Matt Burgess

Security writer, WIRED. Privacy, data, surveillance, cyber. Keen runner.

WIRED profile: https://www.wired.com/author/matt-burgess/
Personal website: http://mattburgess.co/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/mattburgess1

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npub1dzaastdfcy23gs4lk44kwn4h5d977nkz9u2kx6eqzuwn4wjzew2srylf5d

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[email protected]

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nprofile1qqsx3w7c9k5uz9g5g2lm26m8f6m6xjl0fmpz79trdvspw8f6hfpvh9gppamhxue69uhkummnw3ezumt0d5d725df

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nostr.mom

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npub1dzaastdfcy23gs4lk44kwn4h5d977nkz9u2kx6eqzuwn4wjzew2srylf5d

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Last Notes

2026-07-03 07:11:10 GMT

NEW: An MEP investigating Pegasus spyware… had their phone hacked with Pegasus multiple times.
The compromises came days ahead of key meetings of the spyware inquiry
https://www.wired.com/story/eu-politicians-investigated-pegasus-spyware-then-it-ended-up-on-one-of-their-phones/
#tech #hacking #spyware #privacy

2026-06-18 08:59:06 GMT

NEW: The UK plans to use AI face scans to determine the age of asylum seekers at the border from next year.
However, a leaked report shows the government has known the tech isn’t accurate for more than a year.
In some cases, the technology could predict a 13.5-year-old to be an adult
https://www.wired.com/story/facial-age-estimate-uk-asylum-seekers/
#tech #data #artificialintelligence

2026-06-10 07:40:23 GMT

The survey revealed “deep European distrust in the US”, the authors said.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/jun/10/only-one-in-10-europeans-now-see-us-as-an-ally-survey-suggests

2026-06-08 10:52:06 GMT

Looks like the UK is going for some combination of client-side scanning/similar approach, plus device-level age verification requirements?
Cannot see Apple/Google voluntarily implementing what the government wants within the three months that's been asked
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/116/714/101/566/735/252/original/f4e5506f9655d037.png

2026-06-08 09:36:52 GMT

Made some big updates to my digital sovereignty in Europe tracker!
There's now almost 40 examples listed, including organizations ditching US tech, political decisions to reduce dependence, and tech developments
https://drive.proton.me/urls/EG60KWHEDG#7P2AL5m6PPzT
#digitalsovereignty #tech #europe #technology

2026-06-04 18:17:12 GMT

Big new WIRED story:
Meta has been quietly shipping to code to run face recognition from its smart glasses. The code is now on millions of phones
From my colleagues Dhruv and Dell
https://www.wired.com/story/meta-smart-glasses-face-recognition-nametag-connections/
#tech #privacy #meta

2026-05-21 13:49:04 GMT

New from me: France is done with US big tech companies—arguably its moving away from American tech faster than other countries in Europe
The French government has built its own replacement for Google Docs/Microsoft Office. Cities, including Lyon, are moving to Linux and other tech. Open source is at the center of their efforts.
https://www.wired.com/story/the-eu-is-going-through-a-trump-fueled-breakup-with-big-tech/
#tech #digitalsovereignty #opensource #techn

2026-05-06 16:19:28 GMT

“No-one is asking for this..."
Just like millions of others, scammers on cybercrime forums are fed up with AI posts and the increased rollout of AI
https://www.wired.com/story/cybercriminals-are-complaining-about-ai-slop-flooding-their-forums/
#cybersecurity #cybercrime #aislop #ai

2026-05-01 07:54:45 GMT

Updated! We are now up to 20 entries in my European digital sovereignty tracker. New examples of orgs ditching US tech include media entities, the Dutch National Bank, and open source sewing software.
Thanks to everyone who has sent me examples, please do keep them coming if there are others I am missing!
There's a handful that I am still reviewing and I'm also considering in the next update including new categories (political declarations, funding, projects such as Euro-Office, etc)
https://drive.proton.me/urls/EG60KWHEDG#7P2AL5m6PPzT
#digitalsovereignty #europe #tech #opensource

2026-04-27 13:32:11 GMT

London...
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/116/476/915/303/486/331/original/b30b8862ecc8705a.jpeg

2026-04-17 15:11:44 GMT

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wow, you read my mind! I literally just finished writing an email to their team

2026-04-16 12:48:56 GMT

Mastodon, I need your help! As more European countries and orgs look to ditch US technology and move to sovereign or open source alternatives, I'm trying to track these efforts.
So far, I've found more than half a dozen government agencies, cities, orgs, that are embracing digital sovereignty but want to hear about other examples that I've missed. Who else should I be adding to this?
Here's a list of what I have so far: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1yF0yznwPWuEqI2rJi54KFTIWu0yYYVkhVDRtmuy3D2w/edit?usp=sharing
#digitalsovereignty #opensource #europe #tech

2026-02-18 16:16:58 GMT

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https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/116/092/528/315/075/009/original/e7f80bc5e5bec1ee.png

2026-02-18 13:17:49 GMT

"I'm going to say something I should never say, but I will anyway: you can jailbreak an F-35 just like an iPhone"
https://www.theregister.com/2026/02/18/jailbreak_an_f35/

2026-01-14 10:24:57 GMT

Absolutely wild that a UK police chief has now—after previously denying it—confirmed that a fictitious football match that led to a ban of Israeli fans... was generated by AI.
"I became aware that the erroneous result concerning the West Ham v Maccabi Tel Aviv match arose as result of a use of Microsoft Co Pilot," Craig Guildford, the chief constable of West Midlands Police wrote in a letter to MPs investigating the issue
The letter is here: https://committees.parliament.uk/publications/51041/documents/282958/default/

