Security, Spoken

Have you heard about this little thing called Space Force? If so, it's probably through ridicule; the latest branch of the US military has received no shortage of it since it launched at the end of last year. Still, at least it had a better week than Intel, which had to release a patch for a patch for its patch of its ZombieLoad problem. Say that five times fast. This week we also took a look at the most common Mac malware, at least by antivirus firm Kaspersky's reckoning.

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This year’s crop of Super Bowl ads includes plenty of the usual suspects: expensive cars, cheap beers, big tech. But among the companies coughing up a reported $5.6 million for 30 seconds of Big Game glory is one name most people have never heard of, selling a product that many don’t know exists: Dashlane, an app that manages your passwords. It’s not that password management is entirely novel.

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Elizabeth Warren has a plan for dealing with disinformation. Sort of. Yesterday, the Democratic senator and presidential candidate known for her detailed policy objectives released a proposal titled “Fighting Digital Disinformation.” The part about what she intends to do as president, however, is a bit thin by her standards. The bulk of the plan is devoted instead to what Warren wants social media platforms to do.

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The internet was designed to make information free and easy for anyone to access. But as the amount of personal information online has grown, so too have the risks. Last weekend, a nightmare scenario for many privacy advocates arrived. The New York Times revealed Clearview AI, a secretive surveillance company, was selling a facial recognition tool to law enforcement powered by “three billion images” culled from the open web.

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Law enforcement in the United States, international spies, and criminals have all used (and abused) the surveillance tools known as "stingrays" for more than a decade. The devices can track people's locations and even eavesdrop on their calls, all thanks to weaknesses in the cellular network. Today, researchers are detailing a way to stop them—if only telecoms would listen.

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The popular misconception that Macs don’t get viruses has become a lot less popular in recent years, as Apple devices have weathered their fair share of bugs. But it’s still surprising that the most prolific malware on macOS—by one count, affecting one in 10 devices—is so relatively crude. This week, antivirus company Kaspersky detailed the 10 most common threats its macOS users encountered in 2019.

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In a criminal complaint released Monday, the Brazilian government is charging journalist Glenn Greenwald with committing cybercrimes. The accusations are connected to leaked text messages that Greenwald reported on last year for The Intercept Brasil, which the outspoken journalist launched in 2016 as a spinoff of the US-based news site he had founded two years prior.

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On a small, blue-lit stage in a dim side room of the Fillmore Theater in Miami on Tuesday, three men sat behind laptops in front of a small crowd. Two of them nervously reviewed the commands on a screen in front of them.

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On November 8, 2018, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos received an unexpected text message from Saudi Arabian leader Mohammed bin Salman. The two had exchanged numbers a few months prior, in April, at a small dinner in Los Angeles, but weren’t in regular contact; Bezos had previously received only a video file from the crown prince in May that reportedly extolled Saudi Arabia’s economy.

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Chrome is protecting and Sonos is disconnecting, but first: a cartoon about the new big screen. Here's the news you need to know, in two minutes or less. Want to receive this two-minute roundup as an email every weekday? Sign up here! Today’s News Don't ignore Chrome's new password checkup feature If you've logged in to any accounts on Google Chrome recently, you've probably noticed a new pop-up nagging you about your password security.

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