Lightnews — Scholar-powered news

Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Kate Bevan @katebevan.com · 1d

This is an absolutely cracking book. Highly recommended.

Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 1d

Today's the day: DARK WIRE, my book on how the FBI secretly ran a tech company for criminals and wiretapped the world, coming to paperback. Updated with many more details. An Economist and FT book of the year. 404 Media subs: you just got 20% to your email www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/josep...

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Dr Stephanie Hare @dr-harebrain.bsky.social · 1d

New Race-Day Worry for the Chicago Marathon: Immigration Enforcement

Tensions over the federal intervention in the city have many runners worried about what to expect during the race

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/07/u...

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai @lorenzofb.bsky.social · 1d

NEW: ICE purchased custom-made vans from a company called TechOps Specialty Vehicles (TOSV) that are equipped with fake cellphone towers designed to spy on phones.

TOSV president said the company integrates the cell-site simulators into their vans, but does not manufacture the surveillance tool.

ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones | TechCrunch

The federal contract shows ICE spent $825,000 on vans equipped with “cell-site simulators” which allow the real-world location tracking of nearby phones and their owners.

techcrunch.com

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Joe Tidy BBC News @joetidy.bsky.social · 1d

Two teens arrested over Kido nursery chain hack. Police say the 17-year-olds were arrested at residential addresses in Bishop's Stortford, Hertfordshire, on suspicion of computer misuse and blackmail. A rapid police response to a hack that's shocked the cyber world. www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Two arrested over cyber-attack on nursery chain

Hackers were said to have stolen the photographs, names and addresses of about 8,000 children.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Zeyi Yang 杨泽毅 @zeyiyang.bsky.social · 6d

TIRED: The US is purging H-1B workers.
WIRED: China is rolling out its K visa to recruit foreign science and tech talents.
EXPIRED: It's causing a wave of racist and xenophobic backlash inside China as well. 😬

China Rolls Out Its First Talent Visa as the US Retreats on H-1Bs

The Chinese government unveiled a program to woo foreign talent just as the US cracked down on H-1Bs with a $100,000 fee. The move immediately provoked xenophobic backlash.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Reece @thiccreese.bsky.social · 7d

Whether it’s your friends, influencers, or random strangers online, Sora frames generating deepfake videos as a form of scrollable fun.

The app’s main feed is an endless scroll of bite-sized AI slop featuring deepfaked human faces.

www.wired.com/story/openai...

OpenAI's New Sora App Lets You Deepfake Yourself for Entertainment

OpenAI’s latest app encourages users to generate a personal digital avatar and scroll AI-generated videos of themselves and their friends.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Vittoria Elliott @telliotter.bsky.social · 7d

SCOOP: Federal workers are being told to blame democrats for the shutdown. At SBA workers got an email suggesting they set out-of-office replies blaming Democrats for the shutdown and at HUD internal systems have a pop-up blaming "the Radical Left."

@wired.com

www.wired.com/story/govern...

Federal Workers Are Being Told to Blame Democrats for the Shutdown

Workers at one agency were given unhinged, partisan language to use when setting out-of-office replies.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Joseph Cox @josephcox.bsky.social · 8d

New from 404 Media: ICE to buy tool that tracks locations of hundreds of millions of phones every day. Billions of pieces of location data. ICE previously stopped using data remotely harvested from smartphones. Now it's buying it again. Usually used w/o warrant
www.404media.co/ice-to-buy-t...

ICE to Buy Tool that Tracks Locations of Hundreds of Millions of Phones Every Day

Documents show that ICE has gone back on its decision to not use location data remotely harvested from peoples' phones. The database is updated every day with billions of pieces of location data.

www.404media.co

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

WIRED @wired.com · 9d

Anthropic is starting to train its models on new Claude chats. If you’re using the bot and don’t want your chats used as training data, here’s how to opt out. www.wired.com/story/anthro...

Anthropic Will Use Claude Chats for Training Data. Here’s How to Opt Out

Anthropic is starting to train its models on new Claude chats. If you’re using the bot and don’t want your chats used as training data, here’s how to opt out.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Joe Tidy BBC News @joetidy.bsky.social · 10d

'You'll never need to work again': Criminals offer reporter money to hack BBC.
I recently got offered millions of pounds to give cyber criminals from the Medusa gang my BBC login. I played along to learn about how these 'insider threat' deals work.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

'You'll never need to work again': Criminals offer reporter money to hack BBC

Reporter Joe Tidy was offered money if he would help cyber criminals access BBC systems.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Katie Drummond @katie-drummond.bsky.social · 14d

"This used to be the best job I’ve ever had, the best environment I’ve ever had, the best culture I’ve ever had—and they fucking ruined it.

I will never ever forget how much they ruined it."

The Story of DOGE, as Told by Federal Workers

WIRED spoke with more than 200 federal workers in dozens of agencies to learn what happened as the Department of Government Efficiency tore through their offices.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Vittoria Elliott @telliotter.bsky.social · 14d

NEW! A Senate report claims that DOGE has put *every* American’s social security number at risk; that staff at GSA, OPM, and SSA wouldn’t or couldn’t say what DOGE was doing; and that agencies claimed that DOGE actually doesn’t exist at all.

For @wired.com

www.wired.com/story/armed-...

Armed Guards and Muscle Milk: Senate Investigation Reveals DOGE Takeover Details

A new Senate report claims DOGE put every American's Social Security number at risk—and that officials at federal agencies essentially obstructed an investigation, all but denying DOGE even exists.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

David Gilbert @davidgilbert.bsky.social · 14d

NEW

WIRED led the way in reporting on Elon Musk's efforts to dismantle the US government. My colleagues and I spoke to 100s of employees at dozens of agencies to understand what happened.

