• CYBERSECURITYThinking Like a Cyberattacker to Protect User Data

    A component of computer processors that connects different parts of the chip can be exploited by malicious agents who seek to steal secret information from programs running on the computer. Researchers develop defense mechanisms against attacks targeting interconnection of chips in computers.

  • SURVEILLANCEMore Governments Use Spyware to Monitor Their People, Compromising Privacy

    By Lisa Schlein

    The right to privacy is under siege as an increasing number of governments are using spyware to keep tabs on their people. Many governments are using modern digital networked technologies to monitor, control and oppress their populations.

  • SURVEILLANCEEFF’s “Cover Your Tracks” Will Detect Your Use of iOS 16’s Lockdown Mode

    By Bill Budington

    Apple’s new iOS 16 offers a powerful tool for its most vulnerable users. Lockdown Mode reduces the avenues attackers have to hack into users’ phones by disabling certain often-exploited features. But there is a catch.

  • CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTUREThree Iranian Nationals Charged with Cyber Plots Against U.S. Critical Infrastructure Providers

    An indictment was unsealed Wednesday charging three Iranian nationals with allegedly orchestrating a scheme to hack into the computer networks of multiple U.S. victims, including critical infrastructure providers. The defendants’ hacking campaign exploited known vulnerabilities in commonly used network devices and software applications to gain access and exfiltrate data and information from victims’ computer systems.

  • DATA SECURITYOff-the-Shelf Crypto-Detectors Give a False Sense of Data Security

    By Joseph McClain

    A team of computer scientists outlines a leading reason behind insecure data and makes recommendations about how to fix the problem.

  • NORTH KOREARisks of North Korean Chemical, Biological Weapons; EMP; and Cyber Threats

    What WMD and cyber capabilities does North Korea currently have? How does North Korea use or threaten to use these capabilities? What are North Korea’s goals in employing its WMD and cyber capabilities? What impact could this use have? How can the ROK-U.S. rein in and defeat the North’s WMD and cyber capabilities?

  • CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTUREQuantum Computing Vulnerabilities of National Critical Functions

    How are the national critical functions (NCFs) vulnerable to future quantum computing capabilities? How should the federal government prioritize assistance to critical infrastructure owners and operators?

  • ELECTION SECURITYPrioritizing Cybersecurity Risk in Election Infrastructure

    How can jurisdictions at each level prioritize their efforts to combat the risk of cyberattacks on their election systems? How can they assess the likelihood of a successful attack? How can they assess the scale and severity of an attack?

  • CYBERSECURITYFormer U.S. Cyber Command and NSA Chief Makes the Case for a Cyber Competition Strategy

    By Bec Shrimpton

    Former U.S. National Security Agency and U.S. Cyber Command boss Mike Rogers asks: “What is our vision of the key technologies, the most critical sectors that are really going to drive economic advantage … and [that] if placed at risk would cause us harm, [and] what are the policies we need to create advantage for ourselves?” A new cybersecurity strategy based on what is required to become and remain competitive, secure and resilient should focus on this central question.

  • CYBERSECURITYThinking Like a Cyber-Attacker to Protect User Data

    By Adam Zewe

    Researchers found that an understudied component of computer processors is susceptible to attacks from malicious agents. Then, they developed mitigation mechanisms.

  • FOOD SECURITYRise of Precision Agriculture Exposes Food System to New Threats

    By George Grispos and Austin C. Doctor

    Farmers are adopting precision agriculture, using data collected by GPS, satellite imagery, internet-connected sensors and other technologies to farm more efficiently. These practices could help increase crop yields and reduce costs, but the technology behind the practices is creating opportunities for extremists, terrorists and adversarial governments to attack farming machinery, with the aim of disrupting food production.

  • CYBERSECURITYNSF Grants to Protect Data, User privacy

    Researchers are working on two new cybersecurity projects, recently funded by the National Science Foundation, to ensure trustworthy cloud computing and increase computing privacy for marginalized and vulnerable populations.

  • SURVEILLANCEHow Daycare Apps Can Spy on Parents and Children

    Daycare apps are designed to make everyday life in daycare centers easier. Parents can use them, for example, to access reports on their children’s development and to communicate with teachers. However, some of these applications have serious security flaws.

  • CYBERSECURITYWhen the Hardware Traps Criminals

    Up to now, protecting hardware against manipulation has been a laborious business: expensive, and only possible on a small scale. And yet, two simple antennas might do the trick.

  • ARGUMENT: SECURING ENCRYPTIONHack Post-Quantum Cryptography Now So That Bad Actors Don’t Do It Later

    In February, the cryptography community was stunned when a researcher claimed that an algorithm that might become a cornerstone of the next generation of internet encryption can be cracked mathematically using a single laptop. Edward Parker and Michael Vermeer write that this finding may have averted a massive cybersecurity vulnerability, but it also raises concerns that new encryption methods for securing internet traffic contain other flaws that have not yet been detected.