Don’t believe everything you see The easiest way to hack an election in our media-intense age is not to hack the election itself — but merely to hack the results. Specifically, the appearance of results. Imagine if official government websites were hacked on election night to display vote tallies showing [Keep reading]
(FBI image) INTRODUCTION It might be the worst-kept secret in all of cybersecurity: the FBI says don’t pay ransomware gangs. But corporations do it all the time, sending millions every year in Bitcoin to recover data that’s been taken “hostage.” Sometimes, federal agents even help victims find experienced virtual ransom negotiators. [Keep reading]
Click to visit the FTC’s Covid complaint dashboard. U.S. consumers have now filed 203,000 Covid-19-releated complaints with the Federal Trade Commission, and counting. Vctims say scam artists have stolen $144 million, or about $300 per incident, the FTC’s dashboard says. “While people are scared about their health and finances, con [Keep reading]
Dirty digital politics is a fact of life all over the world now. Democracies are going to have to learn how to live with it. One thing that could help US voters understand this murky world is to learn about the kinds of tactics being used in other countries. Fortunately, [Keep reading]
Introduction “Privacy tends to lose when there is a clear public safety use case.” That means firms like Clearview AI, and everything else like it, is here to stay. Now what? That’s today’s “In Conversation.” Earlier this year, Kashmir Hill of The New York Times broke one of the most important [Keep reading]
Credit: California Secretary of State’s office Voting by mail is safe – at least as safe as any other way you’ve voted in a U.S. election. It’s hardly new. I voted by mail for years when I lived in Washington State, one of five states that currently have all-mail elections. [Keep reading]
Headphones. A good pair of headphones. And an external mouse. And maybe a door. Whether your family is starting school in person or remotely, everyone should prepare for long-distance learning this fall. I recently asked a bunch of parents what’s the one thing they knew in June that they [Keep reading]
Videoconferencing tool Zoom experienced widespread outages on Monday, frustrating teachers and students as many school districts were trying to ramp up return-to-school remote learning. It’s yet another sign that we’re living on Covid-19 time right now. While schools spent all summer developing backup plans in case they couldn’t offer in-person [Keep reading]
One app requires permission to disable users’ screen locks. Another claims it doesn’t collect detailed location information, but accesses GPS data anyway. Still another breaks its own privacy policy by sharing personal information with outside companies. And nearly all of them request what Google defines as “dangerous permissions.” Is this [Keep reading]
Frank Eufemia is the answer to a strange trivia question. Who did Buck Showalter announce as the opening day starter for the Yankees in 1995…but who never pitched for the Yankees? Frank’s dream — well, my dream — was squashed when everyone else’s prayers were answered, and the 1995 season [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan