Final week, the UK started requiring residents to confirm their ages earlier than accessing on-line pornography and different grownup content material, all within the title of defending kids. Nearly instantly, issues didn’t go as deliberate—though, they did go as anticipated.
As specialists predicted, UK residents started downloading digital personal networks (VPNs) en masse, permitting them to avoid age verification, which may require customers to add their authorities IDs, by making it appear to be they’re in a unique nation. The UK’s On-line Security Act is only one a part of a wave of age-verification efforts world wide. And whereas these legal guidelines might hold some children from accessing grownup content material, some specialists warn that in addition they create safety and privateness dangers for everybody.
Russia’s state-backed hacking group Turla is understood for its daring, inventive assaults, corresponding to masking their communications by way of satellite tv for pc or piggybacking on different hackers’ assaults to keep away from detection. The group, which is a part of the Russian FSB intelligence company, is now utilizing its entry to the nation’s web suppliers to trick overseas officers into downloading adware that breaks encryption, permitting Turla’s hackers to entry their personal data.
And that’s not all. Every week, we spherical up the safety and privateness information we didn’t cowl in depth ourselves. Click on the headlines to learn the complete tales. And keep protected on the market.
Google is rolling out an AI-powered age-estimation system to use content material protections to Search and YouTube, even for customers who haven’t offered their age. The system is launching within the EU, the place digital security laws mandate that platforms take steps to guard minors from probably dangerous content material.
As an alternative of relying solely on user-input knowledge, Google says it is going to infer age utilizing a “number of indicators” and different metadata to find out if a person ought to be proven restricted outcomes. Privateness advocates say the transfer dangers inaccuracies and raises questions on transparency and consent.
Google claims the modifications align with regulatory expectations and can assist defend youthful customers from inappropriate content material. Nonetheless, the concept that platforms can algorithmically infer private traits like age—and prohibit content material primarily based solely on these assumptions—provides a brand new wrinkle to long-standing debates over moderation, censorship, and digital privateness.
Simply 24 hours after naming Jen Easterly as West Level’s Distinguished Chair in Social Sciences, the Military rescinded the appointment following far-right criticism. The previous Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Safety Company (CISA) director and academy alum had been lauded for her many years of service. However backlash erupted on-line after activist Laura Loomer claimed Easterly had ties to the Biden-era Disinformation Governance Board.
Nina Jankowicz, who served as govt director of the board, denied having labored with Easterly in a submit on BlueSky, calling the episode yet one more instance of how we’re all dwelling in “the stupidest timeline.”
However, Military secretary Dan Driscoll canceled Easterly’s contract and ordered a full evaluate of West Level’s hiring insurance policies. The Military additionally suspended the observe of permitting outdoors teams to assist choose college. The reversal marks the second high-profile conflict involving former CISA leaders and political stress following Donald Trump’s revocation of Chris Krebs’ safety clearance earlier this 12 months.
A bipartisan invoice from US senators Amy Klobuchar and Ted Cruz might let lawmakers demand the elimination of on-line posts displaying their house addresses or journey plans, Rolling Stone stories. The proposal, which might move by unanimous consent, is framed as a response to rising threats in opposition to public officers—particularly after the assassination of Minnesota legislator Melissa Hortman final month.
Watchdogs joined dozens of media shops in warning that the invoice might chill reporting and allow selective censorship. Whereas the laws features a nominal exemption for journalists, critics say it stays imprecise sufficient to permit members of Congress to sue shops or demand takedowns of professional information tales.
