Betterment was hacked and users' personal data compromised, but you might not know it because the company hid its data breach notice with a "noindex" tag in its web page source code. This tells search engines to ignore the page so people won't see it in search results. More from TechCrunch:

TechCrunch

Fintech firm Betterment confirms data breach after hackers send fake crypto scam notification to users | TechCrunch

Hackers gained access to some Betterment customers’ personal information through a social engineering attack, then targeted some of them with a c...

Love to hear from my readers.🙏

I very much appreciated this essay by Sarah Jeong this morning. It's a reminder that reality and truth still matters, even in the face of blatant and brazen lies.

The Verge

People are fighting for the truth in Minneapolis

Ordinary civilians aren’t playing along with Trump

NEW, by me: Bryan Fleming, the Michigan-based founder of spyware maker pcTattletale, pleaded guilty in federal court to hacking & advertising surveillance software Tuesday. The case was brought by ICE/HSI. It's the DOJ's first federal successful prosecution of a stalkerware operator in over a decade.

TechCrunch

Founder of spyware maker pcTattletale pleads guilty to hacking and advertising surveillance software | TechCrunch

Bryan Fleming, the founder of hacked stalkerware company pcTattletale, pleaded guilty to federal charges linked to the running of his now-defunct M...

Are you a security researcher or journalist? We want to hear from you — please take this survey! Dissent Doe at DataBreaches, and I, are running this survey to better understand the state of legal demands and criminal threats in cybersecurity. Help us by filling out this survey! (and please share!)

Survey about legal and criminal threats experienced by journalists and security researchers

Hello cyber friends! There's no

~this week in security~

~this week in security~

a weekly cybersecurity newsletter by Zack Whittaker, plus articles and more.

newsletter today (I'm off for the holidays). But if you're a fan of my weekly dispatch (and now blog!), please consider a paying subscription starting at $10/month for exclusive articles, analysis & more. Here's what I've written about so far:

New, by @npub1lt9k...f6eq and me: We just published TechCrunch's annual jealousy list of cybersecurity stories that we *didn’t* publish but wish we had. This is the very best cybersecuirty reporting from our friends at competing publications.

TechCrunch

These are the cybersecurity stories we were jealous of in 2025 | TechCrunch

The very best reporting and investigative journalism from our friends at other publications.