Mastodawn

FCC lets Nexstar buy Tegna, creating Trump-approved broadcaster reaching 80% of US
Brendan Carr lets Trump-favorite Nexstar exceed national station ownership limit.
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/03/fcc-lets-nexstar-buy-tegna-creating-trump-approved-broadcaster-reaching-80-of-us/?utm_brand=arstechnica&utm_social-type=owned&utm_source=mastodon&utm_medium=social

Nathan Gillespie Mar 11

Zack Whittaker Mar 11

Breaking from vacation because this is huge/👀.

Per Burgess Everett on Bluesky: Sen. Ron Wyden says there's secret classified info in 702 surveillance program about Americans' privacy.

Americans "are going to be stunned that it took so long and that Congress has been debating this authority with insufficient information."

FAA 702 already allows warrantless surveillance of Americans' comms. Can't think how this extends. Collection of wholly domestic communications?

https://www.semafor.com/newsletter/03/10/2026/pm-semafor-washington-dc-threat-level

🟡 PM Semafor Washington, DC: Threat level | Semafor

In this afternoon’s edition: The Trump administration is split on how to communicate potential Iran-linked domestic threats.

Nathan Gillespie Mar 4

John Siracusa Mar 4

The A18 Pro in the MacBook Neo is 19% faster than the M2 Ultra in the Mac Pro in single-core performance (Geekbench 6).

The MacBook Neo starts at $599.

The Mac Pro, which is still for sale, starts at $6,999.

Nathan Gillespie Mar 4

Zack Whittaker Mar 4

It's absolutely insane to me that in this day and age a company would reject end-to-end encryption so that cops and feds can actively read people's messages. It also puts that same data at risk from hackers. But that's TikTok, under new U.S. ownership.

https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cly2m5e5ke4o

TikTok says it won't encrypt DMs claiming it puts users at risk

TikTok tells the BBC it won't join rival platforms such as WhatsApp and Messenger in using end-to-end encryption.

Nathan Gillespie Mar 1

Zack Whittaker Mar 1

A busy ~ this week in security ~ looking at why U.S. deeemed Anthropic a national security supply chain risk; CISA's acting director fails up to DHS; a bunch of data breaches, a Cisco zero-day under attack since 2023, and how AI slop hurts bug bounties. Plus, heads up if you use Amazon wish-lists. Also: good news in the happy corner, and a brand new cyber-cat, and much more. 🐈‍⬛

Read online: https://this.weekinsecurity.com/this-week-in-security-march-1-2026-edition/

this week in security — march 1 2026 edition

U.S. deems Anthropic national security supply chain risk, CISA's acting director replaced, Marquis sues SonicWall over data breach, new Wi-Fi attack, and more.

~this week in security~

Nathan Gillespie Feb 2

Zack Whittaker Feb 2

NEW: The developer of the long-running and popular open source text editor Notepad++ has confirmed that China government-backed hackers hijacked the software's update feature for months during 2025.

The hackers could access computers of victims who were running hijacked versions of Notepad++.

https://techcrunch.com/2026/02/02/notepad-says-chinese-government-hackers-hijacked-its-software-updates-for-months

Notepad++ says Chinese government hackers hijacked its software updates for months | TechCrunch

The developer of the popular text editor Notepad++ said hackers associated with the Chinese government hijacked its software update mechanism to deliver tainted software to users for months.

TechCrunch

Nathan Gillespie Jan 30

Christina Warren Jan 30

So we know AI is making it easier for people to submit low-quality PRs or contributions to projects on GitHub and the team is actively looking at short-term and long-term solutions to try to make this better. Would love your input/feedback as well any other pain points so we can try to make the experience better. Feel free to reply here or on this thread #opensource #github https://github.com/orgs/community/discussions/185387

Exploring Solutions to Tackle Low-Quality Contributions on GitHub · community · Discussion #185387

Hey everyone, I wanted to provide an update on a critical issue affecting the open source community: the increasing volume of low-quality contributions that is creating significant operational chal...

GitHub

Nathan Gillespie Jan 14

Zack Whittaker Jan 14

This is utterly insane, almost unheard of. This morning, the FBI *searched the home* of a Washington Post reporter, and seized her phone and smart watch, as part of an investigation into an alleged leak of classified info. by a government employee. (The federal case appears to be 1:26-mj-00045.)

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/01/14/washington-post-reporter-search/

FBI executes search warrant at Washington Post reporter’s home

The search came as part of an investigation into a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials.

The Washington Post

Nathan Gillespie Jan 8

Jason Koebler Jan 8

ICE has recently bought the capability of monitoring the location histories of entire neighborhoods worth of phones. The data is likely harvested from apps that sell your data, which filters up through data brokers and eventually to companies that sell to ICE:

https://www.404media.co/inside-ices-tool-to-monitor-phones-in-entire-neighborhoods/

Inside ICE’s Tool to Monitor Phones in Entire Neighborhoods

404 Media has obtained material that explains how Tangles and Webloc, two surveillance systems ICE recently purchased, work. Webloc can track phones without a warrant and follow their owners home or to their employer.

404 Media

Nathan Gillespie Dec 10

Christian Selig Dec 10

Heard about the RAM price increases. Can't believe I paid $138 for this months ago holy crap