A group calling itself the Department of Peace breached an Okta single sign-on system used by the Department of Homeland Security, stealing names, contact details and job assignments for more than 41,000 employees, including CBP and ICE workers. The stolen data was published in a searchable tool called Icepick on the Distributed Denial of Secrets site, built with help from researcher maia arson crimew. DHS confirmed it is aware of a 'potential breach' and is working to address it.
cnet.com
· 2026-10-29
The Federal Trade Commission has sent formal information requests to nine companies, including Walmart, Uber and Delta, demanding details on how they use consumer data to set prices. The agency says it wants to determine whether firms are charging individual consumers the highest price they are willing to pay based on personal data collected about them.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-10-29
A 1964 letter the FBI's domestic intelligence chief William Sullivan sent to Martin Luther King Jr.'s home, accompanied by tapes of King's extramarital affairs, urged King to take his own life. The full unredacted text, uncovered by Yale historian Beverly Gage, was published by the New York Times in November 2014 after being sent to King's wife, who opened the package.
vox.com
· 2026-10-29
Dayton's city council voted on August 25 to suspend Flock's license plate reader program amid privacy concerns, and the city told Flock on September 18 that no work orders should proceed. Despite this, Flock submitted a work order on September 17 and later reinstalled two cameras without city authorization, prompting Dayton's local government to post on Facebook on September 29 confirming residents had spotted the cameras and that police were ordered to remove them.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-10-29
Apple and Microsoft were added on October 2 to Russia's 'organizers of information dissemination' registry maintained by regulator Roskomnadzor, Bloomberg reported. The designation requires them to store Russian users' messages, calls and video communications for three years and hand that data to security services upon request, or face fines and potential service restrictions. Google Meet, WhatsApp, Telegram, Snapchat, Cloudflare and Blizzard are already on the same list.
9to5mac.com
· 2026-10-29
St. Lucie County, Florida found 12 unpermitted Flock Safety license-plate cameras during a countywide removal effort; five were later claimed by the Port St. Lucie and Fort Pierce police departments, while seven remain unclaimed and unexplained. County spokesperson Erick Gill said the county's priority was removal, not identifying owners, giving operators 30 days to take cameras down without facing questions.
arstechnica.com
· 2026-10-28
Defense attorneys for 15 Minnesota residents facing federal conspiracy charges have obtained internal DHS/ICE records—reports, intercepted Signal chats, emails, photos and database queries—documenting investigations codenamed Project Whipple Shield and Operation Puppet Master. The operations were authorized under National Security Presidential Memorandum 7, issued after Charlie Kirk's assassination, which directs federal agencies to use all available tools against critics of the administration and groups deemed 'anti-Christian.'
wired.com
· 2026-10-28
The ACLU has documented cases where police stopped drivers based only on AI-powered automatic license plate reader (ALPR) data flagging their travel as 'suspicious,' with no other cause. In one 2025 case, a woman driving through multiple states to Florida was pulled over by a self-identified FBI agent after her out-of-state plate and travel pattern looked unusual in the ALPR database. These nationwide camera networks, often built by Flock, let authorities search vehicle movements without a warrant.
techspot.com
· 2026-10-28
The American Economic Liberties Project says Kroger's proposed $1.65 billion acquisition of Giant Eagle, which would add over 200 stores to Kroger's existing 2,700, could do more than reshape grocery competition. The advocacy group warns the merger could also combine or expand surveillance infrastructure, including Flock cameras and Cooler Screens technology, across a larger customer base. Kroger has denied using facial recognition for pricing but acknowledges using it for security at some locations; neither company responded to requests for comment.
theverge.com
· 2026-10-28
Security researchers say they have detected signs of a large-scale surveillance operation directed at users of SpaceX's Starlink satellite internet service. The findings point to monitoring activity concentrated in countries where Starlink access is officially banned or restricted.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-10-27
Reuters reports that Discover-Tech, an Israeli advertising technology company, has been identified as the entity behind 'Shadow-Earth-79,' a codename used by Trend Micro's research arm TrendAI for suspicious ad-auction bidding tied to Starlink traffic across more than 100 countries. The bidding was concentrated in conflict zones like Syria, Libya, Yemen and South Sudan, but researchers say they have no evidence that any individual was actually tracked.
tomshardware.com
· 2026-10-27
The ACLU has raised concerns that police departments are using automated license plate reader systems to analyze drivers' travel patterns and flag them as 'suspicious,' leading to traffic stops. The organization says this surveillance technology tracks vehicle movements over time rather than just checking plates against watchlists, raising questions about how such stops are justified.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-10-27
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