CACM Staff – Page 7 – Communications of the ACM

Opinion Aug 1 2016

Future Cyberdefenses Will Defeat Cyberattacks on PCs

Highly classified information on personal computers in the U.S. today is largely protected from the attacks Daniel Genkin et al. described in their article "Physical Key Extraction Attacks on PCs" (June 2016).

Opinion Jul 1 2016

Rethinking Computational Thinking

How important are skills in computational thinking for computing app constructors and for computing users in general?

Opinion Jun 1 2016

No Backdoor Required or Expected

I was disappointed by Eugene H. Spafford's "The Strength of Encryption" (Mar. 2016) which conflated law enforcement requests for access to the contents of specific smartphones with the prospect of the government requiring backdoors through which any device could be penetrated.

Opinion May 1 2016

Why All Writs Is a Trojan Horse

Citing the All Writs act as a way to give the government the power to compel companies to redesign or reimplement their electronic products to government specifications represents a threat to everyone's civil liberties.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

News May 1 2016

ACM’s 2016 General Election: Please Take This Opportunity to Vote

Meet the candidates who introduce their plans — and stands — for the Association.

Computing Profession

Opinion Apr 1 2016

Chaos Is No Catastrophe

I appreciated Phillip G. Armour's use of coupled pendulums as an analogy for software project management in his The Business of Software column "The Chaos Machine" (Jan. 2016) but would like to set the record straight on a few technical points.

News Mar 1 2016

Peter Naur: 1928-2016

Peter Naur, a Danish computer scientist and 2005 recipient of the ACM A.M. Turing Award, died recently after a brief illness.

Computing Profession

Opinion Mar 1 2016

ACM Moral Imperatives vs. Lethal Autonomous Weapons

I concur with Moshe Y. Vardi's Editor's Letter "On Lethal Autonomous Weapons" (Dec. 2015) but think the answer to his philosophical logjam is readily available in the "ACM Code of Ethics and Professional Conduct."

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

Opinion Feb 1 2016

Expect ‘Ungoverned Actors’ to Use AI-Supported Weapons, Too

Both sides of the Point/Counterpoint "The Case for Banning Killer Robots" (Dec. 2015) over lethal autonomous weapons systems seemed to agree the argument concerns weapons "…that once activated, would be able to select and engage targets without further human involvement."

Computing Profession

News Feb 1 2016

ACM Inducts Fellows

ACM has recognized 42 of its members for significant contributions to the development and application of computing, in areas ranging from data management and spoken-language processing to robotics and cryptography.

Computing Profession

Shape the Future of Computing

ACM encourages its members to take a direct hand in shaping the future of the association. There are more ways than ever to get involved.

Get Involved