Today’s Tech Sightings: Technology in 2015 – New Gadgets Coming Your Way Watch for improved mobile payments, connected cars, smarter everyday devices and better 3-D printing, among other technological wonders this coming year. The Halting Progress of Mind-Controlled Robot Tech It’s a work in progress, although some quadriplegics have already used their thoughts to operate […]
2015 Gadgets; Mind-Controlled Robots; FireChat
RoboSimians; IT Nightmares and the Great Firewall of China
Today’s Tech Sightings: The Great Firewall of China is Nearly Complete Officially called the “Golden Shield,” China’s decade-old Internet firewall, which recently blocked Google Gmail and typically blocks Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and Google search, is the most effective in the world. The program restricts content deemed sensitive and blocks thousands of websites, including some Voice […]
Tracking Santa; the Eyes Have It; Death of Voicemail?
Today’s Tech Sightings: It’s Christmas Eve and the Battle of NORAD vs. Google Santa Trackers Has Begun! Santa and his reindeer are traveling somewhere around the world; and Google is racing to track his every movement ahead of Microsoft and its North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) partner. You can find Google’s Santa Tracker here and […]
Privacy; North Korea; and the Spider Dress
Today’s Tech Sightings: Downing North Korea’s Internet Not Much of a Scalp North Korea lost its Internet connectivity for half a day Monday, though the reasons for the blackout remain unclear. But that is hardly a major loss for a country that barely has 1,000 Internet addresses, one Internet service provider and one connection to […]
Law Enforcement Still Playing Catch-Up on Cyberharassment
A recent spike in cyberharassment that in some cases included threats of violence has raised questions about the effectiveness of law enforcement in cyberspace, where the abusers’ trail is often harder to follow. The absence of a direct line of contact makes it “a little more difficult” for law enforcement to track online harassers, said […]
WordPress Infected; TorrentLocker; Sony’s Nightmare
Today’s Tech Sightings: Technology Trends For 2015: Part One What will the 2015 tech landscape look like? Expect more wearable tech, more encryption and more space ventures. Who Really Hacked Sony Pictures? (It Probably Wasn’t North Korea) Did North Korea orchestrate the destructive hack attack that targeted Sony Pictures a few weeks ago? U.S. officials […]
‘The Interview’ Cyberwar; 3D-Printing Cancer; Apple in Russia
Today’s Tech Sightings: Not Even North Korea Can Stop the Internet Those behind the devastating hack attack that targeted Sony Pictures Entertainment have also threatened violence against theaters showing the movie The Interview. To thwart that group’s effort to prevent people from seeing the picture, which centers around an assassination plot against North Korean leader […]
Unmasking Tor; 3-D Printing; Sony Blues; Facebook Drops Bing
Today’s Tech Sightings: The FBI Used the Web’s Favorite Hacking Tool to Unmask Tor Users According to WIRED, the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) used an abandoned Metasploit project called the “Decloaking Engine” in 2012 to launch “Operation Torpedo” to identify child port suspects using Tor’s anonymous network to hide. Patient-Specific Knee Parts Can […]
Online Harassment Is a Game of Control
The ugly episode that has come to be known as GamerGate may have receded, but it left in its wake some unanswered questions. Why did a seemingly legitimate discussion of gaming journalism devolve into harassment and threats of violence against women journalists and critics? What triggered this behavior and was it a reflection of offline […]