The Weird, Twisting Tale of How China Spied on Alysa Liu and Her Dad
U.S. authorities uncovered a Chinese espionage operation that targeted Olympic figure‑skater Alysa Liu and her father, Arthur Liu, by employing veteran Matthew Ziburis as an illegal agent. Ziburis, paid more than $100,000, conducted surveillance and intimidation on behalf of a fixer named Frank Liu, who received orders from a China‑based operative. Both men were arrested in March 2022, with Ziburis pleading guilty to conspiracy to act as an illegal Chinese agent and interstate stalking. The case also implicated a DHS officer, highlighting a broader pattern of transnational repression against overseas critics of the CCP.
Telegram Is Still Hosting a Sanctioned $21 Billion Crypto Scammer Black Market
Telegram continues to host Xinbi Guarantee, a Chinese‑language crypto‑scam black market that has facilitated roughly $21 billion in illicit transactions. Despite a UK government sanction in March 2026 labeling Xinbi a human‑trafficking facilitator, the platform has not removed the marketplace, which...
Meta Is Warned That Facial Recognition Glasses Will Arm Sexual Predators
A coalition of more than 70 civil‑rights and advocacy groups has urged Meta to abandon “Name Tag,” a facial‑recognition feature planned for its Ray‑Ban and Oakley smart glasses. The technology would let wearers instantly identify anyone with a public Instagram...
The Dumbest Hack of the Year Exposed a Very Real Problem
In April 2026 a hacker hijacked Bluetooth‑enabled crosswalk buttons in multiple U.S. cities, uploading spoofed recordings of tech CEOs by exploiting the default password "1234" used by Polara devices. The breach affected intersections in Menlo Park, Redwood City, Palo Alto, Seattle and Denver,...
Your Push Notifications Aren’t Safe From the FBI
The FBI revealed that push‑notification data can survive app removal, allowing encrypted Signal messages to be recovered from a phone’s internal cache. Anthropic announced its Claude Mythos Preview model, limited to a handful of leading tech and finance firms for...
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How the Internet Broke Everyone’s Bullshit Detectors
The rapid rise of AI‑generated and synthetic media is outpacing verification tools, as illustrated by Iran‑linked outlets producing Lego‑style propaganda within 24 hours and the White House’s teaser videos that sparked confusion. Automated traffic now drives about 51% of internet...
The Broken System That Keeps Shipping Crews Stranded in the Strait of Hormuz
Conflict in the Gulf has left roughly 1,900 commercial vessels stranded in the Strait of Hormuz, exposing a systemic failure in maritime ownership and regulation. Seafarers like India’s PK Vijay remain on abandoned ships such as the Mahakal without pay,...
How Trump’s Plot to Grab Iran's Nuclear Fuel Would Actually Work
President Donald Trump is reportedly weighing a ground operation to seize Iran's highly enriched uranium, potentially deploying 3,000 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division. Experts say the mission would target up to ten nuclear facilities, many of which were partially...
ICE Paid the Salaries of This Town’s Entire Police Force
Carroll, New Hampshire, a town of 820 residents, received a $122,515 wire transfer from the Department of Homeland Security after its police force joined the 287(g) Task Force Model. The agreement obligates the town’s four full‑time officers to assist ICE...
Models Are Applying to Be the Face of AI Scams
A growing underground industry in Cambodia and surrounding Southeast Asian hubs is hiring young women as "AI face models" to conduct deep‑fake video calls for cryptocurrency and romance scams. Recruiters post the roles on Telegram, demanding long hours, high call...
DHS Ousts CBP Privacy Officers Who Questioned ‘Illegal’ Orders
The Department of Homeland Security reassigned several senior Customs and Border Protection privacy officials after they objected to a December directive that re‑classified Privacy Threshold Analyses (PTAs) as draft documents exempt from FOIA. The policy would allow the agency to...
A Possible US Government iPhone-Hacking Toolkit Is Now in the Hands of Foreign Spies and Criminals
Google disclosed a sophisticated iPhone‑hacking toolkit called Coruna that exploits 23 iOS vulnerabilities across versions 13 to 17.2.1. The code first appeared in a Russian‑linked espionage campaign against Ukrainian sites, then resurfaced in a criminal operation stealing cryptocurrency from Chinese‑language...
Iran’s Digital Surveillance Machine Is Almost Complete
Iran’s government imposed a near‑total internet shutdown on Jan 8, temporarily crippling even its domestic National Information Network (NIN). Researchers observed that the abrupt blackout deviated from the regime’s refined playbook, suggesting panic or technical failure. The NIN, controlled largely by...
ICE and CBP’s Face-Recognition App Can’t Actually Verify Who People Are
The Department of Homeland Security rolled out the Mobile Fortify app in spring 2025 to let ICE and CBP agents scan faces and generate candidate matches, but the technology cannot positively verify identities. Records show the tool has been used over...
How Data Brokers Can Fuel Violence Against Public Servants
A new Public Service Alliance report finds that state consumer‑privacy statutes fail to shield public employees from data‑broker exploitation, creating a "data‑to‑violence pipeline." The analysis of 19 laws shows no right for officials to compel redaction of personal details from...