Communications of the ACM
The news archive provides access to past news stories from Communications of the ACM and other sources by date.
April 2020
From ACM TechNews
Hackathons Target Coronavirus
Thousands of technology enthusiasts and others worldwide are participating in hackathons to combat the coronavirus pandemic.
From ACM TechNews
Linux Security: Chinese State Hackers May Have Compromised 'Holy Grail' Targets Since 2012
A BlackBerry research and intelligence team said five Chinese advanced persistent threat groups have long been attacking Linux servers.
From ACM TechNews
Mirror Arrays Make Augmented Reality More Realistic
A compact augmented reality system uses an array of miniature mirrors to create virtual images that appear more "solid" in front of real-world objects.
From ACM TechNews
Grocery Stores Turn to Robots During the Coronavirus
Local grocers and large supermarket chains are deploying robots to clean floors, stock shelves, and deliver groceries during the coronavirus pandemic
From ACM TechNews
DeepMind AI Can Understand the Unusual Atomic Structure of Glass
DeepMind researchers used machine learning to simulate how atomic particles in a piece of glass respond to different temperatures and pressures.
From ACM TechNews
Supervised Self-Driving Shuttles Move COVID-19 Tests in Florida
Self-driving shuttles are transporting COVID-19 tests from a Jacksonville, FL, testing site to a Mayo Clinic processing location.
From ACM TechNews
AI Helping Scientists Understand an Ocean's Worth of Data
Researchers have trained a neural network to distinguish humpback whale songs from other ocean noise.
From ACM TechNews
Lawmakers Outline Proposals for Virtual Voting
U.S. lawmakers have urged House leaders to consider virtual voting in order to conduct business while complying with health guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic.
From ACM TechNews
Tech Hiring Slows as Businesses Grapple with Economic Volatility
A report by information technology trade group CompTIA found that U.S. employers slashed 19,000 IT jobs during March.
From ACM TechNews
'Punch-Card' DNA Could Mean Cheaper High-Capacity Data Storage
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign researchers have proposed an alternative to custom-synthesizing DNA for high-capacity data storage.
From ACM News
You Can’t Spell Creative Without A.I.
Advances in software applications that process human language lie at the heart of the debate over whether computer technologies will enhance or even substitute for human creativity.
From ACM News
Computers Already Learn From Us. But Can They Teach Themselves?
Scientists are exploring approaches that would help machines develop their own sort of common sense.
From ACM News
RAND Study Advocates 'Postquantum Cryptography'
A government think tank says a coordinated, long-term approach is needed to confront the "retroactive risk" to secure communications posed by quantum computing.
From ACM TechNews
AI Tool Predicts Which Patients with Pandemic Virus Will Develop Serious Respiratory Disease
An experimental artificial intelligence tool accurately predicted which patients newly infected with the COVID-19 virus would develop severe respiratory disease.
From ACM TechNews
Hacker Group Is Eavesdropping on Corporate Email, FTP Traffic
The Chinese security firm Qihoo 360 reports that a hacker group has been eavesdropping on corporate networks since at least early December.
From ACM TechNews
Followers May Tune Out When Municipalities Tweet Too Much
The more municipalities tweet, the less likely it is that followers would respond to any individual message, according to new research.
From ACM TechNews
Visualization Tool Illustrates Critical Care Bed Capacities All Over Germany
The tool gives doctors an easy way to see critical care bed capacities in German hospitals.
From ACM News
Medical Professionals Tap AI to Combat COVID-19
Artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things are aiding hospitals and healthcare experts in the battle against the coronavirus.
From ACM TechNews
Crypto-Mining Botnet Has Been Hijacking MSSQL Servers for Almost Two Years
A malware botnet has been launching brute-force attacks against Microsoft SQL databases for nearly two years.
From ACM TechNews
Purdue Researchers 3D-Print Minerals in Order to Better Predict Fracture Formation
Purdue University and Sandia National Laboratories researchers are three-dimensionally (3D) printing minerals, in order to learn to better predict how and where fractures form in materials.
From ACM TechNews
To Tune Up Your Quantum Computer, Better Call an AI Mechanic
Researchers have developed a method for teaching an artificial intelligence program to make an interconnected set of adjustments to tiny quantum dots.
From ACM TechNews
A Digital Court for a Digital Age
Researchers have created a mechanism that uses blockchain to settle legal disputes.
From ACM TechNews
Balcan to Receive ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award for Innovations to Machine Learning
Carnegie Mellon University's Maria Florina “Nina” Balcan has been named recipient of the 2019 ACM Grace Murray Hopper Award for her contributions to minimally supervised machine learning.
From ACM TechNews
AI-Powered Search Engine Makes It Easier to Find Information in the Fight Against COVID-19
Researchers have developed a dedicated search engine for researchers fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.
From ACM News
Why the Coronavirus Lockdown is Making the Internet Stronger Than Ever
Far from breaking it, the surge in usage the internet is seeing right now is driving a major upgrade.
From ACM News
Employers Face Shortages of Tech Gear as Coronavirus Forces Shipment Delays
The technology that has enabled the sudden shift to remote work is in short supply.
From ACM News
Attackers Can Bypass Fingerprint Authentication with an ~80% Success Rate
Fingerprint-based authentication is fine for most people, but it's hardly foolproof.
From ACM News
Your Internet is Working. Thank These Cold War-era Pioneers who Designed it to Handle Almost Anything
Coronavirus may have forced people to stay at home, but the Internet these scientists envisioned long ago is keeping the world connected.
From ACM TechNews
MIT Researchers Launch Location-Tracking Effort for the New Coronavirus
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers and partner organizations have launched a project to track COVID-19 patients through their phones.
From ACM TechNews
Molecule Co-Discovered at University of Limerick Leads to Breakthrough on How Data is Stored
Researchers have discovered a metal-organic molecule that can switch between three distinct, long-lived states.