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Source: Schneier on Security

14 stories in the last 30d

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25 Years of Mass Surveillance Is Enough

Bruce Schneier and Cindy Cohn argue post-9/11 mass surveillance expanded far beyond its counterterrorism justification and should be reevaluated for costs to rights.

An essay by Bruce Schneier and Cindy Cohn (originally in Lawfare) traces the post-9/11 shift from targeted surveillance to mass collection of telephone and internet metadata. It cites the Section 215 bulk phone records program, struck down in interpretation by the Second Circuit in 2015 and curtailed by the USA Freedom Act, and the NSA's Upstream program under Section 702 of the 2008 FISA Amendments Act, which ended content searches in 2017. The authors note mass surveillance now serves routine law enforcement and immigration actions, with FBI Director Kash Patel confirming purchases of Americans' data from brokers, and private systems like Flock license plate readers and venue facial recognition feeding government access.

Schneier on Security · 12h agoPolicy & legal

Microsoft’s Patching

Microsoft's September Patch Tuesday fixes a record 972 vulnerabilities, 112 rated critical, amid AI-accelerated vulnerability discovery.

Microsoft's September 2026 Patch Tuesday patches a record ~972 vulnerabilities, 112 rated critical, following records of 570 two months ago and ~620 last month. Schneier attributes the surge to AI-powered vulnerability finding, citing an open letter from OpenAI, Anthropic, AWS, Google, Microsoft and roughly 100 organizations warning of an AI-enabled attack tsunami. He predicts AIs will reverse-engineer exploits from patches, weaponizing flaws immediately upon release and shrinking the patch window to 'immediately.'

Schneier on Security · 1d agoVulnerability1

Cliff Stoll’s DEF CON Talk

Schneier on Security posts about Cliff Stoll's DEF CON talk; the visible text provides no substantive details about its content.

Schneier on Security published a brief post referencing Cliff Stoll's talk at DEF CON. The available text consists almost entirely of standard blog navigation, author biography, and archive listings, with no concrete details about the talk itself. As a general security-community item, it carries no direct risk impact for defenders.

Schneier on Securityupdated · 4d agofirst · 4d agoIndustry 2 sources1

Driver’s License Data for Sale

Schneier on Security highlights that driver's license data is being sold, underscoring concerns over monetization of driver records and surveillance.

A post on Bruce Schneier's blog is titled 'Driver's License Data for Sale.' The available excerpt contains no article body, so the specifics of the reported data sales are not detailed. The topic concerns the commercial availability of driver's license records, a recurring data-privacy and surveillance theme on the blog.

Schneier on Security · 6d agoData breach

Automobile Camouflage to Hide from Flock Cameras

Schneier on Security highlights a printed vehicle-camouflage pattern tested to defeat Flock surveillance cameras and Axon body cameras.

The post discusses covering cars with printed patterns designed to fool Flock automated license-plate recognition software, with testing reportedly done against Flock and Axon body cameras. Reader comments question effectiveness against other ALPR vendors, Flock's RF MAC-address upgrade, and whether such camouflage might become regulated. The page also contains off-topic comment threads about anti-bot over-blocking and privacy.

Schneier on Security · 8d agoResearch

Security Vulnerability in a Voting System

A four-year-old vulnerability letting anyone recover ballot casting order was demonstrated with AI coding agents against Georgia's May 2026 primary data.

A previously disclosed vulnerability in ballot scanners used across 21 US states, including Georgia, allows recovery of the order in which ballots were cast. Nearly four years after the original disclosure, a researcher pointed AI coding agents at the vulnerability paper and used only public data — county early-voting lists and cast-vote record (CVR) files — to analyze voter behavior in Georgia's May 2026 primary. The demonstration required no access to voting machines, networks, source code, or non-public records.

Schneier on Security · 11d agoResearch in the wild

Researching Employment Scams

Schneier highlights research into North Korean fake-employment IT-worker scams that embed operatives in remote roles for long-term insider access.

The post discusses research into employment scams in which fabricated remote workers, associated with North Korean IT-worker schemes, embed in organizations for months or years to exfiltrate data or position for financial theft. Researchers used controlled sandbox environments to observe operatives syncing personal accounts and working under false identities. Commenters also note reverse scams targeting desperate job seekers through high-pressure MLM and door-to-door sales schemes.

