Security, Spoken

After a hacked US election covered in Russian fingerprints, it's easy to assume that Friday's megaleak of emails from France's president-elect Emmanuel Macron was the Kremlin's work, too. Russia, after all, has the motive, the means, and a very fresh track record of meddling in Western elections to sabotage center-left candidates. But this latest breach, for now, lacks conclusive fingerprints-and what few clues there are have only added to the confusion.

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Congratulations! You've gotten through the week of the Google Docs phishing ploy that rocked the world, or at least a vocal corner of the media. Speaking of speaking out, FBI Director James Comey this week gave his most thorough explanation yet of the election-rocking Clinton investigation letter he gave last fall, though it's unlikely to satisfy critics. Oh, and apps can use your phone's mic to listen for marketing beacons your ears can't hear.

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A year after it was first announced, the United States-provided missile defense system meant to guard South Korea is fully operational. The device has sparked controversy and pushback from China, but it’s a powerful symbolic step that should provide some legitimate protection from an increasingly volatile North Korea. It also has some important limitations.

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FBI Director James Comey would like you to travel back in time with him for a minute. It's Friday morning, October 28. The day prior, members of his staff told Comey that they had found thousands of Hillary Clinton's private emails stored on Anthony Weiner's laptop, and needed a warrant to read them, thereby reopening the investigation into the Democratic presidential candidate's use of a private email server while she was Secretary of State.

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Today, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said his company will hire 3,000 people to watch for violent footage posted to the site. The decision comes after two horrific videos caught global attention in recent weeks: a man uploaded a video of himself murdering a grandfather in Cleveland, and a man in Thailand hanged his infant and then himself in a Facebook Live video the authorities saw too late.

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If you get a Google Doc link in your inbox today, scrutinize it carefully before you click—even if it looks like it comes from someone you trust. A nasty phishing scam that impersonates a Google Docs request has swept the internet today, including a decent chunk of media companies. You’ve heard “think before you click” a million times, but it really could save you from a whole lot of hassle. Google has taken steps to neutralize this particular phish.

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Last year, Capt. Sean Ruddy and his team of operator-soldiers from the US Cyber Brigade entered a Locked Shields, a NATO-organized cyber-defense war game that pits teams from dozens of countries against “live-fire” attacks. It was their first time. And of the 19 countries represented, the US finished dead last. This week, they got their shot at redemption. Locked Shields challenges participating countries to show off their defensive prowess, rather than offensive firepower.

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It must have seemed like such a good bet, as far as extortion attempts go. Steal one of Netflix’s prized original series months before it’s slated to air, and shake the streaming company down under threat of releasing it. But as season five of Orange Is the New Black‘s recent appearance on torrenting site The Pirate Bay shows, it was a crime destined destined for failure, because it misunderstood how streaming—and the internet at large—works today.

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It was a week full of revelations in the security world. A New York Times Uber story revealed that the company got in trouble with Apple over "fingerprinting" iPhones even after users deleted the app. It's a common enough practice, but Uber took it a few steps too far. And speaking of common practices, here's how to check which services have access to your Gmail and Facebook accounts-you might be surprised at how many do.

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The new Amazon Echo Look seems like a logical enough extension of Alexa, the company’s AI-powered digital assistant. Previously, Alexa lived inside speakers. Now, it’s in a camera. That progression belies just how much more the Echo Look could know about you than other Alexa hardware does—especially if Amazon ever unleashes the full power of its machine learnings smarts. Amazon envisions the Echo Look as a way to get fashion advice.

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