Communications of the ACM
An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.
From ACM Opinion
Diagnosis For Healthcare.gov: nrealistic Technology Expectations
The fiasco with the $600 million federal health insurance website wasn't all bureaucratic.
From ACM TechNews
Nsa Leaks Could Inspire a Global Boom in Intrusive Surveillance
The recent leaks of U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs could inspire authoritarian governments in developing economies to boost NSA-style...
From ACM News
Stores Sniff Out Smartphones to Follow Shoppers
You've just tossed a jar of peanut butter in your grocery cart when your smartphone buzzes.
From ACM News
Ads Could Soon Know If You're an Introvert (on Twitter)
Trying to derive a person's wants and needs—conscious or otherwise—from online browsing and buying habits has become crucial to companies of all kinds.
From ACM News
The Secrets of Online Money Laundering
Money laundering is increasingly becoming a cybercrime.
From ACM TechNews
Nsa's Own Hardware Backdoors May Still Be a 'problem From Hell'
Computer hardware into which secret backdoors have been inserted by the U.S. National Security Agency and its adversaries is a tremendous security problem.
From ACM TechNews
Encrypted Heartbeats Keep Hackers from Medical Implants
Rice University researchers have found a solution to the potential for hacking an implanted defibrillator.
From ACM News
Academics Launch Fake Social Network to Get an Inside Look at Chinese Censorship
Harvard University professor Gary King this year launched a social media site to gain firsthand experience of online censorship in China.
From ACM Opinion
Cryptographers Have an Ethics Problem
Last week, I visited the MIT computer science department looking for a very famous cryptographer.
From ACM TechNews
Mapping the Bitcoin Economy Could Reveal Users' Identities
An analysis of the public log of Bitcoin digital currency transactions could enable law enforcement to pinpoint user identities.
From ACM TechNews
Hacked Feature Phone Can Block Other People's Calls
A few changes to a standard phone can block calls and text messages intended for nearby users of the same GSM cellular network.
From ACM News
'spoofers' Use Fake Gps Signals to Knock a Yacht Off Course
University of Texas researchers recently tricked the navigation system of an $80 million yacht and sent the ship off course in an experiment that showed how any...
From ACM News
More Connected Homes, More Problems
As a growing number of Internet-connected home appliances hit the market, David Bryan and Daniel Crowley worry that digital ne'er-do-wells will get new ways to...
From ACM TechNews
Electric Therapy For Medical-Device Malware
A new system designed to catch malware on medical devices by noting subtle changes in their power consumption is designated WattsUpDoc.
From ACM News
Touch Screen Ids sers via Fingerprints
Tabletop computers have not exactly taken the world by storm, as some predicted they would.
From ACM News
Siri's Creators Demonstrate an Assistant That Takes the Initiative
In a small, dark, room off a long hallway within a sprawling complex of buildings in Silicon Valley, an array of massive flat-panel displays and video cameras track ...
From ACM News
Quantum Invisibility Cloak Hides Objects from Reality
Invisibility cloaks are all the rage these days.
From ACM News
Contact Lens Computer: Like Google Glass, Without the Glasses
For those who find Google Glass indiscreet, electronic contact lenses that outfit the user’s cornea with a display may one day provide an alternative.
From ACM News
Wanted For the Internet of Things: Ant-Size Computers
If the Internet is to reach everywhere—from the pills you swallow to the shoes on your feet—then computers will need to get a whole lot smaller.
From ACM News