This may be my last story for the Post. Here is an archive version, free to all. archive.is/2026.02.06-2...

NEW: The FBI has been unable to access a Washington Post reporter’s seized iPhone because it was in Lockdown Mode, a sometimes overlooked feature that makes iPhones broadly more secure, according to recently filed court records.

Good news,everyone! We consulted the groundhog and #DEFCON34 content call season is officially open! Starting today, most content calls are open, including Villages Contests Communities Music Soundtrack Are all ready to accept your submissions. defcon.org/html/defcon-... Let’s go. #defcon

Two security professionals who were arrested in 2019 after performing an authorized security assessment of a county courthouse in Iowa will receive $600,000 to settle a lawsuit they brought alleging wrongful arrest and defamation. arstechnica.com/security/202...

Apple’s new iPhone security feature limits cell networks from collecting precise location data, but appears to have very limited support in the U.S. at the moment. Here’s to hoping all the big carriers get on board too. techcrunch.com/2026/01/29/a...

Do not store your Bitlocker encryption keys on Microsoft's servers if your threat model includes governments or law enforcement. As this article points out, this is the result of a design choice Microsoft made. It didn't have to be this way. www.forbes.com/sites/thomas...

Microsoft Gave FBI BitLocker Encryption Keys, Exposing Privacy Flaw | Forbes https://alecmuffett.com/article/142847 #EndToEndEncryption #HomeOffice #KeyEscrow #apple #encryption #gchq #privacy #surveillance

So many of us warned of this situation www.justsecurity.org/16503/securi...

I'm on @npr.org Morning Edition talking about, what else, Grok: www.npr.org/2026/01/16/n...

BREAKING: #SCOTUS to hear challenge to the constitutionality of geofence search warrants, which seek to identify all mobile devices in a particular area at a particular time. Case is Chatrie v. US. Doc: www.supremecourt.gov/orders/court...

Just saw the first trade review of my upcoming book in Publisher's Weekly which called it a "hard-hitting debut exposé" that is "an incisive call for action against the collusions of big money and big government." Pre-order here: www.amazon.com/Transaction-...

I have an op-ed in the NYT today about the Grok scandal, sharing my research from last year finding that legal risk hinders AI companies from making their models safer against CSAM - an echo of the years where white-hat hackers were chilled from good-faith research. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/12/o...

If you are a resident of California, the state now has a portal where you can demand deletion of your personal data from 500+ registered data brokers with a single request form, for free. consumer.drop.privacy.ca.gov

Welcome to the Public Domain, THE MALTESE FALCON (1930) 🦅💎 🕵️ Sam Spade is on the Case of the Disappearing Copyright as The Maltese Falcon novel joins the public domain. Learn more ➡️ blog.archive.org/public-domai... #PublicDomainDay #CopyrightFree

Sometimes sharing is not caring.

NEW: Apple, Google, and WhatsApp now regularly notify their users if they suspect they have been targeted or hacked with government spyware, such as that made by NSO Group or Paragon. We spoke to experts and wrote a guide on what to do, and where to go, if you receive one of those notifications.

Research that was once freely available is being removed or locked behind paywalls, hindering scientific advancement. Today over a million scientific preprints are accessible through CC licenses, and we’re working to grow that number. Join us with a gift today. www.classy.org/give/313412/...

reminder: this is still a thing… threats.disclose.io (opensource researcher threat repo) #39C3

Hear the story of three University of Malta students who got arrested (but eventually pardoned) for disclosing a vulnerability in good faith, #39C3 day 3. @srldf.bsky.social helped support their legal defense. events.ccc.de/congress/202...

And so it begins. Good to be back at CCC for #39C3. Looking forward to the cool hacks, funky art and inspiration the hacktivists bring.

NEW: By a 6-3 vote, the Supreme Court blocks Trump’s deployment of the National Guard to Chicago to assist immigration agents. A majority holds that he likely lacks authority to do so. Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch dissent. www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/25p...

Scoop: The lone employee behind CISA's Pre-Ransomware Notification Initiative resigned on Friday rather than take a forced reassignment to FEMA. CISA says PRNI will continue, but sources said David Stern's loss will be a major setback for it. My story: www.cybersecuritydive.com/news/cisa-ra...

