Communications of the ACM
From ACM Opinion
Why The Fbi Director Puts Tape Over His Webcam
FBI Director James Comey gave a speech this week about encryption and privacy, repeating his argument that "absolute privacy" hampers law enforcement. But it was...
From ACM Opinion
The Man Selling Shovels in the Machine-Learning Gold Rush
Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of the chipmaker Nvidia, is either very prescient or very lucky.
From ACM Opinion
Why a Chatbot Creeped Out Microsoft's AI-Focused Ceo
In February, Microsoft Corp. Vice President Derrick Connell visited the Bing search team in Hyderabad, India, to oversee a Monday morning hackathon.
From ACM Opinion
Linux at 25: Q&a With Linus Torvalds
Linus Torvalds created the original core of the Linux operating system in 1991 as a computer science student at the University of Helsinki in Finland.
From ACM Opinion
From Reagan's Cyber Plan to Apple Vs. Fbi: 'everything Is p For Grabs'
The heated debate between the FBI and Apple over the encryption of the iPhone used by Syed Rizwan Farook, one of the two people who massacred 14 people in San Bernardino...
From ACM Opinion
Cyberwar, Out of the Shadows
A hacking attack on a Las Vegas hotel company. A power grid blackout in the Ukraine. A series of industrial accidents at an Iranian nuclear enrichment lab.
From ACM Opinion
Head of British Intelligence Agency on Apple, Snowden, and Regrets
Shortly after Robert Hannigan took over the British signals-intelligence agency GCHQ in 2014, he implored technology companies to do more to facilitate investigations...
From ACM Opinion
Surprising Tips from a Super-Hacker
Virtually everyone in technology knows about Kevin Mitnick, who in the 1970s, '80s and '90s was a notorious fugitive hacker on the run from the FBI.
From ACM Opinion
Europe's Antitrust Enforcer on Google, Apple and the Year Ahead
Margrethe Vestager is already having a busy 2016.
From ACM Opinion
Why Digital Security Is an 'arms Race' Between Firms and the Feds
The Apple-FBI standoff, where Apple is refusing to write special software that would help investigators crack into an iPhone of one of the San Bernardino shooters...
From ACM Opinion
'code Is Speech' Expert Cindy Cohn Explains Key Argument in Apple's Fight with the Fbi
Apple's argument that a court order forcing it to write software code violates its First Amendment rights is legally sound and raises serious concerns, according...
From ACM Opinion
Snowden Lawyer: Bill of Rights Was Meant to Make Government's Job 'more Difficult'
Ben Wizner, a top attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union, is probably best known for being one of the lawyers representing Ed Snowden, the former National...
From ACM Opinion
Nsa Chief: 'paris Would Not Have Happened' Without Encrypted Apps
National Security Agency Director Adm. Michael Rogers warns that encryption is making it "much more difficult" for the agency to intercept the communications of...
From ACM Opinion
The President's Nsa Advisory Board Finally Gets a Tech Expert
It's taken more than a decade, but a critical oversight board tasked with advising the president on the privacy and civil liberties implications of the NSA's surveillance...
From ACM Opinion
Searching For the Algorithms nderlying Life
To the computer scientist Leslie Valiant, "machine learning" is redundant.
From ACM Opinion
It's Been 20 Years Since This Man Declared Cyberspace Independence
When digital dystopians and critics of Internet libertarians need a rhetorical dart board, they often pull out a document written by John Perry Barlow, co-founder...
From ACM Opinion
From Exile to Eminence: How the Alien Hunters Conquered Astronomy
When Jill Tarter first began to look for aliens, she drew looks askance from her friends and colleagues.
From ACM Opinion
Snowden's Chronicler Reveals Her Own Life nder Surveillance
Laura Poitras has a talent for disappearing. In her early documentaries like My Country, My Country and The Oath, her camera seems to float invisibly in rooms where...
From ACM Opinion