Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
June 2020
From ACM TechNews
DGCA Nod Clears Runway for the Dawn of Drone Age
India's Directorate-General of Civil Aviation is permitting 13 companies to test fly beyond visual line of sigh (BVLOS) drones.
From ACM TechNews
Five Times More Efficient Data Transfer
Researchers have developed a method to transfer bits across a silicon chip up to five times more efficiently than standard setups.
From ACM News
U.S. HHS Battles DDoS
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services networks were hit by a Distributed Denial of Service attack just as the coronavirus pandemic was ramping up.
From ACM News
China is Collecting DNA From Tens of Millions of Boys and Men, Using U.S. Equipment
Even children are pressed into giving blood samples to build a sweeping genetic database that will add to Beijing's growing surveillance capabilities.
From ACM News
Riding Out Quarantine With a Chatbot Friend: ‘I Feel Very Connected’
The digital companions may sound like science fiction. But when social isolation became the norm, they helped deal with the loneliness, some users say.
From ACM News
Quantum Backbone
An Oak Ridge early-career award recipient plots the infrastructure for a quantum-information highway.
From ACM TechNews
Spies Can Eavesdrop by Watching a Light Bulb's Vibrations
Researchers have developed a long-distance eavesdropping method that exploits vibrations on the glass surface of a light bulb's interior.
From ACM TechNews
Norway Pulls Its Coronavirus Contact Tracing App After Privacy Watchdog's Warning
Norway has suspended use of a coronavirus contact tracing application to allow changes to be made.
From ACM TechNews
Ceze, Strauss Share ACM SIGARCH Maurice Wilkes Award
The ACM Special Interest Group on Computer Architecture named Luis Ceze and Karin Strauss to share the 2020 Maurice Wilkes Award.
From ACM TechNews
The First Intuitive Programming Language for Quantum Computers
Computer scientists at ETH Zurich in Switzerland have created the first intuitive high-level quantum programming language.
From ACM TechNews
Activists Cite Tabulation Flaw in Georgia Mail-In Ballots
Thousands of votes in Georgia's primary may not have been counted, due to faulty software or poorly calibrated scanners used to count mailed ballots.
From ACM TechNews
Tech Companies Say They Value Diversity, but Reports Show Little Change in Last Six Years
A CNBC analysis of minority hiring by tech companies found they have made little progress since vowing to increase diversity six years ago.
From ACM News
Elite CIA Unit that Developed Hacking Tools Failed to Secure its Own Systems, Allowing Massive Leak
The breach came nearly three years after Edward Snowden stole and disclosed classified information about NSA surveillance operations.
From ACM TechNews
Next-Generation Cockroach-Inspired Robot Is Small, but Mighty
The researchers say the new robot is one of the smallest and most dexterous robots created to date.
From ACM TechNews
KingMiner Botnet Brute-Forces MSSQL Databases to Install Cryptocurrency Miner
U.K. cybersecurity firm Sophos is advising MSSQL database owners to fortify their servers against botnet-orchestrated brute-force attacks.
From ACM TechNews
In Autonomous Russia, Tractor Drives You
Two Russian companies have partnered on an advanced autonomous driving system for agricultural vehicles.
From ACM News
Who’s a Bot? Who’s Not?
It sometimes seems automated bots are taking over social media and driving human discourse. But some (real) researchers aren't so sure.
From ACM News
Exit From the Covid-19 Lockdown: There's an App for That
The Dutch government wants every citizen to download an app for tracking and tracing potential Covid-19 infections, but the app does not yet exist.
From ACM News
Silq is a High-level Programming Language for Quantum Computers
Silq is a research project that does not yet run on any of the existing quantum hardware platforms.
From ACM TechNews
Java Beats Python to Remain the Most Popular Programming Language Around
Java, JavaScript, and Python are the three most popular programming languages in use among developers.
From ACM TechNews
Angling for Underwater Wi-Fi
A new underwater Wi-Fi system could enable divers to transmit footage from underwater to the surface instantly by sending data through light beams.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Turn to Wearable Tech in Race to Track Covid-19
Researchers are using wearable technologies that monitor fluctuations in biomarkers to collect real-time patient data, to try to track the spread of Covid-19.
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Model the Health Benefits of Electric Cars, Find 'Large Improvement in Air Quality'
Researchers in Canada created computer simulations of the potential human health benefits of a large-scale transition to electric cars.
From ACM TechNews
Electronic Nose Sniffs Out Perfectly Ripe Peaches for Harvest
Researchers have developed an electronic nose system to sniff out the ripest peaches for harvest.
From ACM TechNews
DARPA Invites Hackers to Break Hardware to Make It More Secure
The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is inviting white-hat hackers to identify vulnerabilities in computer chips prior to their deployment.
From ACM TechNews
Robots Armed with UV Light Fight Grape Mildew
A multi-institutional and international collaboration has yielded autonomous robots that use ultraviolet lamps to kill powdery mildew on crops.
From ACM News
Signal Downloads Are Way Up Since the Protests Began
Organizers and demonstrators say they feel safer communicating with end-to-end encryption.
From ACM News
Farewell to Gummy Bear Jars: Tech Offices Get a Virus Safety Makeover
Companies like Salesforce created workplaces with all the comforts of home, but now they may feel more like hospitals.
From ACM TechNews
Self-Driving Cars That Recognize Free Space Can Better Detect Objects
Researchers have developed a method to improve self-driving vehicles's ability to detect objects by enabling them to recognize empty space.
From ACM TechNews
Billions of Smart Home Devices Open to Attack
A newly discovered vulnerability in the Universal Plug and Play networking protocol could expose billions of smart home devices to cyberattack.