cybersecurity

Home for the holidays? Share this top cybersecurity advice with friends and family

For the millions of people at home with friends and family for the festive season, it’s also the time of year where many get roped into fixing the house’s spotty Wi-Fi or face a barrage of questions about tech.  Instead this holiday season, give the gift of good security advice. This is the ideal time

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These are the cybersecurity stories we were jealous of in 2024

Since 2018, along with colleagues first at VICE Motherboard, and now at TechCrunch, I have been publishing a list at the end of the year highlighting the best cybersecurity stories reported by other outlets. Cybersecurity, surveillance, and privacy are huge topics that no one single publication can cover effectively on its own. Journalism is by

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WhatsApp scores historic victory against NSO Group in long-running spyware hacking case

A U.S. judge had ruled that Israeli spyware maker NSO Group breached hacking laws by using WhatsApp to stealthily infect devices with its Pegasus spyware. In a historic ruling on Friday, a Northern California federal judge held NSO Group liable for targeting the devices of 1,400 WhatsApp users, violating state and federal hacking laws as

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Ransomware attack on health giant Ascension hits 5.6 million patients

A May ransomware attack on Ascension, a U.S. healthcare giant with more than 140 hospitals and dozens of senior living facilities, allowed hackers to steal personal and sensitive health information on 5.6 million patients, according to a new filing with Maine’s attorney general. The cyberattack caused widespread disruption across its hospital system, with some staff

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Why Apple sends spyware victims to this nonprofit security lab

Before the elections, the cybersecurity team of U.S. vice president and then-presidential candidate Kamala Harris reached out to Apple asking for help, according to Forbes, after a tool that’s designed to detect spyware on iPhones flagged anomalies on two devices belonging to campaign staffers. Apple declined to forensically analyze the phones, per Forbes.  The company’s

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US government urges high-ranking officials to lock down mobile devices following telecom breaches

The U.S. government is urging senior politicians and high-ranking officials to lock down their devices amid the ongoing Chinese breaches of at least eight major telecom providers. In an advisory on Wednesday, U.S. cybersecurity agency CISA said that “highly-targeted officials,” including those in government, should enable advanced security features, such as Apple’s Lockdown Mode, which

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Tracker firm Hapn spilling names of thousands of GPS tracking customers

GPS tracking firm Hapn is exposing the names of thousands of its customers due to a website bug, TechCrunch has learned. A security researcher alerted TechCrunch in late November to customer names and affiliations — such as the name of their workplace — spilling from one of Hapn’s servers, which TechCrunch has seen.  Hapn, formerly

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How the ransomware attack at Change Healthcare went down: A timeline

A ransomware attack earlier this year on UnitedHealth-owned health tech company Change Healthcare likely stands as one of the largest data breaches of U.S. health and medical data in history. Months after the February data breach, a “substantial proportion of people living in America” are receiving notice by mail that their personal and health information

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