This is the definitive story of DOGE as told by those who experienced it

www.wired.com/story/oral-h...

The Story of DOGE, as Told by Federal Workers

WIRED spoke with more than 200 federal workers in dozens of agencies to learn what happened as the Department of Government Efficiency tore through their offices.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Sanya Burgess @sanyaburgess.bsky.social · 14d

NEW: I found video of a Russian military cadet school. The kids march to the national anthem. But not all the pupils are Russian - with the school boasting the cohort inc abducted Ukrainian children. These stolen kids are being trained to fight against their birth country inews.co.uk/news/world/s...

Stolen Ukrainian children are trained to throw grenades and build drones for Russia

Grenade-throwing competitons and shooting practice are on the military curriculum for some Ukrainian children abducted by Russia

inews.co.uk

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

WIRED @wired.com · 14d

WIRED spoke with more than 200 federal workers in dozens of agencies to learn what happened as the Department of Government Efficiency tore through their offices. www.wired.com/story/oral-h...

The Story of DOGE, as Told by Federal Workers

WIRED spoke with more than 200 federal workers in dozens of agencies to learn what happened as the Department of Government Efficiency tore through their offices.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Patch Thompson @patchthompson.bsky.social · 15d

Anyway, here is some actually incredible news

www.bbc.co.uk/news/article...

Huntington's disease successfully treated for first time

One of the most devastating diseases finally has a treatment that can slow its progression and transform lives, tearful doctors tell BBC.

www.bbc.co.uk

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Andy Greenberg @agreenberg.bsky.social · 15d

A giant SIM farm in the NY area with 100,000 SIMs was most likely used for spam/scams and even swatting US officials—which led the feds to find and dismantle it.

(Speculation it was going to be used to attack the the UN General Assembly seems like...a bit of a leap.)

www.wired.com/story/sim-fa...

‘SIM Farms’ Are a Spam Plague. A Giant One in New York Threatened US Infrastructure, Feds Say

The agency says it found a network of some 300 servers and 100,000 SIM cards—enough to knock out cell service in the NYC area. Experts say it mirrors facilities typically used for cybercrime.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Andrew Couts @couts.bsky.social · 15d

NEW: Here's our report on the "SIM farm" the Secret Service discovered, which hopefully helps better explain what the hell is up with all this. @agreenberg.bsky.social, @lhn.bsky.social, & @mattburgess1.bsky.social report: www.wired.com/story/sim-fa...

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Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 16d

JLR’s factory shutdown has been extended for at least another week until Oct 1.

“We have made this decision to give clarity for the coming week as we build the timeline for the phased restart of our operations and continue our investigation.”

Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 17d

NEW from me: It's been three weeks since JLR shut down factories after a cyberattack—losing tens of millions as a result.

We know little about the specifics of that hack, but the shutdown is on the verge of creating a full-blown crisis for hundreds of JLR suppliers, who are laying off staff

A Cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover Is Causing a Supply Chain Disaster

The UK-based automaker has been forced to stop vehicle production as a result of the attack—costing JLR tens of millions of dollars and forcing its parts suppliers to lay off workers.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Noah Shachtman @noahshachtman.bsky.social · 17d

Is Elon's Mars talk overblown? Total B.S.? Maybe even a deliberate distraction?

That's what one Musk admirer — and well-regarded space analyst — told me for my new feature for @wired.com.

Let me explain. (1/x)

www.wired.com/story/elon-m...

Elon Musk Is Out to Rule Space. Can Anyone Stop Him?

With SpaceX and Starlink, Elon Musk controls more than half the world’s rocket launches and thousands of internet satellites. That amounts to immense geopolitical power.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Angela Watercutter @waterslicer.bsky.social · 17d

Huge week here @wired.com as we're rolling out our Politics Issue. First up, check out this cover, which we're also posting all over cities across the US.

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Steven Levy @stevenlevy.bsky.social · 17d

When @wired asked me to look at Silicon Valley in the age of Trump, I saw the crash of the idealism that originally drew founders--and me--to the tech revolution. Selling out the dream will not serve those moguls (or us) well. www.wired.com/story/silico...

I Thought I Knew Silicon Valley. I Was Wrong

Tech got what it wanted by electing Trump. A year later, it looks more like a suicide pact.

www.wired.com

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Reposted by Matt Burgess (WIRED)

Katie Drummond @katie-drummond.bsky.social · 17d

Here it is: The @wired.com Politics Issue is now live, with more stories rolling out all week. We're so proud of this one.

Behold this cover; truly a work of art.

And we're treating it that way: Starting today, you can find it on murals, billboards, and posters across in five U.S. cities.

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Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 17d

NEW from me: It's been three weeks since JLR shut down factories after a cyberattack—losing tens of millions as a result.

We know little about the specifics of that hack, but the shutdown is on the verge of creating a full-blown crisis for hundreds of JLR suppliers, who are laying off staff

A Cyberattack on Jaguar Land Rover Is Causing a Supply Chain Disaster

The UK-based automaker has been forced to stop vehicle production as a result of the attack—costing JLR tens of millions of dollars and forcing its parts suppliers to lay off workers.

www.wired.com

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Matt Burgess (WIRED) @mattburgess1.bsky.social · 17d

I Thought I Knew Silicon Valley. I Was Wrong

Tech got what it wanted by electing Trump. A year later, it looks more like a suicide pact.

www.wired.com

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