Bringing back Limewire to illegally rip copies of reporting suppressed by the government is definitely some cyberpunk shit

Question 3 (25 points): Discuss the fair-use, Section 512, and secondary liability issues raised by this tweet.

Twas the week before Christmas and all through the House (and Senate)... A recap 🧵 of Hackers on the Hill 2025 and a look ahead to 2026

Wall Street Journal got an A.I.-run vending machine for their office. Takeaway: Highly entertaining, but financially disastrous to let a generative A.I. chatbot run your business. www.wsj.com/tech/ai/anth...

Huge thanks to the New York Times Book Review for naming the revised Cult of the Dead Cow one of its three nonfiction paperback picks of the week. Here is no-paywall version: www.pilotonline.com/2025/12/17/p... #books #hacking

PornHub confirms that more than 200 million records were exposed, including email addresses and keyword searches. That’s bad. Imagine how much worse it would be if that data set also included government IDs. www.forbes.com/sites/zakdof...

Really thought-provoking work here

Daphne Keller examines the legal scope of available tech platform data under the Digital Services Act's Article 40(12). The examination begins with a legal analysis, continues with a comparison to other relevant laws, and concludes with a review of specific data categories for research.

"Creating the Cypherpunk Future we'd want to live in" by @kurtopsahl.bsky.social @ ECC#2 Talk about building a future where technology serves people, rooted in cypherpunk values of privacy, freedom, and responsibility — our work doesn't end with development. parallelpolis.info/v/omRpR1-g0Z...

Attention Internet law nerds! The legendary Pamela Samuelson joined me this week to talk about Cox v. Sony -- a SCOTUS case in which Internet access is under threat from rampaging copyright law. It was an honor to have her on the show. Do check it out. podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/4...

NEW: A flaw in the website of Hama Film, a photo booth maker with presence in Australia, UAE and the U.S., exposes pictures and videos of its customers. Security researcher alerted the company last month, no answer. We reached out to the company a few times, no answer.

Lots of bad age-gating and rights-denying bills to be marked up tomorrow.

New from 404 Media: the creator of ICEBlock just sued the U.S. government over it pressuring Apple to remove the app earlier this year. Says it violated his First Amendment rights. www.404media.co/iceblock-cre...

Hey Germany, can we have this, too? Asking for a friend. The friend is I.

Portugal updates cybercrime law to exempt security researchers www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/securit...

Movie you’ve watched more than six times with a gif. Hard mode: no Stars (Wars nor Trek), LOTR, or Marvel, Disney Animated or Pixar.

Two amazing First Amendment litigation spots are open at Protect Democracy. Deadline is December 7th. This is someone's dream job and they may not know about it, so please send to good lawyers you know! protectdemocracy.recruitee.com/o/counsel-fi...

Chat Control has seen many different iterations over the years, and now that it’s coming up on final negotiations, what the proposal does and doesn’t protect can be confusing. Here’s what’s going on. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...

👀 A New Anonymous Phone Carrier Lets You Sign Up With Nothing but a Zip Code www.wired.com/story/new-an...

There is a non-zero chance we only learn the US has completed its first underground nuclear weapons test in decades after an automated USGS earthquake social media account suddenly starts posting about an extremely shallow seismic event in Nevada

📢 Announcing hacklore.org 📢 It’s time to retire outdated cyber advice! More than 80 cybersecurity veterans have signed an open letter urging a shift from folklore to guidance that actually helps people avoid the most common attacks. 🔐 Blog: medium.com/@boblord/let... Site: www.hacklore.org

Here are the law enforcement agencies who searched Flock Safety's ALPR database related to this year's No Kings protests. www.eff.org/deeplinks/20...

HOPE has been banned from St. John's University. www.2600.com/content/hope...

Part of Amazon AWS went down back in October and a lot of things broke. Now something is up with Cloudflare... Now is a good time to remember that a lot of eggs are in a handful baskets. Time again to have those big conversations about what resiliency looks like.

Gemini explains Diffie-Hellman pretty well these days.

Explore Cypherpunk Congress expert recommendations: @evacide.bsky.social x @eff.org Books: "IBM and the Holocaust" by Edwin Black "Your Face Belongs to U"s by @kashhill.bsky.social "The Hank Show" by @mckenziefunk.com Apps: I’ve also had fun playing around with @germnetwork.com recently. 1/