This always works.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
lorenzofb_at_infosec.exchange@momostr.pink
npub1xvwy...ksg7
Real-time cyber historian of the late capitalist era @TechCrunch, writing about the intersection of hackers, human rights, and spies.
Also writing a book about Hacking Team and the history of government spyware.
Posts about infosec, surveillance by day. 🍕, ⚽️, 🎸, 🎮 by night.
☎️ Signal: +1 917 257 1382
💻 Keybase/Telegram: @ lorenzofb
✉️ lorenzo@techcrunch.com
Previously: VICE Motherboard, Mashable, WIRED's Danger Room.
Twitter: https://twitter.com/lorenzofb
Personal Site: https://lorenzofb.com
Pronouns: He/him
Searchable via: tootfinder
TechCrunch: https://techcrunch.com/author/lorenzo-franceschi-bicchierai/
NEW: Meet the folks at AccessNow's Digital Security Helpline, who have been investigating government spyware abuses for more than a decade, helping journalists and dissidents all over the world.
Hassen Selmi, who heads the incident response team, told me his team looks into around 1,000 cases a year. Half of those turn into full investigations, and around 25 result in confirmed spyware infections.
Here’s how Selmi’s team fights spyware abuses.
TechCrunch
Meet the team that hunts government spyware
For years, Access Now’s Digital Security Helpline has been aiding journalists and dissidents who have been targeted with government spyware. This...
NEW: Hackers stole more than $2.7 billion in crypto last year, according to multiple blockchain monitoring companies.
North Korea alone stole 2 of those billions, thanks to the jackpot of the Bybit hack, which netted them $1.4 billion.
TechCrunch
Hackers stole over $2.7B in crypto in 2025, data shows | TechCrunch
This was another banner year for crypto hacks and heists — 2025 was the third year in a row that a new crypto theft record was set.
NEW: A flaw in the website of Hama Film, a photo booth maker with presence in Australia, UAE and the U.S., exposes pictures and videos of its customers.
Security researcher alerted the company last month, no answer. We reached out to the company a few times, no answer.
TechCrunch
Flaw in photo booth maker’s website exposes customers’ pictures | TechCrunch
Hama Film makes photo booths that upload pictures and videos online. But their back-end systems have a simple flaw that allows anyone to download c...
NEW: Staffers at notorious spyware maker Intellexa had live remote access to their customers' surveillance systems.
This allowed them to see the personal data of targets hacked with Intellexa's spyware Predator, according to new research based on a leaked training video.
Needless to say, this is bad for several reasons.
TechCrunch
Sanctioned spyware maker Intellexa had direct access to government espionage victims, researchers say | TechCrunch
Based on a leaked video, security researchers alleged that Intellexa staffers have remote live access to their customers' surveillance systems...
NEW: Your "end-to-end encrypted" poop pictures taken by this $599 (+ subscription) smart toilet camera are actually not end-to-end encrypted.
¯_(ツ)_/¯
TechCrunch
‘End-to-end encrypted’ smart toilet camera is not actually end-to-end encrypted | TechCrunch
Kohler, the makers of a smart toilet camera, can access customers' data stored on its servers, and can use customers’ bowl pictures to train...
NEW: A trivial-to-exploit bug in jury systems used across the United States was exposing jurors' sensitive personal data, such as full names, date of birth, occupation, email addresses, cell phone numbers, and home addresses — and potentially even health data.
The bug essentially allowed anyone to brute-force and access jurors' accounts.
The system is provided by gov tech gian Tyler Technologies. We alerted them of the bug on Nov. 5, they acknowledged and said they fixed it yesterday. ** **
TechCrunch
Bug in jury systems used by several US states exposed sensitive personal data | TechCrunch
An easy-to-exploit vulnerability in a jury system made by Tyler Technologies exposed the personally identifiable data of jurors, including names, h...
NEW: Delivery giant DoorDash disclosed a data breach impacting an unspecified number of users.
Hackers stole names, emails, phone numbers, and physical addresses, but DoorDash said that “no sensitive information was accessed by the unauthorized third party." 🤔
TechCrunch
DoorDash confirms data breach affecting users’ phone numbers and physical addresses | TechCrunch
The delivery giant said “no sensitive information” was accessed, and did not specify the number of customers, delivery workers, and merchants w...
NEW: A group of Senators and Congresspeople are warning Governors that their states are providing ICE “with frictionless, self-service access to the personal data of all of your residents.”
The data sharing is managed by a nonprofit called Nlets, which is managed by state police agencies.
TechCrunch
Lawmakers warn Democratic governors that states are sharing drivers' data with ICE | TechCrunch
A group of Democratic lawmakers asked governors in California, Colorado, and other states to block ICE from accessing their residents’ driver’s...
NEW: The U.S. Congressional Budget Office was hacked.
@npub1lcc6...lcye says that the cause may be an unpatched Cisco ASA firewall. I asked CBO about that but it did not respond to the question.
TechCrunch
Congressional Budget Office confirms it was hacked | TechCrunch
The congressional research office confirmed a breach, but did not comment on the cause. A security researcher suggested the hack may have originate...