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Security & Privacy

The most popular blog posts about security & privacy on Hacker News. 717 posts.

2026
512

Briar is in maintenance mode

This is a quick update about the status of Briar. Short version: the project is still active but we’re only making essential security updates and bugfixes for now. Long version: For several years we’ve been trying to find solutions to some of the longstanding issues with Briar, such as high battery usage and…

513

Restaurant Delivery Payment-Skimming Campaign

InfoHawk research has uncovered a network of 820 suspicious restaurant domains impersonating major US chains, including Jersey Mike's, Jimmy John's, Firehouse Subs, Chipotle, and Dave's Hot Chicken. Some are running sophisticated payment-skimming attacks that capture credit card information and ask customers for their…

528

We are building data breach machines and nobody cares

A few weeks ago, my longstanding friend and colleague Curt Cunning mentioned to me that he was slogging through Nietzsche, which bespeaks his incredible will to power through things that are unpleasant (one of the many things that makes him an exceptional engineer). In any case, it lead me to revisit some of his work…

529

Improving C# Memory Safety

The `unsafe` keyword is being redesigned to mark caller-facing contracts rather than just syntax. Safety obligations between callers and callees become visible and reviewable. The model is motivated by the rise of AI-assisted code generation and arrives as a preview in .NET 11.

534

You Know GDPR Is Good Based on Who Hates It

FDR has always been one of my favorite presidents, second maybe to Lincoln. Both were men the establishment assumed were one of them until, to their horror, they governed like they weren't. Both could trash the opposition in one breath and take the moral high ground in the next.

537

Dissecting Apple's Sparse Image Format (ASIF)

At WWDC 2025, Apple announced macOS 26 Tahoe. One of the new features in macOS Tahoe is a new disk image format: ASIF. Designed for use with virtual machines (its documentation lives under the Virtualization framework), ASIF takes a lot of inspiration from existing virtual disk formats. Practically, that means it’s…

539

Don't Roll Your Own

This is going to be a rant about modern web design practices. But before I get to that, let me begin with a familiar principle from the world of cryptography. Among software developers, and especially among those who work on security-sensitive systems, there is a well-known maxim: Don't roll your own crypto. This does…