Cyber Security

You can turn a microwave into a camera and I’ll teach you how in a minute, but before I do, let me share this news item. In a recent interview with a reporter from the Bergen Record, Kellyanne Conway was asked about surveillance. She responded: “There are many ways to surveil each other now, unfortunately. There was an article this week that talked about how you can surveil someone through their phones, certainly through their television sets, any number of different ways. And microwaves that turn into cameras, et cetera. So we know that that is just a fact of modern life.” Continue Reading →

If you let your imagination run wild in the world of automatic speech recognition (ASR) and natural language understanding (NLU), and you throw in a little fear, uncertainty and doubt (FUD), you can come up with several illegal uses for systems such as Alexa Voice Service, Google Home, Siri, and Cortana that will give you pause. Just for fun, let’s play pretend in our world of infinite possibilities. Continue Reading →

Unless you turn off the microphones and use a button or a remote, Alexa Voice Service and other IVCSs are always listening. Let me be the first to scream … "Look out!" Continue Reading →

Officially, CES® 2017 runs from January 5 through January 8, 2017. That's Thursday through Sunday, so Las Vegas weekend rates apply. To maximize your CES investment (and to help you financially justify a weekend in Vegas), here are five reasons CES 2017 will be awesome! Continue Reading →

Anything that can be hacked will be hacked. Electronic voting machines are no exception. Which raises the question, "Could you hack enough electronic voting machines to influence (rig) the outcome of the upcoming presidential election?" Continue Reading →

Yahoo recently reported the largest hack in history, WikiLeaks is releasing hacked DNC emails at an alarming rate, and according to NBC News "the Obama administration is contemplating an unprecedented cyber covert action against Russia in retaliation for alleged Russian interference in the American presidential election." Are we on the brink of the First Cyber World War? Continue Reading →

Experts are debating whether the Democratic National Committee’s (DNC) email system was hacked by the Russian military intelligence service (G.R.U.) or Guccifer 2.0, a lone wolf Romanian hacker. While this is a very important question, the answer will not change the results: over 20,000 DNC emails ended up on WikiLeaks. How did this happen? How likely is it to happen to you or your company? What can you do to protect your email system from a similar fate? Continue Reading →

Opining about the future of AI at the recent Brilliant Minds event at Symposium Stockholm, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt rejected warnings from Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking about the dangers of AI, saying, "In the case of Stephen Hawking, although a brilliant man, he's not a computer scientist. Elon is also a brilliant man, though he too is a physicist, not a computer scientist." This absurd dismissal of Musk and Hawking was in response to an absurd question about "the possibility of an artificial superintelligence trying to destroy mankind in the near future." However, in Commander #1's immortal words, "We've analyzed their attack, sir, and there is a danger." Continue Reading →

Apple v. FBI has started a serious debate about the line between security and privacy. The FBI says this is a case about the contents of one specific iPhone 5c. Apple says this is a case about securing data for everyone. Since current vintage iPhones (5s, 6, 6s) can not be hacked the same way, we should not be talking about a particular phone; we should be talking about encryption writ large, and how it is used in our daily lives. Continue Reading →

Apple v. FBI is headed for the Supreme Court. The problem is, I don't want the Supreme Court (or any court) empowered to make policy – that's a job for the Legislative branch. Regardless of what you think of Congress, they’d better get this one right. What it means to be a digital citizen and identifying the border between security and privacy are two of the most important issues of our time. Continue Reading →