Society and technology
It isn’t just newbies who get malware infections
If only the computer industry professionals would heed the lesson that is repeated over and over. The security methodology used for PCs is broken. It isn’t just the great unwashed public that gets malware. We have instance after instance of large institutions with professional IT staff getting infected. One of the latest is the city [...]
Web Security: Are You Part Of The Problem?
That’s the title of an article at Smashing Magazine and it’s about a problem that the technology types seem to have trouble understanding—namely, that PCs and Web security are too complex for average PC users to understand. That means that hundreds of millions of people are going to do insecure things or get infected by [...]
Maybe people aren’t so shallow after all
Since so much of what I read is about the world going to hell in a handbasket, it was a happy contrast when I read a piece by John Tierney in the New York Times relating a study by University of Pennsylvania researchers of what Times articles are the most frequently emailed. It turns [...]
More about the dangers of Twitterism
In a previous post, I commented on George Packer’s unfavorable remarks about Twitter at the New Yorker Magazine blog and Nick Bilton’s responding criticism of Packer and paean to Twitter at the New York Times Bits Blog. Packer has responded in turn and I think his entire riposte is worth reading. But here’s a little [...]
Statistics on usage of social sites by age group
The Pew Internet & American Life Project is a major source of statistics on how the Internet is used by Americans. A new study shows patterns of social site usage among different age groups. One result is that young people are blogging less while older adults have increased blogging activity. Instead of blogging, younger people [...]
Do we have to start worrying about software problems in cars?
The problems that the Toyota Prius is having is front-page news. What’s new and a little alarming is the suggestion that this is a software problem. Adrian Kingsley-Hughes writers at ZDNet:
Chances are you’ve already heard about the problems that Toyota Prius owners have been having with their hybrid cars. As cars get more complex, and [...]
Facebook celebrates 6 years and 400 million users
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg blogs:
Today we’re celebrating our sixth birthday, and this week there will be 400 million people on Facebook. Just one year ago we served less than half as many people, and thanks to you we’ve made great progress over the last year towards making the world more open and connected.
Who would have [...]
Where is Twitter taking us?
Personally, I don’t use Twitter. My lifestyle doesn’t include the need for sending out numerous very short bursts of text. Also, while not a hermit, I do like substantial periods of time when I am not being told what a a lot of other people are doing every moment.
Be that as it may, Twitter [...]
Story of a Chinese hacker
The New York Times has a story on hackers and cybercrime that will give you pause. The story includes an interview with a young Chinese hacker. I often write that fraud on the Internet is a big and growing business and this Times article makes it clear how true that is. For example:
Indeed, in China [...]
Yet another way to track you
And this one is ominous. The Electronic Frontier Foundation is experimenting with something called “Panopticlick”. This program puts together all the bits and pieces about your system that can be gleaned from the information that your browser reveals and constructs a sort of electronic fingerprint. It turns out that the exact combination of such things [...]
The dfficulties of defending against Cyberwar
The Internet and other electronic infrastructure will be prime battlegrounds in any future war. Even today, they are arenas for unfriendly clandestine foreign government activity. The recent attacks on Google by presumed Chinese sources has focused attention on the problems of defending against cyberwar and the New York Times has published a front-page article about [...]
