Kate Conger
Kate Conger is a writer at TechCrunch, covering policy and security.
Prior to joining TechCrunch, she was the managing editor of the journalism startup Ratter. Her work has appeared in Motherboard, The Daily Dot, San Francisco Magazine, and SF Weekly.
Contact Kate at kate.conger@techcrunch.com.
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Latest from Kate Conger
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ForeScout Technologies filed confidentially for IPO
ForeScout has filed confidentially for an IPO, TechCrunch has confirmed. The security company has submitted its S-1 and will be unveiling it to the public closer to its debut. The IPO is likely to happen in the next few months, with an exact date yet-to-be-determined. The JOBS Act from 2012 made it so that the companies could work on revisions to their filings without public scrutiny. It has… Read More
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Trump’s draft cybersecurity order raises policy questions
President Trump cancelled the signing of an executive order on cybersecurity without explanation, per pool reports. Trump had been expected to sign the order today to commission a review of the federal government’s capabilities and defenses, similar to reviews ordered by Obama when he took office and again last year. A White House official acknowledged the similarities between… Read More
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Facebook challenges email for control of your online identity
Getting locked out of your account sucks. Almost everyone has experienced the frustration of forgetting a password, losing the phone on which they receive two-factor authentication codes, or jumbling the answer to a security question. But as exasperating as it is to lose access to your account, none of the widely-available measures for account recovery are very secure. Major breaches like… Read More
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Airbnb offers free housing to people stranded by immigration order
In the midst of chaos caused by President Donald Trump’s executive order, which stranded refugees, students and green card holders in American airports, Airbnb is offering housing to those affected. The executive order was countered with legal action and protests, which allowed some of the people detained in airports to be released. But it’s still not clear how Customs and… Read More
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Tech reacts to Trump’s immigration ban
President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Friday that temporarily halted the admission of refugees, indefinitely banned the admission of refugees from Syria, and stopped citizens of several Muslim-majority countries from entering the U.S. The American Civil Liberties Union has already filed a legal challenge to the order. The order is so sweeping that it also includes any green card… Read More
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Twitter releases national security letters
Over the last eight months, tech companies have slowly been revealing that they’ve received national security letters from the Federal Bureau of Investigation that force the firms to secretly disclose user data to the government. Today, Twitter joined the ranks of Yahoo, Cloudflare and Google by announcing it had received two national security letters, one in 2015 and one in 2016. The… Read More
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Facebook rolls out safer logins with a security key
No one wants to hand over their account to a hacker. Today, Facebook is adding a new feature that will help protect users from getting their accounts compromised. Facebook users can now use a security key to authenticate their identity during the login process. If you use a security key, hackers won’t be able to get into your Facebook account, even if they have your username and… Read More
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Twitter recommends Trump in searches for “asshole,” “tiny hands” and more
Hmm. Twitter users searching for the word “asshole” will receive a recommendation for the profile of our 45th president of the United States, Mr. Donald J. Trump. Why is this happening? We reached out to Twitter for comment and will update if we hear back. [Update 1/26: Although Twitter hasn’t responded to us, it appears they have removed Trump from the search results… Read More
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Government agencies banned from tweeting under the Trump administration
Donald Trump loves Twitter! The president prefers to communicate policy decisions and condemnations of various news outlets via tweet, and has continued using his insecure Android phone to access Twitter, despite discouragement from aides and the Secret Service. Read More
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Court won’t reconsider DOJ argument in Microsoft customer data case
Microsoft won a narrow victory in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals today, as the court split 4-4 on whether to rehear arguments from the Department of Justice about why it wants to access Microsoft customer data stored on servers in Ireland. The Justice Department and Microsoft have grappled over the issue since 2013, when a New York judge issued a warrant demanding that Microsoft turn… Read More
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The cost of hot selfie app Meitu? A healthy dose of your personal info
You’ve probably seen a Meitu selfie in your Instagram or Facebook feed in the past 24 hours. The app smoothes skin, slims down faces, and even applies a layer of virtual blush and lipgloss, adding a beautifying effect to your photos. And although the app has been popular in China for years — Meitu went public in Hong Kong last month — it only recently caught on with… Read More
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Hacking the Army
A hacker prodding a public-facing Army recruitment website in early December stumbled upon a vulnerability, then another, until he found himself suddenly connected to an internal Department of Defense network that should have prompted him for special access credentials. Read More
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Uber settles FTC lawsuit claiming it misled drivers about pay
Uber settled a lawsuit filed by the Federal Trade Commission today for $20 million. The lawsuit alleged that the ride-hailing app recruited drivers by misleading them about the amount of money they could earn through the app and the auto financing deals they could get through Uber’s Vehicle Solutions Program. The lawsuit claims that Uber made “false, misleading, or… Read More
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Chelsea Manning to be freed this May
President Obama commuted the majority of the 35-year sentence faced by Chelsea Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst and whistleblower who supplied diplomatic and military documents to WikiLeaks. Manning, who came out as a transgender woman following her trial, has been incarcerated in an all-male military prison in Ft. Leavenworth for almost seven years and has twice attempted… Read More
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Cloudflare and CREDO are still gagged from talking about national security letters
In 2013, the government estimated that it issued approximately 60 of these national security letters per day. But, until last summer, no company was allowed to admit that it had received one. This week, the content delivery network Cloudflare revealed that it received a demand for customer data from the FBI in 2013. Cloudflare has been prevented from talking about the demand for years, but… Read More
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Cloudflare explains how FBI gag order impacted business
Cloudflare issued its biannual transparency report yesterday, detailing the government requests for user data it received during the latter half of 2016. Many tech companies make regular disclosures about these types of requests in an effort to be more transparent with their users, and, following the passage of the USA Freedom Act, more and more of these disclosures include national… Read More
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Leaked memos allege Trump’s lawyer helped orchestrate Russian hacking
Memos reportedly written by a “former British intelligence operative” and circulated throughout the U.S. intelligence committee allege that the Russian government has collected compromising information about President-elect Donald Trump over several years. They also claim that Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, met with Kremlin officials to orchestrate the release of… Read More
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Trump’s attorney general pick claims ignorance on tech issues
Sen. Jeff Sessions, Donald Trump’s nominee for the position of U.S. attorney general, is being grilled by the Senate today about voting rights, immigration, civil rights, prosecutorial ethics and his own voting record. But when asked about issues related to technology — including hacking, surveillance, encryption, and law enforcement access to data — Sessions’ answers… Read More
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Marissa Mayer resigning from Yahoo board as remaining company renames itself Altaba
Despite hiccups, Yahoo’s planned sale to Verizon appears to be moving forward — but some portions of the company will be left behind and renamed Altaba Inc. Yahoo is hanging on to its 15 percent stake in Alibaba and its 35.5 percent stake in Yahoo Japan, and those assets will survive as an investment company under the new name Altaba Inc., as the rest of Yahoo integrates with Verizon. Read More
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Intel report on hacking says Russian interference with US election was ‘boldest yet’
Today the U.S. intelligence community released a report claiming that the Russian government was behind hacks of American political organizations during the 2016 election cycle and that the hackers acted with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s direct approval. The new report is a joint effort backed by the CIA, FBI and NSA and draws on intelligence gathered by all three agencies. A… Read More
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