It’s been an insane week—in the security world and beyond. As Brett Kavanaugh's Supreme Court nomination hearings captivated the nation, the information war to sway public opinion raged, mirroring a real warzone[1].
In case you didn’t have time to follow everything else that happened, here’s a quick rundown. Though technically the news of Facebook’s massive breach broke last Friday, the repercussions were still being felt and figured out this week. But as the enormity of that internet-wide disaster[2] settled in, an even more troubling report[3] alleged that China-backed hackers had infiltrated the supply chain of major American tech companies, implanting spy chips into servers. We reported[4] why such an unprecedented attack is a “scary big deal,” and one for which there is no easy fix.
You can distract yourself from the geopolitical implications of that hack by reading about why it’s legal for cops in the US[5] to force you to unlock your iPhone with your face. Malware has a new way[6] to hide on your Mac. A simple bug hit[7] Cox Communications customers. A startup breach exposed[8] billions of data points. Russian spies infiltrated hotel Wi-Fi[9] to hack their victims up close.
In good news, old Androids got a security upgrade. And in weird news, FEMA sent out the first “presidential” text alert, which some people tried to avoid, and others didn’t receive.[10][11][12][13]
And there's more! 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.