Wired Security Spoken Edition

Three weeks ago, House Republicans publicly released a much-hyped memo written by representative Devin Nunes of California. It alleged, through a series of allusions, tangential facts, and seeming misdirections, that law enforcement officials had abused their power in obtaining a surveillance warrant against former Trump campaign advisor Carter Page. Now, in a 10-page memo of their own, House Democrats are attempting to set the record straight. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

When an Oregon science fiction writer named Charity tried to log onto Facebook on February 11, she found herself completely locked out of her account. A message appeared saying she needed to download Facebook’s malware scanner if she wanted to get back in. Charity couldn’t use Facebook until she completed the scan, but the file the company provided was for a Windows device—Charity uses a Mac. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Today’s guilty plea by Rick Gates might be one of the least surprising developments in the Mueller investigation: It had been clear that the former Trump campaign aide would likely seek a deal almost since the day Gates and his business partner and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort were indicted in October, and we’ve seen reports for weeks that negotiations between Mueller and Gates have been underway. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Robert Mueller's indictment of Russia's Internet Research Agency—also known as the "troll factory"—feels like years ago at this point. It's only been a week! And we took a deep dive into what it really says about Russia's propaganda efforts during the 2016 presidential campaign and beyond. Trump campaign advisor Rick Gates has also copped a plea deal with Mueller's team—which could have big implications for the investigation going forward. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

v. Swiping computer processing power through a web browser to illicitly mint cryptocurrency. People who streamed the TV drama Billions last fall may have been hit by some real-life financial chica­nery. While they watched, a rogue script on the Showtime website directed their PCs to engage in “mining” operations for a bitcoin-like digital currency. Doing currency mining on your own machine is perfectly legit. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It's almost Tax Day, which also means it's peak tax fraud season. The Internal Revenue Service has played some epic games of cat-and-mouse with phone and online scammers over the past 10 years, but the latest scamming trend for 2018 has a particularly devious twist. Here's how it works: Attackers use a taxpayer's stolen identity information to fraudulently file their returns for a refund. They allow that refund to direct deposit into the victim's actual bank account. Then the real fun starts. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Passports, like any physical ID, can be altered and forged. That's partly why for the last 11 years the United States has put RFID chips in the back panel of its passports, creating so-called e-Passports. The chip stores your passport information—like name, date of birth, passport number, your photo, and even a biometric identifier—for quick, machine-readable border checks. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It was the day of the biker rally, the Sunday of Memorial Day weekend 2016, when thousands of motorcyclists descend in a cacophonous blitz on Washington, DC, for the annual Rolling Thunder rally. Soon-to-be Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, wearing a blazer sans tie but with a red MAGA hat firmly ensconced on his head, worked the crowd around the Lincoln Memorial. “Look at all these bikers,” he said. “Do we love the bikers? Yes. We love the bikers. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In the four or so years since it launched, end-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal has become the security community's gold standard for surveillance-resistant communications. Its creators have built an encryption protocol that companies from WhatsApp to Facebook Messenger to Skype have all added to their own products to offer truly private conversations to billions of people. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

It's been nearly eight months since the malware known as NotPetya tore through the internet, rippling out from Ukraine to paralyze companies and government agencies around the world. On Thursday, the White House finally acknowledged that attack. And in a reversal of its often seemingly willful blindness to the threat of Russian hacking, it has called out the Kremlin as NotPetya's creator. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Special counsel Robert Mueller’s indictment against Russia’s Internet Research Agency contains a number of striking moments, from the inflammatory ads bought by the so-called “troll factory” to the rampant identity theft against US citizens. But what stands out most may be the reminder that for Russia, subverting the foundations of US democracy was just another 9 to 5. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

North Korea's most prolific hacking group, broadly known within the security community under the name Lazarus, has over the last half-decade proven itself one of the world's most internationally aggressive teams of intruders. It has pulled off audacious attacks around the globe, from leaking and destroying Sony Pictures' data to siphoning of tens of millions of dollars from banks in Poland and Bangladesh. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Each new breaking news situation is an opportunity for trolls to grab attention, provoke emotions, and spread propaganda. The Russian government knows this. Fake-news manufacturing teenagers in Macedonia know this. Twitter bot creators know this. And thanks to data-gathering operations from groups like the Alliance for Securing Democracy and RoBhat Labs, the world knows this. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

For some time, there has been a conflation of issues—the hacking and leaking of illegally obtained information versus propaganda and disinformation; cyber-security issues and the hacking of elections systems versus information operations and information warfare; paid advertising versus coercive messaging or psychological operations—when discussing “Russian meddling” in the 2016 US elections. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Facebook has always nudged truant users back to its platform though emails and notifications. But recently, those prods have evolved beyond comments related to activity on your own profile. Now Facebook will nag you when an acquaintance comments on someone else’s photo, or when a distant family member updates their status. The spamming has even extended to those who sign up for two-factor authentication—which is a great way to turn people off to that extra layer of security. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

For anyone getting their geopolitical news from the Olympics alone, North Korea might seem practically charismatic. Its combined hockey team with South Korea has become a global symbol of dictator Kim Jong Un's call for improved relations with the South. Kim's sister has led a Pyeongchang charm offensive. And its Stepford cheerleaders—well, some people seem to not be entirely creeped out by them. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

This week, reports have percolated that Facebook is testing a new menu item, called "Protect," in its iOS app. The feature sports a blue shield icon, and tapping it redirects you to the App Store listing for Facebook-owned VPN app Onavo Protect. But while Onavo does claim to offer some tools that make the web safer, in practice it falls far short of the privacy protections that VPN users reasonably expect. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Facial recognition and machine learning programs have officially been democratized, and of course the internet is using the tech to make porn. As first reported by Motherboard, people are now creating AI-assisted face-swap porn, often featuring a celebrity's face mapped onto a porn star's body, like Gal Gadot's likeness in a clip where she's supposedly sleeping with her stepbrother. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The rise of cryptojacking—which co-opts your PC or mobile device to illicitly mine cryptocurrency when you visit an infected site—has fueled mining's increasing appeal. But as attackers have expanded their tools to slyly outsource the number of devices, processing power, and electricity powering their mining operations, they've moved beyond the browser in potentially dangerous ways. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

On Tuesday, the heads of the NSA, CIA, FBI, and ODNI—America's intelligence community brain trust—gathered before members of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence to discuss various worldwide threats. And while most of the topics were familiar, the hearing also included a few revelatory moments, insights into fears that were either detailed or confirmed. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices