|
Joseph Cox@josephcox.bsky.social |
5620 followers 71 following 472 posts
Hacking/crime/privacy journalist. Author of forthcoming DARK WIRE, buy here: www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/joseph-cox/dark-wire/9781541702691/#preorder> Co-founder of 404 Media. Signal: +44 20 8133 5190. Email: joseph@404media.co
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New: the design tool Figma has disabled a newly launched AI-powered app design tool after a user showed that it was clearly copying Apple’s weather app. www.404media.co/figma-disabl...
2 replies 17 reposts 71 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New from 404 Media: sellers on freelancing site Fiverr are advertising access to a powerful U.S. data tool to dox anyone. Tool is TLOxp, the credit bureau TransUnion's tool for law enforcement, skip tracers, etc. Get SSN, address, much more. www.404media.co/fiverr-freel...
2 replies 27 reposts 38 likes
|
Jason Koebler
@jasonkoebler.bsky.social
[ View ] |
NEW: Feds say that some of the 'local residents' shouting racist threats & playing ISIS videos in city council Zoom meetings are actually foreign nationals organizing with American teenagers on a Roblox-owned chat app
www.404media.co/local-reside...
3 replies 33 reposts 109 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New from 404 Media: remember that wave of Zoom Bombings during the pandemic, where 'local residents' derailed city council meetings? FBI investigated, alleges in one case the 'local residents' were actually an overseas network of racists www.404media.co/local-reside...
0 replies 16 reposts 35 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New from 404 Media: in a growing trend of virtual employees working at in-person offices, a car rental company has replaced its agents with people on video chat software. This is now how you 'speak to a manager' www.404media.co/car-rental-s...
1 replies 8 reposts 18 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
In this week's Behind the Blog, I tell subscribers about the upcoming exciting changes to our podcast, and give a preview of a story I'm working on right now, should be ready in a couple weeks www.404media.co/behind-the-b...
0 replies 2 reposts 1 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
The Financial Times has named DARK WIRE, my book on how the FBI secretly ran its own startup to wiretap the world (www.hachettebookgroup.com/titles/josep...), as one of the best summer books of 2024: www.ft.com/content/7791...
Get your copy if haven't already.
1 replies 3 reposts 19 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Turns out Perplexity, the AI company that has been ripping off journalism, started by posing as academics and using those fake credentials to scrape Twitter www.404media.co/perplexitys-...
6 replies 115 reposts 225 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New: eBay was advertising a seemingly original StingRay cellphone surveillance system for sale, $100,000. Seller refused to talk to us, and eBay removed when we asked for comment. Said it violated terms which bans devices used "for surveillance" www.404media.co/ebay-removes...
0 replies 2 reposts 19 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
We've made major updates to our podcast!
- graphics throughout the video version both on YouTube but now also Spotify
- we're giving paying subscribers video versions of the entire podcast, including bonus segment (behind paywall here: www.404media.co/podcast-repl...)
Subs are directly funding this
1 replies 1 reposts 7 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New: we went through Rudy Giuliani's bankruptcy filings, revealing his Amazon history, so you don't have to. Cheap ties and self tanner, perfect www.404media.co/rudy-giulian...
0 replies 8 reposts 11 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New from 404 Media: researchers prove they have access to Rabbit AI's backend by emailing us using a Rabbit administrator email. API keys were hardcoded into device, including ElevenLabs, Azure, Yelp, Google Maps. Say could see "all Rabbit R1 responses" www.404media.co/researchers-...
3 replies 2 reposts 29 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
This is directly related to the tsunami of credentials available on Telegram. Every single day, infostealer feeds freely distribute credentials belonging to big tech and other company employees. Log in, get crown jewels of data, it's that simple www.404media.co/id-verificat...
1 replies 1 reposts 12 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New from 404 Media: the ID verification service for TikTok, Uber, X, and many more tech companies exposed real peoples' driver licenses. As we move towards an internet forcing us to verify our identities, shows these companies will absolutely be targeted www.404media.co/id-verificat...
3 replies 60 reposts 111 likes
|
|
Jason Koebler
@jasonkoebler.bsky.social
[ View ] |
scoop: Credentials for a staffer at an ID verification service that works with TikTok, Uber, and X was hacked. A researcher then showed that it was storing and exposing user drivers' licenses
www.404media.co/id-verificat...
