Communications of the ACM
Innovation Is Overrated: A Provocation
Digital innovation is not working in the interest of the whole of society. It is time to radically rethink its purpose without…
From ACM Opinion
Humans Are Getting More Botlike on Twitter
We know for sure that Cesar Sayoc, who allegedly targeted high-profile Democrats with mail bombs in late October, isn't a Russian bot.
From ACM Opinion
Editing the Internet's Second Screen
The great social media cleanup of the past two years hasn't seemed to leave it much cleaner.
From ACM Opinion
How Sci-Fi Like WarGames Led to Real Policy During the Reagan Administration
This year, John Badham's WarGames—one of the movies most beloved by hackers, techies, and tech policy wonks (like me!)—celebrates its 35th anniversary.
From ACM Opinion
There Is No Such Thing as 'the' Blockchain
How do you quadruple your stock price without lifting a finger?
From ACM Opinion
Borders in the Cloud
Amazon may well be one of the companies with the strongest data security in the world.
From ACM Opinion
Why Haven't Reporters Mass-Adopted Secure Tools For Communicating With Sources?
In the months since Donald Trump took office, Washington has been leaking like a sieve.
From ACM Opinion
Wikileaks' Attack on .s. Intelligence
Tuesday's WikiLeaks release exposing thousands of detailed documents on CIA hacking tools is an unbridled attack on U.S. intelligence operations with little or...
From ACM Opinion
Why frankenstein is Still Relevant, Almost 200 Years After It Was Published
Can I be totally honest? All I remember about Frankenstein is that Frankenstein is the doctor, not the monster. What happens in it?
From ACM Opinion
What Is 'military Artificial Intelligence'?
We are in an era of existential fear of technology.
From ACM Opinion
Vulnerability Is the Internet's Original Sin
On the day (perhaps not long from now) when the entire internet crashes, no one will be able to say that we didn’t see it coming.
From ACM Opinion
Google Is Listening
You know the cliché that if you're not paying for the product, you are the product?
From ACM Opinion
The Leaky Myths of Snowden
Oliver Stone's Snowden is a bad movie, stuffed with myth, short on drama.
From ACM Opinion
The Lessons of the DNC Hack
Just days after Robert Gates became secretary of defense in December 2006, in the middle of George W. Bush’s second term, he found himself so stunned by the volume...
From ACM Opinion
What Cyberwar Against Isis Should Look Like
Pentagon officials have publicly said, in recent weeks, that they're hitting ISIS not only with bullets and bombs but also with cyberoffensive operations.
From ACM Opinion
How Apple's Stand Against the Fbi Could Backfire
The skirmish between Apple and the FBI is quickly escalating to a battle royal, a fight to the finish over lofty principles and national values, involving not just...
From ACM Opinion
Metadata Surveillance Didn't Stop the Paris Attacks
Since terrorists struck Paris last Friday night, the debate over whether encryption prevents intelligence services from stopping attacks has reignited.
From ACM Opinion
Convicted By Code
Secret code is everywhere—in elevators, airplanes, medical devices.
From ACM Opinion
The Government Needs to Work with Silicon Valley to Create Our Military Future
In 1931, the city fathers of Sunnyvale, California, came up with a unique plan to rescue their town from the doldrums of the Great Depression.
From ACM Opinion
The Social Security Number's Insecurities
In both the Anthem insurance hack and the two Office of Personnel Management hacks this year, attackers gained access to Social Security numbers, affecting 80 million...
From ACM Opinion