Today’s Tech Sightings: Activist plans to Air Drop ‘The Interview’ into North Korea South Korean activist Park Sang-hak reportedly plans to carpet bomb North Korea with DVD and USB copies of Sony Pictures Entertainment’s “The Interview.” But South Korean newspaper Chosun Ilbo notes that a North Korean three-star general and a dozen other officials have […]
Lizard Squad; Mt. Gox; Twitter; Killer Tech
Posted January 1st, 2015 at 2:00 pm (UTC-5)
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Law Enforcement Still Playing Catch-Up on Cyberharassment
Posted December 19th, 2014 at 2:06 pm (UTC-5)
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 […]
Unmasking Tor; 3-D Printing; Sony Blues; Facebook Drops Bing
Posted December 16th, 2014 at 2:38 pm (UTC-5)
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
Posted December 12th, 2014 at 2:45 pm (UTC-5)
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 […]
Your Money or Your Data: Ransomware Is on the Rise
Posted December 5th, 2014 at 2:00 pm (UTC-5)
“Your money or your data” seems to be the favored mantra these days as cybercriminals look for safer, more effective ways to fool victims into parting with their money. It’s called ransomware. And it is on the rise, according to security experts interviewed by TECHtonics. In some scenarios, victims are locked out of their cellphone […]
Have You Been Harassed Online?
Posted December 2nd, 2014 at 12:00 pm (UTC-5)
There are a lot of behaviors from the real world that we wish weren’t be duplicated in the digital world. But unfortunately harassment, especially for many women, is a reality in both worlds. Given recent, ugly episodes of online harassment, TECHtonics will feature a three-part series on the subject in coming weeks. If you have […]
GM Foods Still Controversial After All These Years
Posted November 28th, 2014 at 11:00 am (UTC-5)
Proponents and critics of genetic modification (GM) have been arguing over the potential impact of genetically modified organisms (GMO) on health and the environment for more than a decade now. Genetic engineering can manipulate the DNA of crops to switch off existing traits or add new ones in ways that were not possible before. Proponents […]
Growing Super Crops: Conventional or GM?
Posted November 21st, 2014 at 2:00 pm (UTC-5)
A lot of folks probably don’t like their food messed with, meaning they’d rather not have carrots cross-bred into pea-carrots, for example, or potatoes genetically fortified with nutrients they weren’t born with. But in regions like Sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia, fortified crops can help populations struggling for survival. Fortified crops are created either through […]