Latest news with #MichaelCoates
Business Insider
04-08-2025
- Business Insider
Tea's data breach shows why you should be wary of new apps — especially in the AI era
Mobile apps are easier to build than ever — but that doesn't mean they're safe. Late last month, Tea, a buzzy app where women anonymously share reviews of men, suffered a data breach that exposed thousands of images and private messages. As cybersecurity expert Michael Coates put it, the impact of Tea's breach was that it exposed data "otherwise assumed to be private and sensitive" to anyone with the "technical acumen" to access that user data — and "ergo, the whole world." Tea confirmed that about 72,000 images — including women's selfies and driver's licenses — had been accessed. Images from the app were then posted to 4chan, and within days, that information spread across the web on platforms like X. Someone made a map identifying users' locations, and a website where Tea users' verification selfies were ranked side-by-side. It wasn't just images that were accessible. Kasra Rahjerdi, a security researcher, told Business Insider he was able to access more than 1.1 million private direct messages (DMs) between Tea's users. Rahjerdi said those messages included "intimate" conversations about topics such as divorce, abortion, cheating, and rape. The Tea breach was a crude reminder that just because we assume our data is private doesn't mean it actually is — especially when it comes to new apps. "Talking to an app is talking to a really gossipy coworker," Rahjerdi said. "If you tell them anything, they're going to share it, at least with the owners of the app, if not their advertisers, if not accidentally with the world." Isaac Evans, CEO of cybersecurity company Semgrep, said he uncovered an issue similar to the Tea breach when he was a student at MIT. A directory of students' names and IDs was left open for the public to view. "It's just really easy, when you have a big bucket of data, to accidentally leave it out in the open," Evans said. But despite the risks, many people are willing to share sensitive information with new apps. In fact, even after news of the Tea data breach broke, the app continued to sit near the top of Apple's App Store charts. On Monday, it was in the No. 4 slot on the chart behind only ChatGPT, Threads, and Google. Tea declined to comment. Cybersecurity in the AI era The cybersecurity issues raised by the Tea app breach — namely that emerging apps can often be less secure and that people are willing to hand over very sensitive information to them — could get even worse in the era of AI. Why? There are a few reasons. First, there's the fact that people are getting more comfortable sharing sensitive information with apps, especially AI chatbots, whether that's ChatGPT, Meta AI, or specialized chatbots trying to replicate therapy. This has already led to mishaps. Take Meta's AI app's "discover" feed, for example. In June, Business Insider reported that people were publicly sharing — seemingly accidentally — some quite personal exchanges with Meta's AI chatbot. Then there's the rise of vibe coding, which security experts say could lead to dangerous app vulnerabilities. Vibe coding, when people use generative AI to write and refine code, has been a favorite tech buzzword this year. Meanwhile, tech startups like Replit, Loveable, and Cursor have become highly valued vibe-coding darlings. But as vibe coding becomes more mainstream — and potentially leads to a geyser of new apps — cybersecurity experts have concerns. Brandon Evans, a senior instructor at the SANS Institute and cybersecurity consultant, told BI that vibe coding can "absolutely result in more insecure applications," especially as people build quickly and take shortcuts. (It's worth noting that while some public discourse on social media around Tea's breach includes criticisms of vibe coding, some security experts said they doubted the platform itself used AI to generate its code.) "One of the big risks about vibe coding and AI-generated software is what if it doesn't do security?" Coates said. "That's what we're all pretty concerned about." Rahjerdi told BI that the advent of vibe coding is what prompted him to start investigating "more and more projects recently." For Semgrep's Evans, vibe coding itself isn't the problem — it's how it interacts with developers' incentives more generally. Programmers often want to move fast, he said, speeding through the security review process. "Vibe-coding means that a junior programmer can suddenly be inside a racecar, rather than a minivan," he said. But vibe coded or not, consumers should "actively think about what you're sending to these organizations and really think about the worst case scenario," the SANS Institute's Evans said. "Consumers need to understand that there will be more breaches, not just because applications are being developed faster and arguably worse, but also because the adversaries have AI on their side as well," he added. "They can use AI to come up with new attacks to get this data too."
The Age
20-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Age
School parking stoush at Caulfield Grammar reignites as new rules floated
Residents could be blocked from parking outside their own homes around Caulfield Grammar under proposed new rules, reigniting tensions between parents and locals over snarling traffic around the Glen Iris private school. Previous efforts to ease pick-up and drop-off congestion appear to have failed after Stonnington council found many parents were flouting the rules, which inspectors have struggled to enforce. Police have even stepped in after a complaint was made about dangerous driving. Now the council wants to try tighter parking restrictions on streets surrounding the school, changing resident permit zones on Harold, Willoby and Dorrington avenues to no-parking areas at drop-off and pick-up times. Glen Iris resident Michael Coates said those who flout the rules make pick-up harder for other parents and impact traffic flow across the suburb. 'Half the parents are very entitled – they overstay the time, and they don't care. It seems a little bit rough if we can't use the street that we live on, but the parents can,' Coates said. Officers deployed to observe compliance after parking restrictions were introduced last Easter recorded 71 instances of rule-breaking during one afternoon pick-up. Police also raised concerns that motorists were illegally overtaking other drivers on Burke Road when traffic banked up waiting to enter nearby Sacre Coeur school. Sacre Coeur changed its school hours to help ease congestion and some parking has been removed on Burke Road during peak periods. However, drivers' speeds were found by the council to have slightly increased since the safety measures were introduced, and a survey asking whether parking had improved was met with a resounding 'no'.
