Security, Spoken

The Democratic National Committee Friday filed a lawsuit against a broad slate of people and entities allegedly responsible for the 2016 hack of its email, phone calls, and more. But while the suit claims involvement from a host of headliners—Wikileaks, Julian Assange, Donald Trump, Jr., and Russia among them—its immediate importance lies in the previously unreported timeline it lays out. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Each year since 2011, the security firm SplashData has released a list of the most commonly used passwords, based on caches of leaked account credentials. The annual list, intended as a reminder of humanity’s poor password practices, always includes predictable entries like “abc123,” “123456,” and “letmein.” But one entry, finishing in the top 20 every year, has stood out since the beginning: "dragon. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Facebook profiles have become the de-facto identities of people across the internet. This is thanks, in large part, to Login With Facebook, the social network's universal login API, which allows users to carry their profile information to other apps and websites. You've probably used it to log in to services like Spotify, Airbnb, and Tinder. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Less than an hour into a Tinder date in a Moscow restaurant last year, Patrick Wardle began to wonder about the laptop he'd left in his hotel room. Wardle had come to the city for a security conference; as a former NSA staffer who'd worked on the elite hacking unit known as Tailored Access Operations, he was paranoid enough to bring only a "burner" PC on his trip, carefully stripped of any sensitive information. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

For its first year in office, the Trump administration seemed soft on Russia's hyper-aggressive hackers, reluctant even to point out they'd brazenly meddled in the US election. Then, just two months ago, the White House suddenly came out swinging, calling out Russia for its massively disruptive NotPetya malware and intrusions into the US power grid, and imposing new sanctions in response. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

In September, security researchers at Cisco Talos and Morphisec made a worst nightmare-type disclosure: the ubiquitous computer cleanup tool CCleaner had been compromised by hackers for more than a month. The software updates users were downloading from CCleaner owner Avast—a security company itself—had been tainted with a malware backdoor. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Have you used a friend's laptop to charge your iPhone and gotten a prompt that says, "Trust This Computer?" Say yes, and the computer will be able to access your phone settings and data while they're connected. And while it doesn't feel like your answer really matters—your phone will charge either way—researchers from Symantec warn that this seemingly minor decision has much higher stakes than you'd think. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The bulk of major corporate hacks follow time-tested strategies, like phishing emails that trick employees into giving up their credentials, or hackers exploiting a bug in a web portal. While effective, these strategies also open an attacker to early detection. So increasingly, hackers have taken the scenic route—through the Internet of Things. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

The adult website Pornhub has of late taken pride in being something of a pioneer. A year ago, it implemented HTTPS encryption, making it safer for users to click without being snooped on. Last fall, it introduced a suite of accessibility features for its blind and visually impaired users. And Tuesday, it began accepting Verge, a privacy-focused cryptocurrency Pornhub is not by any stretch the first adult site to accept cryptocurrency. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices

Today, the White House confirmed that cybersecurity coordinator Rob Joyce will head back to the National Security Agency, where he previously ran the nation’s top hacking team. His departure comes just a week after Tom Bossert, Trump’s cybersecurity czar and Joyce’s boss, was forced out—and leaves the administration without two trusted voices on one of the most important challenges the US faces going forward. Learn about your ad choices: dovetail.prx.org/ad-choices