Tarah Wheeler
@tarah.org
CSO of TPO.group ♦️ EFF Board of Directors♦️she/her ♦️ bestselling author but only that one time
If I haven’t said this a few times: @zackwhittaker.com is a truly brilliant reporter and mind in cybersecurity and this newsletter is the only thing I read to fully catch up on what I needed to know in the field if I was out on vacation for a week. You should be doing the Patreon thing here.
My newsletter this.weekinsecurity.com features all of the most important cybersecurity news, analysis, and reporting that you need to know so you can stay ahead. Plus, good news and a reader-submitted cyber-cat. No email link/open tracking!
Sign up (or RSS!) for your weekly dispatch. Out Sundays.
Sign up (or RSS!) for your weekly dispatch. Out Sundays.
~this week in security~
a weekly cybersecurity newsletter by Zack Whittaker, plus articles and more.
this.weekinsecurity.com
February 7, 2026 at 2:36 PM
If I haven’t said this a few times: @zackwhittaker.com is a truly brilliant reporter and mind in cybersecurity and this newsletter is the only thing I read to fully catch up on what I needed to know in the field if I was out on vacation for a week. You should be doing the Patreon thing here.
Reposted by Tarah Wheeler
I am thrilled to be a member of the new cohort of CDT Non-Resident Fellows, together with my HAI colleague Jen King. I was a CDT intern way back in 2007, and 20 years later, my career has brought me full circle.
We’re thrilled to welcome CDT’s 2026–2027 class of Non-Resident Fellows — a remarkable group of scholars and experts whose insights will strengthen our work defending civil rights, civil liberties, and democratic values in the digital age. cdt.org/about/fellow...
February 6, 2026 at 7:28 PM
I am thrilled to be a member of the new cohort of CDT Non-Resident Fellows, together with my HAI colleague Jen King. I was a CDT intern way back in 2007, and 20 years later, my career has brought me full circle.
Reposted by Tarah Wheeler
Thanks, Stepto.
xbox live took stronger action against jeffrey epstein than the entire us government
Screenshit
January 31, 2026 at 1:55 AM
Thanks, Stepto.
If you enjoy sheer Gothic terror and early feminists wondering why we still have to protest this shit, maybe you'd like the two audiobooks I just released.
"On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror" amzn.to/45HoHsR
"(On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship)" amzn.to/4aoAuyM
"On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror" amzn.to/45HoHsR
"(On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship)" amzn.to/4aoAuyM
On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror (Illustrated)
Amazon.com: On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror (Illustrated) (Audible Audio Edition): John Aiken, Anna Laetitia Barbauld, Tarah Wheeler, Red Queen: Books
amzn.to
January 30, 2026 at 8:13 PM
If you enjoy sheer Gothic terror and early feminists wondering why we still have to protest this shit, maybe you'd like the two audiobooks I just released.
"On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror" amzn.to/45HoHsR
"(On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship)" amzn.to/4aoAuyM
"On the Pleasure Derived from Objects of Terror" amzn.to/45HoHsR
"(On the Admission of Women to the Rights of Citizenship)" amzn.to/4aoAuyM
“I, for my own part, cannot think that these latter days of weak experiment, fragmentary theory, and mutual discord are indeed man's culminating time!”
~ H. G. Wells,”The Time Machine”
~ H. G. Wells,”The Time Machine”
January 25, 2026 at 2:11 PM
“I, for my own part, cannot think that these latter days of weak experiment, fragmentary theory, and mutual discord are indeed man's culminating time!”
~ H. G. Wells,”The Time Machine”
~ H. G. Wells,”The Time Machine”
I don't feel like spending time writing a 300 character explanation of why you should read this blog post. Just go do it.
Hey I wrote a long thing about taking control of what you read. If you want to read it, it's at shostack.org/blog/take-co...
I don't feel like spending time writing a 300 character summary of it.
I don't feel like spending time writing a 300 character summary of it.
Shostack + Friends Blog > Take Control of What you Read, Redux
In 2026, it’s more important than ever to take control of what you read
shostack.org
January 11, 2026 at 10:38 PM
I don't feel like spending time writing a 300 character explanation of why you should read this blog post. Just go do it.
It's always lovely to have the doubters get their asses academically kicked when it comes to Ada Lovelace's mathematical capabilities, but I am so very tired of reading the "if she'd only been born a man" story. From an open 2017 Historia Mathematica article.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
![Had any young [male] beginner, about to go to Cambridge, shewn the same power[s], I should have prophesied ... that they would have certainly made him an original mathematical investigator, perhaps of first rate
eminence (LB 339, ADM to Lady Byron, 21 Jan. 1844, f. 2).](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:2mj5s5hwny6xmzqwrs3t5zm3/bafkreicosa7oaleswmqtnnbl6gmzqd2ijnscjtrm5lpd4nonfoe2wttbku@jpeg)
January 11, 2026 at 2:42 PM
It's always lovely to have the doubters get their asses academically kicked when it comes to Ada Lovelace's mathematical capabilities, but I am so very tired of reading the "if she'd only been born a man" story. From an open 2017 Historia Mathematica article.
