@noplasticshower Are you letting AI agents manage your life?

Letting AI agents run your life is like handing the car keys to your 5-year-old. What could go wrong?

I was marveling while reading this PCMag piece, which describes how to secure an agentic AI setup that essentially mimics malware: To do it's job properly, the AI agent has to be able to read private messages, store credentials, execute commands, and maintain a persistent state. How do you do that? You chase after it like you would your child.

"The important thing is to make sure you limit "who can talk to your bot, where the bot is allowed to act, [and] what the bot can touch" on your device, the bot's support documentation says."

https://www.pcmag.com/news/clawdbot-moltbot-hot-new-ai-agent-creator-warns-of-spicy-security-risks?test_uuid=04IpBmWGZleS0I0J3epvMrC&test_variant=A

@osm_tech Hey. Sorry to hear about that. Drop me a line on Signal? username: briankrebs.07. Thanks!

We knew this was coming, but now the clock is running. From Privacy International:

"Yesterday the Trump Administration announced a proposed change in policy for travellers to the U.S. It applies to the powers of data collection by the Customs and Border Police (CBP)."

"If the proposed changes are adopted after the 60-day consultation, then millions of travellers to the U.S. will be forced to use a U.S. government mobile phone app, submit their social media from the last five years and email addresses used in the last ten years, including of family members. They’re also proposing the collection of DNA."

PI linked to and summarized a Federal Register entry describing the proposed requirements:

-All visitors must submit ‘their social media from the last 5 years’

-ESTA (Electronic System for Travel Authorization) applications will include ‘high value data fields’, ‘when feasible’
‘telephone numbers used in the last five years’
-‘email addresses used in the last ten years’
-‘family number telephone numbers (sic) used in the last five years’
-biometrics – face, fingerprint, DNA, and iris
-business telephone numbers used in the last five years
-business email addresses used in the last ten years.

https://www.privacyinternational.org/news-analysis/5713/trump-administration-wants-your-dna-and-social-media

The Federal Register entry says comments are encouraged and
must be submitted (no later than February 9, 2026) to be assured of consideration.

Federal Register entry: https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/FR-2025-12-10/pdf/2025-22461.pdf

New, from me: Who Operates the Badbox 2.0 Botnet?

The cybercriminals in control of Kimwolf -- a disruptive botnet that has infected more than 2 million devices -- recently shared a screenshot indicating they'd compromised the control panel for Badbox 2.0, a vast China-based botnet powered by malicious software that comes pre-installed on many Android TV streaming boxes. Both the FBI and Google say they are hunting for the people behind Badbox 2.0, and thanks to bragging by the Kimwolf botmasters we may now have a much clearer idea about that.

https://krebsonsecurity.com/2026/01/who-operates-the-badbox-2-0-botnet/

#infosec #botnet #IoT #Android #Google #threatresearch

This would appear to be related to the probe into the alleged leaker ( h/t @ncweaver )

https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.mdd.597299/gov.uscourts.mdd.597299.1.1.pdf

From the Guardian story:

“Physical searches of reporters’ devices, homes and belongings are some of the most invasive investigative steps law enforcement can take,” Bruce D Brown, president of the Reporters’ Committee for Freedom of the Press, said in a statement.

“There are specific federal laws and policies at the Department of Justice that are meant to limit searches to the most extreme cases because they endanger confidential sources far beyond just one investigation and impair public interest reporting in general.

“While we won’t know the government’s arguments about overcoming these very steep hurdles until the affidavit is made public, this is a tremendous escalation in the administration’s intrusions into the independence of the press.”

Jameel Jaffer, executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute, demanded a public explanation from the justice department “why it believes this search was necessary and legally permissible”.

In a statement, Jaffer said: “Any search targeting a journalist warrants intense scrutiny because these kinds of searches can deter and impede reporting that is vital to our democracy.

“Attorney General Bondi has weakened guidelines that were intended to protect the freedom of the press, but there are still important legal limits, including constitutional ones, on the government’s authority to use subpoenas, court orders, and search warrants to obtain information from journalists.

“Searches of newsrooms and journalists are hallmarks of illiberal regimes, and we must ensure that these practices are not normalized here.”

WaPo reports:

"The FBI executed a search warrant Wednesday morning at a Washington Post reporter’s home as part of an investigation into a government contractor accused of illegally retaining classified government materials."

"The reporter, Hannah Natanson, was at her home in Virginia at the time of the search. Federal agents searched her home and her devices, seizing her phone, two laptops and a Garmin watch. One of the laptops was her personal computer, the other a Washington Post-issued laptop."

"It is exceptionally rare for law enforcement officials to conduct searches at reporters’ homes. Federal regulations intended to protect a free press are designed to make it difficult to use aggressive law enforcement tactics against reporters to obtain the identities of their sources or information."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/national-security/2026/01/14/washington-post-reporter-search/

https://archive.ph/kYFYo

Guardian piece: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/jan/14/fbi-raid-washington-post-hannah-natanson

This is disheartening. WaPo editorial board goes full cheerleader for Trump's invasion of Venezuela. https://archive.ph/5iVFN

When an entire class of technology states on the packaging that it was made in China but intended "for overseas use only," this should really give you pause before plugging it into your network.

You will find this verbiage on a lot of Android TV streaming boxes for sale at the major retailers. There's a very good reason the country that makes this crap doesn't want it on their own networks. My advice: If you have one of these Android streaming boxes on your network or get one as a gift, toss it in the trash. I'll have a lot more about this in the New Year, but these things are responsible for building out a botnet that currently has ~2M devices and is growing rapidly. https://blog.xlab.qianxin.com/kimwolf-botnet-en/