Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Sinkholes and Site Seizures
This week, we discuss a ransomware gang, book bans, and infrastructure.
News
Steam Hosted Malware Game that Stole $32,000 from a Cancer Patient Live on Stream
Scammers stole the crypto from a Latvian streamer battling cancer and the wider security community rallied to make him whole.
Announcements
We’re Suing ICE for Its $2 Million Spyware Contract
404 Media has filed a lawsuit against ICE for access to its contract with Paragon, a company that sells powerful spyware for breaking into phones and accessing encrypted messaging apps.
News
AI-Generated YouTube Channel Uploaded Nothing But Videos of Women Being Shot
YouTube removed a channel that posted nothing but graphic Veo-generated videos of women being shot after 404 Media reached out for comment.
The Abstract
A Breakthrough Prehistoric Discovery May Rewrite Early Human History
More than 100 artifacts on Turkey’s Aegean coast hints that humans and Neanderthals may have crossed a vanished bridge now submerged beneath the sea.
Behind The Blog
Behind the Blog: Debriefing on Two Trips
This week, we discuss San Diego and Costa Rica reporting trips.
News
Contractor Used Classified CIA Systems as ‘His Own Personal Google’
Dale Britt Bendler “earned approximately $360,000 in private client fees while also working as a full-time CIA contractor with daily access to highly classified material that he searched like it was his own personal Google,” according to a court record.
News
Union Warns Professors About Posting In the ‘Current Climate’
Academic workers are re-thinking how they live and work online after some have been fired for criticizing Charlie Kirk following his death.
News
Librarians Are Being Asked to Find AI-Hallucinated Books
It’s a trippy time to have a library card.
News
Russian State TV Launches AI-Generated News Satire Show
An AI-generated show on Russian TV includes Trump singing obnoxious songs and talking about golden toilets.
Podcast
Podcast: The (Hacked) Spy In Your Car
A massive hack of a popular dashcam company; the sentencing of someone Sam has covered for years; and the mass firings around Charlie Kirk's assassination.
News
DOJ Deletes Study Showing Domestic Terrorists Are Most Often Right Wing
Following Charlie Kirk’s assassination and the Trump administration’s promise to go after the “radical left” a study showing most domestic terrorism is far-right was disappeared.
porn
Michigan Lawmakers Are Attempting to Ban Porn Entirely
The "Anticorruption of Public Morals Act" proposes a total ban on porn in the state, and also targets the existence of trans people online, content like erotic ASMR, and selling VPNs in the state.