Scams keep coming at us—and they’re getting harder to spot. How? Scammers have begun making them more tailored to their marks. That is… us. Personalized scams, as security experts call them, use details about you in the hope of tricking you more easily. This information comes from illicit sources like data leaks and breaches, successful phishing attacks, compromised websites, and malware, as well as legitimate sources like marketing info, public records, and social media. As you might guess, the data range can span a pretty wide range, from location to shopping habits.  But what does a personalized scam look like? And how do you spot one? I brought these questions (and others) to a chat with Steve Grobman, Chief Technology Officer at McAfee—and it turns out that just like the data a scammer might have on you, the types of scams they craft fall under pretty broad umbrellas, too. The “general” personalized scam PCWorld These kinds of scams tend to target broad groups—like a specific geographic area. Toll scams have become personalized, for example. Before, messages claiming you had unpaid toll charges were generic. Now the texts will refer to your area’s toll authority and the name of the system, based on your phone number’s area code. If you’re not naturally a suspicious person, this updated approach may catch you off-guard. The language sounds more natural, despite being very broad. What changed? AI. Scammers can use AI to figure out regional information and incorporate it into messages quickly.  Scammers don’t have to know much about you to make this kind of connection. They’ll extrapolate it from your contact info. Think area code for a phone number or a specific service related to your email provider. For example, I’ve recently seen emails related to Google storage limits, claiming your files will be deleted soon because you ran out of space. The “specific” personalized scam Here’s where all those data leaks and breaches become a problem. Even when a data dump only involves details like name and location (like, say, from an address), a resulting scam message can sound much more official. It can address you by name, target your age bracket, and/or zero in on something specific to your region. The extra information allows for additional customization of the message. Grobman calls these “fill in the blank” scams, where a scary notice can easily swap in your name and a relevant entity to spook you. For my location, he described it as “___(name)____, the California Department of _________.” (A possible example would be: John, the California Department of Motor Vehicles has revoked your registration due to unpaid fees.) If matched well enough to your region, this approach could get you to click or otherwise fall for the scam, because it sounds realistic enough. The “hyperpersonalized” scam Scammers can target topical interests for their attacks.Wegovy This type of personalized scam is more insidious than outright creepy. (Mostly.) Grobman says these are “lifestyle” focused. Scammers use what they know of your habits—like sites you’ve visited or links you’ve clicked on—to figure out your interests. Then they’ll zero in to exploit that info. For example, if you’ve shown interest in weight loss, you could be targeted with a link to a fake weight loss drug. Hyperpersonalized scams can also take longer to build to the fraud—think romance scams, where the scammer uses information about you to build trust. Maybe they know where you went to school, and use that to start and build rapport. The more you share, the more they weave that into the relationship being built. Eventually, the requests for favors and money begin. Or shared communication, photos, and other details are then twisted into blackmail material, used to extort money in exchange for secrecy. Often, these kinds of scams can feel so personal—and so shameful to have fallen for one—that many victims won’t tell anyone they’ve been scammed. Previously, the young and the elderly were bigger targets for scammers, as they could prey on not just loneliness, but also lack of experience or diminished cognitive capabilities. But now, the threat for this to be widespread across all age brackets hangs lower than before… which is why we have to be on alert. What to do if you’ve been scammed First, take a deep breath. You might feel overwhelmed by your feelings—whether that’s shock, embarrassment, or shame—but that’s common and normal. Also common and normal: Making this kind of mistake. Falling for a scam can truly happen to anyone, even seasoned security professionals. Next, ask for help. The problem may seem huge at first, but getting help keeps the problem from spiraling into a huge mess. You can start with the FTC’s consumer advice page, which lists common scam scenarios and what steps to take afterward. Generally, you want to address the immediate problem first. Let’s say you used your credit card number on a scam site or wired money to a “special friend”—alert your bank about these fraudulent transactions right away. The faster you act, the faster you limit the damage. Worried about credit card or bank account fraud? Call your bank immediately!Cardmapr / Unsplash Or you shared your social security number and then realized your mistake. Add a security freeze to your credit reports immediately, and also add a security alert for good measure. (The freeze is the more powerful tool though, as it blocks anyone from checking or opening credit in your name until you temporarily allow access, aka “thaw” your report.) Take care of your emotional health, too. At a baseline, talking to a friend or family member who can help provide clarity or good feedback can help while you’re in a stew. You can also try your employer or even the police if you just need help in getting oriented. How to avoid personalized scams The grim reality is that personalized scams could become more common—the tools to help fraudsters keep improving, thanks to AI advances. (Thanks but no thanks, AI.) How fast that will happen remains to be seen—Grobman says scammers are business owners. They do what makes money, so a change in approach only comes when current efforts lose profitability. And that will happen the more awareness spreads and detection tools improve. (Remember, security experts also have AI available to them, too.) As that race continues to escalate, the shift toward more and more personalization will increase the difficulty of spotting legitimate messages among the fakes. Windows Security is a solid free antivirus option that Microsoft automatically keeps up to date.Foundry Fortunately, the best steps to protect yourself are also the easiest. Have antivirus software active on your PC. Be wary about installing apps on your computer or phone. Keep your software up to date, especially your browser. Use a password manager. Apps and services have begun to build in more safeguards and protections—think of it as a neighborhood watch approach to online security. The final piece of the puzzle? You. The sites you choose to visit, the software you download, the browser extensions you install, the links you click in email and messages—those all can increase or decrease your risk of getting caught in a scam, too. Surf the internet wisely. Read...

