After limiting the release of its new Mythos-class AI model due to concerns about its potential impacts on cybersecurity, Anthropic this week announced a model upgrade for partners in its limited-access group and launched a “secure” version of the model to the public with guardrails aimed at preventing the system from being used to fuel cyberattacks. Meanwhile, the United States Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency issued a new directive to federal agencies this week in response to new AI threats that includes requiring them to patch the most urgent software vulnerabilities in at least three days.
As Europe looks to distance itself from US Big Tech, WIRED has created a timeline that tracks all the ways EU governments, companies and other organizations are moving away from US tech. A new open-source project called Encrypted Spaces can be used to make countless mainstream collaboration apps more private and surveillance-resistant with end-to-end encryption. Illegal pharmacies and scam websites hijacked Spotify’s search rankings by using fake podcasts, according to a new Joint US Congress report.
The 2026 World Cup is in full swing, and WIRED took a look at the surveillance technologies ranging from anti-drone technology to facial recognition that are being used in U.S., Canadian, and Mexican stadiums. We also mapped every Swarm license plate reader near a US World Cup stadium. More broadly, Amnesty International said this week that it had concluded that fans in all three host countries – both local residents and visitors – would face potential human rights violations as a result of the FIFA tournament.
The American Civil Liberties Union is suing two Florida police departments over the use of FACES, one of the longest-running facial recognition tools in the US, after its alleged misuse led to the wrongful arrest of a Fort Myers man. Meanwhile, Donald Trump put the future of a major surveillance authority at risk after selecting Bill Pulte, who has been described as “grossly incompetent”, as acting director of national intelligence. (Trump has selected an alternate nominee for the permanent role.)
There is so much more. Each week, we round up security and privacy news that we haven’t covered in depth ourselves. Click on titles to read full stories. And stay safe there.
As difficult as digital anonymity has become in the modern world, obtaining a phone number without disclosing almost any identifying information – whether purchasing a temporary burner phone or registering an account with a privacy-preserving phone carrier – remains perfectly legal in the US. Now the Federal Communications Commission wants to change that.
Late last month, the FCC issued a proposal for a new rule that would impose Know Your Customer requirements for cellular networks, requiring cellular providers to “obtain and maintain at least the name, physical address, government-issued identification number, and an alternate telephone number of any new and renewing customer before providing access to their services.” The proposal has been described as a measure similar to anti-money laundering laws, making it more difficult for scammers to exploit phone networks. But privacy advocates argue that it also jeopardizes the last means of anonymity for those trying to avoid phone surveillance – whether they are journalists, whistleblowers, activists, or simply people trying to avoid mass data collection in another aspect of their communications.
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