The world of information technology is reeling from last week’s massive ransomware attack that affected machines all over the globe. The WannaCry program is a malicious software that infects Windows computers taking advantage of a security flaw that was made public earlier this year by a hacking collective called the Read more
Last year there was a highly reported public debate between the FBI and Apple regarding the encryption used to protect an iPhone belonging to the San Bernardino terrorist shooter. The FBI wanted Apple to unlock the phone, but Apple argued that doing so was not only difficult, but it would Read more
The history of Internet Law is littered with bad legislation and legislative proposals. From the infamous SOPA and PIPA, to the Draft Investigatory Powers Bill, there is no shortage of badly-conceived legislation dealing with the Internet. Sometimes the bad law is the result of powerful lobbying, sometimes it is caused Read more
Depiction of computing and hacking in Hollywood has long been the subject of amusement for techies around the world. From the preposterous idea that you can hack into an alien computer, to increasingly unbelievable graphic user interfaces, film has been poisoning our perception of computing for years (and don’t get Read more
“Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth. And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn’t there? Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression. And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as Read more
In a world where online security has become an important element of our lives, it is becoming more difficult to trust information, even if they present a trust and/or security seals. A new report by the EU’s cyber security agency ENISA analyses the conditions under which online security and privacy Read more
So far, the most serious report to arise from the NSA files has been the revelation that US authorities have been involved in a systematic program to defeat Internet encryption. By any objective measure, the revelations are astounding: intelligence agencies have been building backdoors into cryptographic technology by tampering with Read more
The Cold War is long over. Or is it? Slowly, a new conflict is brewing in the frontiers of cyberspace between armies of hackers deployed to inject viruses in enemy systems and disrupt a country’s economy before a shot has ever been fired. Or so the reports go. Is there Read more
For years Eben Moglen has been warning about potential dangers of proprietary software in embedded computers, from trusted computing to chips running software nobody can access. Moglen’s warnings are more relevant, as builders and architects are racing to implement intelligent buildings and smart grids, which are widely heralded as a Read more