First up: Richard Purcell, one of the first privacy executives. From him, you’ll learn as much about working on the railroad as you will about the abuse of power through privacy invasions. But before that, I try to explain what I mean by “original sin” in the introduction, and why [Keep reading]
Is there an Original Sin of the Internet? Join me on a journey to find out. Today I’m sharing a passion project of mine that’s been years in the making. I’m lucky. I’m getting old. Much better than the alternative! My career has spanned such a fascinating time in the [Keep reading]
Florence Puana at her deposition Last week, I told you about Florence Puana — the 99-year-old woman who ended Honolulu’s biggest law enforcement scandal ever. Puana, you might recall, moved to Hawaii right before the Pearl Harbor attacks, raised nine children there, and lived to see her 100th birthday. She [Keep reading]
INTRODUCTION Perhaps in no field do innovation and privacy collide as dramatically as healthcare. Treatments, medications, therapies — these might be the most intimate details of a person’s life, secrets that need safekeeping. At the same time, the wonders of modern medicine and the power of artificial intelligence promise to unlock [Keep reading]
Romance scams cost Americans $500 million each year, the FBI says. And the crime is soaring fast. Lonely people isolated at home during the pandemic are an attractive target for thee criminals. We’re currently exploring this awful phenomenon in a two-part podcast series at AARP’s The Perfect Scam. In last [Keep reading]
INTRODUCTION Americans have become less trusting in recent decades, plenty of surveys seem to agree. Yet trust is a funny thing. People say they don’t trust tech companies, particularly social media companies, but they hungrily gobble up Tweets and Facebook updates all same. Still, lack of trust in … seemingly everything…is hurting us, a [Keep reading]
Almost 20 years ago, I wrote a book called Your Evil Twin – Behind the Identity Theft Epidemic. At the time, many consumers hadn’t even heard of identity theft. Criminal imposters were just getting started. Today, it feels like ID theft is everywhere, hitting millions of consumers every year, roughly [Keep reading]
“De-platforming.” That’s the word of the week in tech-land, and it’s about time. After the storming of the U.S. Capitol by a criminal mob on Wednesday, a host of companies have cut off President Trump’s digital air supply. His Tweets and Facebook posts fell first; next came second-order effects, [Keep reading]
A group of federal agencies including the FBI and NSA said this week that the massive SolarWinds hack attack discovered late last year was “likely Russian in origin,” in a rate statement of attribution. The agencies have been “working non-stop” to gather evidence and insight into the cyberattack, which potentially [Keep reading]
Microsoft’s map of organizations hit by the SolarWinds hack. I keep hearing this from people I respect: It’s hard to overstate how serious the SolarWinds hack is. So, yes, it seems to be the Big One. I suspect we’ll be hearing about the damage for years. This piece is a [Keep reading]
Bob Sullivan