"Can You Ever Trust Your Online Drug Dealer Again?"
March 19, 2015 | Joshua Brustein, Bloomberg Business
Press
The online drug trade was dealt another blow this week. Evolution, a massive website for buying drugs on the so-called Dark Web, suddenly disappeared on Tuesday, along with millions of dollars in its users’ Bitcoins.
"Sign up at irs.gov before Crooks Do It for You"
March 15, 2015 | Brian Krebs, Krebs on Security
If you’re an American and haven’t yet created an account at irs.gov, you may want to take care of that before tax fraudsters create an account in your name and steal your personal and tax data in the process.
"Breaking down the Controversial FCC Clause That No One's Talking About"
March 13, 2015 | Russell Brandom, The Verge
This week, the FCC released the new rules for internet service providers, 400 pages of rules stemming from the decision last month to adopt Title II authority. The most important news from the decision has been net neutrality — it's now illegal to prioritize certain kinds of web traffic for money — but there's a separate, more obscure provision that had raised the alarm for many network engineers, and the new rules put it in a radically different light.
"Wait, that Scary Net Neutrality Packet-Loss Clause isn't that Bad"
March 12, 2015 | Nick Weaver, Forbes
I’ve previously worried about the devil in the details on the FCC’s network neutrality regulations. In particular, the press release concerning packet loss as a metric worried me, as optimizing for zero loss has potentially dangerous consequences. Fortunately the order itself is now public, and although the devil may be in the details, so also might angels lurk.
"Hillary Clinton’s Homemade System May Have Put Her Email at Risk"
March 3, 2015 | Shane Harris, The Daily Beast
When she served as Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton was steeped in every imaginable foreign policy issue and regularly dealt with highly classified information. But not, apparently, over email.
"Deep Learning"
March 3, 2015 | BBC World Service
Why is it harder for a robot to find a chessboard than to play chess? Bridget Kendall asks whether new uses of Deep Learning algorithms can transform the way computers interact with the world as she discusses neural networks with professor Zoubin Ghahramani, computer vision with professor Trevor Darrell and the problem of pet sheep with Deep Learning pioneer professor Geoffrey Hinton.
"This One Clause in the New Net Neutrality Regs Would Be a Fiasco for the Internet"
February 27, 2015 | Nick Weaver, Forbes
I don’t trust Internet Service Providers. I’ve focused much of my research since 2008 on ways in which the Internet fails due to ISP misbehavior, including detecting how ISPs can inject adds into content, how ISPs blocked BitTorrent, how ISPs have manipulated a key Internet protocol for ads and profit, and how network carriers inject tracking into user traffic. For those who want to measure the network for themselves, they can download the free (and ad-free) Android tool I helped develop, Netalyzr.
"Here’s Everything You Need to Know About Snowden’s Latest Release"
February 23, 2015 | Anthea Mitchell, Wall St. Cheat Sheet
Cyber security has been a major topic of concern within the government over the last year or so. Republicans have made it a major priority for the coming year, and Obama spoke on the need for new programs and efforts concerning communication within government and business, and between government and businesses, to help each other keep customers and American citizens safe from hackers and security threats to their personal information.
"Snowden’s Revenge: New Mega-Spying Project Revealed"
February 20, 2015 |Shane Harris, The Daily Beast
A giant cellphone surveillance program is just one of the dark NSA secrets being dragged out into the light, thanks to a certain whistleblower and a Russian cybersecurity firm.
"Is Your Toaster a Silent Recruit in a 'Thingbot' Army?"
February 16, 2015 | Padraig Belton, BBC
Our electronic devices are getting smarter - many can now "talk" to each other and connect to the web. All kinds of gadgets, from toasters to sprinklers, fridges to domestic heating systems, are now boasting sensors, actuators and low-powered embedded chips.