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If Apple Aids Terrorists and the Fbi Is Big Brother… Whom Do We Root For?
From ACM Opinion

If Apple Aids Terrorists and the Fbi Is Big Brother… Whom Do We Root For?

There's been a lot of bluster about the ongoing encryption saga between the FBI and Apple.

Power Wars: How Obama Justified, Expanded Bush-Era Surveillance
From ACM Opinion

Power Wars: How Obama Justified, Expanded Bush-Era Surveillance

Over the winter holidays, I took some well-needed time offline, away from e-mail and social media.

In 2016, Terror Suspects and 7-Eleven Thieves May Bring Surveillance to Supreme Court
From ACM Opinion

In 2016, Terror Suspects and 7-Eleven Thieves May Bring Surveillance to Supreme Court

It has now been 2.5 years since the first Snowden revelations were published. And in 2015, government surveillance marched on in both large (the National Security...

In 2015, Promising Surveillance Cases Ran Into Legal Brick Walls
From ACM Opinion

In 2015, Promising Surveillance Cases Ran Into Legal Brick Walls

Today, the first Snowden disclosures in 2013 feel like a distant memory.

What the Government Should've Learned About Backdoors from the Clipper Chip
From ACM Opinion

What the Government Should've Learned About Backdoors from the Clipper Chip

In the face of a Federal Bureau of Investigation proposal requesting backdoors into encrypted communications, a noted encryption expert urged Congress not to adopt...

We Flew a Simulated 747 at Nasa and Didn't Crash or Barf
From ACM Opinion

We Flew a Simulated 747 at Nasa and Didn't Crash or Barf

From a viewing spot in a high bay room at NASA Ames Research Center in Silicon Valley, I peer through a glass window at a cab that simulates the cockpit of a commercial...

Here Are Eff's Most Influential Cases from Its First 25 Years
From ACM News

Here Are Eff's Most Influential Cases from Its First 25 Years

On Friday, July 10, the Electronic Frontier Foundation celebrated its 25th anniversary.

Why the Entire Premise of Tor-Enabled Routers Is Ridiculous
From ACM Opinion

Why the Entire Premise of Tor-Enabled Routers Is Ridiculous

Ars recently reviewed two "Tor routers," devices that are supposed to improve your privacy by routing all traffic through the Tor anonymity network. Although the...

The New Spam: Interactive Robo-Calls from the Cloud as Cheap as E-Mail
From ACM Opinion

The New Spam: Interactive Robo-Calls from the Cloud as Cheap as E-Mail

It was the middle of the day, and my cell phone rang with a local number I didn't recognize.

Surveillance-Based Manipulation: How Facebook or Google Could Tilt Elections
From ACM Opinion

Surveillance-Based Manipulation: How Facebook or Google Could Tilt Elections

Someone who knows things about us has some measure of control over us, and someone who knows everything about us has a lot of control over us.

Secrets Become History: Edward Snowden in Citizenfour Wins Documentary Oscar
From ACM Opinion

Secrets Become History: Edward Snowden in Citizenfour Wins Documentary Oscar

Citizenfour is filmmaker Laura Poitras' account of the first meetings between herself, Glenn Greenwald, and Edward Snowden.

Blackhat Brings Some Hacking Realism to Hollywood, but to What Effect?
From ACM Opinion

Blackhat Brings Some Hacking Realism to Hollywood, but to What Effect?

During one scene in the upcoming hacker action movie Blackhat, a team is sent into the control room of a burned-out nuclear power plant to gather clues about the...

The Importance of Deleting Old Stuff—another Lesson from the Sony Attack
From ACM Opinion

The Importance of Deleting Old Stuff—another Lesson from the Sony Attack


If the Supreme Court Tackles the Nsa in 2015, It'll Be One of These Five Cases
From ACM Opinion

If the Supreme Court Tackles the Nsa in 2015, It'll Be One of These Five Cases

Roughly a year and a half since the first Snowden disclosures, there's already been a judicial order to shut down the National Security Agency's bulk metadata collection...

Baer's Odyssey: Meet the Serial Inventor Who Built the World's First Game Console
From ACM Opinion

Baer's Odyssey: Meet the Serial Inventor Who Built the World's First Game Console

Even if you're a devoted fan of video games, there's a decent chance you're not familiar with the name Ralph H. Baer.

John Walker, the Navy Spy Who Defined Crypto-Betrayal, Dead at 77
From ACM Opinion

John Walker, the Navy Spy Who Defined Crypto-Betrayal, Dead at 77

This week, the man responsible for what is probably the biggest cryptographic failure in military history died—just a few months before he was due to be released...

How Movies and Tv Give Life to the Mundane Text Message
From ACM Opinion

How Movies and Tv Give Life to the Mundane Text Message

In the last decade, movies and television have sprouted a new plot weakness: if tension hinged in any way on a situation that could have been solved by a simple...

Science Inches Closer to Real Bioshock-Style Plasmids
From ACM Opinion

Science Inches Closer to Real Bioshock-Style Plasmids

Synthetic success. That's not to say that customized transposons are limited to the hypothetical.

From ACM Opinion

Why Intel Bought Mcafee

There's been quite a bit of head-scratching over Intel's decision to purchase McAfee, but, despite all the breathless talk about mobile security and ARM and virus...
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