The IT Privacy and Security Weekly Update.

North Korean IT Worker Fraud Scheme:

The U.S. Department of Justice uncovered a covert North Korean operation involving IT workers fraudulently securing remote jobs at over 100 American tech companies…

This week we've got loads of news and loadsa money!
North Korean IT workers secretly landed remote jobs at over 100 U.S. tech companies, funneling millions to fund Kim Jong Un’s weapons program.  The …

What are the latest trends in large-scale cyberattacks, and how can individuals help prevent them?

Large-scale cyberattacks, especially Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS), are growing in both scale …

In this week's update: A massive 7.3Tbps DDoS attack overwhelmed a Cloudflare customer’s site with 37.4 terabytes of junk traffic in just 45 seconds, highlighting the growing scale of cyber threats.
S…

Windows Hello's Facial Authentication Update

Microsoft updated Windows Hello to require both infrared and color cameras for facial authentication, addressing a spoofing vulnerability. This enhances se…

EP 247.

... and in this update, Microsoft has updated Windows Hello to require both infrared and color cameras for facial authentication, improving security by addressing a spoofing vulnerability, th…

Meta and Yandex covertly tracked Android users through their apps, which listened silently on local ports to intercept browsing data and link online activities to user identities, evading common priv…

EP 246

...And in this update, the subject of overreach.  Just last week, Meta and Yandex ceased covert tracking practices on Android apps that exploited localhost communications to collect user data, …

Recent digital developments show a growing gap between technological innovation and the protections needed to safeguard privacy, autonomy, and society at large. A string of high-profile incidents sho…

EP 245 In this week's update:  A trove of sensitive Russian nuclear facility documents was unintentionally published through a government procurement site, revealing critical infrastructure details, …

Emerging Trends in Technology, Privacy, and Security

Recent developments are reshaping our understanding of what technology can achieve—and the risks that come with it. AI, once seen as limited in wea…

EP 244.  In this week's update:  AI is rewriting the rules of meteorology, with new models like GraphCast showing potential to accurately predict weather up to 33 days in advance—challenging a long-s…

What physical security measures are recommended for protecting high-value wallet signers' homes?

Recommendations include implementing a high-security safe (like a TL-30 rated safe) for storing hardwar…

Cybersecurity Evolution:

Cybersecurity has evolved from early academic and hobbyist roots—like 1970s viruses and 1980s ransomware—to defending against today's state-sponsored attacks, data breaches, a…

EP 243. In this week's update:  
A History of Cybersecurity
From Cold War codebreakers to cloud-native firewalls, the story of cybersecurity is a decades-long arms race between innovation and intrusion…

The evolving digital and geopolitical landscape reveals mounting tensions between innovation, privacy, and national security. A proposed $400 million private jet gift to Donald Trump from Qatar exemp…

EP 242. In this week's update:
A luxury aircraft gift from Qatar to Trump highlights the hidden cost of “free” when it comes to retrofitting for U.S. presidential security.
Well-timed trades on Melania…

Wearable technology like Ray-Ban Meta glasses presents significant privacy concerns by enabling frequent data collection without clear user controls, potentially capturing personal information of use…

EP 241. In this week's update:  
Smile, You’re Training Zuck’s AI.  Meta quietly rewrote the fine print so your Ray-Bans can help train its AI by default—just say "Hey Meta" and wave goodbye to meanin…

Recent data breaches have had significant impacts. WorkComposer, an employee monitoring app, exposed over 21 million sensitive employee screenshots due to a misconfigured cloud storage bucket. This b…