The Age
19-05-2025
- Automotive
- The Age
‘Stop being so f---ing woke': School parking stoush at Caulfield Grammar reignites as new rules floated yet again
Residents could be blocked from parking outside their own homes around Caulfield Grammar under proposed new rules, reigniting tensions between parents and locals over snarling traffic around the Glen Iris private school. Previous efforts to ease pick-up and drop-off congestion appear to have flopped after Stonnington council found many parents were flouting the rules, which inspectors have struggled to enforce. Police have even stepped in after a complaint was made about dangerous driving. Now the council wants to try tighter parking restrictions on streets surrounding the school, changing resident permit zones on Harold, Willoby and Dorrington avenues to no parking at drop-off and pick-up times. Glen Iris resident Michael Coates said those who flout the rules make pick-up harder for other parents and impact traffic flow across the suburb. 'Half the parents are very entitled – they overstay the time, and they don't care. It seems a little bit rough if we can't use the street that we live on, but the parents can,' Coates said. Officers deployed to observe compliance after parking restrictions were introduced last Easter recorded 71 instances of rule-breaking during one afternoon pick-up. Police also raised concerns that motorists were illegally overtaking other drivers on Burke Road when traffic banked up waiting to enter nearby Sacre Coeur school. Sacre Coeur changed its school hours to help ease congestion and some parking has been removed on Burke Road during peak periods. However, drivers' speeds were found by the council to have slightly increased since the safety measures were introduced, and a survey asking whether parking had improved was met with a resounding 'no'.
Sydney Morning Herald
19-05-2025
- Automotive
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘Stop being so f---ing woke': School parking stoush at Caulfield Grammar reignites as new rules floated yet again
Residents could be blocked from parking outside their own homes around Caulfield Grammar under proposed new rules, reigniting tensions between parents and locals over snarling traffic around the Glen Iris private school. Previous efforts to ease pick-up and drop-off congestion appear to have flopped after Stonnington council found many parents were flouting the rules, which inspectors have struggled to enforce. Police have even stepped in after a complaint was made about dangerous driving. Now the council wants to try tighter parking restrictions on streets surrounding the school, changing resident permit zones on Harold, Willoby and Dorrington avenues to no parking at drop-off and pick-up times. Glen Iris resident Michael Coates said those who flout the rules make pick-up harder for other parents and impact traffic flow across the suburb. 'Half the parents are very entitled – they overstay the time, and they don't care. It seems a little bit rough if we can't use the street that we live on, but the parents can,' Coates said. Officers deployed to observe compliance after parking restrictions were introduced last Easter recorded 71 instances of rule-breaking during one afternoon pick-up. Police also raised concerns that motorists were illegally overtaking other drivers on Burke Road when traffic banked up waiting to enter nearby Sacre Coeur school. Sacre Coeur changed its school hours to help ease congestion and some parking has been removed on Burke Road during peak periods. However, drivers' speeds were found by the council to have slightly increased since the safety measures were introduced, and a survey asking whether parking had improved was met with a resounding 'no'.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
SpaceX fuel spiral 'looked like jellyfish' in sky
A man who saw a large glowing spiral in the night sky on Monday, believed to have been caused by a SpaceX rocket launch, has said it "almost looked like a jellyfish". Michael Coates, from Hexham in Northumberland, was with his dog in his garden at about 19:55 GMT when he noticed what looked like a "really, really bright star". The object was very slow moving, he said, and morphed into a cloud-like shape about five minutes in. The Met Office said it was likely produced by a frozen plume of fuel from the rocket's exhaust, which reflected the sunlight and appeared to spin in the atmosphere. A Falcon 9 rocket lifted off at about 13:50 local time in Florida (17:50 GMT) on a US government mission. After launching, the rocket splits and leftover fuel is ejected. This freezes instantly due to the altitude and forms into a spiral pattern because of the rocket's movement as it falls back to Earth. Light reflected off the frozen fuel is then visible on Earth. SpaceX said the launch was carried out on behalf of the US government National Reconnaissance Office. The Kennedy Space Center also said the launch was a classified mission for that office. When the spiral shape appeared in the sky, Mr Coates said he shouted for his wife and son to come out. He said: "To be fair to my wife she called it straight away." The bright spiral, which he also described as like an "hourglass on its side", eventually lost its shape and "faded away". The whole event, which Mr Coates took several photos of using his phone, was visible for about 10 minutes. "I'm quite a rational person but also there's that bit of excitement - woah... what is that," he said. Follow BBC North East on X, Facebook, Nextdoor and Instagram. Spiral in the sky likely to be from SpaceX launch Met Office
