In 2011, RSA was hacked: the worst breach of a security firm to that date. The hack, carried out by Chinese spies, pulled the rug out from under the world’s model of security. For 10 years, RSA execs have been bound to silence by NDAs—which just expired 1/ wired.trib.al/ffxPoam
The intruders were able to steal the “seeds” underpinning RSA’s SecurID tokens: fobs that let you prove your identity by entering the six-digit codes that update on their screens. The hack erased a critical safeguard protecting 40 million accounts worldwide 2/
RSA’s customers included government agencies, defense contractors, and corporations across the globe.
The new accounts capture the experience of being targeted by sophisticated state hackers who meticulously take on high-value networked targets on a geopolitical scale 3/
And reveal the RSA staffers’ feverish race against the hackers. Large-scale attacks are often discovered months after the fact, but this one was different. Investigators caught up to the intruders and began chasing them in real time 4/
Their stories also show paranoia that took hold of RSA. The company switched mobile carriers; employees were told to talk in person whenever possible; the FBI conducted background checks; some windows were even covered in butcher paper to prevent laser microphone surveillance 5/
After 10 years of rampant state-sponsored hacking and supply chain hijacks, the RSA attack can now be seen as the herald of an era of digital insecurity.
SCOOP: Arab and Muslim workers at Meta allege that its response to the crisis in Gaza is one-sided and out of hand. “It makes me sick that I work for this company,” says one employee.
But when a club for Muslim workers revealed plans to spend $200 in company funds to serve nine dozen cupcakes in watermelon colors at the event, Meta management called the offering disruptive.
Bellingcat is the world’s biggest citizen-run intelligence agency, investigating everything from the 2014 shoot-down of MH17 to the various plots to kill Russian dissident Alexei Navalny. The person behind it all? Eliot Higgins. wired.com/story/how-to-l…
Bellingcat’s trajectory tells a scathing story about the nature of truth in the 21st century. Hard facts have been devalued. Online, everyone can present, and believe in, their own narratives, even if they’re mere tissues of lies. wired.com/story/how-to-l…
The year ahead may be the biggest of @bellingcat's life. In addition to tracking conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, its analysts will also be flooded with falsified artifacts from elections in the US, the UK, India, and dozens of other countries. wired.com/story/how-to-l…
Even before Sam Bankman-Fried, Faruk Fatih Özer had built a crypto empire. Now, the 27-year-old is facing a prison sentence of 11,196 years.
Did he almost get away with the biggest heist in Turkey’s history, or was it a misunderstanding? WIRED deep dive: wired.trib.al/wMvxpYp
Following decades of political turmoil in Turkey, at 23, Özer founded a crypto exchange called Thodex by investing just 40,000 lira ($11,100 US). He advertised his company as a way to prevent economic volatility, using a playbook from Silicon Valley. wired.com/story/faruk-oz…
In a few years, thousands of people bought in. Thodex expanded, reaching the upper echelons of society and government. By March 2021, Turkey became one of the top five nations for crypto use and Özer’s company was booming. wired.com/story/faruk-oz…
🧵 For 13 years, Del Harvey ran Twitter’s trust and safety team–if there was an issue with content people would say “DM Del.” Now, Harvey pulls back the curtain on Twitter’s decisions to mute, ban and block posts in the pre-Elon era 1/
But Del Harvey isn’t even her real name, although that’s what everyone knows her as. In 2003, Harvey worked for a nonprofit called Perverted Justice that investigated online predators. That led to Harvey working in TV with the NBC series “To Catch a Predator.” 2/10
Five years later, when a friend reached out and suggested Harvey take a job at a fledgling tech company, it seemed like a walk in the park compared to catching pedophiles. 3/10
🧵The Far North is thawing, unleashing clouds of planet-heating gas. Scientists rely on an arsenal of tech to understand permafrost environments better and sniff out just how nasty the problem really is. wired.trib.al/TwLiZ8G
As Arctic temperatures rise thawing permafrost releases methane, a gas that’s 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide at warming the planet. Those clouds of methane raise global temperatures, which thaws more permafrost, which releases more methane. It’s a problem. 2/7
To reckon with how big of a problem we’re facing a group of self-described “methane detectives” use various instruments to determine how much organic matter exists within permafrost sites which will give them some idea of how much methane that site will release as it warms. 3/7