Zack Whittaker

Security Editor, TechCrunch

Zack Whittaker is the security editor at TechCrunch. You can send tips securely via Signal and WhatsApp to +1 646-755-8849. He can also be reached by email at zack.whittaker@techcrunch.com. You can also submit files and documents securely via SecureDrop.

Zack Whittaker

Latest from Zack Whittaker

The pharma giant won’t say how many patients were affected by its February data breach. A count by TechCrunch confirms that over a million people are affected.

Pharma giant Cencora is alerting millions about its data breach

HealthEquity said the March data breach included personal information and protected health data on millions of people.

HealthEquity data breach affects 4.3M people

U.S. airports are rolling out facial recognition to scan travelers’ faces before boarding their flights. Americans, at least, can opt out. 

How to opt out of facial recognition at airports (if you’re American)

Critics have long argued that wararantless device searches at the U.S. border are unconstitutional and violate the Fourth Amendment.

US border agents must get warrant before cell phone searches, federal court rules

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Data breach exposes US spyware maker behind Windows, Mac, Android and Chromebook malware

Exclusive: The Minnesota-based spyware maker Spytech snooped on thousands of devices before it was hacked earlier this year.

Data breach exposes US spyware maker behind Windows, Mac, Android and Chromebook malware

CISA confirmed the CrowdStrike outage was not caused by a cyberattack, but urged caution as malicious hackers exploit the situation.

US cyber agency CISA says malicious hackers are ‘taking advantage’ of CrowdStrike outage

Here’s everything you need to know so far about the global outages caused by CrowdStrike’s buggy software update.

What we know about CrowdStrike’s update fail that’s causing global outages and travel chaos

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USPS shared customer postal addresses with Meta, LinkedIn and Snap

The U.S. Postal Service confirmed it took action to “remediate” the data sharing following a TechCrunch investigation.

USPS shared customer postal addresses with Meta, LinkedIn and Snap

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The biggest data breaches in 2024: 1 billion stolen records and rising

Some of the largest, most damaging breaches of 2024 already account for over a billion stolen records.

The biggest data breaches in 2024: 1 billion stolen records and rising

The Russia-based security software maker said its U.S. business is “no longer viable” following a U.S. Commerce Department sales ban.

Kaspersky to shut down US operations, lay off employees after US government ban

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AT&T says criminals stole phone records of ‘nearly all’ customers in new data breach

The stolen data includes 110 million AT&T customer phone numbers, calling and text records, and some location-related data.

AT&T says criminals stole phone records of ‘nearly all’ customers in new data breach

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Data breach exposes millions of mSpy spyware customers

A huge batch of mSpy customer service emails dating back to 2014 were stolen in a May data breach.

Data breach exposes millions of mSpy spyware customers

The remote access giant linked the cyberattack to government-backed hackers working for Russian intelligence, known as APT29.

Remote access giant TeamViewer says Russian spies hacked its corporate network

U.S. prosecutors say the WhisperGate cyberattack was designed to “sow concern” among Ukrainian civil society ahead of Russia’s invasion.

US charges Russian civilian for allegedly helping GRU spies target Ukrainian government systems with data-destroying malware

Car dealerships and auto shops around the U.S. enter a second week of disruption following cyberattacks at software maker CDK.

Car dealership outages drag on after CDK cyberattacks

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Change Healthcare confirms ransomware hackers stole medical records on a ‘substantial proportion’ of Americans

The February ransomware attack on UHG-owned Change Healthcare stands as one of the largest-ever known digital thefts of U.S. medical records.

Change Healthcare confirms ransomware hackers stole medical records on a ‘substantial proportion’ of Americans

CDK said it “does not have an estimated time frame” for recovery, as car dealerships and auto shops face continued outages.

US car dealerships face ongoing outage after CDK cyberattacks

TechCrunch has learned that the arrested hacker is the alleged leader of the group that masterminded the Twilio hacks in 2022.

UK national accused of hacking dozens of US companies arrested in Spain

The security firm said the attacks targeting Snowflake customers is “ongoing,” suggesting the number of affected companies may rise.

Mandiant says hackers stole a ‘significant volume of data’ from Snowflake customers

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What Snowflake isn’t saying about its customer data breaches

As another Snowflake customer confirms a data breach, the cloud data company says its position “remains unchanged.”

What Snowflake isn’t saying about its customer data breaches

Snowflake is the latest company in a string of high-profile security incidents and sizable data breaches caused by the lack of MFA.

Hundreds of Snowflake customer passwords found online are linked to info-stealing malware

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Live Nation confirms Ticketmaster was hacked, says personal information stolen in data breach

Live Nation says its Ticketmaster subsidiary was hacked. A hacker claims to be selling 560 million customer records.

Live Nation confirms Ticketmaster was hacked, says personal information stolen in data breach

Check Point is the latest security vendor to fix a vulnerability in its technology, which it sells to companies to protect their networks.

Zero-day flaw in Check Point VPNs is ‘extremely easy’ to exploit

The spyware maker’s founder, Bryan Fleming, said pcTattletale is “out of business and completely done,” following a data breach.

Spyware maker pcTattletale says it’s ‘out of business’ and shuts down after data breach

pcTattletale’s website was briefly defaced and contained links containing files from the spyware maker’s servers, before going offline.

Spyware app pcTattletale was hacked and its website defaced

About half a million patients have been notified so far, but the number of affected individuals is likely far higher.

US pharma giant Cencora says Americans’ health information stolen in data breach

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Spyware found on US hotel check-in computers

Several hotel check-in computers are running a remote access app, which is leaking screenshots of guest information to the internet.

Spyware found on US hotel check-in computers

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Two Santa Cruz students uncover security bug that let anyone do their laundry for free

CSC ServiceWorks provides laundry machines to thousands of residential homes and universities, but the company ignored requests to fix a security bug.

Two Santa Cruz students uncover security bug that let anyone do their laundry for free

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‘Got that boomer!’: How cybercriminals steal one-time passcodes for SIM swap attacks and raiding bank accounts

Estate is an invite-only website that has helped hundreds of attackers make thousands of phone calls aimed at stealing account passcodes, according to its leaked database.

‘Got that boomer!’: How cybercriminals steal one-time passcodes for SIM swap attacks and raiding bank accounts

The federal government agency responsible for granting patents and trademarks is alerting thousands of filers whose private addresses were exposed following a second data spill in as many years. The…

US Patent and Trademark Office confirms another leak of filers’ address data