New Zealand Rugby’s general manager of professional rugby and performance, Chris Lendrum, will step down at the end of May. Read...

Director-General of Security Andrew Hampton said the designation was `something we should all be concerned about`. Read...

If your Intel processor requires a warranty return or support, the first “person” you’ll probably be dealing with at Intel will be an AI. Intel is rolling out “Ask Intel,” an addition to its Intel support site, that runs on Microsoft Copilot rather than on human intervention. Ask Intel will appear as part of support.intel.com, Intel sales executive Boji Tony announced on a LinkedIn post last week. Tony is the vice president and general manager of Intel sales enablement and support. Ask Intel is built on Microsoft Copilot Studio, and is “a new generative AI–powered virtual assistant for customer and partner support—one of the first of its kind in the semiconductor industry,” Tony said in the post, as reported by CRN. “With agentic AI capabilities, Ask Intel can open support cases on your behalf, check warranty coverage instantly, and connect you with live support agents when human support is needed,” Tony said. That Intel should replace at least some of its human customer support staff with AI shouldn’t be surprising. For one thing, Intel and others have been pushing AI solutions to replace humans at drive-through fast-food restaurants for years, such as at KFC. Now, the chipmaker is applying that same strategy to addressing your support questions, too. Foundry CRN reported that Intel began removing inbound customer support phone numbers in December, redirecting them to the support site. Naturally, Intel plans to make Ask Intel more central to the support experience over time. Today, Ask Intel isn’t the first thing you see when you visit Intel’s support site. When I began digging down through support options for Intel’s NUCs and Intel’s processors, the first time I experienced Ask Intel was in the “Live Chat” portion of the site. “This Virtual Assistant uses generative AI and answers may be inaccurate,” Ask Intel says. It also notes, “By using this feature, you agree that Intel and its third-party service provider may record, use, and store the contents of this dialog in accordance with ?Intel’s Privacy Notice.” When I used Ask Intel and asked to speak to a live representative, it first deflected, prompting me to describe the issue. In this case, I asked about crashing desktop CPUs, and Ask Intel first instructed me to download an updated graphics driver. I’m not entirely certain that would have solved my problem. It also suggested that I stress-test my processor, which may have exacerbated the issue. When I asked if stress-testing a possibly defective CPU was a good idea, Ask Intel then recommended that I update my motherboard’s BIOS instead. To be fair, we’re seeing AI chat options appear more and more in customer service. I’d be irritated if an AI screwed up my burger, but I’m sure a human manager could quickly fix it. But if I get the wrong advice from an AI and end up torching an expensive CPU, it might be a different story. Proceed carefully. Read...

