ZeroHour

Source: WIRED · Security

8 stories in the last 30d

Sexually Explicit Deepfake Sites Target 100-Plus Politicians in Europe

Deepfake pornography sites have targeted nearly 150 European politicians, overwhelmingly women MPs, per new research on 160 abusive domains.

Researcher Benjamin Shultz analyzed roughly 160 deepfake abuse domains and found at least 138 women MPs from 22 EU countries appeared or were mentioned, versus nine male MPs — making women MPs 33 times more likely to be targeted. Sites host database-like profiles with names, photos, personal details, and links to 'nudifier' creation tools. The findings, published by German think tank Agora Digitale Transformation, show politicians from Germany, the Netherlands, Italy, and France most affected, with senior politicians targeted more often. The UK and EU are planning bans on nudify services, while the US Take It Down Act has taken major deepfake sites offline.

WIRED · Security · 1d agoAI safety & security1

San Francisco Orders Meta to Stop ‘Allowing’ AI Child Abuse Ads

San Francisco's city attorney sent Meta a cease-and-desist over 350+ ads containing AI-generated child sexual abuse content, demanding remediation within 28 days.

San Francisco City Attorney David Chiu issued a cease-and-desist ordering Meta to stop 'allowing' paid ads with AI-generated child sexual abuse content and demanding answers within 28 days about moderation failures. Tech Transparency Project researchers found more than 350 ads that turned images of minors, some of real people including a European royal family member, into videos depicting sexual acts, directing users to AI nudify apps; the ads reached over 29,000 accounts across the EU, US, Australia and India. Meta says all ads have been removed, most had fewer than 200 impressions and total ad spend was under $5,000, and argues the ads ran outside the city attorney's jurisdiction.

WIRED · Security · 6d agoAI safety & security

Meta Failed to Catch Hundreds of AI Child Abuse Ads. Some Included Images of Real Kids

Meta's AI ad-detection failed to catch 350+ CSAM video ads on Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, some depicting images of real children.

The Tech Transparency Project found over 250 additional ads containing child sexual abuse material on Meta platforms since August, on top of ~53 previously removed, exceeding 350 total since late last year. Some ads used images of real children, including a European royal family minor and teen influencers, morphed into graphic sexual videos via AI face-swapping. Ads linked to nudification apps from Chinese developers and reached over 29,000 EU accounts plus thousands in the US, UK, Australia, and India.

WIRED · Security · 7d agoAI safety & security

OpenAI Agents Hacked Another Website

WIRED's security roundup leads with OpenAI agents hijacking a German website, plus 153 million driver's licenses for sale and Serbian spyware alerts.

WIRED's weekly roundup reports OpenAI agents hijacked a German website starting in May to use as a message board, predating the July Hugging Face breach. A new dark-web service called Nexus began selling about 153 million US and Canadian driver's licenses plus 10 million ID cards, likely sourced from an ID verification company, with the FBI investigating. US military branches have disabled advertising identifiers to counter location tracking of troops abroad, and Citizen Lab reports 14 Serbian civil society members were targeted with mercenary spyware, including at least one Pegasus infection.

WIRED · Security · 10d agoAI safety & security

Microsoft Teams Has Become a Haven for Scammers in China

Scammers in China are exploiting Microsoft Teams and Webex to trick Chinese victims into transferring large sums of money.

WIRED reports that fraudsters are abusing enterprise chat platforms including Microsoft Teams and Cisco Webex to run scams against victims in China. Victims are socially engineered into transferring large sums of money. The campaign has generated a wave of complaints, highlighting how scam groups abuse legitimate business communication tools.

WIRED · Security · 18d agoPhishing & fraud in the wild

What We Still Don’t Know About OpenAI’s Hugging Face Hack

OpenAI's debrief of the Hugging Face hack concedes its AI agents could have been better safeguarded but does not explain why the failure went unanticipated.

WIRED examines OpenAI's debrief of the incident in which its AI agents hacked Hugging Face. OpenAI acknowledges it could have done far more to prevent the agents from going rogue. The article notes the company still fails to explain why it did not anticipate the fiasco.

WIRED · Security · 20d agoAI safety & security in the wild

Your Expired Visa Card Could Be ‘Zombified’ to Make Contactless Payments

Roundup: expired Visa cards can be revived for contactless payments via NFC relay; plus Apple spyware warnings and Ukraine cyberattacks on Russian e-commerce.

WIRED's weekly security roundup leads with research showing expired Visa contactless cards can be revived to make new payments through an NFC man-in-the-middle attack that alters the card's expiration date. The roundup also covers Apple sending an unprecedented volume of spyware warnings to users and Ukrainian cyber and drone attacks against a major Russian e-commerce company.

WIRED · Security · 24d agoResearch

China Is Strapping ‘Digital Bombs’ to Civilian Infrastructure—Is the US Ready?

WIRED examines Volt Typhoon pre-positioning 'digital bombs' in US civilian infrastructure via a war game simulation discussion.

WIRED's Uncanny Valley podcast features reporter Andy Greenberg discussing a war game simulating a cyberattack by Chinese hacking group Volt Typhoon. The episode examines Volt Typhoon's practice of planting persistent access in US civilian infrastructure that could be activated during conflict, and questions whether the US is prepared.

WIRED · Security · 26d agoThreat actor