1 replies 27 reposts 45 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New: in an experiment, we paid a freelancer on Fiverr $365.63 to make an AI-generated news site. It scraped websites like ours and other tech sites, used ChatGPT to reword them, then blast them out easily. An entire ecosystem designed to ripoff journalism www.404media.co/i-paid-365-6...
1 replies 37 reposts 99 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New from 404 Media: some of the world's largest record labels sued both Udio and Suno, two of the most popular AI music generators. We've embedded the AI-generated ripoff songs here to show why they're being sued: www.404media.co/listen-to-th...
1 replies 4 reposts 11 likes
|
|
Jason Koebler
@jasonkoebler.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Facebook is in its 'fuck around find out' era. A colossal, decaying platform emboldened by Musk telling advertisers to go fuck themselves. Experts it used to consult with on hard issues say they haven't heard from the company in years
www.404media.co/has-facebook...
4 replies 24 reposts 65 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New from 404 Media, something we've been thinking about for a while: has Facebook just given up? The site is overrun with AI and scams, and the experts who used to help with content moderation there tell us Facebook has stopped asking them for help www.404media.co/has-facebook...
16 replies 84 reposts 252 likes
|
Case (Gen v2)
@hosaka.systems
[ View ] |
I've finished "Dark Wire" by @josephcox.bsky.social. Thrilling, can't recommend it enough.
0 replies 2 reposts 3 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
If you read the NYTimes recently, you'd think that the Marubo people in the Amazon just started using the internet. instead they've been on it for years, even using Orkut, Google's old social network www.404media.co/remote-amazo...
2 replies 12 reposts 38 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
This is wild: in response to a public records request, police released the precise driving history of a complete stranger. Requester wasn't the car owner, didn't even know them. Shows how stalkers can piggyback off of surveillance systems used by cops www.404media.co/cops-release...
2 replies 70 reposts 132 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
We're recording one of our 404 Media subscriber comment/question podcasts today. Will go long on what subscribers have to say. If you're a paying sub, leave a comment on an article and we'll try to include it, got a ton of good ones.
0 replies 1 reposts 5 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
The 404 Media Podcast is out!
- people in the U.S. outsourcing the hunt for Adderall to people in the Philippines
- an Apple AirTag stalking case
- subs-only: the Gateway Pundit's (alleged) bankruptcy
Apple/Spotify: www.404media.co/404-media-po...
0 replies 0 reposts 2 likes
|
Emanuel Maiberg
@emanuelmaiberg.bsky.social
[ View ] |
the person who hacked Tile told us he "had access to everything" www.404media.co/hacker-acces...
1 replies 20 reposts 35 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New from 404 Media: Tile was hacked. Hacker had access to internal tools including to get location data for cops (seen here). Also scraped customer data. Tile only published a statement acknowledging breach after I proved to them stolen data was real www.404media.co/hacker-acces...
0 replies 26 reposts 50 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New: hackers have taken over a Stable Diffusion tool to then target users for AI "art theft." Looks like its harvesting credentials, which hackers are then using on accounts
"We are sorry we had to do that to you"
www.404media.co/hackers-targ...
3 replies 35 reposts 80 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New from 404 Media: Microsoft QA testers said they were laid off for trying to unionize. Brought concerns to management and organized to improve working conditions. “In response ... chose to lay off our entire team, in violation of our rights as workers.” www.404media.co/microsoft-qa...
1 replies 7 reposts 22 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Update: Voiso says it has now banned this scam call center from its platform www.404media.co/ai-call-cent...
0 replies 1 reposts 18 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New from 404 Media: got internal data from inside a scam call center that shows it is using Voiso, a piece of legitimate call center software to power its operation. Voiso also offers AI-powered tools like automatically detecting voicemail, etc www.404media.co/ai-call-cent...
1 replies 9 reposts 49 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New from 404 Media: in a sign of just how desperate some people in the US are to find Adderall during the nationwide shortage, some are paying a company which hires people in the Philippines to call every pharmacy in their area to see if the drug is in stock www.404media.co/people-in-th...
0 replies 6 reposts 20 likes
|
|
Jason Koebler
@jasonkoebler.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New: I've been reading the Gateway Pundit's bankruptcy documents. The election workers suing the company for defamation say the company is not actually bankrupt and is using bankruptcy as a 'delay tactic'
www.404media.co/gateway-pund...
