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
If the New Iphone Has Fingerprint Authentication, Can It Be Hacked?
When Apple bought AuthenTec for its biometrics technology—reported as one of its most expensive purchases—there was a lot of speculation about how the company would...
From ACM Opinion
Nsa's Anti-Encryption Efforts Compromise .s. Security
National Security Agency efforts to overcome encryption of online data weaken American security and undermine the government's duty to protect its own cyberinfrastructure...
From ACM Opinion
Online Data Brokers Know You—surprisingly Well
I'm a middle-aged guy who lives in a house that was built more than 50 years ago.
From ACM Opinion
Online Data Brokers Know You—Surprisingly Well
I'm a middle-aged guy who lives in a house that was built more than 50 years ago.
From ACM Opinion
Nsa Surveillance: A Guide to Staying Secure
Now that we have enough details about how the NSA eavesdrops on the Internet, including today's disclosures of the NSA's deliberate weakening of cryptographic systems...
From ACM Opinion
Why the .s. Should se Cyber Weapons Against Syria
If the Obama administration does conduct military strikes against Syria, as seems likely, it should use military cyber weapons at the earliest possible moment to...
From ACM Opinion
How Advanced Is the NSA's Cryptanalysis—And Can We Resist It?
The latest Snowden document is the U.S. intelligence "black budget."
From ACM Opinion
Nasa Is Turning Science Fiction Into Fact
As a new moon orbiter gets set to launch, Pete Worden, director of NASA Ames, says forget the 20th—this is the real space century.
From ACM Opinion
Beyond The Shadows: Apple's Ios 7 Is All About The Screen
At some point in the coming weeks, users of Apple iPhones and iPads will wake up to an alert that there is a new version of the company's mobile operating system...
From ACM Opinion
Who Will Prosper in the New World
Self-driving vehicles threaten to send truck drivers to the unemployment office.
From ACM Opinion
Tech Pioneer Vint Cerf on the Age of Context and Why You Can't Be a Citizen of the Internet
Few people have as much claim as Vint Cerf to the title "Father of the Internet," but as the technologies he helped develop in the 1970s and 1980s become increasingly...
From ACM Opinion
The Nsa's Crypto "breakthrough"
One difficulty of reporting on spy outfits like America's National Security Agency is the veil of secrecy they operate behind.
From ACM Opinion
The STEM Crisis Is a Myth
You must have seen the warning a thousand times: Too few young people study scientific or technical subjects, businesses can't find enough workers in those fields...
From ACM Opinion
It's a Myth That Entrepreneurs Drive New Technology
Images of tech entrepreneurs such as Mark Zuckerberg and Steve Jobs are continually thrown at us by politicians, economists, and the media.
From ACM Opinion
Go Ahead, Mess With Texas Instruments
Last year, while cleaning out the basement of my childhood home, I discovered a plastic storage bin marked "Calcusoft." Inside were piles of notebooks filled with...
From ACM Opinion
Choosing Real-World Impact Over Impact Factor
My annual report for the 2012-13 academic year stares at me from an undisturbed corner of my desk.
From ACM News
Think You Can Drive a Bulldozer?
As he closed the door, leaving me alone at the controls of a 41,000-pound bulldozer with list price of nearly $432,000, a Komatsu Ltd. executive shouted, "No worries...
From ACM Opinion
Madden Turns 25: How the Video Game Sacked Its Rivals
The year was 1988. George Michael's "Faith" was top of the pops. "Roseanne" was the number-one show on TV. Bruce Willis, starring in "Die Hard," still had hair.
From ACM News
How a Look at Your Gmail Reveals the Power of Metadata
Sometimes you have to give up a little privacy in order to find out how much—or how little—privacy you really have.
From ACM Opinion