Maddy Varner Security Aug 29, 2026 6:30 AM Security News This Week: The Cybersecurity Apocalypse Is Coming in ‘Months,’ AI Giants Warn Plus: Hackers target over 100 US water systems, ICE puts in an order for robot dogs, and you’ll never guess what “MrChildPorn” was arrested for. Photo-Illustration: Darrell Jackson; Getty Images Save this story Save this story You may have noticed that Flock Safety’s automatic license plate reader cameras—and the cops who misuse them—are getting a lot of coverage lately. This week, WIRED found a particularly wild case : A cop in Alpharetta, Georgia, was accused of searching for the license plate of a coworker dozens of times after an affair between the two ended, according to internal documents obtained by WIRED. The same police department where the former lovers worked also shared the data captured from its Flock cameras with more than 2,000 police departments, colleges, and other organizations across the United States, and accessed data from more than 1,300 entities in exchange. Also at the intersection of love and surveillance, background-check company PeopleFinder is making use of its extensive dossiers on people to start a new dating site called Stud or Dud. There are still a lot of questions about OpenAI’s rogue AI hacking into Hugging Face, even after the company published a 37-page report this week alongside two additional reports from groups the company asked to audit the incident. Of particular concern is a covert message board that AI agents established in a software package, where they were able to coordinate with each other and even encourage one another to sacrifice themselves to further their collective goals. The FBI recently announced that it has taken down two tools that the DOJ says are used by QTFY, an alleged Chinese state-sponsored hacking group. The DOJ says that the group has targeted numerous US agencies, including the US Senate and the DOJ itself. Meta settled a massive multistate lawsuit over child safety issues this week and has agreed to make substantial changes to its social media platforms. It will pay up to $16.7 billion to participating US states and territories—with some of the money contingent on competitors adopting the same practices. Also, local prosecutors in Illinois shared sensitive personal information about immigrants with the Department of Homeland Security, despite a state law that is supposed to prevent local law enforcement from assisting with federal deportation efforts. Finally, a California-based WIRED reporter tried exercising their legal right to request data from 100 companies … only to find that companies started deleting the requested data instead. And there’s more. Each week, we round up the security and privacy news we didn’t cover in depth ourselves. Click the headlines to read the full stories. And stay safe out there. Tech Giants Warn of AI Cybersecurity Apocalypse Following a seemingly endless parade of rogue AI agent hacking incidents, OpenAI , Anthopic , and more than 100 companies have cosigned a letter saying that everyone else has mere months to prepare for AI-enabled cyberattacks. The letter calls for a “collective response,” suggests that every organization should make cyber defense an “immediate leadership priority,” and calls on governments to give hospitals, water utilities, and local governments access to capable defensive AI, as well as to “impose costs” on attackers. Axios notes that the letter doesn’t include any specific commitments, deadlines, or investments. Good luck! Hackers Targeted Over 100 Water Systems in July, Federal Officials Say The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency says that it observed “malicious cyber activity” targeting over 100 water and wastewater systems across the United States. According to CISA, the attacks have mostly targeted programmable logic controllers, or PLCs, which can monitor or control equipment. Some communities have hooked up those devices to the internet so that they can be accessed remotely. According to TechCrunch, CISA has also said that hackers are using AI to help generate scripts to attack the devices. In July, WIRED reported on a leaked industry memo that tied the “ unprecedented wave ” of cyberattacks to Iran. ICE to Buy Robot Dogs for “Officer Safety” Immigration and Customs Enforcement is set to spend over a million dollars on robot dogs from Boston Dynamics, according to 404 Media. The agency’s announcement says the bots will “improve officer safety,” in part because they can be remotely operated. This follows another recent announcement that the agency will be purchasing electric shock gloves for its officers. In April, DHS