5 replies 44 reposts 147 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
DARK WIRE, my book on how the FBI secretly ran its own encrypted chat app to wiretap the world, sold out at Amazon. If you still need a copy maybe you can get it from the publisher (hachettebookgroup.com/titles/josep...) or the audiobook is available too.
2 replies 3 reposts 26 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Call me old fashioned, but I think it’s worth investigating the totality of the operation, including not just the 150 threats to life mitigated but also whether someone lost their life during it.
1 replies 0 reposts 3 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
For our subscribers I wrote about some super interesting points from the exploit/offensive tool industry and what that can mean for backdoors or lack thereof www.404media.co/behind-the-b...
0 replies 0 reposts 1 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Not what happened.
1 replies 0 reposts 0 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Today is the 3rd anniversary of the Anom operation, in which the FBI secretly ran its own backdoored encrypted chat app. But something authorities haven't acknowledged until recently to me in my book—an assassination was planned on the FBI's app, and the FBI failed to stop it.
5 replies 26 reposts 99 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New from 404 Media (content warning): in a sign of just how deranged Facebook content moderation has become, Taylor Swift fan pages have been taken over by animal abuse, porn, and scams. Also Katy Perry, others www.404media.co/facebooks-ta...
1 replies 3 reposts 10 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Really enjoyed my conversation with @parismarx.bsky.social about how the FBI secretly ran its own encrypted chat app to wiretap the world. If you want to understand what happens when police get a backdoor, *this* is the case. It's real, it happened, and people need to understand the implications.
2 replies 18 reposts 39 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New: a dramatic excerpt from DARK WIRE. At this point, Anom is reaching breaking point from being *too* popular among criminals. The FBI is drowning in data. One murder was already successful on the FBI's app; will another fall through the cracks? www.404media.co/dark-wire-in...
0 replies 2 reposts 8 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Me on what FBI secretly running own chat app shows:
"The future of policing now is compromising these entire platforms ... and it happened without any sort of debate on whether we even want the FBI or other agencies to be doing this."
www.inc.com/jennifer-con...
0 replies 3 reposts 10 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Went on Whale Hunting to talk all about how the FBI secretly ran its own tech startup for organized crime. Bradley, the host, was the person who originally told me to write a book so very glad got to have this chat: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/w...
0 replies 0 reposts 5 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New from 404 Media: one of the wildest cases of AirTag stalking yet. An alleged member of a Russia-based human trafficking network used AirTags to track and control a woman he smuggled into the US. FBI then used the tags in a sting op against him www.404media.co/airtags-stal...
0 replies 2 reposts 21 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New: as you may know, Team Fortress 2 is completely overrun with bots. Now, more people are calling on Valve to do something about it, but the botters have apparently made an AI voice clone of one critic in an attempt to defame them. Wild community story www.404media.co/team-fortres...
0 replies 10 reposts 25 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
The 404 Media Podcast is out!
- the big leak of an internal Google privacy/security database we got
- who deepfake laws may leave behind
- subscribers-only: how we traced the All Eyes on Rafah image to a Facebook group page dedicated to the AI industry
www.404media.co/404-media-po...
0 replies 3 reposts 7 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
I went on the Longform Podcast to talk all about DARK WIRE, how I got into journalism, and how I carved a niche in talking to criminals, drug traffickers, etc. Also about rarely getting sunlight podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/l...
1 replies 0 reposts 6 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
Went on Planet Money for a very fun episode on DARK WIRE, the FBI's secret tech startup. Lots of business advice in here—sometimes your company can be too successful www.npr.org/2024/05/31/1...
0 replies 1 reposts 13 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
On the launch day of DARK WIRE, here is the always excellent Darknet Diaries diving into the story and what it means for privacy and surveillance for everyone. And some sick art too darknetdiaries.com/episode/146/
1 replies 3 reposts 19 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
It's finally time: DARK WIRE, my book on how the FBI secretly ran its own tech startup to wiretap the world, is out *today*. Here is WIRED's adaption of that story following the craziest character I've ever investigated: a drug trafficker called Microsoft www.wired.com/story/inside...
2 replies 8 reposts 24 likes
|
|
Joseph Cox
@josephcox.bsky.social
[ View ] |
New from 404 Media: we've published the full text of an internal Google report, which shows a Google contractor used admin access to leak info from a private Nintendo YouTube video about an at the time upcoming game www.404media.co/google-contr...
1 replies 16 reposts 45 likes