News

Security News This Week: Election Systems Are Way More Vulnerable Than We Thought

Hacker summer camp is here again! You know what that means: WIRED is back in Las Vegas for the annual Black Hat and Defcon security conferences, where we’re digging into the latest and greatest hacks on display. First, let’s talk about iPhones. A researcher found it’s possible to break into one just by sending a […]

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To Help Migrants at the Border, Aid Groups Deploy Tech

Last month, a young transgender woman from Central America applied for asylum in the US. Unlike thousands of others requesting asylum at the US-Mexico border, this person was especially fortunate. She had her birth certificate as well as a lawyer to represent her. She presented herself to Customs and Border Protection officers in San Ysidro, […]

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How Apple Pay Buttons Can Make Websites Less Safe

Apple Pay has a slew of protective features that make it a secure method of online credit card transactions. And since 2016, third-party merchants and services have been able to embed Apple Pay into their websites and offer it as a payment option. But at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas on Thursday, […]

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Soccer Is Getting Slower and More Fair—and That's a Problem

When Liverpool and Norwich face off today in the season-opening match of the Premier League, fans in England may see a bit of tradition slip away. No longer will the referees act as the all-seeing, all-knowing gods of the pitch. They’ll have a team of second-guessers watching from above—the video assistant referee, or VAR. Despite […]

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Trump’s Intel Vacancies Put Americans in Danger

Sue Gordon was a name Americans were never supposed to know—the exemplar par excellence of the legion of career, nonpartisan officials who devote a lifetime to anonymous government service. A former Duke basketball player, Gordon dedicated her life to US intelligence. She rose through the ranks as part of the first generation of women to […]

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Free Bus Rides in Salt Lake City Might Not Be So Far-Fetched

Click:motorized tricycle wholesaler If a leading candidate for mayor gets his way, residents of Salt Lake City may soon be able to drop their transit cards from their wallets, purses, and pockets, Former state senator Jim Dabakis wants to eliminate fares on the six-county Utah Transit Authority network of buses and light rail. Another candidate […]

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Uber and Lyft Suggest the Days of Cheap Rides Could Be Over

The days of cheap ride-hailing may be ending. Uber and Lyft reported quarterly financial results this week and indicated that their cutthroat competition to woo riders with coupons and other gambits is easing. Aarian Marshall covers autonomous vehicles, transportation policy, and urban planning for WIRED. Lyft officials told investors they had raised prices on routes […]

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Blow Out Your Knee? Hope Your Surgeon's Got a VR Headset

With all due respect to games, porn, and lion kings, virtual reality's killer app might just be saving lives. At a Stanford-affiliated children's hospital, pediatric cardiologists use an interactive virtual heart to help young patients and their families better understand congenital defects. Researchers in Maryland put on headsets to study viruses in the pursuit of […]

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A Devastating Climate Change Report, a Phone Bug Returns, and More News

A new climate change report dropped, a decade-old desk phone bug returned, and WIRED wants to up your grill game. Here's the news you need to know, in two minutes or less. Want to receive this two-minute roundup as an email every weekday? Sign up here! Today's Headlines We're eating this planet to death A […]

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How a 10-Year-Old Desk Phone Bug Came Back From the Dead

You probably know by now about rampant insecurity in Internet of Things devices. You've likely even heard about vulnerabilities in desk phones specifically. Security research into the devices—and the potential for hackers to take them over, turn them into listening devices, or use them as jumping off points to take over corporate networks—has been going […]

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