America's drinking water is under attack

June 26, 2024

Water systems in Kansas, Texas and Pennsylvania have already been hit by hackers in China, Russia and Iran. Plus, clothes that block 5G waves, AI coming to Alexa, and Walmart’s new digital pricing. We also chat with Joseph Cox about his book “Dark Wire,” which is about Anom, the FBI’s secret app used by criminals.

Tags: 5G, AI (artificial intelligence), Amazon Alexa, apps, books/e-books, Chat, China, clothes, Cox, criminals, cyberattacks, digital, download, FBI, hackers, Iran, Kansas, open, Plus, pricing, Russia, safe, secret, systems, Texas, U.S, Walmart, water

How to stop spam texts for good

Remember back in the day when you didn’t think twice about putting your cell number and email address into any form that asked for it? If you’re thinking, “Uh, Kim, I still do that,” I’m about to make your life so much easier.

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💣 Underwater tech for my history buffs: Remote-controlled German robots are tackling a massive task — clearing WW2 bombs from the North and Baltic seas. As 1.6 million tons of old munitions rust, they’re releasing carcinogenic substances and other toxins.

Chilean gang caught planting cameras

If something feels off, then it probably is. These people are working hard to get your valuables, and I’ll warn you what to watch for.

1 in 10 executives

Say their company has faced a deepfake attack. This year, one worker joined a deepfake video call with his “teammates” that was so convincing, he wired $25 million to the scammers. Companies going through IPOs, mergers or reorgs are most at risk.

Glassdoor’s new rule? Full name and job title on your profile. You can still post reviews anonymously, but many folks are jumping ship over privacy concerns. I wouldn’t bet on those reviews staying anonymous.

Deepfake 'endorsements'

Don’t believe everything you see on the internet. It’s easier than ever to fake famous faces.

AI gone wild: A social media influencer created an AI clone to act as a virtual girlfriend. She charged followers $1 per minute for audio chats and raked in $70,000 a week. Then, the AI went rogue, playing along with dark fantasies and initiating explicit conversations the influencer says horrified her. Yeah, I warned you about this.

A dangerous Google Chrome scam: It’s planting malware that starts with a pop-up when you try to open a webpage or document. It’ll then tell you to copy and paste text into Windows PowerShell. No, don’t do this. Time to add a trusted ad blocker to your browser to avoid this scam and the thousands of others that get you the same way.

280 million

Chrome users who have installed shady extensions in the past three years. These extensions included malware and often asked for advanced permissions during installation. On average, dangerous extensions stayed in the Chrome store for over a year before getting the boot. Good job there, Google.

📧 Mark Cuban scammed: The billionaire received strange notifications in Gmail before answering a phone call from someone ready to fix his account. He bought it, hook, line and sinker. Reminder: Google will never ask for passwords or verification codes over the phone, email or messages.