Tag: privacy
Sensors, Vulnerabilities, and Data Protections
Many of us find ourselves with multiple gadgets – in our pockets, our homes, our cars, our offices – and these gadgets are increasingly built to talk to each other, often automatically and invisibly. Camera phones upload straight to the Web and connect through WiFi and Bluetooth to unseen computer networks; the printer next to your desk can suddenly start printing out documents sent from a branch office on the other side of the world, and our cars automatically pull down information from the sky on the latest traffic and weather conditions. Even common documents (licenses, passports, payment cards) that …
The Big Chill: Don’t Let Cybersecurity Threats Slow Productivity & Economic Growth
Trust is an essential underpinning of life in the digital age. We trust our friends on Facebook not to share our private family photos. We trust our email clients and antivirus software to keep viruses and spam at bay. But for many people, the risks of using the internet are scary enough to curb their online activities. Earlier this year, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s National Telecommunications & Information Administration (NTIA) looked at the results of a survey by the U.S. Census Bureau in 2015. Out of 41,000 U.S. households, 19% reported security breaches, identity theft, or other malicious activity …
Hackable medical devices and other security threats of the Fourth Industrial Revolution
Last year, researchers told the DerbyCon security conference that thousands of medical devices such as X-ray machines, MRI scanners and infusion pumps for medication were vulnerable to hacking. Inexcusably, many organizations still used the default passwords provided by manufacturers and a number were connected to the internet, posing not only a health risk to patients, but also a means to compromise personal information. These are just some of the risks associated with the internet of things (IoT), the movement to plug everything from cars to refrigerators into the internet. IoT is one of many tech buzzwords on people’s lips now. …
Why internet security matters
Now that the Internet is an integral part of our lives, it’s easy to forget that 15 years ago it didn’t even exist, at least for most people. In fact, the Internet has been around for more than 45 years, with the original iteration functioning as a way for scientists and scholars to send messages to one another. So, how did the Internet grow from its academic origins to become the indispensable global tool we know today? Many would say its rise was due to the creation of the World Wide Web or the speed of data transmission that made …
William Saito: article to Nature
Many of us find ourselves with multiple gadgets – in our pockets, our homes, our cars, our offices – and these gadgets are increasingly built to talk to each other. Camera phones upload straight to the Web and connect through WiFi and Bluetooth to computer networks; copiers can be used as printers by branch offices on the other side of the world; and our cars pull down information from the sky on the latest traffic and weather conditions. Even the documents (licenses, passports, payment cards) that we carry around with us contain RFID chips. And all these sensors and transmitters …