Melting Down Processor Design Conventions Reveals a Specter of Shaky Engineering

Last week, two deeply rooted vulnerabilities in widely deployed processors shook the digital security community to the core. “Spectre” and “Meltdown” demonstrated how a bug buried many layers below the applications and even operating systems which users directly interact with can fatally compromise all the components running above it. But what makes these vulnerabilities so […]

The WannaCry attack glaringly reveals where users should cry foul

As an observer of current technology developments and an advocate for greater general technical literacy, I would be remiss if I didn’t weigh in on the massive ransomware attack that unfolded last week. And while the fact that it took place so recently means there is still much we don’t understand about it, I wanted […]

Regardless of where one stands, the CIA disclosures achieve unquestionable good

With just over a day having passed since Wikileaks released a formidable cache of documents on CIA hacking techniques, observers are already frantically assessing their impact. Media and expert reactions vary widely, spanning anywhere from Leonid Bershidsky’s dismissal of the revelations as ultimately inconsequential in affecting what is a given in intelligence work, to Fred Kaplan’s sharp condemnation of a brazen assault […]

With net neutrality’s fate uncertain, encryption offers hope for users

With an eye to the incoming presidential administration, many internet freedom advocates warn of an impending reversal of the Federal Communications Commission’s net neutrality ruling. While President-elect Trump has given little explicit indication of his leanings on the issue, many in his inner circle of internet and telecommunication policymakers have expressed their disdain for it, […]

Initializing

To those whose interest led you to start reading this blog already, and to those who pick it up later and sift through the archive, welcome to this curious little space. To that end, I wanted to briefly make an introduction of sorts before resuming this blog’s usual mode. I am a young musician and […]

Machines only learn what we teach them

Few things are more encouraging to the pursuit of social progress than bold new strides in technology. By the same token, though, seldom are there more frightening sources of fear for such progress than technology. But before we can judiciously assess its capacity to embolden or hinder our efforts to advance human endeavors, we must […]

Who’s watching your internet-connected watchdog?

Whether you felt its reverberations or not, you’re probably aware of the massive internet outage resulting from one of the largest DDoS attacks ever observed. Security experts and technology journalists across the country and the globe are still feverishly analyzing the attack since then, but while its perpetrator and motive are still unknown, more than […]

Cymatic Scanning

Through resonance, true nature