Schneier on Security · 12d agoPhishing & fraud

What’s the Scam?

Bruce Schneier reports AI-generated fake thank-you replies to his newsletter confirmations from throwaway Gmail accounts; the scam's goal is unclear.

Bruce Schneier describes receiving a burst of AI-generated, one-line praise emails replying to Crypto-Gram newsletter confirmation messages, sent from random-character Gmail addresses. None of the senders actually subscribed, and they did not respond when he replied, weakening a pig-butchering theory. The campaign appears automated, but its objective has not been identified.

Schneier on Security · 14d agoPhishing & fraud

Leaked Russian Cyber-Operations Training Materials

Leaked Bauman university records reveal a formalized Russian pipeline training GRU cyber personnel, linking a graduate to Sandworm's Military Unit 74455.

Leaked training materials from Bauman university describe a force-generation mechanism feeding graduates into General Staff components, including the GRU and directorates responsible for protected communications, cryptography and information security. A 2024 graduate of Department No. 4, Aleksei Kondrashov, was linked to Military Unit 74455, the GRU unit known as Sandworm, which conducted destructive attacks including the 2017 NotPetya attack. Researchers say the leak shows Russian cyber capability is institutionally sustained through recruitment pipelines beyond the familiar APT28 and Sandworm brand names.

Schneier on Security · 14d agoThreat actor

Is Someone Hacking DoD Refrigerators?

Refrigeration outages hit commissaries at seven US military installations, with hacking suspected but not confirmed by the Pentagon.

Refrigeration disruptions were reported at Defense Commissary Agency commissaries at Fort Irwin, F.E. Warren AFB, Fort Huachuca, Naval Station Newport, Columbus AFB, Travis AFB, and Naval Air Station Lemoore. A defense official acknowledged awareness of a possible refrigeration disruption, but the services and Pentagon declined to provide details. The post is speculative, arguing the coincidence of outages suggests possible hacking, though no evidence or attribution is provided.

Schneier on Security · 15d agoData breach

Spyware for Babies

AI-powered baby monitors like Nanit, which raised $50 million, collect extensive infant data, raising privacy and surveillance concerns.

A New York Times report covered by Schneier on Security describes how baby-monitoring companies such as Nanit are expanding AI-based 24/7 health tracking of infants. Nanit recently raised $50 million to add tracking of speech and language development and motor skills via its camera, while extending its bedroom presence into early adolescence. The post highlights the already extensive level of baby data collection and its expected growth.

Schneier on Security · 20d agoIndustry

Black Hat State of Security Vendors

Black Hat 2026 vendor roundup shows AI and agents now dominate nearly every security category, while detection-only tools remain overabundant.

Andy Ellis's roundup of security vendors at Black Hat observes AI embedded across identity, SaaS, AppSec and data security, with roughly half of booths leading with AI or agents in their messaging. The market splits into tools that assess problems, stop adversaries and prevent problems, with assessment-only tools disproportionately plentiful.

Schneier on Security · 21d agoIndustry

ICE Collecting DNA Samples

ICE's DNA collection program projects detainee samples to reach 33% of CODIS offender index by 2030, raising privacy concerns.

A Schneier on Security blog post discusses ICE collecting DNA samples from detainees, citing Georgetown Law research. DHS detainee samples are projected to constitute 33% of the FBI's CODIS offender index in 2030, up from 0.2% in 2019. The post raises concerns that samples collected under civil authority are being searched against crime scenes indefinitely, potentially without legal cause under Fourth Amendment standards.

Schneier on Security · 27d agoPolicy & legal

Hacking Public Wi-Fi DNS to Steal Credentials

Attackers can hijack public Wi-Fi DNS to redirect users to credential-stealing fake login pages; commenters debate HTTPS limits and mitigations like encrypted DNS.

The discussion examines how an attacker controlling DNS on shared or public Wi-Fi networks can redirect requests for legitimate services to attacker-controlled servers to steal credentials. Commenters analyze whether HTTPS and certificates mitigate the attack, noting attackers often rely on HTTP or browser trust quirks. Suggested defenses include encrypted DNS (DoH), DNSSEC, and travel routers running OpenWRT. No specific campaign, victims, or indicators are provided.

Schneier on Security · 29d agoResearch