For decades, people (including me) have predicted that cyberinsurers might be a way to get companies to take security seriously. After all, insurers have to live in the real world… Read the rest of the article: Why haven't cyberinsurers exerted more pressure on companies to be better at security?
Early this month, Google's Project Zero revealed a breathtaking attack on multiple OSes, including Apple's Ios, in which a website that served Uyghur people was found to be hosting at… Read the rest of the article: Alex Stamos schools Apple after they whine about Google revealing a whack of Ios zero-days
I've been a Charles de Lint fan since I was a kid (see photographic evidence, above, of a 13-year-old me attending one of Charles's signings at Bakka Books in 1984!),… Read the rest of the article: Charles de Lint on Radicalized: "among my favorite things I've read so far this year"
In my latest podcast (MP3), I read my new Locus column, DRM Broke Its Promise, which recalls the days when digital rights management was pitched to us as a way… Read the rest of the article: Podcast: DRM Broke Its Promise
The Canadian activist group Open Privacy Research Society has discovered that Vancouver, BC hospitals routinely wirelessly broadcast patient telemetry and admissions data, without encryption to doctor paging systems. It is… Read the rest of the article: Vancouver health system ignored warnings that its wireless paging system transmits sensitive patient data in the clear
The attorneys general of 48 states, Puerto Rico and the District of Columbia have opened a joint antitrust investigation into Google, stepping in where the defanged, irrelevant DoJ (gripped by… Read the rest of the article: Google is under antitrust investigation by 50 attorneys general
The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has affirmed that the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (a 1986 anti-hacking law passed after a moral panic over the movie Wargames) does not… Read the rest of the article: Important legal victory in web-scraping case
Jerry Falwell, Sr founded the Moral Majority, brought evangelicals into the voting booth, elected Ronald Reagan, and changed the face of American politics forever; his son, Jerry Jr now commands… Read the rest of the article: Whistleblowers out Falwell's Liberty University as a grifty, multibillion-dollar personality cult
Many westerners are familiar with Chinese tech giants like Alibaba and Tencent, but I'd never heard of Pinduoduo before today: it's gamified, group-purchasing bargain-hunting site founded by an ex-Googler four… Read the rest of the article: Pinduoduo: China's "Groupon on steroids"
Andy Greenberg (previously) is Wired's senior security reporter; he did amazing work covering Russian cyberwarfare in Ukraine, which he has expanded into a forthcoming book: Sandworm: A New Era of… Read the rest of the article: Notpetya: the incredible story of an escaped US cyberweapon, Russian state hackers, and Ukraine's cyberwar
More than 900 Amazon employees have pledged to walk off the job at 11:30PST on Sept 20 to protest the company's inaction on climate change as part of Greta Thunberg's… Read the rest of the article: Sept 20: More than 900 Amazon employees pledge to walk out over climate inaction
Purism (previously) is a company that crowdfunds free/open laptops and phones whose design goal is to have no proprietary software, even at the lowest levels. The company is best known… Read the rest of the article: Purism starts shipping its Librem 5 open/free phone
In the wake of the Varsity Blues college admissions scandal, a new debate opened up, about the mundane, everyday ways that wealthy people buy their way into elite institutions: from… Read the rest of the article: NYT calls for an end to legacy college admissions
Purdue Pharma (and its richer-than-the-Rockefellers owners, the Sackler family are increasingly being dragged into state courts to account for their role in the opioid epidemic, which has claimed more American… Read the rest of the article: Purdue's court filings understate its role in the opioid epidemic by 80%
I know nothing about the quality of Allegheny Shredders' machines (though I do take some interest in field), but I'm certain that they have the greatest slogan in shredding company… Read the rest of the article: Greatest-ever shredding company slogan: "The Future Is Here And Everything Needs To Be Destroyed."
Dj BC (previously) writes, "I'm the producer behind Ghost Cave. You might know me from the mashup albums The Beastles, Ziggy Stardust Remixed, Wu Orleans, the Santastic Christmas Collections, and… Read the rest of the article: Kickstarting a cover of GRIM GRINNING GHOSTS with mashup legend dj BC and friends!
Steve Boyett writes, "HeadKnowles Hurricane Relief Foundation gofundme is raising funds to go to 'grassroots first responders, 1000's of volunteers providing meals, shelter and equipment to displaced persons.' They are… Read the rest of the article: Crowdfunding the "grassroots first responders" helping in the aftermath of Hurricane Dorian
After Suzanne Forbes graduated from art school, she worked as a penciller for DC and a courtroom artist for CBS and CNN; today, she lives in Berlin, where she is… Read the rest of the article: Open source documentary drawings from Berlin
Mitch Wagner writes, "Alice Sheldon, who wrote brilliant science fiction under the pseudonym James Tiptree Jr., killed her husband and herself in 1987. The volunteers who administer the Tiptree Award… Read the rest of the article: Should they rename the Tiptree Award, too?
When Jeanette Ng used her Campbell Awards speech at this year's Worldcon Hugo Awards ceremony to denounce the hugely influential science fiction editor John W Campbell for being a fascist,… Read the rest of the article: University of Kansas's Campbell Conference changes its name to the Gunn Center Conference
