The Russian hackers who breached SolarWinds IT management software to compromise a slew of United States government agencies and businesses are back in the limelight. Microsoft said on Thursday that the same “Nobelium” spy group has built out an aggressive phishing campaign since January of this year and ramped it up significantly this week, targeting… Continue reading The SolarWinds Hackers Aren’t ‘Back.’ They Never Went Away
Author: Wired Magazine
Blurred Satellite Images Make Rebuilding Palestine Harder
The latest wave of violence between Israel and Palestine ended on May 20, after the two sides agreed to a ceasefire. The Gaza Strip suffered the bulk of the deaths and destruction, where airstrikes killed more than 230 people, and destroyed more than 1,000 residential and commercial buildings. The New York Times described the landscape as… Continue reading Blurred Satellite Images Make Rebuilding Palestine Harder
The Covid Lab Leak Theory Is a Tale of Weaponized Uncertainty
Does any of that mean, as Washington Post fact-checkers and Wall Street Journal editorialists have written, that the lab leak hypothesis has gained “credibility”? Or, let me ask again: If the virus that causes Covid-19 didn’t jump from animals to people, where did it come from? Was it an animal virus that scientists collected for… Continue reading The Covid Lab Leak Theory Is a Tale of Weaponized Uncertainty
WhatsApp’s Fight With India Could Have Global Repercussions
WhatsApp is fighting for the privacy of citizens of the world’s largest democracy. This week, the Facebook-owned messaging platform sued the Indian government in a bid to challenge new IT rules that ask messaging apps to trace the “first originator” of a message. Doing so could require WhatsApp to weaken its end-to-end encryption, revealing the… Continue reading WhatsApp’s Fight With India Could Have Global Repercussions
A New Antitrust Case Cuts to the Core of Amazon’s Identity
“I founded Amazon 26 years ago with the long-term mission of making it Earth’s most customer-centric company,” Jeff Bezos testified before the House Antitrust Subcommittee last summer. “Not every business takes this customer-first approach, but we do, and it’s our greatest strength.” Bezos’ obsession with customer satisfaction is at the center of Amazon’s self-mythology. Every… Continue reading A New Antitrust Case Cuts to the Core of Amazon’s Identity
Florida’s New Social Media Law Will Be Laughed Out of Court
Florida’s new social media legislation is a double landmark: It’s the first state law regulating online content moderation, and it will almost certainly become the first such law to be struck down in court. On Monday, Governor Ron DeSantis signed into law the Stop Social Media Censorship Act, which greatly limits large social media platforms’… Continue reading Florida’s New Social Media Law Will Be Laughed Out of Court
This $2,500 Iron Is a Badass Wrinkle Destroyer
Clothing designer Shari Noble met me and my 50-pound ironing setup on the sidewalk in front of her workshop on Seattle’s First Avenue. Noble runs the La Macón label, and she spends a lot of time ironing. Currently she relies on a Black & Decker model she picked up at Goodwill for $10, following the… Continue reading This $2,500 Iron Is a Badass Wrinkle Destroyer
Polarization Isn’t America’s Biggest Problem—or Facebook’s
Last week was a telling time in America. In Minneapolis, tearful Black eyewitnesses, some as young as nine, described George Floyd’s last moments before police killed him. In Georgia, Republican state lawmakers passed a law restricting access to the polls that is expected to disproportionately affect Black voters. Efforts to restrict voter participation are also… Continue reading Polarization Isn’t America’s Biggest Problem—or Facebook’s
The Best Electric Toothbrushes for Your Pearly Whites
It’s time I came clean: I hate brushing my teeth. I do it because I have to, but it’s a time-consuming, uncomfortable process—two minutes standing in front of the mirror can feel like an eternity. My dentist says I brush too harshly as well. And don’t even get me started on flossing. Electric toothbrushes make… Continue reading The Best Electric Toothbrushes for Your Pearly Whites
The Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Birthed Today’s Rainforests
Colombia’s rainforest looked very different 66 million years ago. At present, the humid and biodiverse ecosystem is jam-packed with plants and is covered in a thick, light-blocking canopy of leaves and branches. Notably, there are no dinosaurs. But prior to the dinosaurs going away with the Chicxulub impact, signaling the end of the Cretaceous period,… Continue reading The Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Birthed Today’s Rainforests