Craig Timberg
Washington Post
Washington, DC, United States
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Past articles by Craig:
Does email verification hurt privacy?
The kind of forensic examination that security experts conducted on data purportedly from the laptop computer of Hunter Biden creates privacy risks, one of the experts says. → Read More
2 experts used email headers to determine veracity
The methodology behind the examination of data purportedly from Hunter Biden's laptop. → Read More
Israel blocked Ukraine from getting potent Pegasus spyware
Ukraine’s efforts to bolster its surveillance capabilities, like its efforts to strengthen its military, had support from the United States, Israel’s closest ally. But Israeli officials balked at any move that might provoke a confrontation with Russia. → Read More
Durbin defends Supreme Court nominee Jackson’s record on child pornography
Sen. Richard J. Durbin, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, dismissed Sen. Josh Hawley's allegations that claimed “an alarming pattern when it comes to Judge Jackson’s treatment of sex offenders, especially those preying on children.” → Read More
Internet experts suggest ways to selectively block Russian military and propaganda sites
The proposal is seen as a way to avoid blanket restrictions that would affect Web access for average Russians. → Read More
U.S. tech dominance could offer leverage over Russia — or backfire
Withholding technology can be a soft-power weapon to potentially turn a population against its leaders. Yet it also can be costly to the U.S. economy, slow to deliver results and scattershot in its impacts. → Read More
NSO offered ‘bags of cash’ for access to U.S. cell networks, whistleblower claims
Surveillance company NSO Group offered to give representatives of an American mobile security firm “bags of cash” in exchange for access to global cellular networks, according to a whistleblower who has described the encounter in confidential disclosures to the Justice Department. → Read More
Pegasus hack reported on iPhones of Human Rights Watch official
But the means soon became clear: Somebody had used Pegasus, the powerful Israeli-built spyware, to peer into two of Fakih’s iPhones and into her life, Human Rights Watch announced Wednesday following forensic investigations. “I’ve sort of been caught up in this cycle of worry: Which government and why, and what did they access?” Fakih, the crisis and conflict director for Human Rights Watch and… → Read More
Nearly 50,000 Facebook users may have been targets of private surveillance, company says
Facebook is notifying nearly 50,000 users in more than 100 countries that they may have been targets of hacking attempts by private surveillance companies working for government agencies, the company said Thursday. → Read More
Facebook limits some political ad targeting, but impact is unlikely to be great
The move, however, leaves in place several advertising strategies criticized as pernicious “microtargeting,” such as selecting “custom audiences” based on customer data or visits to a particular website. → Read More
New whistleblower claims Facebook allowed hate, illegal activity to go unchecked
The new whistleblower is a former member of Facebook’s Integrity team whose identity is known to The Post and who agreed to be interviewed about the issues raised in the legal filing. Perhaps the most vivid moment in the affidavit comes in a direct quote the whistleblower reported hearing from a top Facebook communications official during the controversy following Russian interference in the… → Read More
Facebook announces new policy against ‘coordinated social harm’ that may lower the bar on who gets banned
Thursday’s action moves Facebook beyond its long-standing reliance on “inauthenticity” as the key marker of forbidden behavior on the platform. The company typically uses the term — which has been widely adopted within the industry — to describe deceptive behavior, in which social media users attempt to manipulate others while disguising their identities and actual views. Most Facebook takedowns… → Read More
Facebook made big mistake in data it provided to researchers, undermining academic work
The error resulted from Facebook accidentally excluding data from U.S. users who had no detectable political leanings — a group that amounted to roughly half of all of Facebook’s users in the United States. → Read More
A secretive Pentagon program that started on Trump’s last day in office just ended. The mystery has not.
The program had drawn scrutiny because of its unusual timing, starting amid a politically charged changeover of federal power, and because of its enormous scale. → Read More
Gallows or guillotines? The chilling debate on TheDonald.win before the Capitol siege.
Violent conversations flowed freely and visibly on TheDonald.win for weeks, underscoring the openly violent intent of some of the thousands of Trump enthusiasts who thronged the Capitol on Jan. 6. → Read More
One of QAnon’s most widely quoted critics reveals his real name. Hint: It’s not Travis View.
On a live stream of “QAnon Anonymous” last week, co-host Travis View did something he’d never done before — told listeners his real name. → Read More
Scientists said claims about China creating the coronavirus were misleading. They went viral anyway.
Yan’s work, which was posted to the scientific research repository Zenodo without any review on Sept. 14, exploded on Twitter, YouTube and far-right websites with the help of such conservative influencers as Republican strategist Stephen K. Bannon. → Read More
Big Russian hack used a technique experts had warned about for years. Why wasn’t the U.S. government ready?
Why corrective action didn’t happen earlier for a type of hack that had been discussed for years remains an unanswered question. → Read More
With Trump’s Twitter megaphone gone, Silicon Valley’s power rings loud
It may take historians years to grasp the full implications of the social media hurricane that Trump conjured from the moment he announced his intention to run for president over five years ago. But it took a single week, underscored by a single remarkable day, to hear what happened when that storm headed out to sea. → Read More
People affiliated with French military used Facebook to meddle in Africa
The French network did online combat with Russian actors over the upcoming election in the Central African Republic. → Read More