Facebook profits from advertisements it knows, or should know, are fraudulent, a federal lawsuit filed in California alleges. The social media giant makes it easy for criminals to target consumers who are not only likely to click on certain kinds of ads, but also likely to follow through with purchases, [Keep reading]
How do you catch Internet con artists? Well, you con them. Alan, who lives near Washington D.C., had traveled to Dubai and to Ghana thinking he was helping a princess gain access to her multi-million dollar inheritance. Before his fever was broken, Alan — not his real name — sent [Keep reading]
Jeremy Vincent was startled out of his sleep in the middle of the night with the ring of his smartphone. Its screen read, “Mom’s Cell.” But when he answered, he didn’t hear his mom’s voice. Instead, he heard this: “I’m going to let you talk to your mom, your mom’s [Keep reading]
I like a good challenge as a storyteller. And let me tell you, making “third-party code” sound sexy is a challenge. But that recent Apple ad showing an army of people following a cell phone user around, cataloging his every move — well, that’s real. It’s hard to believe, but [Keep reading]
INTRODUCTION Computer criminals armed with ransomware were able to hold U.S. drivers hostage earlier this month. The Colonial Pipeline attack had such dramatic real-world results that the simmering ransomware crisis has boiled over. It’s impossible to ignore now. But what does that really mean? Ransomware criminals are raking in the [Keep reading]
The rise of ransomware gangs parallels the rise of cryptocurrency, and that’s not a coincidence. In today’s “Debugger in 10,” I talk with Duke’s David Hoffman, who says it’s time to regulate crypto so it can’t be easily used by crime gangs — even if that means crushing the very [Keep reading]
When a plane crashes, a government agency rushes to the scene looking for answers…and lessons that might prevent the next plane crash. When computers crash — and the economy crashes, as we’ve seen this week — there is no such fact-finding mission. There should be. And now, perhaps, there will [Keep reading]
Gas prices are going up, and ransomware hackers are (partly) to blame. Now, finally, we have your attention. Ransomware gangs have enjoyed free rein over the Internet for several years now, marauding as they wish, free from fear, terrorizing large and small companies, non-profits, schools, local government agencies, and even [Keep reading]
Contract tracing might be the best way to tamp down a viral outbreak in its early stages — find and isolate exposed people as soon as possible — but the technique also raises plenty of privacy concerns. Perhaps inevitably, those were realized recently when the Pennslyvania Department of Health announced [Keep reading]
INTRODUCTION Four decades ago, the Soviet Union spread a horrible lie around the world. Through what’s now known as Operation Infektion, Russian agents spread a conspiracy theory that AIDS had been created in a secret U.S. military biological weapons lab in Maryland. The goal was to create strife among U.S. [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan