Wired Security Spoken Edition

When Young Mie Kim began studying political ads on Facebook in August of 2016—while Hillary Clinton was still leading the polls— few people had ever heard of the Russian propaganda group, Internet Research Agency. Not even Facebook itself understood how the group was manipulating the platform's users to influence the election. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It was the week of Zuck. As Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg slogged through more than 10 hours of testimony in front of two different Congressional committees, privacy and security advocates were listening for anything they could glean about how Facebook manages data, implements privacy protections, and helps users make informed choices—or doesn't. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The internet infrastructure company Cloudflare is adding an Internet of Things security service to its already long list of offerings. And though it that may seem unrelated to the free DDoS mitigation or expanded web browsing protections the company already provides, it's another incremental step that helps reveal a clearer picture of the company's overall approach to security. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The data consulting firm Cambridge Analytica, which harvested as many as 87 million Facebook users' personal data, also could have accessed the private inbox messages of some of those affected. Facebook slipped this previously undisclosed detail into the notifications that began appearing at the top of News Feeds on Monday. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Over the last two days, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg was questioned for more than 10 hours by two different Congressional committees. There was granular focus on privacy definitions and data collection, and quick footwork by Zuckerberg—backed by a phalanx of lawyers, consultants, and coaches—to craft a narrative that users “control” their data. (They don’t. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Google has long struggled with how best to get dozens of Android smartphone manufacturers—and hundreds of carriers—to regularly push out security-focused software updates. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Since it’s not summer 2017 anymore, you probably haven’t watched the music video for Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee’s hit “Despacito” recently. And that may be just as well. The reigning most-viewed YouTube video was vandalized and then taken off the platform for a few hours on Tuesday morning after hackers infiltrated the account that hosted it. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Mark Zuckerberg appeared before Congress Tuesday, and for five hours, senators who appeared to have halting grasp of the company’s intricacies questioned the Facebook CEO on topics ranging from Russia to artificial intelligence. Zuckerberg for the most part gave considered answers to their questions—except when it came to the specifics of how users can control their privacy. That Zuckerberg would dodge uncomfortable questions is a disappointment, though maybe no surprise. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

You know by now that Internet of Things devices like your router are often vulnerable to attack, the industry-wide lack of investment in security leaving the door open to a host of abuses. Worse still, known weaknesses and flaws can hang around for years after their initial discovery. Even decades. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The relationship between platforms and their users has never been more fraught. To see the evidence, look no further than Congress today, where Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify about how his company reportedly mishandled data belonging to up to 87 million people by allowing it to get into the hands of the Trump-affiliated data firm Cambridge Analytica. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Bots have become a great scourge of the internet. Recently, they've flooded government comment systems with fake activism, distorted the national discourse on guns, and launched malicious attacks against the Justice Department. And a new study suggests they're behind the majority of links shared on Twitter, too. A Pew Research report released Monday finds that a whole two-thirds of links to popular sites shared on Twitter come from automated accounts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Next week, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg will testify before Congress about his company's failure to prevent the data firm Cambridge Analytica from siphoning off information belonging to up to 87 million people, the majority of whom are believed to be Americans. In the lead-up to the hearings, the social network has scrambled to respond to increased scrutiny from journalists and the public over its privacy practices. Steps like overhauling its entire privacy settings menu are a clear benefit. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Last week, the Department of Homeland Security confirmed for the first time that it is aware of unauthorized cell-site simulators, the surveillance tools often called stingrays or IMSI Catchers, in various parts of Washington DC. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In the aftermath of the Equifax data breach last year that exposed personal information of more than 145 million people, analysis firm Property Claim Services estimated that cyberinsurance would cover roughly $125 million of Equifax’s losses from the incident. It’s uncertain whether Equifax will actually receive that much money; insurance claims can take a long time to investigate, process, and pay out. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Bitcoin's blockchain provides inalterable evidence, stored on thousands of computers, of every Bitcoin transaction that's ever taken place. Many of the transactions recorded on that distributed ledger are crimes: Billions of dollars in stolen funds, contraband deals, and paid ransoms sitting in plain sight, yet obscured by unidentifiable Bitcoin addresses and, in many cases, tangles of money laundering. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week, Saks Fifth Avenue, Saks Off 5th, and Lord & Taylor department stores—all owned by The Hudson’s Bay Company—acknowledged a data breach impacting more than five million credit and debit card numbers. The culprits? The same group that's spent the last few years pulling off data heists from Omni Hotels & Resorts, Trump Hotels, Jason’s Deli, Whole Foods, Chipotle: A mysterious group known as Fin7. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It's been about six months since cryptojacking exploded, and in that short time the approach has evolved and adapted to initiate illicit cryptocurrency mining in all different ways. Now, Google's taking a stand, announcing Monday that it would begin blocking any Chrome extension submitted to the Web Store that mines cryptocurrency. In July, it will remove existing extensions that currently contain mining functionality. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

After sailing through two friendly Senate hearings—one so uncontroversial that only six senators tops bothered to even show up at any given point in the hour—Lieutenant General Paul Nakasone seems set to for confirmation as the next director of the National Security Agency. That means he'll soon lead not just one agency, but two: the world's most powerful spying operation, the NSA, and the world's most powerful military hacker force, US Cyber Command. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

When Under Armour announced that its nutrition app MyFitnessPal had suffered a data breach impacting the information of roughly 150 million users, things actually didn't seem so bad. Of course, it's never good when personal data ends up online, much less that of so many people, but it seemed like Under Armour had at least taken reasonable precautions. But it turns out Under Armour only sort of got things right. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Most of the traffic on the web is encrypted. And more websites are adopting basic encryption measures every day. That means that, in theory, eavesdroppers have a hard time seeing whom you're writing to on Gmail or what you're looking up on Wikipedia. But there's a catch. Big sites like Google and Facebook can see what links you click from their services, and use tracking cookies to follow you around the web. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices