We at WIRED reported 6 weeks ago that the hackers behind the Change Healthcare ransomware debacle received a $22 million payment. Only now has Change Healthcare confirmed that it paid—while also noting that stolen patient data is still at risk of leaking. wired.com/story/change-h…

More insights into romance scam cyber slavery here from my colleagues. “According to Ravi, he and the others were forced to work up to 22 hours a day - getting only one day off each month - and told to target wealthy men, particularly in Western countries bbc.com/news/articles/…

BBC World Service Presents to showcase breadth of global journalism with series of events. I'm proud to be taking part in this BBC conference. I'll be speaking about internet freedom on 1st May. For media accreditation see bottom of article: bbc.co.uk/mediacentre/20…

Over Easter I had to watch linear TV at my in-laws who don’t have Netflix/ iPlayer. Watched a doc I would never have chosen, given the usual infinite choice. Now I can’t stop thinking about that doc but also how world-closing it is to only consume media I’m already interested in

“At times, [it] takes a hacker to defeat a hacker,” says former NSA Director of Cybersecurity Rob Joyce. He says the NSA has decided to put more resources into the foreign threat of ransomware attacks. cbsn.ws/3VY8fjB

The Winklevi enter lower league British football. Real Bedford FC (RBFC) received £3.6m Bitcoin investment from Winklevoss Capital, an investment firm owned by Gemini founders Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss.
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UK government urged to get on ‘forward foot’ with ransomware instead of ‘absorbing the punches’. Interesting read from Alex Martin . Should U.K. gov do more hacking back operations against cyber gangs? therecord.media/uk-urged-to-ge…

The Do Kwon tug of war between the US and South Korea continues. What a saga!

Interesting observation from Protos here. Easy to forget all the controversy about some crypto firms when a bull market is in full swing and everyone's getting rich.

This XZ write up is superb from Andy Greenberg (@agreenberg at the other places) and Matt Burgess . Not only an intriguing telling of an intriguing tale but also showcases all the amazing detective work that the community has done to gather clues about the mysterious Jia Tan. wired.com/story/jia-tan-…

The IDF has an obligation to issue advanced warnings of attacks when civilians are likely to be harmed. It has issued many such warnings in Gaza. But we analysed the system they put in place to do this and found it riddled with inconsistencies and errors. bbc.co.uk/news/world-mid…

Exclusive: Ukraine awards foreign vigilantes for hacks on Russia. A team of civilian hackers attacking Russia has been sent awards of gratitude by Ukraine's military. The certificates are a controversial sign of how modern warfare is shifting. bbc.co.uk/news/technolog…