U.S. District Judge Paul A. Engelmayer issued the preliminary injunction after 19 Democratic attorneys general sued President Donald Trump. The case, filed in federal court in New York City, alleges the Trump administration allowed Musk’s team access to the Treasury Department’s central payment system in violation of federal law.

Engelmayer, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, also said anyone prohibited from having access to the sensitive information since Jan. 20 must immediately destroy all copies of material downloaded from Treasury Department systems.

Connecticut Attorney General William Tong said it’s not clear what DOGE is doing with the information in the Treasury systems.

“This is the largest data breach in American history,” Tong said in a statement Friday. “DOGE is an unlawfully constituted band of renegade tech bros combing through confidential records, sensitive data and critical payment systems. What could go wrong?”

Separately, Democratic lawmakers are seeking a Treasury Department investigation of DOGE’s access to the government’s payment system.

Here’s an easy system for two humans to remotely authenticate to each other, so they can be sure that neither are digital impersonations. To mitigate that risk, I have developed this simple solution where you can setup a unique time-based one-time passcode (TOTP) between any pair of persons.

Tags: authentication, protocols

New York State is prohibiting the China-based artificial intelligence application DeepSeek from government devices.New York Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) announced on Monday state government employees are banned from downloading the application on ITS-managed devices and networks, citing “serious concerns” about the platform’s “connection to foreign government surveillance and censorship.

Hochul noted specific concerns about whether DeepSeek “can be used to harvest user data and steal technology secrets.”

“Public safety is my top priority and we’re working aggressively to protect New Yorkers from foreign and domestic threats,” Hochul said in a statement. “New York will continue fighting to combat cyber threats, ensure the privacy and safety of our data, and safeguard against state-sponsored censorship.”

Hochul issued statewide guidance in 2024 on the proper use of AI in government, which sought to find a balance between driving innovation and protecting privacy.

A bipartisan pair of lawmakers, Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-N.J.) and Darin LaHood (R-Ill.), introduced a measure in Congress last week to ban DeepSeek from government devices, arguing the app “compromises users’ sensitive data.”

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Before you sell a vehicle, you need to delete your sensitive information from the car’s infotainment system, apps, and anywhere else it’s storedIn this article

• Why You Should Wipe Your Data
• How to Clear Personal Data From Your Car
• If You Can’t Fully Wipe Your Data From Your Car
• Apps to Track Your Data

“You can’t even use a lot of the most appealing features on newer cars without entering personal data,” says Michael Crossen, lead technician at Consumer Reports’ Auto Test Center (ATC). “When you sell a car, there are ways to practice good data hygiene so that subsequent owners don’t end up with access to your private information.”

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Picus Security, a leading security validation company, has released its Red Report 2025. In its latest findings, the firm has found that the attacks to breach the security of password managers have drastically increased in 2024. Picus Security’s report is based on an in-depth analysis of more than one million pieces of malware collected in 2024.Attacks against password manager security in 2024 increased 3x compared to 2023

Picus Security reports that malware targeted 25 percent of credentials stored in password managers in 2024. It is a 3x increase as compared to the year 2023. For the first time, the MITRE ATT&CK (Adversarial Tactics, Techniques and Common Knowledge) framework lists stealing credentials from password managers among the top 10 techniques.

Attackers are prioritizing “complex, prolonged, multi-stage attacks,” which require a new generation of malware. Notably, the new malware comes with “more than a dozen malicious actions designed to help attackers evade defenses, increase permissions, and exfiltrate data.” Picus Security’s report also mentioned that, despite the widespread hype surrounding artificial intelligence and its potential applications in cybersecurity, it didn’t find any evidence that cybercriminals are using AI-driven malware.