Tesla is in the news again this week, but this time it has nothing to do with fires or Twitter or Elon Musk smoking weed[1]. Instead, it’s because hackers figured out how to steal a Tesla Model S[2] by cloning its key fob. WIRED’s resident car-hacking reporter Andy Greenberg broke that news, and explains why the attack might also work on cars from McLaren and Karma.
Lily Hay Newman has the behind-the-scenes story[3] on how hackers got past British Airways defenses in August, plus an alarming report[4] about how a decade-old technique can break the encryption of just about any computer. Yikes.
Former US Secretary of Defense Ash Carter wrote an op-ed in WIRED[5] Friday arguing that big tech and the government have to find a way to work together or everyone will be screwed. And Trump introduced a new executive order aimed at election interference, but we explain why it’s more a bandaid[6] than a cure.
Plenty of other things happened in the security world this week, too. As always, we’ve rounded up all the news we didn’t break or cover in depth this week. Click on the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there.
Some Apps Geared Toward Kids Are Tracking Their Location[7]
Data tracking is creepy. But data tracking children? Much worse. This week, New Mexico's attorney general filed a lawsuit against Tiny Lab, an app developer behind games like Fun Kid Racing, as well as advertising companies including Google and Twitter, alleging that they violated children’s privacy laws by tracking and sharing data for users under the age of 13. When New York Times reporters looked at other