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...
Reposted by Tarah Wheeler
Federal court records systems are all alike; each state court records system is unhappy in its own way.
January 9, 2026 at 1:05 AM
Federal court records systems are all alike; each state court records system is unhappy in its own way.
Reposted by Tarah Wheeler
Susan Landau, @mattblaze.org, and Steven Bellovin unpack the U.K. government's latest attempt to access encrypted cloud backups in Apple products and explain how it could make sensitive data more vulnerable to adversarial actors.
The U.K.’s Plan for Electronic Eavesdropping Poses Cybersecurity Risks
The U.K. government’s latest attempt to access encrypted cloud backups could allow adversarial actors to gain access to sensitive data.
lawfaremedia.org
January 8, 2026 at 3:36 PM
Susan Landau, @mattblaze.org, and Steven Bellovin unpack the U.K. government's latest attempt to access encrypted cloud backups in Apple products and explain how it could make sensitive data more vulnerable to adversarial actors.
Reposted by Tarah Wheeler
I also support Aaron’s work and pay for a subscription. It is always worth reading, always informative. Thanks, @atrupar.com for your tirelessness.
It's a slow morning on the Sunday shows, but if you appreciate me getting up early and bringing you the highlights each weekend please support what I do by signing up for my newsletter. I think you'll enjoy PN and paid subscribers make my work possible. Thanks.
Subscribe to Public Notice
Sign up for independent, incisive coverage of US politics and media, right in your inbox five times a week. Click to read Public Notice, by Aaron Rupar, a Substack publication with hundreds of thousan...
www.publicnotice.co
December 28, 2025 at 7:09 PM
I also support Aaron’s work and pay for a subscription. It is always worth reading, always informative. Thanks, @atrupar.com for your tirelessness.
Reposted by Tarah Wheeler
At EFF, we were proud to publicly and loudly support the legal profession and, most importantly, continue to do our work challenging the government’s erosion of digital rights—work that became even more critical as many law firms shied away from pro bono work. eff.org/deeplinks/2...
December 25, 2025 at 7:04 PM
At EFF, we were proud to publicly and loudly support the legal profession and, most importantly, continue to do our work challenging the government’s erosion of digital rights—work that became even more critical as many law firms shied away from pro bono work. eff.org/deeplinks/2...
The holidays persist, but so do we.
December 24, 2025 at 2:03 PM
The holidays persist, but so do we.
So I hacked my way into being Cyber Policy Initiative Senior Fellow at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy. Working on rural water critical infrastructure cybersecurity.
Hey, ma, look! I *finally* got into University of Chicago. :D
cpi.harris.uchicago.edu/2025/12/23/h...
Hey, ma, look! I *finally* got into University of Chicago. :D
cpi.harris.uchicago.edu/2025/12/23/h...
Harris Cyber Policy Initiative Taps Top Hacker to Design New Security Model for Water Utilities | Cyber Policy Initiative
cpi.harris.uchicago.edu
December 23, 2025 at 12:36 PM
So I hacked my way into being Cyber Policy Initiative Senior Fellow at the University of Chicago's Harris School of Public Policy. Working on rural water critical infrastructure cybersecurity.
Hey, ma, look! I *finally* got into University of Chicago. :D
cpi.harris.uchicago.edu/2025/12/23/h...
Hey, ma, look! I *finally* got into University of Chicago. :D
cpi.harris.uchicago.edu/2025/12/23/h...
Reposted by Tarah Wheeler
Happy #WinterSolstice ❄️
Today marks the official start of winter in the astronomical calendar.
📷 Instagram | Juncao_Oxford
Today marks the official start of winter in the astronomical calendar.
📷 Instagram | Juncao_Oxford
December 21, 2025 at 9:39 AM
Happy #WinterSolstice ❄️
Today marks the official start of winter in the astronomical calendar.
📷 Instagram | Juncao_Oxford
Today marks the official start of winter in the astronomical calendar.
📷 Instagram | Juncao_Oxford
Reposted by Tarah Wheeler
It’s clear that trans people face unique, advanced, and persistent threats—online and off. Here are some strategies for resisting the tech-enabled violence that trans people face. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
Strategies for Resisting Tech-Enabled Violence Facing Transgender
Today's Supreme Court’s ruling in U.S. v. Skrmetti upholding bans on gender-affirming care for youth makes it clear: trans people are under attack. Threats to trans rights and healthcare are coming
www.eff.org
December 20, 2025 at 6:59 PM
It’s clear that trans people face unique, advanced, and persistent threats—online and off. Here are some strategies for resisting the tech-enabled violence that trans people face. www.eff.org/deeplinks/2...
"Only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things."
~TS Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent"
~TS Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent"
December 6, 2025 at 2:48 PM
"Only those who have personality and emotions know what it means to want to escape from these things."
~TS Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent"
~TS Eliot, "Tradition and the Individual Talent"
Dear Raul Julia: in whatever Elysian Fields you inhabit, I hope you know that the last movie you filmed & the work that you spent your last moments on has become beloved. A classic not just at the holidays, but a primer on how to selflessly and brilliantly love another person to utter distraction.