After months of build-up, YouTube TV’s new Sports and genre plans feel underwhelming. YouTube started hyping up these plans in December, promising cheaper bundles with fewer channels you don’t care about. Sports fans, for instance, can get a package without news or entertainment channels, while sports haters can finally stop subsidizing expensive channels like ESPN. But while the new plans could save you some money, they’re not much different from other skinny bundles that DirecTV and Fubo offer already. In some cases, they might even be worse. False start First, a disclaimer: You probably can’t sign up for YouTube TV’s new plans yet. While they technically launched last week, YouTube says it’s “rolling these plans out slowly to ensure the best possible experience.” They may not be broadly available for several weeks. In the meantime, YouTube TV is still withholding some basic information. While it’s promising more than 10 genre plans in total, so far it’s only announced five of them: Sports Plan ($65/mo.): Local broadcast channels and national sports channels such as ESPN, FS1/FS2, TBS/TNT, NBC (including regional NBC Sports in select markets), Golf, NFL Network, and NBA TV, with ESPN Unlimited to be added in the fall. Sports + News Plan ($72/mo.): The above plan, plus CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, CSPAN, and business news channels. Entertainment Plan ($55/mo.): Local broadcast channels and general entertainment channels such as Hallmark, Comedy Central, HGTV, and Bravo. News + Entertainment + Family Plan ($70/mo.): Basically everything except sports, including kids channels such as Disney and Nickelodeon. Sports + News + Entertainment ($78 per month): Nearly the full YouTube TV package, but without kids channels. YouTube TV’s base plan, with more channels than any of the above options, remains available for $83 per month. Note that YouTube hasn’t released full channel lists for most of these packages (though Deadline got a channel list for the Sports package). It’s also unclear whether we’ll see any additional genre packages, or if the remaining five-plus options will just be different combinations of the Sports, News, Entertainment, and Family plans that YouTube has announced already. How YouTube TV’s Sports package compares Even with incomplete information, we can start to compare YouTube TV’s genre plans with the competition. The Sports plan, for instance, will be the cheapest way to combine local broadcasts and national sports channels if that’s all you want from a live TV service. At $65 per month, it’s $5 per month cheaper than DirecTV’s MySports plan, which launched last year, and $18 per month cheaper than YouTube TV’s standard plan. YouTube’s case gets stronger in the handful of markets that carry regional NBC Sports Networks. They’re included with YouTube TV’s Sports plan, but not DirecTV’s MySports package. (YouTube’s plans don’t include any other regional sports networks, while DirecTV offers a $20 per month MyHome Team add-on in select markets.) But if you want cable news, DirecTV’s MySports plan has an edge at $70 per month, versus $72 per month for YouTube TV’s Sports + News option. It also includes MLB Network and NHL TV, which YouTube’s bundle lacks. Jared Newman / Foundry (Click to enlarge or view on Google Sheets) YouTube TV’s Sports + News + Entertainment plan is interesting, in that it cuts out kids channels such as Nickelodeon, Disney Channel, and Cartoon Network. It’s only $5 per month cheaper than YouTube TV’s standard package, but that’s better than nothing for channels you might never watch. Those who want more price flexibility could look to Fubo Sports instead. At $56 per month, it’s cheaper than YouTube TV’s Sports plan, but it does not include NBC, TNT, TBS, or any regional sports channels. These bundles aren’t the only way to slice and dice sports coverage. You could also opt for some combination of ESPN Unlimited, Fox One, Peacock for NBC, Paramount+ for CBS, and HBO Max for TNT/TBS. But if you’re going to pay for all of those at the same time, you’re better off picking a bundle that includes all of their corresponding TV channels. YouTube TV’s non-sports plans YouTube TV’s other genre plans are a bit different from what DirecTV offers, at least from what we’ve seen so far. The $55 per month Entertainment plan, for instance, caters to folks who have no interest in sports but don’t want to give up local broadcast stations or general entertainment channels. Same goes for the $70 per month News + Entertainment + Family Plan. No other streaming TV packages like these exist on the market today. But as more kids tune into Netflix and YouTube, and as cable’s entertainment channels become bereft of original programming, the appeal may be limited. With its new genre plans, YouTube TV missed an opportunity to start bundling streaming services alongside traditional cable channels. That’s what DirecTV is doing with its $35 per month MyEntertainment package, which offers many of the same channels as YouTube’s Entertainment plan along with Disney+, Hulu, and HBO Max. And while DirecTV’s MyEntertainment doesn’t carry local channels, you can combine it with DirecTV MyNews for $75 per month total. That gets you local channels, cable news, entertainment, and a trio of streaming services. It’s a more compelling package than any of YouTube’s non-sports offerings. Slice and dice Given YouTube TV’s status as the largest live TV streaming service—one that might become bigger than major companies soon—I thought its bargaining power would result in packages that are clearly better than the competition. The reality is more nuanced. The new YouTube TV genre plans can save you money, but you’ll still have to carefully consider the alternatives and choose wisely. Sign up for Jared’s Cord Cutter Weekly newsletter for more streaming TV advice. Read...

