Science & Tech

How OPM Can Find Its Missing Data on the Dark Web

The best way to recover from breaches is to assume that they’re inevitable — and start looking for your data before you know it’s gone.

Ideas

Two Years After Snowden, Are We Better Off?

The NSA's mass surveillance authority has been scaled back, but answers to other digital issues are still being contentiously debated.

Policy

Senate Passes NSA Reform Bill

The USA Freedom Act, which will restore but reform the expired Patriot Act's spy authorities, earned final passage Tuesday and will be sent to the president.

Policy

GOP View Rand Paul as National Security Distraction in March to 2016

The presidential hopeful got what he wanted—expiration of the Patriot Act—but he alienated a lot of people along the way.

Threats

Here's What Happens To Spying With the Patriot Act Now Expired

Some key authorities may be dead for now, but the intelligence community has a number of weapons and workarounds still available.

Science & Tech

How Special Operators Are Taking Artificial Intelligence To War

Data and machine learning will steer missions and predict uprisings before they start.

Policy

What Is Rand Paul's NSA Endgame?

With days to go before the Patriot Act expires, the Kentucky Republican could kill the agency’s domestic-phone spying — or save it.

Policy

Exasperated White House Pushes Senate To Pass Surveillance Reform Bill

Without naming Rand Paul, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest faulted the Kentucky Republican for holding up legislation.

Science & Tech

NSA Trying to Track Your Smartphone Finger Strokes

Smartphone technology built by Lockheed Martin promises to verify a user's identity based on the swiftness and shape of the individual’s finger strokes on a touch screen.

Science & Tech

The Pentagon Is Rethinking a $475 Million Cyber Defense Proposal

Nearly a week after extending the terms of its original proposal, U.S. Cyber Command revoked a 5-year contract offer that aimed to backfill significant staffing shortages.

Business

CIA Ends Its Climate Research Program

Just days after the president said climate change was an 'indisputable' national security threat, the intelligence community ends its satellite data-sharing program with scientists.

Science & Tech

Special Operators Are Using Rapid DNA Readers

Conducting a midnight SEAL raid on a terrorist compound? Positive DNA identification is just 90 minutes away.

Policy

NSA Domestic Spying Will Start Stopping This Week

Lawmakers only have until Friday—not June 1—to resolve their standoff over the NSA's domestic surveillance, according to a new memo from the Obama administration.

Threats

Is US Foreign Policy Ignoring Homegrown Terrorists?

U.S. intelligence officials say the most likely terror threats facing American citizens come from 'home-grown' extremists. So why is it largely absent from debate in Washington?

Policy

NSA Spying Heads to Critical Senate Showdown

After the House voted to end bulk collection of phone data, Sen. Mitch McConnell promised to force a vote next week to reauthorize it.

Policy

Sen. Corker: NSA Should Do Far More with Your Phone Data

The NSA's bulk-data collection program is so scaled down that it's not nearly as effective as it should be, the Senate Foreign Relations chairman says.

Science & Tech

China Warns Its Soldiers: Wearable Tech Could Leak Secrets

The Chinese military said fitness trackers and watches could send private and strategic data to hackers who've gained access to the vulnerable devices.

Policy

While Ruling NSA Program Illegal, Appeals Court Suggests Path Forward

A recent federal appeals court ruling on the NSA's domestic surveillance program seems to be sending the political branches constitutional messages about how to proceed next.