Self-Flying Police Drones Incoming | Huge Cyberattack Hits Microsoft Exchange | Cybercriminals Hack Their Own

Plus: Security Researchers Probed 90,194 Amazon Alexa Skills—The Results Were Shocking

Self-flying, artificially-intelligent police drones are here and they're coming to a city near you soon.

In an exclusive investigation on Forbes, I reveal how Customs and Border Protection has been testing self-flying drones created by Mitre Corp, a nonprofit that's already worked on smartwatch hacking tech and Rapid DNA tests for the agency.

Though Mitre's prototypes didn't take off, the CBP is now looking to Skydio, a $1 billion valued self-flying drone startup in Silicon Valley, to help it realize its sci-fi dreams. The company started life as a consumer drone maker, which it remains, but has been pushing hard in the public safety and critical infrastructure spheres, acquiring $340 million in funding along the way.

The CBP will follow the DEA and the Pentagon in trying out Skydio's drones. Local police across the U.S. have already been using them in operations too, but they still love DJI, the Chinese manufacturer that dominates the drone industry.

With Skydio doing its best to outdo DJI tech, it's also happy to lambast DJI in public for its alleged work with Beijing authorities, something the Chinese company is keen to distance itself from.

The drone wars are well and truly on. And that means more advanced AI drones are going to be policing the skies over the coming years.

And if you have any tips on government surveillance or cybercrime, drop me an email on tbrewster@forbes.com or message me on Signal at +447837496820.

The Big Story

The Stories You Have To Read Today

The New York Times reports that the U.S. is planning to retaliate to cyberattacks from Russia with its own digital espionage. The White House pushed back against claims it was preparing a "cyberstrike."

Also in the New York Times, Myanmar's military, which has taken control of the country in recent months, has an arsenal of phone and PC hacking tech that it can use on its opponents devices. American business BlackBag Technologies and its Israeli owner Cellebrite, as well as Swedish provider MSAB, were all cited in the report as vendors. Drones from Israeli provider Elbit were also sold to the country.

A U.S. military unit that carries out drone strikes bought Locate X, a product allowing customers to search a specific area to see what mobiles were there at a given time, according to Vice. It's another sign that this tech is being used by agencies with the authority to kill.

Okta, the identity management giant, has bought rival company Auth0 for a whopping $6.5 billion. It's one of the most significant cybersecurity acquisitions in recent memory.

The Department of Justice had taken a break from pursuing Israeli smartphone surveillance company NSO Group. But according to The Guardian, investigators are back on the case, asking WhatsApp about the alleged attacks on 1,4000 of its users in 2019.

Winner Of The Week

Katie Moussouris, a renowned cybersecurity entrepreneur and researcher, has made a $1 million gift through her Pay Equity Now foundation to establish the "Manglona Lab" at Penn State university to promote gender equity. Named after Moussouris’s late mother, it'll start by setting up a gender equity litigation clinic to address financial discrimination in the workplace.

Loser Of The Week

Robert Purbeck, an Idaho citizen, was last week accused of buying username and passwords to computer servers belonging to multiple organizations in Georgia, using them to hack into systems, pilfer data and then extort victims. The Justice Department alleged that in one case he stole medical records and social security numbers of over 43,000 people from a Griffin, Georgia, medical clinic. In another, he hacked into the computers of an orthodontist in Florida, stole medical records of over 1,800 people and attempted to extort the orthodontist, demanding a ransom payment in Bitcoin, according to the DOJ. He remains innocent until proven guilty.

Across Forbes