Communications of the ACM
An edited collection of advanced computing news from Communications of the ACM, ACM TechNews, other ACM resources, and news sites around the Web.
From ACM News
4 Reasons Why Apple's Ibeacon Is About to Disrupt Interaction Design
You step inside Walmart and your shopping list is transformed into a personalized map, showing you the deals that'll appeal to you most.
From ACM News
The Brilliant Hack That Brought Foursquare Back From the Dead
Dennis Crowley thought his 13-year dream might never come true.
From ACM News
Someone's Been Siphoning Data Through a Huge Security Hole in the Internet
In 2008, two security researchers at the DefCon hacker conference demonstrated a massive security vulnerability in the worldwide internet traffic-routing system—a...
From ACM News
Court Rules Probable-Cause Warrant Required For Gps Trackers
An appellate court has finally supplied an answer to an open question left dangling by the Supreme Court in 2012: Do law enforcement agencies need a probable-cause...
From ACM News
Killer Robots With Automatic Rifles Could Be on the Battlefield in 5 Years
Robots armed with automatic weapons, anti-tank missiles and even grenade launchers are marching, er, rolling ever closer to the battlefield now that they’ve shown...
From ACM News
The Science Behind the Netflix Algorithms That Decide What You'll Watch Next
If you liked 1960s Star Trek, the first non-Trek title that Netflix is likely to suggest to you is the original Mission: Impossible series (the one with the cool...
From ACM News
Encryption Has Foiled Wiretaps For First Time Ever, Feds Say
For the first time, encryption is thwarting government surveillance efforts through court-approved wiretaps, U.S. officials said Friday.
From ACM News
The Watchers
Looking down from 500 miles above Earth's surface, you could watch the FedEx Custom Critical Delivery truck move across the country along 3,140 miles of highway...
From ACM News
Spark: Open Source Superstar Rewrites Future of Big Data
Ram Sriharsha works in the engine room powering one of Silicon Valley's most influential companies. He’s an engineer at Yahoo.
From ACM News
CIA Releases Analyst's Fascinating Tale of Cracking the Kryptos Sculpture
It took eight years after artist Jim Sanborn unveiled his cryptographic sculpture at the CIA's headquarters for someone to succeed at cracking Kryptos's enigmatic...
From ACM TechNews
Laws of Physics Say Quantum Cryptography Is Unhackable. It’s Not
Quantum cryptography can theoretically encrypt a message in a way that can't be hacked, but even quantum cryptography systems can fail.
From ACM News
Hacking the Drone War's Secret History
In 2008 U.S. troops in Iraq discovered that Shi’ite insurgents had figured out how to tap and record video feeds from overhead American drones. Now you too can...
From ACM TechNews
This Pentagon Project Makes Cyberwar as Easy as Angry Birds
A new program called Plan X is designed to facilitate cyberwarfare executed in a manner similar to playing a video game.
From ACM News
This Pentagon Project Makes Cyberwar as Easy as Angry Birds
The target computer is picked. The order to strike has been given. All it takes is a finger swipe and a few taps of the touchscreen, and the cyberattack is prepped...
From ACM Opinion
You'll Never Believe the Data 'wiped' Smartphones Store
Few things are more precious, intimate, and personal than the data on your smartphone.
From ACM News
Hong Kong Looks to Build nderground Datacentre Caves
With more than seven million people squeezed in to around 1,100sq km of land space, and property prices regularly ranking among the highest in the world, Hong Kong...
From ACM News