FOIA
DHS Is Deploying a Powerful Surveillance Tool at College Football Games
Public records show DHS is deploying the "Homeland Security Information Network" at college protests and football games.
open source
Bullying in Open Source Software Is a Massive Security Vulnerability
The Xz backdoor and a near miss on the F-Droid app store show how the entitled attitude of some people in the open source community can be used to push malicious or insecure code.
Zodiac Killer
Cryptographers Who Solved Zodiac Killer Cipher Publish Paper About How They Did It
The paper details the "authors’ many years of failed experiments and dead-end ideas."
Kagi
Friendship Ended With GOOGLE Now KAGI Is My Best Friend
I replaced Google with Kagi, a search engine that has no ads and costs $10 per month.
Podcast
Podcast: The Xz Backdoor and the AI Peer-Review Crisis
The fascinating Xz backdoor; a looming AI crisis in peer-review; and news around the infamous Lena image. That's all on this week's episode.
News
Google Bans Face Swap App for Inviting Users to Make Deepfake Porn
After 404 Media reporting, Google banned an app that advertised its ability to “Make any porn you want” on a deepfake porn site.
News
ChatGPT Looms Over the Peer-Review Crisis
Research shows that academics might be using generative AI tools to cut corners on a fundamental pillar of the scientific process.
FOIA
Officer Screamed ‘Stop Shooting Her’ While Police Killed Unarmed Teen After Car Chase
404 Media has obtained newly released video and audio material related to the 2022 killing of Savannah Graziano.
conspiracy theories
The Editor's Note on Kate Middleton Cancer Announcement Video Doesn't Mean It's Fake
The Getty Images "handout" disclaimer on the video of the Princess of Wales' video statement about her cancer diagnosis is pretty common, actually—and not proof of a conspiracy.
repair
The Car Repair Apocalypse Could Soon Be Upon Us
The widespread availability of independent car repair needs to be protected from software-based DRM.
xz backdoor
The Xz Backdoor Highlights the Vulnerability of Open Source Software—and Its Strengths
The backdoor highlights the politics, governance, and community management of an ecosystem exploited by massive tech companies and largely run by volunteers.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Amplification and Heavy Breathing
This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss weirdness in the FOIA world, the idea of "amplification," and breathing heavily.
AI
Shareholders Sue AI Weapon-Detecting Company, Allege It 'Does Not Reliably Detect Knives or Guns'
Evolv, which will be used by the NYC subway, is under investigation by the FTC and SEC, and also had to retract a claim that the UK government validated its product.