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SINCE IT’S ALREADY chaos out there, this week, we thought we’d lean into the madness by envisioning the future threats that you’re not ready for. From cyberattacks on the US grid to GPS blackouts, rampant deepfake scams, AI-powered super hackers, and widespread communication system collapse, there’s a whole spectrum of scenarios that could take things from bad to worse.
All is not lost, however—at least if you’re Ross Ulbricht. The creator of the Silk Road dark web market, who was pardoned by President Donald Trump earlier this year, received a mysterious $31 million bitcoin donation last weekend. Crypto-tracing firm Chainalysis now suspects the lavish gift may have come from a vendor at another now-defunct black market, AlphaBay.
A trove of public records reviewed by WIRED this week reveal a years-long effort by a farming industry group to get the FBI to treat animal rights activists as a “bioterrorist” threat. The Animal Agriculture Alliance (AAA) was repeatedly in contact with the bureau’s Weapons of Mass Destruction Directorate about the activities of groups like Direct Action Everywhere, or DxE. The records show that AAA fed intelligence about DxE to the FBI and used corporate spies to infiltrate the group’s activities.
