. The free version lacks some of the premium features users can… Read More
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Tech leaders respond to Trump’s ban of transgender people in the military
With Obamacare reform back from the dead and wending its way toward a substantive vote, the Trump administration has decided that two massive national policy controversies are better than one. In a set of tweets this morning, President Trump announced that he is banning transgender individuals from serving in any capacity in the U.S. military. The decision, if implemented, would reverse an… Read More
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Microsoft is quietly fighting a clever war against Russian hacking group Fancy Bear
While the White House mulls striking up a joint cyber program with Russia, an unlikely vigilante is taking care of business. As the Daily Beast reports, Microsoft has been waging a quiet war against the hacking entity known as Fancy Bear, which is believed to be associated with the GRU, Russia’s covert military intelligence agency. Read More
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YouTube launches its counter-terrorism experiment for would-be ISIS recruits
Google’s experiment in digital counter-terrorism begins rolling out today. Collaborating with its own in-house think tank, Jigsaw, the new effort seeks to bury ISIS-related propaganda on YouTube. When a potential ISIS recruit searches for known extremist content using a predefined set of keywords, they’ll instead be redirected to videos that deconstruct and confront the… Read More
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A huge new survey shows that teens are bullied most on Instagram and Facebook
According to British anti-bullying organization Ditch The Label’s new annual survey, Instagram is the network of choice for cyberbullies in 2017, with Facebook close behind. This year’s survey collected results from 10,020 people between the ages of 12 and 20, making for a respectably robust data set that sheds some light onto the damaging phenomenon endemic to internet… Read More
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Under Tillerson, the State Department may put cyber diplomacy on the chopping block
According to new reports by Politico and Bloomberg, Secretary of State Rex Tillerson plans to merge or eliminate its cybersecurity office, long tasked with representing U.S. cyber interests abroad. The Office of the Coordination for Cyber Issues, created in 2011 by former President Obama, was established as a State Department liaison on a “full spectrum of cyber-related issues.” Read More
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