A hackable robotic lawn mower opens up a new nightmare

Crash for the finals It’s bad enough without suddenly shutting down the platform you use to do your schoolwork. Unfortunately for countless students across the United States, that is exactly what they faced the following Thursday Canvas went into “maintenance mode” After a ransomware attack on the educational technology company Instructure. Hackers use the name ShinyHunters It claimed responsibility for the hack, and experts say that the chaos it caused shows the extent to which these parties will go to blackmail their victims.

Did you know that Google Chrome includes an automatic download of the Gemini Nano AI model? If not, you won’t be alone. People using Google’s popular browser realized this week that Gemini Nano has been taking up 4GB of space on their desktops since 2024, sparking alarm and concerns about privacy. Fortunately, You can disable the AI ​​model— but not without losing some useful security features. Obviously you can just as well Download a different browser for free.

Researchers revealed this this week Thousands of encrypted applications were left exposed On the open web, disclosure of corporate data and sensitive personal data. The security failures serve as a reminder: just because You can program something Doesn’t necessarily mean you should.

The Department of Homeland Security summoned Google in an attempt Get location data and account activity for a Canadian man who criticized US immigration enforcement tactics in the wake of the killing Rene is good and Alex Pretty In Minneapolis early this year. This week, the American Civil Liberties Union filed a complaint against the Department of Homeland Security on behalf of the man, who has not visited the United States in more than 10 years.

Scammers, low-level hackers and other cybercriminals have joined the ranks of humanity Longing for freedom from the decline of artificial intelligenceaccording to new research. Meanwhile, Meta is developing age verification technology after a study found that children are cheating online age verifications using simple techniques – including one child hero who… Circumvent online age verification by drawing on a fake mustache. Finally, we detail Russia’s efforts to create a local competitor to Starlink Satellite Internet service – with all the privacy and security concerns that entails.

And there’s more. Every week we round up security and privacy news that we haven’t covered in depth ourselves. Click on the titles to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.

Most people hope that a 200-pound robot with blades in their backyard can’t be easily hacked. Unfortunately for the owners of the Yarbo, a $5,000 lawn mower robot that can also function as a leaf blower, snow blower, and edger, that wasn’t the case. The Verge reports that a security researcher found several botnet vulnerabilities that could allow hackers to take control of devices remotely (including their camera feeds), as well as extract owners’ email addresses, Wi-Fi passwords, and home locations.

After a Yarbo spokesperson told The Verge that “the bot’s diagnostic environment is not publicly available,” the reporter and researcher demonstrated the security flaws and their potential consequences by nearly running over the reporter with a hijacked bot. The company has since reported that it is developing a fix for at least one of the flaws identified by the researcher.

Meta Mark Zuckerberg has Withdrew support As for end-to-end encrypted messages on Instagram, it backed away from its plans to protect people’s privacy by providing messages the company can’t snoop on. The company stopped offering encryption on Instagram on May 8, making it easier for the company to technically access direct messages.

After spending Years of building encryption systems Needed to secure its chat apps, Meta said in 2023 that it would roll out default encryption for Messenger. She also said she’s offering an Instagram subscribeable version, which is what she has planned It eventually becomes the default setting. However, that day never came, as Meta decided in March of this year that not enough people had signed up, and it would remove the option to encrypt Instagram chats. This shift has angered privacy and security experts who fear this could happen A rollback could hurt end-to-end encryption efforts All over the world.

The Trump administration revealed a new matter Counter-terrorism strategywhich President Donald Trump described as “a return to common sense and peace through strength” in a foreword included in the document. The three largest types of terrorist groups, according to the document, are cartels, Islamist terrorist groups, and “violent left-wing extremists,” which the memo says include anarchists and anti-fascists, and have “anti-American” and “radically pro-trans” ideologies.

The memo promises: “We will use all tools constitutionally available to us to map them at home, determine their membership, map their relationships with international organizations like Antifa, and use law enforcement tools to practically paralyze them before they can maim or kill innocents.”