For all its supposed intelligence, “AI” seems to make a lot of stupid mistakes—for example, scanning and summarizing emails marked “confidential” in Microsoft Outlook. That’s the latest issue with Microsoft’s Copilot assistant, according to a bug report from Microsoft itself. Copilot Chat in Microsoft 365 accounts is able to read and summarize emails in the Sent and Drafts folders of Outlook, even if they’re marked confidential… a mark that’s specifically designed to keep automated tools out. BleepingComputer summarizes the issue labeled “CW1226324” and says that a fix is being rolled out to affected accounts. There’s no timeline for when the fix will be available for all users. (Unfortunately, the full report isn’t available for viewing by the general public—you need Microsoft 365 admin privileges just to see it.) The problem is, as you might guess, alarming. The confidential feature in Outlook is often used for things like business contracts, legal correspondence, government or police investigations, and personal medical information. It’s the kind of stuff you absolutely do not want scanned by a large language model, and definitely not sucked up into its training data, as is so often the case. Microsoft isn’t saying how many users are affected, but it is saying that “the scope of impact may change” as it investigates the problem. How comforting. That’ll really get people to start using Copilot, right? Read...

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Lawmakers, including those who wrote the law requiring their publication, argue the release is insufficient. Read...

“This game rocks, 10/10” and “suxors, crashed every time” are both valid game reviews. But your interpretation of them might change if you knew the former was written by someone playing on an RTX 5090, and the latter was on a Surface RT tablet clinging on for dear life. Now Steam can give you that context, at least sometimes. The latest beta update to Steam gives users reviewing a game the option to attach their PC hardware specs. Thoughtful reviewers sometimes include this info anyway, but having a system for automating the process is a great way to add very useful information for readers who want to know more about how the game might run on their specific machine. Trying out the beta spec system while leaving a review on a relevant game store page, I’m glad to see that it’s optional and disabled by default. Keep in mind that even though Steam profiles are decently anonymous, adding in specific info on your hardware could aid in digital fingerprinting. You can also save multiple hardware configurations if you play on different machines, which I expect is very handy if you play on a conventional gaming desktop or laptop, plus a Steam Deck or other handheld. Unfortunately, it looks like even though the ability to add your PC specs to a review is enabled on the user side, those specs are not yet actually visible to people reading the reviews. I looked around at reviews posted today for the most popular games and couldn’t see any specs listed, and I didn’t see it even when I left a review myself and made sure to enable the feature. I can only assume the attached spec data is being saved, and visibility will be added later, perhaps when the feature exits beta and gets out to the general build. The test system is now live in the Steam beta build. If you’re on the standard Steam build, you can switch to the beta in the Steam settings menu by clicking Interface, then look under “Client Beta Participation.” Read...