Coruna and DarkSword iOS Exploits Explained: What iPhone Users Need to Do Right Now
Techlore Surveillance Report: Weekly News for Your Digital Freedom
This week's Surveillance Report covers a major iOS exploit kit found in the wild targeting hundreds of millions of iPhones, Google's controversial Android sideloading crackdown threatening alternative app stores, Instagram quietly killing E2EE in DMs, Colorado's push to mandate age verification at the OS level (and what it means for open source), and a historic EU Parliament vote to end mass Chat Control scanning — plus a packed Defense Bulletin with the Proton/FBI story, FBI location data purchases, rogue AI at Meta, and a ton of updates.
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Episode Timestamps
00:00 INTRO TO SURVEILLANCE REPORT
01:30 HIGHLIGHT STORY: IOS EXPLOITS
08:02 GOOGLE SIDELOADING ADVANCED FLOW
19:26 INSTAGRAM REMOVING E2EE
22:26 OS AGE VERIFICATION
28:44 EU CHAT CONTROL
31:00 DEFENSE BULLETIN
Episode Sources
Highlight: Millions of iPhones Targeted by Coruna Exploit Kit
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/spyware-grade-coruna-ios-exploit-kit-now-used-in-crypto-theft-attacks/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/apple/apple-patches-older-iphones-and-ipads-against-coruna-exploits/
- https://www.wired.com/story/hundreds-of-millions-of-iphones-can-be-hacked-with-a-new-tool-found-in-the-wild/
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/17/apple-rolls-out-first-background-security-update-for-iphones-ipads-and-macs-to-fix-safari-bug/
Story 1: Google Locks Down Android Sideloading
- https://thenewstack.io/f-droid-says-googles-android-developer-verification-plan-is-an-existential-threat-to-alternative-app-stores/
- https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2026/03/google-details-new-24-hour-process-to-sideload-unverified-android-apps/
- https://chaos.social/@SylvieLorxu/116260561104261042
- https://keepandroidopen.org/
Story 2: Instagram Kills End-to-End Encryption in DMs
- https://help.instagram.com/3490194014566528/
- https://www.wired.com/story/the-danger-behind-metas-decision-to-kill-end-to-end-encrypted-instagram-dms/
Story 3: Colorado Pushes Age Verification at the OS Level
- https://www.pcmag.com/news/colorado-lawmakers-push-for-age-verification-at-the-operating-system-level
- https://blog.system76.com/post/system76-on-age-verification
- https://linux.slashdot.org/story/26/03/09/0544224/eff-ubuntu-and-other-distros-discuss-how-to-respond-to-age-verification-laws
- https://linux.slashdot.org/story/26/03/14/085223/system76-ceo-sees-real-possibility-colorados-age-verification-bill-excludes-open-source
- https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/reddit-user-uncovers-behind-meta-154717384.html
- https://itsfoss.com/news/systemd-age-verification/
Story 4: EU Parliament Votes to End Chat Control Mass Scanning
- https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/historic-chat-control-vote-in-the-eu-parliament-meps-vote-to-end-untargeted-mass-scanning-of-private-chats/
- https://www.patrick-breyer.de/en/end-of-chat-control-paving-the-way-for-genuine-child-protection/
- https://digitalcourage.social/@echo_pbreyer/116266597665909346
The Defense Bulletin
- https://www.404media.co/proton-mail-helped-fbi-unmask-anonymous-stop-cop-city-protestor/
- https://freedom.press/digisec/blog/proton-mail-is-not-for-anonymity/
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/18/fbi-is-buying-location-data-to-track-us-citizens-kash-patel-wyden/
- https://www.yahoo.com/news/articles/federal-surveillance-tech-becomes-mandatory-161321992.html
- https://yro.slashdot.org/story/26/03/19/1936250/rogue-ai-triggers-serious-security-incident-at-meta
- https://arstechnica.com/security/2026/03/14000-routers-are-infected-by-malware-thats-highly-resistant-to-takedowns/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/clawjacked-attack-let-malicious-websites-hijack-openclaw-to-steal-data/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/wordpress-membership-plugin-bug-exploited-to-create-admin-accounts/
- https://cryptomator.org/blog/2026/03/13/hub-vault-unlock-vulnerability/
- https://www.reuters.com/business/media-telecom/poland-plans-social-media-ban-children-under-15-bloomberg-news-reports-2026-02-27/
- https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2026/mar/06/indonesia-social-media-ban-children
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/samsung-tvs-to-stop-collecting-texans-data-without-express-consent/
- https://www.fldigitalrights.org/2026-florida-legislative-session-in-review/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/lexisnexis-confirms-data-breach-as-hackers-leak-stolen-files/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/navia-discloses-data-breach-impacting-27-million-people/
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/18/marquis-says-over-672000-people-had-personal-and-financial-data-stolen-in-ransomware-attack/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/telus-digital-confirms-breach-after-hacker-claims-1-petabyte-data-theft/
- https://techcrunch.com/2026/03/06/trizetto-confirms-3-4m-peoples-health-and-personal-data-was-stolen-during-breach/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/starbucks-discloses-data-breach-affecting-hundreds-of-employees/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/ericsson-us-discloses-data-breach-after-service-provider-hack/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/aura-confirms-data-breach-exposing-900-000-marketing-contacts/
- https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/3/nationstates-confirms-data-breach-user-data-and-weak-passwords-exposed/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/star-citizen-game-dev-discloses-breach-affecting-user-data/
- https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/bitwarden-adds-support-for-passkey-login-on-windows-11/
- https://signal.org/blog/group-member-labels/
- https://9to5google.com/2026/03/01/motorola-confirms-grapheneos-partnership-for-a-future-smartphone-porting-features/
- https://tails.net/news/version_7.5/
- https://www.mullvad.net/en/blog/2026/3/6/a-security-audit-of-gotatun-is-now-available/
- https://blog.torproject.org/arti_2_1_0_released/
- https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/3/firefox-149-will-offer-a-free-built-in-vpn-split-views-tab-notes-and-optional-ai-windows/
- https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/meet-kit/
- https://blog.mozilla.org/en/firefox/hardening-firefox-anthropic-red-team/
- https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/3/gnome-50-rolls-out-with-parental-controls-accessibility-upgrades-and-performance-boost/
- https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/3/immich-2-6-improves-map-side-panel-asset-viewer-shared-link-slugs-and-presets-and-more/
- https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/3/peertube-8-1-adds-better-podcast-support-domain-restricted-embeds-3x-playback-and-more/
- https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/2/-e-os-3-5-released-with-lineageos-22-2-base-webassembly-support-and-fairphone-6-upgrades/
- https://blog.notesnook.com/notesnook-v3.3.9
- https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/3/fedora-44-beta-debuts-with-linux-6-19-kernel-gnome-50-kde-plasma-6-6-and-installer-updates/
- https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/3/fedora-asahi-remix-43-adds-apple-silicon-mac-support-and-rpm-6-0/
- https://alternativeto.net/news/2026/3/openwrt-25-12-adopts-apk-package-manager-revamps-upgrade-process-preserves-shell-history/
- https://news.slashdot.org/story/26/03/01/2332240/norways-consumer-council-calls-for-right-to-repair-and-antitrust-enforcement---and-mocks-enshittification
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