US Official Warns a Cell Network Flaw Is Being Exploited for Spying

Laser warfare, among all the long-unfulfilled imaginings of science fiction writers, is right up there with flying cars. After decades of research, the US military is actively deploying laser defense systems in the Middle East to shoot down drones launched by adversaries like Yemen's Houthi rebels, one of several recent deployments of laser tech in actual combat situations. In less pew-pew-oriented security news, the debate continues over the extension of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, signed by President Biden last month, as 20 civil liberties organizations sent a letter to the Justice Department demanding more clarity on when the NSA can demand US tech companies cooperate in its wiretaps. Elsewhere, WIRED obtained emails showing how New York City decided to deploy a gun-detection system called Evolv in subways despite false-positive rates as high as 85 percent. At the Google I/O developer conference, meanwhile, the search giant debuted a new AI-based feature in Android that's designed to detect if a phone has been stolen and automatically lock it down.