November 27, 2025 at 11:07 PM
Dear Raul Julia: in whatever Elysian Fields you inhabit, I hope you know that the last movie you filmed & the work that you spent your last moments on has become beloved. A classic not just at the holidays, but a primer on how to selflessly and brilliantly love another person to utter distraction.
I'm just like any modern woman trying to have it all. It's just...I wish I had more time to seek out the dark forces and join their hellish crusade. That's all.
November 27, 2025 at 10:40 PM
I'm just like any modern woman trying to have it all. It's just...I wish I had more time to seek out the dark forces and join their hellish crusade. That's all.
Reposted by Tarah Wheeler
📢 Announcing hacklore.org 📢
It’s time to retire outdated cyber advice! More than 80 cybersecurity veterans have signed an open letter urging a shift from folklore to guidance that actually helps people avoid the most common attacks. 🔐
Blog: medium.com/@boblord/let...
Site: www.hacklore.org
It’s time to retire outdated cyber advice! More than 80 cybersecurity veterans have signed an open letter urging a shift from folklore to guidance that actually helps people avoid the most common attacks. 🔐
Blog: medium.com/@boblord/let...
Site: www.hacklore.org
Stop Hacklore!
hacklore.org
November 24, 2025 at 3:05 PM
📢 Announcing hacklore.org 📢
It’s time to retire outdated cyber advice! More than 80 cybersecurity veterans have signed an open letter urging a shift from folklore to guidance that actually helps people avoid the most common attacks. 🔐
Blog: medium.com/@boblord/let...
Site: www.hacklore.org
It’s time to retire outdated cyber advice! More than 80 cybersecurity veterans have signed an open letter urging a shift from folklore to guidance that actually helps people avoid the most common attacks. 🔐
Blog: medium.com/@boblord/let...
Site: www.hacklore.org
Reposted by Tarah Wheeler
i can get malware on my computer by giving it to my 12yo cousin for a day
and at a fraction of the cost of letting copilot do it
and at a fraction of the cost of letting copilot do it
November 19, 2025 at 3:16 AM
i can get malware on my computer by giving it to my 12yo cousin for a day
and at a fraction of the cost of letting copilot do it
and at a fraction of the cost of letting copilot do it
I do this ish for a living, I am an AI developer and researcher, and *I* don’t fully understand the security implications. What hope do regular users have?
www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/wi...
www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/wi...
Microsoft warns that Windows 11's agentic AI could install malware on your PC: "Only enable this feature if you understand the security implications"
Microsoft is pushing ahead with its plan to add agentic capabilities to Windows 11 but has issued an important security warning for anyone who is interested in trying it out.
www.windowscentral.com
November 18, 2025 at 8:30 PM
I do this ish for a living, I am an AI developer and researcher, and *I* don’t fully understand the security implications. What hope do regular users have?
www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/wi...
www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/wi...
Reposted by Tarah Wheeler
🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨
We're suing the city of San Jose for its pervasive ALPR surveillance program. With nearly 500 ALPRs, the SJPD allows its officers to search millions of records, all without a warrant. These unconstitutional searches must be stopped. Read the complaint: www.eff.org/cases/siren...
We're suing the city of San Jose for its pervasive ALPR surveillance program. With nearly 500 ALPRs, the SJPD allows its officers to search millions of records, all without a warrant. These unconstitutional searches must be stopped. Read the complaint: www.eff.org/cases/siren...
SIREN and CAIR-CA v. San Jose
The San Jose Police Department has blanketed the city’s roadways with nearly five hundred Automatic License Plate Readers (ALPRs). The police department uses this unblinking surveillance network to
www.eff.org
November 18, 2025 at 6:43 PM
🚨BREAKING NEWS🚨
We're suing the city of San Jose for its pervasive ALPR surveillance program. With nearly 500 ALPRs, the SJPD allows its officers to search millions of records, all without a warrant. These unconstitutional searches must be stopped. Read the complaint: www.eff.org/cases/siren...
We're suing the city of San Jose for its pervasive ALPR surveillance program. With nearly 500 ALPRs, the SJPD allows its officers to search millions of records, all without a warrant. These unconstitutional searches must be stopped. Read the complaint: www.eff.org/cases/siren...
I reviewed "Geopolitics at the Internet’s Core" by Fiona Alexander, Laura DeNardis, Ph.D., @nanettelevinson.bsky.social, & Francesca Musiani. It's not a tech spec for Internet Protocol—it's actually a cenotaph for a bygone era of consensus and freedom.
www.tarah.org/2025/11/17/a...
www.tarah.org/2025/11/17/a...
A Cenotaph for Internet Freedom: Reviewing “Geopolitics at the Internet’s Core” – Tarah Wheeler
www.tarah.org
November 17, 2025 at 7:32 PM
I reviewed "Geopolitics at the Internet’s Core" by Fiona Alexander, Laura DeNardis, Ph.D., @nanettelevinson.bsky.social, & Francesca Musiani. It's not a tech spec for Internet Protocol—it's actually a cenotaph for a bygone era of consensus and freedom.
www.tarah.org/2025/11/17/a...
www.tarah.org/2025/11/17/a...