Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
August 2016
From ACM News
New Air-Gap Jumper Covertly Transmits Data in Hard-Drive Sounds
Researchers have devised a new way to siphon data out of an infected computer even when it has been physically disconnected from the Internet to prevent the leakage of sensitive information it stores.
From ACM News
Expensive Drones Take Flying Lessons from Cheaper Stunt Doubles
Some of the best lessons come from the school of hard knocks. But some kit is too delicate or expensive to be subjected to this.
From ACM News
Robot-Like Machines Helped People with Spinal Injuries Regain Function
Researchers in Brazil who are trying to help people with spine injuries gain mobility have made a surprising discovery: Injured people doing brain training while interacting with robot-like machines were able to regain some sensation…
From ACM TechNews
Researchers Find That Android Apps Can Secretly Track Users' Whereabouts
A team of researchers has demonstrated how Android applications can be manipulated to transmit sensitive information using a phone's built-in sensors.
From ACM TechNews
Cyberattack Concerns Real About U.s. Presidential Election, Stanford Scholar Says
Stanford University cybersecurity scholar Herbert Lin contends foreign hackers constitute a viable threat against the U.S. presidential election.
From ACM TechNews
Toward a Better Screen
Researchers say they have designed new blue-light-emitting molecules for organic light-emitting diodes that could dramatically improve displays for TVs, phones, and tablets.
From ACM TechNews
The Robot You Want Most Is Far From Reality
House-cleaning robots will surely be popular, but building one will be a daunting challenge, according to researchers.
From ACM TechNews
Smart Yogurt and Automatic Warfare? The Future of Computers in America
Groundbreaking achievements in computing are expected in the next 35 years.
From ACM News
How the Father of the World Wide Web Plans to Reclaim It from Facebook and Google
Tim Berners-Lee is working to help you own your own data, while making it available to the applications that you want to be able to use it.
From ACM News
This Timing Technology Determines Who Wins the Gold
Timing is everything.
From ACM News
A New Wireless Hack Can Unlock 100 Million Volkswagens
In 2013, when University of Birmingham computer scientist Flavio Garcia and a team of researchers were preparing to reveal a vulnerability that allowed them to start the ignition of millions of Volkswagen cars and drive themdelayed…
From ACM News
'faceless Recognition System' Can Identify You Even When You Hide Your Face
With widespread adoption among law enforcement, advertisers, and even churches, face recognition has undoubtedly become one of the biggest threats to privacy out there.
From ACM News
The Bandwidth Bottleneck that Is Throttling the Internet
Researchers are scrambling to repair and expand data pipes worldwide — and to keep the information revolution from grinding to a halt.
From ACM News
Hellish Venus Might Have Been Habitable For Billions of Years
Venus is—without a doubt—Earth's toxic sibling.
From ACM News
Cassini Finds Flooded Canyons on Titan
NASA's Cassini spacecraft has found deep, steep-sided canyons on Saturn's moon Titan that are flooded with liquid hydrocarbons.
From ACM TechNews
Stanford Research Could Improve Counseling on Crisis Help Lines
Researchers at Stanford University have analyzed text messages from crisis counseling sessions to identify techniques associated with successful sessions.
From ACM TechNews
Record-Breaking Logic-Gate 'another Important Milestone' on Road to Quantum Computers
Researchers at the University of Oxford say they have achieved a quantum logic gate with a precision, or fidelity, substantially greater than the previous world record.
From ACM TechNews
Carnegie Mellon niversity Team Behind Smartphone, Tablet App For Blind
Researchers at Carnegie Mellon University have developed a text-to-speech mobile application designed for use on the Indian subcontinent.
From ACM TechNews
ta Engineering Researcher to Develop Tools to Better Analyze Complex Patient Data
A University of Texas at Arlington professor is developing computing tools to enable researchers to better determine the best medical treatment pathways.
From ACM News
The Beginning of the Internet of Robot Things
Robots will take the Internet of Things to the next level.
From ACM News
The Bandwidth Bottleneck that Is Throttling the Internet
On 19 June, several hundred thousand US fans of the television drama Game of Thrones went online to watch an eagerly awaited episode—and triggered a partial failure in the channel's streaming service. Some 15,000 customers were…
From ACM Careers
Thanks to This Man, Airplanes Don’t Crash Into Mountains Anymore
Giant flocks of black birds circled the wreckage of an airliner that had struck an Alaska mountain two weeks earlier, killing all 111 aboard.
From ACM News
Martians Might Be Real. That Makes Mars Exploration Way More Complicated
History will note that the guy who discovered liquid water on Mars was an undergraduate at the University of Arizona, a 20-year-old who played guitar in a death-metal band and worked in a planetary science lab.
From ACM News
Cyborg Stingray Swims Toward Light, Breaks New Ground
The idea of taking apart a rat's heart and transforming it into a tissue-engineered stingray first came to Kevin Kit Parker during a trip to the New England Aquarium with his daughter.
From ACM News
Where in the World Is My Data and How Secure Is It?
When Max Schrems, an Austrian privacy activist, requested to see his personal data that Facebook stored on its servers, he was mailed a CD-ROM containing a 1,222-page document.
From ACM TechNews
Toward Practical Quantum Computers
Researchers have taken a step toward practical quantum computing with a prototype chip that traps ions in an electric field and directs laser light at each of them.
From ACM TechNews
Boosting Swimming Performance With Sound Data
Researchers at Bielefeld University have developed a system that offers new training opportunities for swimmers by expanding their perception and feel for the water.
From ACM TechNews
Study Highlights Serious Security Threat to Many Internet sers
Researchers have identified a vulnerability in the Transmission Control Protocol of all Linux operating systems that enables attackers to hijack Internet communications.
From ACM TechNews
Data Mining Reveals First Evidence That Absence Really Does Make the Heart Grow Fonder
A project to data-mine mobile phone records found people invest more in relationships where there exists a risk of the relationship weakening.
From ACM TechNews
Sprinkling of Neural Dust Opens Door to Electroceuticals
Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley have developed tiny wireless implants that one day could control prosthetics and treat physical disorders.