If you actually read the “Passkeys are a trap. Do not use them.” post going around, you’ll find a transparent attempt to clumsily string together a conspiracy. The post is predicated on the idea that a feature of WebAuthn called “attestation”, which is only used in high-assurance and usually corporate scenarios, and usually with physical hardware security keys, will be leveraged to hurt people, somehow. The post posits that a website like X will bait and switch users: first, you get a passkey. Then, later, scary “attested” passkeys! This simply isn’t possible to do because attestation isn’t supported on the web for mass market, consumer authentication. Attestation for passkeys (software-based, syncable credentials) is antithetical to their mass market goals, and would freeze out independent, non-corporate-backed credential managers. It’s an explicit non-goal of the designers of passkeys, who work together in a forum anyone can join. And trust me, websites and apps like banks repeatedly asked for attestation at the beginning of the industry’s passkey journey. The platforms, browsers, and credential management apps have held firm that the goal of passkeys is reducing phishing and **not** some kind of trusted computing scheme. (And I will note: over my dead body!) Besides the theory of the case being fundamentally wrong, there are several things that make the post disqualifying in terms of arguing something useful or important in the realm of security, privacy, and user authentication: 1. Intentionally presenting things that are complicated as inherently suspicious. (Delivering security by design can be complicated, yes!) 2. Describing TOTP as a “great solution” for adding security to a password-based account. When the most common threat model on the web is phishing (a word the post never mentions!), TOTP hardly buys you _anything_. TOTP is phishable. 3. Seeming to be unbothered by how many logical leaps are being taken without actually understanding the topic being discussed. There are bad things happening in tech and untrustworthy people and companies do exist, but they’re largely in the AI space, not the “let’s stop people we love from getting compromised through phishing” space.

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The Federal Aviation Administration will likely have thoughts about the Tesla Roadster 2’s ability to leave the ground.

The DoJ claims up to 250k registered voters in CA+NV+NJ+PA are non-citizens. If that's true *and* they're all in CA *and* they all vote *and* they all vote the same way, that could swing a vote by 1.1-1.6% (CA has 23.2M registered voters; 16.1M voted in 2024). CA has no senate races this cycle and the Dem gubernatorial candidate leads the polls by 16.1%. CA has 48h to validate the list—an impossible task. > "I have serious doubts about the reliability of your data and accuracy of your claims, since my office has not shared our statewide voter registration list with DHS or any other federal agency or official," [CA Secretary of State] Weber said … > > The Republican administration claimed Nevada had 1,500 noncitizen voters on its voter rolls. But after the federal government identified them to the state, the number of actual registered noncitizens turned out to be zero. https://apnews.com/article/doj-california-elections-e08ec04efdb1110c0e3f815f2ce6a3db #USpol

