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 TechNews
Hacker Group Is Eavesdropping on Corporate Email, FTP Traffic
The Chinese security firm Qihoo 360 reports that a hacker group has been eavesdropping on corporate networks since at least early December.
From ACM TechNews
Crypto-Mining Botnet Has Been Hijacking MSSQL Servers for Almost Two Years
A malware botnet has been launching brute-force attacks against Microsoft SQL databases for nearly two years.
From ACM TechNews
A Digital Court for a Digital Age
Researchers have created a mechanism that uses blockchain to settle legal disputes.
From ACM News
Attackers Can Bypass Fingerprint Authentication with an ~80% Success Rate
Fingerprint-based authentication is fine for most people, but it's hardly foolproof.
From ACM News
WhatsApp is Limiting Message Forwarding to Combat Coronavirus Misinformation
From today, messages identified as "highly forwarded" can be forwarded to a single person, instead of five.
From ACM TechNews
How Are You Feeling? Surveys Aim to Detect COVID-19 Hot Spots Early
More than 2 million Britons and 150,000 Israelis have completed health surveys to trace COVID-19 outbreaks and send resources where they can do the most good.
From ACM TechNews
Some Mobile Phone Apps May Contain Hidden Behaviors That Users Never See
Cybersecurity researchers have found that many mobile phone applications allow others to access private data or block user-provided content through "backdoor secrets...
From ACM TechNews
Washington State Signs Facial Recognition Curbs Into Law; Critics Want Ban
Washington State Governor Jay Inslee on Tuesday signed the first U.S. state law curbing law enforcement's use of facial recognition technology.
From ACM TechNews
Study: Fake Russian Twitter Accounts Politicized Discourse About Vaccines
Fraudulent Twitter accounts created by the Russian Internet Research Agency may have contributed to politicizing Americans’ views on vaccines.
From ACM TechNews
China, Huawei Propose Reinvention of the Internet
Huawei, China Unicom, China Telecom, and China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology have proposed a new standard for core network technology.
From ACM TechNews
Facebook, Google, Twitter Struggle to Handle November's Election
Major technology companies have spent billions in the past three years to prevent election meddling, but new challenges are adding to their struggle in the run-up...
From ACM TechNews
Attack on Home Routers Sends Users to Spoofed Sites That Push Malware
Researchers are warning that a hack of Linksys and D-Link routers is redirecting users to malicious sites posing as COVID-19 informational resources.
From ACM TechNews
How AI Can Reduce Traffic Congestion, Fuel Consumption
Researchers used artificial intelligence and machine learning to design a computer-vision system to keep traffic moving efficiently through intersections while...
From ACM News
If It Quacks Like a Duck...
The looming threat of artificial intelligence-based deepfake voice conversion.
From ACM TechNews
Cybercriminals Take Advantage of Coronavirus
Hackers are targeting critical healthcare systems already strained by the coronavirus pandemic, compromising computer networks and disrupting patient care.\
From ACM TechNews
Facebook Sent Home Thousands of Human Moderators Due to the Coronavirus. Now the Algorithms Are in Charge
Facebook has placed its army of human moderators on paid leave, forcing the company to police disinformation without them.
From ACM TechNews
System Trains Driverless Cars in Simulation Before They Hit the Road
Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have created a simulation system to train driverless cars prior to their deployment on actual streets.
From ACM News
Keeping Government Out of Your Business
The Enforcer software can keep government surveillance from straying into illegality.
From ACM TechNews