Zack Whittaker
Security Editor
The Latest from Zack Whittaker
Amazon quietly publishes its latest transparency report
Just as Amazon was basking in the news of a massive earnings win, the tech giant quietly published — as it always does — its latest transparency report, revealing a slight dip in the number of gov
Ring’s new security ‘control center’ isn’t nearly enough
On the same day that a Mississippi family is suing Amazon -owned smart camera maker Ring for not doing enough to prevent hackers from spying on their kids, the company has rolled out its previously an
Social media boosting service exposed thousands of Instagram passwords
A social media boosting startup, which bills itself as a service to increase a user’s Instagram followers, has exposed thousands of Instagram account passwords. The company, Social Captain, says
Breach at Indian airline SpiceJet affects 1.2 million passengers
SpiceJet, one of India’s largest privately owned airlines, suffered a data breach involving the details of more than a million of its passengers, a security researcher told TechCrunch. The security
Dept. of Interior grounds its drones amid cybersecurity concerns
The U.S. Department of the Interior has confirmed it has grounded its fleet of non-emergency drones amid concerns over cybersecurity. In a brief statement, the department said the move will help to en
A Christian-friendly payments processor spilled 6 million transaction records online
A little-known payments processor, which bills itself as a Christian-friendly company that does “not process credit card transactions for morally objectionable businesses,” left online a d
LabCorp security lapse exposed thousands of medical documents
A security flaw in LabCorp’s website exposed thousands of medical documents, like test results containing sensitive health data. It’s the second incident in the past year after LabCorp sai
An adult sexting site exposed thousands of models’ passports and driver’s licenses
A popular sexting website has exposed thousands of photo IDs belonging to models and sex workers who earn commissions from the site. SextPanther, an Arizona-based adult site, stored more than 11,000 i
Should tech giants slam the encryption door on the government?
Reuters reported yesterday, citing six sources familiar with the matter, that the FBI pressured Apple into dropping a feature that would allow users to encrypt iPhone backups stored in Apple’s c
UN calls for investigation after Saudis linked to Bezos phone hack
United Nations experts are calling for an investigation after a forensic report said Saudi officials “most likely” used a mobile hacking tool, such as one built by the NSO Group, to hack i
Microsoft says it will fix an Internet Explorer security bug under active attack
Microsoft has confirmed a security flaw affecting Internet Explorer is currently being used by hackers, but that it has no immediate plans to fix. In a late-evening tweet, US-CERT, the division of Hom
The US government should stop demanding tech companies compromise on encryption
In a tweet late Tuesday, President Trump criticized Apple for refusing “to unlock phones used by killers, drug dealers and other violent criminal elements.” Trump was specifically referri
Buttigieg’s CISO resigns, leaving no known cybersecurity chiefs among the 2020 candidates
Presidential candidate Pete Buttigieg has lost his campaign’s chief information security officer, citing “differences” with the campaign over its security practices. Mick Baccio, who
Google finally brings its security key feature to iPhones
More than half a year after Google said Android phones could be used as a security key, the feature is coming to iPhones. Google said it’ll bring the feature to iPhones in an effort to give at-r
Cloudflare is giving away its security tools to US political campaigns
Network security giant Cloudflare said it will provide its security tools and services to U.S. political campaigns for free, as part of its efforts to secure upcoming elections against cyberattacks an
Microsoft and NSA say a security bug affects millions of Windows 10 computers
Microsoft has released a security patch for a dangerous vulnerability affecting hundreds of millions of computers running Windows 10. The vulnerability is found in a decades-old Windows cryptographic
Amazon fires employees for leaking customer email addresses and phone numbers
Amazon has fired a number of employees after they shared customer email address and phone numbers with a third-party “in violation of our policies.” The email to customers sent Friday afte
A billion medical images are exposed online, as doctors ignore warnings
This story was reported in partnership with health news site The Mighty. Every day, millions of new medical images containing the personal health information of patients are spilling out onto the inte
Mozilla says a new Firefox security bug is under active attack
Mozilla has warned Firefox users to update their browser to the latest version after security researchers found a vulnerability that hackers were actively exploiting in “targeted attacks”
As ransomware gets craftier, companies must start thinking creatively
Some say ransomware is in decline. Others say it’s getting craftier. File-encrypting malware, known as ransomware, infects vulnerable computers and scrambles its files, inviting victims to retur