hacking

Spyware maker Paragon confirms U.S. government is a customer

Security /

Israeli spyware maker Paragon Solutions confirmed to TechCrunch that it sells its products to the U.S. government and other unspecified allied countries. Paragon’s executive chairman John Fleming said in a statement to TechCrunch on Tuesday that, “Paragon licenses its technology to a select group of global democracies — principally, the United States and its allies.” […]

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Journalist targeted on WhatsApp by Paragon spyware: ‘I feel violated’

Security /

On Friday, at 2:48 p.m., Francesco Cancellato received an ominous notification on his cell phone while he was at home near Milan.   “This is a message from WhatsApp,” read the message in Italian, which was obtained by TechCrunch. “In December, WhatsApp interrupted the activities of a spyware company which we believe attacked your device. Our

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What PowerSchool won’t say about its data breach affecting millions of students

Security /

It’s only February, but the recent hack of U.S. edtech giant PowerSchool has the potential to be one of the biggest breaches of the year.  PowerSchool, which provides K-12 software to more than 18,000 schools to support some 60 million students across North America, confirmed the breach in early January. The California-based company, which Bain

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WhatsApp says it disrupted a hacking campaign targeting journalists with Paragon spyware

Security /

WhatsApp said on Friday that it had disrupted a hacking campaign that targeted around 90 users, including journalists and members of civil society.  A WhatsApp spokesperson told TechCrunch that the campaign was linked to Paragon, an Israeli spyware maker that was acquired in December of last year by American private equity giant AE Industrial Partners.

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TalkTalk investigating data breach after hacker claims theft of customer data

Security /

U.K. telecoms giant TalkTalk has confirmed that it is investigating a data breach after a hacker claimed to have stolen the personal information of millions of customers. In a post on a popular cybercrime forum seen by TechCrunch, an individual using the alias “b0nd” claimed to have stolen the personal data of more than 18.8

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Hidden Waymo feature let researcher customize robotaxi’s display

Security /

A security researcher found a hidden unreleased feature in the Waymo app that allowed her to display whatever characters she wanted on the robotaxi’s top display.  Jane Manchun Wong, a well-known security researcher, posted an image on X on Saturday showing the top display of a Waymo car — officially called “dome” — that included

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What PowerSchool isn’t saying about its ‘massive’ student data breach

Security /

It’s only January, but the recent hack of U.S. edtech giant PowerSchool has the potential to be one of the biggest breaches of the year.  PowerSchool, which provides K-12 software to more than 18,000 schools to support some 60 million students in the United States, confirmed the breach in early January. The California-based company, which

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HPE investigating security breach after hacker claims theft of sensitive data

Enterprise /

Hewlett-Packard Enterprise is investigating a data breach after a well-known hacker claimed to have stolen sensitive information from the company. The hacker, who uses the alias “IntelBroker,” claims to have stolen a trove of data from HPE, the enterprise IT division of hardware giant HP.  In a post on a popular cybercrime forum on January

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How victims of PowerSchool’s data breach helped each other investigate ‘massive’ hack

Security /

On January 7, at 11:10 p.m. in Dubai, Romy Backus received an email from education technology giant PowerSchool notifying her that the school she works at was one of the victims of a data breach that the company discovered on December 28. PowerSchool said hackers had accessed a cloud system that housed a trove of

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