• Improving Security, Usability of Zoom's End-to-End Encryption Protocol

    During the global coronavirus pandemic, many people have been working, teaching and learning from home and utilizing Zoom as a way to have face-to-face communication. Although this is a main resource for virtual human interaction, there are still concerns for back-end security issues and meeting hackings.

  • EU Uses Chinese Technology Linked to Muslim Internment Camps in Xinjiang

    In the fight against coronavirus, the EU is using thermal cameras produced by Chinese tech giant Hikvision. The firm has been linked to the oppression of Uighurs and other Muslim minorities in China’s Xinjiang province.

  • U.S. Puts Sanctions on Russian Research Institution Tied to Malware That Targets Industrial Systems

    The United States has placed sanctions on a Russian government research institute connected to the development of computer malware capable of targeting industrial safety systems and causing catastrophic damage.

  • Huge, Sophisticated Black Market for Trade in Online “Fingerprints”

    Security on the internet is a never-ending cat-and-mouse game. Security specialists constantly come up with new ways of protecting our treasured data, only for cyber criminals to devise new and crafty ways of undermining these defenses. A thriving black market for user profiles is used by criminals to circumvent authentication methods that secure our online secrets.

  • People Want Data Privacy but Don’t Always Know What They’re Getting

    Debates around privacy might seem simple: Something is private or it’s not. However, the technology that provides digital privacy is anything but simple. Our data privacy research shows that people’s hesitancy to share their data stems in part from not knowing who would have access to it and how organizations that collect data keep it private. We’ve also found that when people are aware of data privacy technologies, they might not get what they expect.

  • Securing the Critical Minerals Supply Chain

    From the military to the technology sector, various American institutions and industries play a role in maintaining U.S. economic and national security. While the finished products associated with defense and technology, like aircraft engines and LED TVs, capture the public eye, the supply chains for the materials needed to produce these goods often garner little attention. Eli Nachmany writes that a set of minerals, known as critical minerals, constitute a key part of the supply chains for these important sectors. In recent years, however, U.S. competitors such as China have come to control supply chains for the critical minerals themselves—raising questions about the effects of critical mineral supply chain insecurity on U.S. national security.

  • Proposed Student Visa Policy Could Hinder U.S. Competitiveness

    In an effort to crack down on international students and scholars who overstay their visas, the administration is seeking to implement a new set of rules that would make it more difficult for them to remain in the U.S. One of the rules requires foreign students to leave the United States after two or four years, regardless of whether they have completed they degree or research work. The rule comes with a steep price tag. It would also undermine America’s interest in attracting talent from abroad and, ironically, it would do little to actually curtail the problem of visa overstays that it purports to solve.

  • Natural Disaster Preparations May Help Businesses' Pandemic Response

    The economic impacts of COVID-19 have battered small and medium-sized enterprises, putting millions of jobs in the U.S. at risk. And a year rife with natural disasters has not done many struggling businesses any favors. ,A new survey found that nearly a quarter of businesses felt natural disaster preparations helped them address COVID-19. They tended to find preparations of broad applicability during natural disasters, such as telework readiness, more useful than hazard-specific measures. The survey also identified areas of hardship for businesses, including uncertainty and a lack of guidance and resources.

  • The Clean Network Program: Digital Age Echoes of the “Long Telegram”?

    In August, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo launched the Clean Network program—“the Trump administration’s comprehensive approach to guarding our citizens’ privacy and our companies’ most sensitive information from aggressive intrusions by malign actors, such as the Chinese Communist Party.” The Clean Network program’s scope—stretching from submarine cables traversing the oceans to citizens downloading smartphone apps—reveals the breadth of the administration’s concerns about the political, ideological, and technological inroads China has made in cyberspace. These concerns recall the warning George Kennan gave in his famous “long telegram” in 1946 about the Soviet Union’s “elaborate and far flung apparatus for exertion of its influence in other countries.”

  • China Leads in Race for Digital Currency

    China’s central bank has made steady advances in its goal of launching the world’s first major sovereign digital currency. By becoming the first world power to dominate the digital sphere, China could potentially carve out a stronger position for itself in the global economy and make it less vulnerable to sanctions from Washington, another step in Beijing challenging the US for global dominance. Moreover, the Chinese state could theoretically abuse its digital yuan not only to track transactions of its own citizens, but also any companies or countries that would use the digital yuan.

  • War, Terrorism, and Catastrophe in Cyber Insurance: Understanding and Reforming Exclusions

    Insurance is one of the most promising tools for addressing pervasive cyber insecurity. A robust market for insuring cyber incidents could, among other things, financially incentivize organizations to adopt better cyber hygiene—thereby reducing cyber risk for society as a whole. But cyber insurance, however, is not yet mature enough to fulfill its potential, Jon Bateman writes, and endless lawsuits hamper its effectiveness. Reforms and new solutions are sorely needed.

  • In Europe, Local Leaders Increasingly Frustrated with Pandemic Restrictions

    Across Europe, mayors are also questioning the orthodoxy of lockdowns, arguing that infection rates are trending up even in locked-down towns. They are not going as far as to ignore government instructions, but they are becoming increasingly frustrated with the pandemic restrictions central governments are imposing from on high. Local leaders say they are better placed to know when and how to tighten restrictions, or whether they are needed at all. They fear central governments are not getting the balance right between protecting lives and saving livelihoods and businesses.

  • Curbing Earthquakes-Induced Economic Losses to Power Plants

    Researchers have shown that during high seismic activity, the structural integrity of bushing systems can be better maintained by reinforcing their bases with steel stiffeners. Also, by using probability-based loss assessment studies, they found that the economic burden due to damage to bushing systems from earthquakes is up to 10 times lower for steel-reinforced transformer bushing systems compared to other bushing configurations.

  • Projecting the Future Trade of Virtual Water

     Crops require water to grow. By importing water-intensive crops, countries essentially bring in a natural resource in the form of virtual water. Agricultural virtual water is the amount of water needed to grow a particular crop in a given region.

  • UWF’s Master’s in Cybersecurity Online Program Ranks among Best Values in Nation

    In only its second year of existence, the University of Florida’s (UWF) nationally designated Master of Science in Cybersecurity online program – recognized as a leading program in cybersecurity education and workforce development — has been ranked as one of the best values in the nation, according to the 2020 Cybersecurity Guide rankings.