A Republican-affiliated super PAC is having a little trouble finding Maine on a map. The Defending Main Street super PAC spent thousands of dollars on an attack ad to audiences thousands of miles away from the Maine Senate race it was targeting. The ad hit Maine Democratic Senate candidate Troy Jackson on the issue of taxes and cost of living in the state. “Maine can’t afford Troy Jackson and all his taxes,” the ad said. > “It’s clear these people don’t know anything about Maine.” The group, which describes itself as “most effective independent expenditure organization supporting the governing wing of the Republican Party,” paid for the ad to attack Jackson, who’s mounting a challenge to incumbent GOP Sen. Susan Collins. Both candidates have made cost of living a central plank of their campaigns in the run-up to the midterm election on November 3. The only problem with the ad in question: The group paid for the video ad to show more than 1 million times in the wrong Portland. Rather than being delivered to audiences in Portland, Maine, the state’s largest city, the ad was shown to digital audiences more than 3,000 miles and two time zones away in Portland, Oregon, according to data from Google. ## Most Read ICE Agent on Scene of NYC Shooting Was Posing as Construction Worker, Eyewitness Says Noah Hurowitz ICE Shooting in NYC Inflames Mamdani’s Policing Problem Akela Lacy He Confessed to an Afghanistan War Murder. The U.S. Military Promptly Closed the Case. Nick Turse The mix-up may be embarrassing for the super PAC, which is oriented around electing so-called moderate Republicans like Collins, but likely spared voters in Maine from the latest wave in a deluge of ad spending in the state, according to Andy O’Brien, a political operative who supports Jackson. “We have billionaires with no connection to Maine spending millions of dollars to buy Susan Collins the election, so it’s pretty hilarious to see them throwing money at the wrong Portland,” O’Brien told The Intercept. “It’s clear these people don’t know anything about Maine, because they’re directing their ads to the wrong Portland.” “I’m glad they’re wasting their money in Oregon and not continuing to waste it in Maine.” ## Related ### Susan Collins’s Committee Bought Trucks the Army Didn’t Want. Then Campaign Donations Poured In. Representatives of the Jackson’s and Collins’s campaigns and a spokesperson for Defending Main Street did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The group is affiliated with Republican Main Street Partnership, a nonprofit group that counts Collins among its nine members in the Senate. Republican Main Street Partnership was initially aimed at supporting moderate Republicans that has, along with much of the rest of the GOP, moved to the right in recent years. ## Busy Maine Street The race between Collins and Jackson — a longtime Maine politico who stepped in to replace Graham Platner after Platner dropped out amid allegations of sexual assault — has become one of the most high-profile races in the country in the run-up to the midterms. The campaign has helped make Maine one of the top locations for political spending this cycle, according to the Portland Press Herald. The Defending Main Street ad, however, did not have the impact its sponsors might have hoped. The ad buy first came to light after an X user reported seeing multiple anti-Troy Jackson ads in Portland, Oregon. ## We’re independent of corporate interests — and powered by members. Join us. Become a member ## Join Our Newsletter Thank You For Joining! Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you. Will you take the next step to support our independent journalism by becoming a member of The Intercept? I'm in Become a member By signing up, I agree to receive emails from The Intercept and to the Privacy Policy and Terms of Use. ## Join Our Newsletter ## Original reporting. Fearless journalism. Delivered to you. I'm in “I’ve gotten 5 anti-Troy Jackson ads in the last 24 hours. I choose to believe they mixed up Portlands,” wrote the user, who goes by the name Lillian Belle and posts about progressive politics in Oregon. “Hearing I’m not alone lol.” That suspicion appears to be borne out by data from Google Ads Transparency Center, which shows Defending Main Street dropped between $20,000 and $25,000 to place the 30-second ad in hundreds of ZIP codes across Oregon and the state of Washington between October 8 and October 11. O’Brien, the Maine political operative, said, “At least now Portland, Oregon, residents can enjoy some of the crap we’ve been seeing every single day.” Share * Copy link * Share on Facebook * Share on Bluesky * Share on X * Share on LinkedIn * Share on WhatsApp _IT’S EVEN WORSE THAN WE THOUGHT._ What we’re seeing right now from Donald Trump is a full-on authoritarian takeover of the U.S. government. This is not hyperbole. Court orders are being ignored. MAGA loyalists have been put in charge of the military and federal law enforcement agencies. The Department of Government Efficiency has stripped Congress of its power of the purse. News outlets that challenge Trump have been banished or put under investigation. Yet far too many are still covering Trump’s assault on democracy like politics as usual, with flattering headlines describing Trump as “unconventional,” “testing the boundaries,” and “aggressively flexing power.” The Intercept has long covered authoritarian governments, billionaire oligarchs, and backsliding democracies around the world. We understand the challenge we face in Trump and the vital importance of press freedom in defending democracy. ## We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us? $15 $25 $50 $100 $5 $8 $10 $15 One Time Monthly Donate **_IT’S BEEN A DEVASTATING_** year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history. We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking. In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow. **That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?** ## We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us? $15 $25 $50 $100 $5 $8 $10 $15 One Time Monthly Donate **_I’M BEN MUESSIG,_** The Intercept’s editor-in-chief. It’s been a devastating year for journalism — the worst in modern U.S. history. We have a president with utter contempt for truth aggressively using the government’s full powers to dismantle the free press. Corporate news outlets have cowered, becoming accessories in Trump’s project to create a post-truth America. Right-wing billionaires have pounced, buying up media organizations and rebuilding the information environment to their liking. In this most perilous moment for democracy, The Intercept is fighting back. But to do so effectively, we need to grow. **That’s where you come in. Will you help us expand our reporting capacity in time to hit the ground running in 2026?** ## We’re independent of corporate interests. Will you help us? $15 $25 $50 $100 $5 $8 $10 $15 One Time Monthly Donate ## Contact the author: Noah Hurowitz noah.hurowitz@theintercept.com @noahhurowitz.bsky.social on Bluesky @NoahHurowitz on X ## Related ### The Most Expensive Democratic Senate Primary Has a Winner ### ICE Officers at Maine Shooting Scene Were Wearing Body Cameras. They Were Not Turned On. ### Would-Be Platner Replacements in Maine Rally Around “Abolish ICE” (or Something Close) ### GOP Megadonor Leonard Leo Is Bankrolling a Website on the Warpath Against Somalis ## Latest Stories ### Pentagon Finally Counts an Iran War Death — Six Months Late Nick Turse - 9:02 am After months of questions from The Intercept, the U.S. military finally acknowledged the March death of Maj. Sorffly Davius. Chilling Dissent ### Trump Wanted Minneapolis 15 Case to Be Another Prairieland. Instead, Twin Cities Rallied Behind Anti-ICE Activists. Matt Sledge - 5:00 am The mainstream of Minnesota’s left-of-center politics — including unions, the backbone of Democratic power — are behind the radical left. Israel’s War on Gaza ### A C-Section in Shackles: A Palestinian Woman’s Harrowing Birth in Israeli Detention Aseel Mousa - Oct. 10 Dana Joudeh was denied proper food and medical care throughout her pregnancy in an Israeli prison. She gave birth to a premature baby surrounded by armed guards. Join The Conversation

Raven, previously called GeoSpy, lets cops figure out what specific Airbnb or Zillow property a photo was taken in.

A $20 billion setback. The post AI Bubble Teetering on the Brink as OpenAI Admits to Massive Financial Failure appeared first on Futurism.

Iowa city council debates proper time in meeting agenda to "undo the curse that was just put on our city."

There is plenty of coverage everywhere you look about how Pete Hegseth and the Pentagon have announced plans to livestream the firing squad execution of Nidal Hasan, the Army officer who shot up Fo…

Attached: 1 image @funnysnarkyjoke.bsky.social@bsky.brid.gy (credit to @skeleton_claw@threads.net, who is surprisingly not on Bluesky)