“Uhhh . . .I have to go,” I stammered, before collecting my bag and racing off into the pouring rain.
It was a Friday evening in Washington. I had been spending it like any other 27-year-old would—drinking a Modelo and nerding out with some other young professionals about critical mineral supply chains. But my time at the bar was cut fatefully short by a call from an FBI agent.
I had been targeted in a sophisticated breach from a state actor.
I needed a new number, a new device, a new everything. Immediately.
The next morning I walked into the Apple Store at Carnegie Library. “Hi there—” a sales agent started before I raised an index finger to my lips. “Yeah, yeah. Can I just . . . set this . . . over here for a second?” I stashed my iPhone in the base of a potted plant while he raised a confused brow.
“Now that we can speak privately, I’d like to buy a new iPhone.” No, I didn’t want to restore an iCloud backup. Yes, I was sure.
The next 72 hours were some of the worst of my life. I cataloged every digital service I had ever used—emails, banks, VPNs, rideshare apps, music, social media, entertainment, Duolingo—and rebuilt each one: new email, new password, new two-factor authentication. I lost all my personal photos—and more than $200 in Dunkin’ Donuts rewards points.
Little did I know this was just the beginning. The next week brought dozens of phishing emails, failed two-factor authentication logins into my social media accounts, and alarming messages from Google’s security team. Attackers even spoofed location-sharing requests from my own mother.
It was my first rodeo with a highly motivated state actor. And I won’t be the only American this happens to. After Anthropic unveiled an AI last week that can scan the world’s software for weaknesses and exploit them faster than any human ever could, it may happen to you, too.
