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Displaying 33-48 of 411 results for inside risks.
Opinion Nov 1 1999

Inside Risks: Risks of Content Filtering

The Internet and World Wide Web may be the ultimate double-edged swords. They bring diverse opportunities and risks. Just about anything anyone might want is on the Net, from the sublime to the truly evil. Some categories of information could induce argument forever, such as what is obscene or harmful, whereas others may be more […]
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Opinion Oct 1 1999

Inside Risks: Risks of Relying on Cryptography

Cryptography is often treated as if it were magic security dust: "sprinkle some on your system, and it is secure; then, you’re secure as long as the key length is large enough—112b, 128b, 256b" (I’ve even seen companies boast of 16,000b.) "Sure, there are always new developments in cryptanalysis, but we’ve never seen an operationally […]
Opinion Dec 1 1990

Inside RISKS: risks in medical electronics

The RISKS Forum has had many accounts of annoying errors, expensive breakdowns, privacy abuses, security breaches, and potential safety hazards. However, postings describing documented serious injuries or deaths that scan be unequivocally attributed to deficiencies in the design or implementation of computer-controlled systems are very rare. A tragic exception was a series of accidents which occurred between 1985 and 1987 involving a computer-controlled radiation therapy machine.
Opinion Nov 1 1990

Inside risks: risks in computerized elections

Background: Errors and alleged fraud in computer-based elections have been recurring Risks Forum themes. The state of the computing art continues to be primitive. Punch-card systems are seriously flawed and easily tampered with, and still in widespread use. Direct recording equipment is also suspect, with no ballots, no guaranteed audit trails, and no real assurances that votes cast are properly recorded and processed.
Opinion Oct 1 2001

Inside Risks: The Perils of Port 80

In the months that the Code Red worm and its relatives have traveled the Net, they’ve caused considerable consternation among users of Microsoft’s Internet Information Server, and elicited abundant schadenfreude from unaffected onlookers. Despite the limited havoc it wrought, the Code Red family highlights a much more pernicious problem: the vulnerability of embedded devices with […]
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Opinion Jul 1 2001

Inside Risks: Learning from Experience

Despite a half-century of practice, a distressingly large portion of today’s software is over budget, behind schedule, bloated, and buggy. As you know, all four factors generate risks, and bugs can be life-critical. Our reach continues to exceed our grasp. While hardware has grown following Moore’s Law, software seems to be stuck with Gresham’s Law. […]
Opinion Apr 1 2001

Inside Risks: Cyber Underwriters Lab

Underwriters Laboratories (UL) is an independent testing organization created in 1893, when William Henry Merrill was called in to find out why the Palace of Electricity at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago kept catching on fire (which is not the best way to tout the wonders of electricity). After making the exhibit safe, he realized […]
Opinion Feb 1 2001

Inside Risks: What to Know About

In this column, we assert that deeper knowledge of fundamental principles of computer technology and their implications will be increasingly essential in the future for a wide spectrum of individuals and groups, each with its own particular needs. Our lives are becoming ever more dependent on understanding computer-related systems and the risks involved. Although this […]
Opinion Jan 1 2001

Inside Risks: System Integrity Revisited

Consider a computer product specification with data input, tabulation, reporting, and audit capabilities. The read error must not exceed one in a million, although the input device is allowed to reject any data it considers to be marginal. Although the system is intended for use in secure applications, only functional (black box) acceptance testing has […]
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Opinion Dec 1 2000

Inside Risks: Semantic Network Attacks

On August 25, 2000, Internet Wire received a forged email press release seemingly from Emulex Corp., saying that the Emulex CEO had resigned and the company’s earnings would be restated. Internet Wire posted the message, without verifying either its origin or contents. Several financial news services and Web sites further distributed the false information, and […]
Opinion Apr 1 2000

Inside Risks: Denial-of-Service Attacks

A Funny Thing Happened on my Way to the (Risks) Forum this month. I had planned to write a column on the ever-burgeoning risks of denial-of-service (DoS) attacks relating to the Internet, private networks, computer systems, cable modems, and DSL (for which spoofing is a serious risk), and the critical infrastructures that we considered here […]
Opinion Sep 1 1999

Inside Risks: the Trojan Horse Race

This year has been pivotal for malicious software (malware) such as viruses, worms, and Trojan horses. Although the problem is not new, Internet growth and weak system security have increased the risks. Viruses and worms survive by moving from computer to computer. Prior to the Internet, computers communicated slowly, mostly from floppy disks and bulletin […]
Opinion Apr 1 1999

Inside Risks: Just a Matter of Bandwidth

The previously incomprehensible increases in communication capacities now appearing almost daily may be enabling a quantum leap in one of the ultimately most promising, yet underfunded, areas of scientific research—teleportation. But to an extent even greater than with many other facets of technology, funding shortfalls in this area can carry with them serious risks to […]
Opinion Mar 1 1999

Inside Risks: Bit-Rot Roulette

It’s obvious that our modern society is becoming immensely dependent on stored digital information, a trend that will only increase. Aspects of our culture that have routinely been preserved in one or another analog form are making transitions into the digital arena. Consumers who have little or no technical expertise are now using digital systems […]

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