Russia Is Cracking Down on End-to-End Encrypted Calls

WIRED copublished an investigation this week with The Markup and CalMatters showing that dozens of data brokers have been hiding their opt-out and personal-data-deletion tools from Google Search, making it harder for people to find and utilize them. The report prompted US senator Maggie Hassan to demand accountability from the companies. WIRED also took a deep dive looking at what the data-analysis giant Palantir actually does.

Reports this week that Russia was likely involved in, or entirely behind, the US Courts records system breach highlight both the stakes of the incident and information that federal investigators seem to still be lacking about what exactly happened. New research is shedding light on the inner workings of the multimillion-dollar gray market for video game cheats. And we’ve got advice on how to protect yourself against portable point-of-sale scams that can steal your credit card data or other information. Plus, researchers at the Defcon security conference in Las Vegas last week provided open source instructions for how to build your own quantum sensor at low cost—complete with a special, crucial diamond.

But wait, there’s more! Each week, we round up the security and privacy news we didn’t cover in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.

Russia started blocking WhatsApp and Telegram calls this week, saying that the encryption schemes the communication platforms use to protect customer calls from interception violate information-sharing requirements between tech companies and the government. The platforms have close to 100 million users each in Russia, according to Al Jazeera and Mediascope. The Kremlin has spent years expanding its mechanisms for internet censorship and control, often under the guise of national security and law enforcement.

A WhatsApp spokesperson told WIRED in a statement that “WhatsApp is private, end-to-end encrypted, and defies government attempts to violate people’s right to secure communication, which is why Russia is trying to block it from over 100 million Russian people.”

Reuters reports that Telegram told Russia’s RBC Daily that it takes steps to address criminal behavior on its platform, including deploying moderators equipped with AI tools to monitor public discourse and communications on the platform that are not end-to-end encrypted. Telegram said it takes down millions of malicious messages each day.

ICE agents inadvertently added a random person to a group chat named “Mass Text,” exposing sensitive discussions including details about a manhunt for a convicted attempted murderer who apparently had been flagged for deportation. The person who was added to the group chat “is not a law enforcement official or associated with the investigation in any way,” according to 404 Media, and “initially thought it was a series of spam messages” after being added to the chat weeks ago.

Messages reportedly included the ICE Field Operations Worksheet for the case, which contains detailed information about the target, as well as communications in which ICE agents appeared to be accessing data from a DMV and license plate readers. The breach is reminiscent of so-called SignalGate, another recent situation in which senior Trump administration cabinet members accidentally included the editor in chief of The Atlantic in a Signal group chat created to plan US air strikes against Houthi rebels in Yemen.

The head of Norway’s security police service, Beate Gangås, said this week that it was Russian hackers who targeted a dam in Norway in April and released millions of gallons of water during the four hours that they had control. The Russian embassy denied the allegations in comments to Reuters. Gangås accused Russia of perpetrating the hack in a speech on Thursday, according to Norwegian media.

Police in England will have more access to facial recognition tools. Ministers announced this week that law enforcement will deploy 10 live facial recognition vans around the country that will be used by seven police forces to aid in investigations related to “sex offenders or people wanted for the most serious crimes,” according to Home Secretary Yvette Cooper. Police have increasingly turned to facial recognition in the United Kingdom in recent years, but the vans will represent an additional expansion in England.