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
The Frightening Things You Hear at a Black Hat Conference
Here is a look at some of the highlights and scarier happenings taking place at the annual Black Hat hacker conference in Las Vegas last week.
From ACM Opinion
Tagging and Tracking Espionage Botnets
A security researcher who's spent 18 months cataloging and tracking malicious software that was developed and deployed specifically for spying on governments, activists...
From ACM Opinion
Why Shooting Games Make Your Brain Happy
Modern videogames are obsessed with guns, and there are a lot of reasons why.
From ACM Opinion
Timing Is Everything For the Games' Chief Timer
Timing is everything for Peter Hürzeler, a man for whom "good enough" simply isn't.
From ACM Opinion
The Public Is Left in the Dark When Courts Allow Electronic Surveillance
A big part of Magistrate Judge Stephen W. Smith's job in Federal District Court in Houston is to consider law enforcement requests for cellphone and email records...
From ACM Opinion
What a Win or Loss on Mars Will Mean
Anyone who's looked at the "Seven Minutes of Terror" trailer for next month's Mars landing might have wondered whether the planners behind NASA's $2.5 billion Mars...
From ACM Opinion
Obama Was Right: The Government Invented the Internet
Earlier this month, President Obama argued that wealthy business people owe some of their success to the government's investment in education and basic infrastructure...
From ACM Opinion
Russia's Top Cyber Sleuth Foils S Spies, Helps Kremlin Pals
It's early February in Cancun, Mexico. A group of 60 or so financial analysts, reporters, diplomats, and cybersecurity specialists shake off the previous night's...
From ACM Opinion
What's p With Skype?
Is the government listening to our Skype conversations? If so, it's not a bad thing. Here's why.
From ACM Opinion
Can Data Mining Stop the Killing?
Would Total Information Awareness have stopped James Eagan Holmes?
From ACM Opinion
So, Who Really Did Invent the Internet?
Gordon Crovitz of the Wall Street Journal's editorial page reopens the ancient debate over who invented the Internet with a column Monday calling out the notion...
From ACM Opinion
Wsj Mangles History to Argue Government Didn't Launch the Internet
"It's an urban legend that the government launched the Internet," writes L. Gordon Crovitz in Monday's Wall Street Journal, launching into just one of a myriad...
From ACM Opinion
Who Really Invented the Internet?
A telling moment in the presidential race came recently when Barack Obama said: "If you've got a business, you didn't build that. Somebody else made that happen...
From ACM Opinion
Will Wright Wants to Make a Game Out of Life Itself
For almost 30 years, Will Wright’s creations have attracted people who would never have played videogames. He's also managed the trick of developing games that...
From ACM Opinion
Taking the Cyberattack Threat Seriously
Last month I convened an emergency meeting of my cabinet and top homeland security, intelligence and defense officials. Across the country trains had derailed,...
From ACM Opinion
The Trouble With Online Education
"Ah, you're a professor. You must learn so much from your students."
From ACM Opinion
Stuxnet Shifts the Cyber Arms Race p a Gear
Over the last 25 years we've seen a massive change in how we think about information.
From ACM Opinion
Marissa Mayer Is in Over Her Head
One evening in the spring of 1999, Marissa Mayer got a recruiting email from a tiny search company. "I was in a long-distance relationship at the time, so I was...
From ACM Opinion