acm-header
Sign In

Communications of the ACM

Recent Articles


Articles Interviews Vardi's Insights Chien's Vantage Opinion Archive Refine your search:
dateMore Than a Year Ago
subjectSecurity
authorThe New York Times
bg-corner

From ACM Opinion

Snowden, Through the Eyes of a Spy Novelist

For a spy novelist like me, the Edward J. Snowden story has everything. A man driven by ego and idealism—can anyone ever distinguish the two?—leaves his job and...

Ways to Make Your Online Tracks Harder to Follow
From ACM Opinion

Ways to Make Your Online Tracks Harder to Follow


From ACM Opinion

Blowing a Whistle

I'm glad I live in a country with people who are vigilant in defending civil liberties.

Fixing the Digital Economy
From ACM Opinion

Fixing the Digital Economy

Two big trends in the world appear to contradict each other.

The Banality of 'don’t Be Evil'
From ACM Opinion

The Banality of 'don’t Be Evil'

"The New Digital Age" is a startlingly clear and provocative blueprint for technocratic imperialism, from two of its leading witch doctors, Eric Schmidt and Jared...

At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom
From ACM Opinion

At Google Conference, Cameras Even in the Bathroom

The future came crashing down on me this week at the Google I/O developer conference while I stood at a bathroom urinal.

From ACM Opinion

Googling You

The settlement last week between a group of state attorneys general and Google over the company’s improper data collection from home wireless networks shows the...

Calling Out the Robocaller
From ACM Opinion

Calling Out the Robocaller

Last month, the Haggler was sitting at home when the phone rang.

A Fuzzy and Shifting Line Between Hacker and Criminal
From ACM Opinion

A Fuzzy and Shifting Line Between Hacker and Criminal

In January 2011, I was assigned to cover a hearing in Newark, where Daniel Spitler, then 26, stood accused of breaching AT&T's servers and stealing 114,000 email...

Guns, Maps and Data That Disturb
From ACM Opinion

Guns, Maps and Data That Disturb

Should data have a conscience?

From ACM Opinion

Sneaky Apps That Track Cellphones

A perversion of smartphone technology called "stalking apps"—precise, secretive trackings of the movements of cellphone users—is increasingly a matter of national...

From ACM Opinion

I Am Not Big Brother

I've grown accustomed to reading inaccurate accounts of my day job. I'm in political data.

From ACM Opinion

At Dawn We Sleep

If you read the newspapers on the morning of Dec. 7, 1941, you would have been led to believe that Japan was poised to attack—but in Southeast Asia, not Pearl Harbor...

How to Devise Passwords That Drive Hackers Away
From ACM Opinion

How to Devise Passwords That Drive Hackers Away

Not long after I began writing about cybersecurity, I became a paranoid caricature of my former self.

And the Firewalls Came Tumbling Down
From ACM Opinion

And the Firewalls Came Tumbling Down

There's much to like about "This Machine Kills Secrets," Andy Greenberg's well-reported history of WikiLeaks and the many projects it has inspired, but one unintentionally...

Where's the Discussion of Trojan Horses?
From ACM Opinion

Where's the Discussion of Trojan Horses?

The Mykonos Vase, discovered in 1961 in the Cyclades, is one of the earliest accounts of the Trojan Horse, used as a subterfuge by the Greeks to enter the city...

From ACM Opinion

When Gps Tracking Violates Privacy Rights

For the right to personal privacy to survive in America in this digital age, courts must be meticulous in applying longstanding privacy protections to new technology...

Breaking ­p the Echo
From ACM Opinion

Breaking ­p the Echo

It is well known that when like-minded people get together, they tend to end up thinking a more extreme version of what they thought before they started to talk...

From ACM Opinion

A New Kind of Warfare

Cybersecurity efforts in the United States have largely centered on defending computer networks against attacks by hackers, criminals, and foreign governments,...

Giving In to the Surveillance State
From ACM Opinion

Giving In to the Surveillance State

In March 2002, John M. Poindexter, a former national security adviser to President Ronald Reagan, sat down with Gen. Michael V. Hayden, the director of the National...
Sign In for Full Access
» Forgot Password? » Create an ACM Web Account