2026-01-13 10:49:17 GMT

Reintroduction post!
Since Bluesky picked up millions of users last year, I have neglected Mastodon somewhat. This year, I'm going to make an effort to post and interact more on here too
I'm Matt, a security reporter based in Europe at WIRED. I'm often covering cybercrime, privacy, surveillance internet freedom, and more.
I'm always interested in hearing what we should be covering and keen to focus more this year on security issues in Europe (and the uncoupling of the continent and the US).
I'm also contactable on Signal using: mattburgess.20 and on email on [email protected]

2025-10-27 12:35:48 GMT

New from me:
ChatGPT, Gemini, DeepSeek, and Grok have all been founding citing Russian sources—including Russian media sanctioned by the EU—in response to queries about the war in Ukraine
https://www.wired.com/story/chatbots-are-pushing-sanctioned-russian-propaganda/

2025-10-23 13:19:28 GMT

NEW: This "privacy" browser promises to “keep you away from danger.” But in reality, it routes web through China and covertly installs programs that run in the background
What's more, it has links one of Asia's biggest gambling tech firms and connections to the region's booming cybercrime industry
https://www.wired.com/story/universe-browser-malware-gambling-networks/

2025-10-14 18:37:09 GMT

NEW: US and UK officials have just damaged the operations of one of the world's largest alleged scam empires.
Today, the countries jointly announced financial sanctions against the Prince Holding Group, a Cambodia-based company, its chairman and CEO Chen Zhi, and his associates and business partners.
Officials have seized $15 billion linked to the operations and say the Prince Group has secretly operated at least 10 scam compounds in Cambodia linked to scamming, human trafficking, money laundering and more
https://www.wired.com/story/feds-seize-record-breaking-15-billion-in-bitcoin-from-alleged-scam-empire/

2025-10-14 10:02:55 GMT

New from @npub13va…aerq and me: For three years, security researchers pointed a satellite at the sky and collected all the traffic they could find— they were shocked to find highly sensitive data unencrypted.
They found: calls and text messages on T-Mobile’s cellular network; military and law enforcement info from the US and Mexico; in-flight Wi-Fi browsing; communications to and from critical infrastructure such as electric utilities and offshore oil and gas platform; and a whole host more
https://www.wired.com/story/satellites-are-leaking-the-worlds-secrets-calls-texts-military-and-corporate-data/

2025-08-06 20:04:58 GMT

NEW: In a likely first, security researchers have shown how generative AI agents can be hijacked to cause physical consequences.
They tricked Google's Gemini AI into turning off smart home lights, opening windows, and turning on a boiler.
They hid instructions to the AI in a *calendar invitation*
https://www.wired.com/story/google-gemini-calendar-invite-hijack-smart-home/

2025-03-24 13:11:42 GMT

New from me: Companies in the EU are starting to look for ways to ditch Amazon, Google, and Microsoft cloud services amid fears of rising security risks from the US. But cutting ties won’t be easy
https://www.wired.com/story/trump-us-cloud-services-europe/
#cloud #privacy #data

2025-03-18 14:22:28 GMT

“Wired is going to stop paywalling articles that are primarily based on public records obtained through the Freedom of Information Act”
https://freedom.press/issues/wired-is-dropping-paywalls-for-foia-based-reporting-others-should-follow/

2025-03-17 11:21:37 GMT

Mastodon friends, I've heard a few suggestions of companies moving from US cloud providers to those based in the EU, due to risks with the Trump administration/Cloud Act, etc.
Has anyone come across any businesses that have made the leap recently? Feel free to DM or message on Signal, mattburgess.20
#infosec #privacy #cloud #security

2024-10-15 11:52:16 GMT

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Tiny 🎻 for deepfake bot creator who lost their 'audience.' But also shows how these harmful communities will bounce back continually, unless there is greater deterrence
https://media.infosec.exchange/infosec.exchange/media_attachments/files/113/311/277/563/541/158/original/4135143c7bcc53a5.png

2024-10-15 11:14:07 GMT

NEW: More than 4 million people have been using explicit deepfake bots on Telegram, a WIRED review has found.
We identified more than 50 Telegram bots built to create nude images and video. After sending questions to Telegram about their harm, the company removed the bots
https://www.wired.com/story/ai-deepfake-nudify-bots-telegram/ #tech #privacy #news #telegram #artificialintelligence

2024-09-20 11:19:28 GMT

“It's impossible to think about this as limiting Hezbollah's communications and capabilities without realizing it's also going to have a terrorizing effect on the adjacent population”
https://www.wired.com/story/hezbollah-israel-exploding-pagers-paranoia/

2024-09-19 08:16:05 GMT

Mark Zuckerberg for years: we want to be regulated
Also Meta: no, not like that
https://www.wsj.com/tech/ai/meta-to-european-union-your-tech-rules-threaten-to-squelch-ai-boom-35297c03

2024-09-06 12:50:56 GMT

NEW: Details of people's therapy sessions—including reports, video and audio recordings—have been exposed by a healthcare company.
These included people mentioning sexual abuse and highly sensitive subjects. The exposed database has now been closed down
https://www.wired.com/story/confidant-health-therapy-records-database-exposure/ #cybersecurity #privacy #news #technology

2024-06-17 10:27:20 GMT

NEW: Network Rail has trialled 'emotion detection' CCTV systems at multiple train stations around the UK.
The technology has been used as part of widespread AI trials at train stations in the UK. Currently Leeds station has 350 CCTV cameras hooked up to AI.
https://www.wired.com/story/amazon-ai-cameras-emotions-uk-train-passengers/ #tech #surveillance #privacy