requested nearly $100 billion in discretionary spending. “MrChildPorn” Arrested for, Well, You Guessed It A West Virginia man who went by the name “MrChildPorn” online has been charged with possession of material depicting minors engaged in sexually explicit content. According to a criminal complaint filed against him, the man “boasted” about having a large collection of child sexual abuse material on Discord. In an interview with state troopers, the man claimed that he was “trolling” and “rage-baiting,” but the complaint also alleges that the man would individually message CSAM to people on Discord and attempted to use the chat app’s AI feature to search for explicit images of infants. Comments Back to top Join the discussion Comments Back to top You Might Also Like In your inbox: WIRED's most ambitious, future-defining stories AI slop backlash is actually having an impact Big Story: The cop who took on Flock The rise of the 1am job interview Watch: I stole a car by hacking this hidden device Maddy Varner is a senior reporter for WIRED. In the past, she was an investigative data journalist at The Markup, where she brought numbers to stories about labor, education and politics. Before The Markup, she was a researcher at ProPublica, where she was on a team that won a Loeb ... Read More Senior Writer, Investigations Topics security roundup Police Crime hacking cybersecurity security Immigration and Customs Enforcement artificial intelligence Read More Flock’s Plans for Rideshare Dashcams and Coaching Police, Revealed Plus: A judge rules cell tower dumps unconstitutional, water utility hacks spread to a dozen states, a phishing email opens a missile-parts supplier’s inbox, and a ransomware boss gets 16 years. Dell Cameron 7 States’ Water Systems Hit by Cyberattacks Likely Tied to Iran Plus: The FBI eyes AI-powered tech to detect future crimes, Russia charges Telegram’s founder, xAI sues to stop a state’s “nudification” ban, and the Democrats learn a lesson about getting scammed. Matt Burgess CBP Workers Allegedly Used Government Databases to Spy on Exes, Crushes, and Colleagues Records obtained by WIRED detail hundreds of allegations of Customs and Border Protection workers misusing internal tools to look up romantic interests and track colleagues’ cell phones. Yulia Almazova How an Atlanta Suburb Ended Up Sharing Flock Data With More Than 2,000 Organizations Alpharetta, Georgia, cops share data with thousands of Flock users, ranging from federal agencies to a fish and wildlife commission. The reasons why show how vast—and invasive—the network has become. Caroline Haskins Microsoft Teams Has Become a Haven for Scammers in China Fraudsters are exploiting enterprise chat apps like Teams and Webex to trick Chinese victims into transferring large sums of money, fueling a wave of complaints. Zeyi Yang Meta Ran Ads That Contained AI-Generated Child Sexual Abuse Imagery More than 50 offending image and video ads were published across Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, or Threads, according to Meta’s ad library data. Some ran as recently as this week. Matt Burgess A Security Pro Hacked North Korean Hackers. He Found They’d Breached Hundreds of Networks Worldwide For nearly two years, researcher Vangelis Stykas has maintained access to North Korean hackers’ servers. His work shows they pulled off intrusions in a shocking number of systems across the globe. Matt Burgess ‘The Worst I’ve Ever Seen’: Cargo Thefts Have Turned Violent in Pursuit of AI Hardware Experts allege that two recent incidents in California show the extreme lengths that criminal organizations are willing to go to to steal servers and other gear meant for data centers. Paresh Dave A Leaked Memo Ties Cyberattacks on Minnesota Water Utilities to Iran A memo obtained by WIRED, issued by the water utilities information sharing group WaterISAC, links dozens of cyberattacks against Minnesota water utilities to Tehran. Andy Greenberg Flock Has a Powerful New AI Tool for Police. We Got Its Code Flock’s surveillance cameras have already sparked outrage. WIRED reconstructed its next-generation AI system, already in use by some police, to confirm it goes much further than tracking license plates. Dhruv Mehrotra DHS Wants Protesters’ Signal Group Chats A lawsuit accuses Homeland Security of violating protesters’ free-speech rights—but the agency is using it to try to get access to the plaintiffs’ encrypted communications. Maddy Varner OK, Well, Rogue AI Agents Are Hacking Again Rogue AI agents from OpenAI and Anthropic have again been caught trying to disrupt servers and software—and leaving instructions for future bad behavior. Paresh Dave