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Latest Wrinkle in Data Security: Time Cloaking

Saturday - June 8, 2013

If a message isn't read, does it exist? Bishop Berkeley would say no, and a temporal cloak that creates a gap in time during the transmission of a message might prove him right. Purdue researchers have created such a cloak: It can hide about 46 percent of the time required to transmit data over a fiber optic cable, making half the transmission invisible. This is an elaboration of a concept first demonstrated at Cornell University in 2011. However, that experiment only hid one ten-thousandth of 1 percent of a transmission. [More...]

Tech Industry Could Pay Stiff Price for PRISM

Friday - June 7, 2013

Technology firms in the United States might be impacted adversely by the National Security Agency's controversial PRISM program. Classified documents about the program leaked to The Washington Post and The Guardian indicate that major U.S. high-tech companies provide it data. This data is the major source of raw intelligence for the NSA's analytical reports, according to the agency. [More...]

TECH TREK
Early Salvos Launched Ahead of Cybersecurity Talks

Friday - June 7, 2013

President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping will soon meet to talk cybersecurity, but plenty of people on either side are talking already. A day after China's claim that it has data proving U.S. hackers have been attacking the Middle Kingdom, U.S. officials say Chinese hackers orchestrated "a massive cyberespionage operation against the 2008 presidential campaigns" of Obama and McCain. [More...]

It's a Smart Smart Smart Smartphone World

Friday - June 7, 2013

More than half of the adults in the United States now own a smartphone, constituting a new milestone in the history of the device, according to the Pew Research Center's Internet & American Life Project. Specifically, smartphone adoption has grown to 56 percent of American adults. That's the largest percentage since Pew began tracking smartphone adoption two years ago. [More...]

Nuclear Power, Part 1: A Smaller, Safer Future

Friday - June 7, 2013

Keeping the lights on in the global industrial world -- never an easy task -- never seems to get any easier. Nuclear energy, which provides nearly 20 percent of our nation's electricity, is at a crossroads. Can nuclear reactors -- the torrid, pulsating, heat-generating hearts of nuclear power plants -- ever be safe enough? Thanks to several new technologies, the outlook is promising. [More...]

Microsoft, FBI Flatten Monster Botnet

Friday - June 7, 2013

A coalition comprising Microsoft, the FBI, and financial-industry and tech firms has taken out more than 1,400 botnets that used the Citadel Trojan to steal victims' online banking information and information about their identities. Microsoft filed a civil suit last week against 82 alleged botnet operators and cut communications between the botnets and millions of infected PCs they controlled. [More...]

TECH TREK
China Jumps the Gun on Cybersecurity Talks

Thursday - June 6, 2013

This coming weekend's cybersecurity talks may have already started. China's state-run newspaper ran an article claiming that the government has "mountains of data" proving it has been the victim cyberespionage at the hands of the United States. The report precedes the upcoming landmark meeting between Chinese president Xi Jinping and President Obama; cybersecurity is expected to be a key talking point. [More...]

Government Prying Into Verizon Customer Records Exposed

Thursday - June 6, 2013

The National Security Agency reportedly has been collecting the phone records of millions of Verizon users in the United States under a secret court order. Specifically, Verizon has been required to provide an ongoing account of all telephone calls on its systems, including those inside the U.S. and between the U.S. and other countries. [More...]

Bose Gets Tiny and Tinier With Earbuds and Mini-Speaker

Thursday - June 6, 2013

The world can be a very loud place, and New York City's Grand Central Terminal served as a perfect backdrop for Bose to demonstrate how it can address and even combat that noise. In the famous station's Vanderbilt Hall, the company this week introduced two new audio products, including its first in-ear noise-canceling headphones and a Bluetooth speaker that fits in the palm of the hand. [More...]

How to Password-Protect Your Digital Life

Thursday - June 6, 2013

It's no longer acceptable to use birthdates, pet names and so on for passwords. These easily guessed words were never secure, but it didn't matter much in the past. Who cared if a black hat got into your email account? So what? However, things are much different today, because our lives are now digitally enveloped. Everything from banking to relationships is now inexorably online. [More...]

Microsoft Repairs Windows' Cracks

Wednesday - June 5, 2013

At this week's Computex trade show in Taiwan, Microsoft applied some polish to its beleaguered Windows platform. That included announcing that Outlook will finally arrive on Windows RT as well as making the first public demonstration of its forthcoming Windows 8.1. Also on hand at the show were a variety of new devices decked out to show off Windows' consistent experience across screens. [More...]

TECH TREK
London Police Now Pen Pals With BitTorrent Operators

Wednesday - June 5, 2013

Britain's National Fraud Intelligence Bureau has begun sending letters to people it suspects of operating websites that provide access to unauthorized content for "criminal gain." The letters state that law enforcement authorities are working with the government and "industry bodies" and go on to say that operators of copyright-happy sites are in breach of the Serious Crimes Act. [More...]

Sony Woos the Well-Heeled With Vaio Hybrid, Ultrabooks

Wednesday - June 5, 2013

Sony has launched a new Vaio hybrid tablet/laptop and two new Vaio Ultrabooks. All three have premium audio and visual technologies, and they use Intel's Haswell processors, which were designed for low power consumption. At $1,150 to $1,400, they're pricier than the comparable MacBook Air or other Ultrabooks. "They're clearly for premium buyers," said tech analyst Rob Enderle. [More...]

Even Hands-Free Phone Use May Be Hazardous in Cars

Wednesday - June 5, 2013

We all know by now that using a cellphone while driving can be a dangerous practice, but talking on a hands-free phone may not be much better. That's because people talk on the phone so regularly that they have developed learned habits that take over their awareness, according to Robert Rosenberger, an assistant professor in the School of Public Policy at Georgia Institute of Technology. [More...]

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