Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai

@lorenzofb.bsky.social

Real-time historian of the late cyber capitalist era, writing about the intersection of hackers, human rights, and spies.

Writing a book about Hacking Team and the history of government spyware.

☎️ Signal: @LorenzoFB.1337 (+1 917 257 1382)

lorenzofb.com

@evacide.bsky.socialReposted by @lorenzofb.bsky.social

Android has rolled out some new features for Advanced Protection, including intrusion logging, which is especially useful for survivors because nearly all commercially-available Android stalkerware is installed by a person with physical access logging in: blog.google/security/and...

@lorenzofb.bsky.social

NEW: An iPhone hacking company claims it can freeze the iPhone in a state that makes it easier for cops to access data.

The iPhone has an automatic reboot feature that reverts the device to a state where data is harder to extract. This would defeat that feature.

www.404media.co/cops-can-byp...

404media.coCops Can Bypass iPhone’s Automatic Reboot to Get Into Locked Phones, Leaked Video ClaimsMagent Forensics, the owner of the GrayKey phone unlocking tool, says it can bypass an iPhone rebooting feature that was locking cops out.
@zackwhittaker.comReposted by @lorenzofb.bsky.social

Apple has released a security update for iPhones and iPads running the older iOS/iPadOS 26 software, fixing a bug that Apple says was "exploited in an extremely sophisticated attack against specific targeted individuals on versions of iOS before iOS 27." Meta discovered the flaw/attack.

@josephcox.bsky.socialReposted by @lorenzofb.bsky.social

New from 404 Media: the group that hacked the FBI and stole data on "all FBI employees" says it won't publish the data. The group gave the FBI a one week countdown. Now says won't publish at all. Still represents a massive national security/counterintelligence risk www.404media.co/fbi-hackers-...

404media.coFBI Hackers Say They Won’t Publish Massive Trove of FBI Employee DataShinyHunters, the group that stole data on “all FBI employees” including addresses and details on their spouses, told 404 Media on Monday “Since the very beginning we had made our decision that we wou...
@lorenzofb.bsky.social

Italian zero-day maker Dataflow Security generated €63 million in revenue in three years, and the company also has strong ties with former Israeli intelligence veterans, according to an investigation by @irpimedia.eu.

irpimedia.irpi.eu/en-inside-th...

irpimedia.irpi.euInside the secretive cyberweapons company that won over Israel’s intelligence eliteFounded in Italy by a young hacker, Dataflow develops code to break into computers and smartphones. Since January, its operations in Israel have been led by Eyal Tsir Cohen, a former senior Mossad off...
@josephcox.bsky.socialReposted by @lorenzofb.bsky.social

New: from 404 Media. The catastrophic FBI hack also exposed the FBI's own hacking unit. The Remote Operations Unit is a highly secretive part of the FBI, responsible for making tools to break into peoples' devices. Some of their names and addresses are in the data www.404media.co/fbi-hack-exp...

404media.coFBI Hack Exposed FBI’s Own Hacking UnitThe FBI's Remote Operations Unit (ROU) is a highly secretive team of hackers making exploits and tools to break into target’s devices. Some of its members just got exposed.
@josephcox.bsky.socialReposted by @lorenzofb.bsky.social

New: hackers say they have personal data on all FBI employees and spouses. I got a sample of 5,000 alleged employees, including name, physical address, phone number, and in some cases spouses. Could be a massive national security and counterintelligence risk www.404media.co/we-hacked-th...

404media.co‘We Hacked the FBI:’ Hackers Say They Have Data on All FBI EmployeesA sample of 5,000 alleged agents seen by 404 Media includes names, addresses, phone numbers, and details on FBI employees' spouses.
@lorenzofb.bsky.social

I want to say that teaming up with @zackwhittaker.com, one of the most experienced cyber journalists out there, to cover the mostly awful corners of the hacking world, was truly an incredible experience, and I will miss it a lot.

I wish the whole team at TechCrunch the best in these tough times.

@lorenzofb.bsky.social

~ Personal news ~  I left TechCrunch. I will now focus on finishing my book about Hacking Team and the history of government spyware. After that, and in the meantime as well, I will be freelancing. Contact me: [email protected] or Signal @LorenzoFB.1337 (+1 917 257 1382)

A masked puppet comes out of a keyboard.
@josephcox.bsky.socialReposted by @lorenzofb.bsky.social

New from 404 Media: humans are reading ChatGPT conversations.

OpenAI has hired an army of contractors who read real ChatGPT users' chats. I've seen internal docs, the review system, and real user prompts. Sometimes they contain very personal and sensitive information www.404media.co/inside-proje...

@zackwhittaker.comReposted by @lorenzofb.bsky.social

New: Florida and Texas are moving to block or end their use of license plate surveillance tech, like Flock, citing privacy concerns and police abuse. The backlash against Flock is both growing and increasingly bipartisan.

Bypass for ad-blockers: web.archive.org/web/20260901...

@lorenzofb.bsky.social

NEW: Could AI make software so secure that it will make it harder for governments to use hacking tools and spyware? To try to answer that question, I spoke to cybersecurity and privacy experts, and people with experience finding and exploiting security flaws that can be then sold to governments.

@lorenzofb.bsky.social

NEW: I recapped all the times AI agents went “rogue”—so to speak—and hacked third parties. There have been 17 cases already, with OpenAI and Anthropic leading the race, per a website keeping tally. And those are the ones we know about. I apologize for all the whoopses that appear in this article.

techcrunch.comHere’s all the times AI has gone rogue and hacked other companies | TechCrunchA recap of all the incidents involving LLMs made by Anthropic, Meta, and OpenAI, which went rogue and attacked real companies and individuals on the internet.
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