WASHINGTON — A crude effort by hackers to test the defenses of computer systems for the Department of Health and Human Services on Sunday evening escalated Monday, with administration officials saying they were investigating a significant increase in activity on the department’s cyberinfrastructure. But officials backed off earlier suggestions that a foreign power was behind […]
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WASHINGTON — Microsoft organized 35 nations on Tuesday to take down one of the world’s largest botnets — malware that secretly seizes control of millions of computers around the globe. It was an unusual disruption of an internet criminal group, because it was carried out by a company, not a government. The action, eight years […]
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Brad Bigford, a traveling nurse practitioner from Boise, Idaho, jumped at the invitation: spend an afternoon at Fred’s Reel Barber Shop in nearby Meridian, offering the flu vaccine to customers. “Ladies, send your guys for a trim and a flu shot,” Mr. Bigford posted on Facebook. He added, “Anti-vaxxers need not reply.” Within hours, his […]
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An office of the Central Intelligence Agency outside Washington turned into a crime scene on March 7, 2017. WikiLeaks had just published a trove of confidential C.I.A. documents that revealed secret methods the spy agency used to penetrate the computer networks of foreign governments and terrorists. Investigators scrambled to find the culprit, seizing more than […]
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LONDON — The United States government began laying out its extradition case against Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, in court on Monday by arguing that he had put lives at risk and was no better than an “ordinary” criminal. “Reporting or journalism is not an excuse for criminal activities or a license to break ordinary […]
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Listen and subscribe to our podcast from your mobile device: Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Google Play | RadioPublic | Stitcher Massive ad spending is boosting Michael Bloomberg’s 2020 presidential candidacy — and attracting negative attention from his rivals for the Democratic nomination. With Ross Douthat off this week, special guest Charlie Warzel, a Times […]
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MGM Resorts International, the casino and hotel giant, acknowledged on Wednesday that it was the victim of a data breach last year, the latest company to have the personal information of its customers exposed. MGM did not disclose the number of customers affected, but Under the Breach, a firm that monitors cybercrimes and provides intelligence […]
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Has there ever been a tech product more polarizing than Ring? The internet-connected doorbell gadget, which lets you watch live video of your front porch through a phone app or website, has gained a reputation as the webcam that spies on you and that has failed to protect your data. Yet people keep buying it […]
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JERUSALEM — Hamas and Israel still exchange fire with sporadic rocket attacks and airstrikes in their long-running military standoff along the Gaza border, but the two sides are also engaged in something of an arms race on social media. The Israeli military said Sunday that it had foiled a “catfishing” attempt to gain access to […]
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SHANGHAI — China’s military on Thursday denied accusations that it hacked Equifax, one of the largest credit reporting companies in the United States. In a harshly worded release, Wu Qian, a spokesman for China’s Ministry of National Defense, said the American charges against four of its members were “without a basis in fact.” “This behavior […]
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On Monday, the Justice Department announced that it was charging four members of China’s People’s Liberation Army with the 2017 Equifax breach that resulted in the theft of personal data of about 145 million Americans. The attack, according to the charges, was part of a coordinated effort by Chinese intelligence to steal trade secrets and […]
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WASHINGTON — The Justice Department announced charges on Monday against four members of China’s military on suspicion of hacking into Equifax, the credit reporting agency, in 2017 and stealing trade secrets and the personal data of about 145 million Americans. “This was a deliberate and sweeping intrusion into the private information of the American people,” […]
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SAN FRANCISCO — New Orleans’s city government crippled. A maritime cargo facility temporarily closed. Hospitals forced to turn away patients. Small businesses shuttered. The cause in each of these incidents: ransomware attacks. In recent years, hackers have taken to locking down entire computer networks and demanding payments to let users back into their systems. The […]
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The mobile phone belonging to Jeff Bezos, the founder and chief executive of Amazon, was allegedly hacked when he clicked a video sent through WhatsApp, essentially turning over control of his phone and all of its contents to the hackers. Compromising the security of the world’s wealthiest man is no mean feat. But hackers are […]
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Times Insider explains who we are and what we do, and delivers behind-the-scenes insights into how our journalism comes together. BEIRUT, Lebanon — On June 21, 2018, I received an Arabic text message on my cellphone that read: “Ben Hubbard and the story of the Saudi royal family,” with a link for a website, arabnews365.com. […]
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SAN FRANCISCO — The last few months have not been good for Bitcoin. The value of the digital tokens has steadily dropped. Bitcoin trading on cryptocurrency exchanges has slowed. And using Bitcoin to buy legal items? That has also dropped. But one corner of the Bitcoin economy is still going strong: the sale of illegal […]
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Almost a year ago, Jeff Bezos hinted that Saudi Arabia had played a role in The National Enquirer’s 11-page exposé of his affair with the Los Angeles television personality Lauren Sanchez. In making the case in a post on the website Medium, Mr. Bezos noted that his newspaper, The Washington Post, had published the Saudi […]
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Roughly two years ago, nearly half the American population had their personal information compromised by hackers in Equifax’s enormous database. Consumers were outraged, lawmakers upbraided the chief executive and Equifax ultimately reached a settlement with regulators for up to $700 million. Despite the anger, the vast majority of the 147 million consumers eligible for the […]
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SAN FRANCISCO — On the afternoon of May 1, 2018, Jeff Bezos received a message on WhatsApp from an account belonging to Saudi Arabia’s crown prince, Mohammed bin Salman. The two men had previously communicated using the messaging platform, but Mr. Bezos, Amazon’s chief executive, had not expected a message that day — let alone […]
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A WhatsApp account belonging to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman appears to have been used to hack into the cellphone of Jeff Bezos in an effort to “influence, if not silence” reporting on the kingdom by The Washington Post, two United Nations human rights experts said on Wednesday. Mr. Bezos, the billionaire chief […]
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A WhatsApp account belonging to Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman appears to have been used to hack into the cellphone of Jeff Bezos in an effort to “influence, if not silence” reporting on the kingdom by The Washington Post, two United Nations human rights experts said on Wednesday. Mr. Bezos, the billionaire owner […]
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