Restarting USAID and putting all payments on a blockchain? Why not? Well, for one, as one expert in the sector is quoted as saying: ‘I don’t think we were ever able to find an instance where people were using blockchain where they couldn’t use existing tools’. The Trump administration says that the move to blockchain (…)
This news illustrates how quantum technologies require forward planning in cybersecurity on unprecedented timescales (2035!), to protect against threats that exist in theory before they materialize in practice. What makes this particularly interesting is the proactive approach: the NCSC is implementing a ten-year strategic roadmap to prevent future breaches. The three-phase timeline recognizes both the (…)
Supply chain attacks will continue to hit the news in an increasingly interconnected development ecosystem as organizations rely on third-party components and actions. This seems inevitable. What I find interesting about this case is the threat actors’ approach to compromise software while it is still under development, which sets itself apart from attacks such as (…)
This investigation highlights a crucial cybersecurity reality: while we often focus on sophisticated zero-day exploits, the greater threat comes from known vulnerabilities and misplaced trust. One million Android devices weren’t compromised through cutting-edge techniques but through traditional means – preinstalled backdoors and users installing unvetted apps outside official stores. The victims were vulnerable because they (…)
Interesting to see y-combinator, an incubator for early-stage startups, supporting an EU directive. They say that the European Digital Markets Act actually allows smaller companies to grow, by limiting what the behemoths of the market are allowed to do. Who would’ve thought that at least one of the regulations gets supported by the US Startup (…)
We often hear or talk about ‘IT for good’ and ‘responsible behaviour’ in the digital world, assuming a single universal common understanding of what’s good and what’s responsible. Things start to get confusing when we think about for whom a service or action is good or responsible: for all humanity, including the ‘bad guys’? for (…)
I find China’s attempt to treat data as a formal business asset quite interesting, especially given the massive amount of data the country generates. Companies seem reluctant to adopt this policy though, with only 283 out of 60 million companies participating. But it is still early days, and the months and years to come will (…)
Nobody would seriously argue that a chat bot can replace school counselors in helping pupils taking their first steps on their career paths. However, in the face of a shortage of counselors, aren’t chat bots better than no guidance at all? I like this article for its nuanced discussion of young people relying on specialized (…)
The article reports that the US may have paused its offensive cyber operations against Russia, suggesting it is likely part of a broader diplomatic strategy to encourage talks over the Ukraine conflict, or to possibly focus more on addressing cyber threats posed by China. Scaling back offensive actions without reciprocal guarantees risks exposing critical infrastructure (…)
The text explores the concept of trust in transformative technologies, highlighting the importance of understanding the nuances of “trust” in different contexts. It elevates discussions to a philosophical level by questioning the true essence of trust—whether it is rooted in transparency, reliability, or alignment with human values. By addressing these contrasts, the article encourages dialogue (…)
The European Union’s AI Act has reached a significant milestone by banning AI systems across the EU that pose an ‘unacceptable risk,’ defined as serious threats to people’s rights and safety. The Act will be implemented in phases, with additional regulations for high-risk AI systems expected in the next 2-3 years. With security risks from (…)
Matrix is a widely used open source chat platform. It is an alternative to platforms such as Slack and MSTeams. In line with C4DT’s objective to promote services in the realm of digital trust, we set up our own Matrix instance and migrated our professional communications there in 2019. A privacy-first approach with encrypted chat (…)
Schaake, Marietje (2024). The Tech Coup – How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley. Princeton University Press, 336 pages. By Melanie Kolbe-Guyot It is safe to say that probably no other book should more be on your reading list this year than Marietje Schaake’s 2024 “The Tech Coup – How to Save Democracy from Silicon Valley”. (…)
Do you believe in magic? Recent research reveals a ‘lower literacy-higher receptivity’ link, suggesting that the less people understand AI, the more they perceive its human-like capabilities as magical, making them more likely to use it. This quirky perspective on how people perceive AI could reveal new ways to communicate its benefits and risks to (…)
Interesting work from OpenAI, who are testing how good their models are at convincing people to change their minds. Currently, they’re running the tests only internally on pre-selected human testers. But who knows where this will eventually be used, and whether in the open or hidden? For that matter, what about the LLM-generated messages Meta (…)
While the ‘Code of conduct on countering illegal hate speech online’ that the European Commission included into the Digital Services Act (DSA) is work in progress, the fact that even companies such as Meta and X feel compelled to sign shows that regulations are far from the toothless tigers that they are often made out (…)
Friday, February 7th, 2025, 14h-17h, BC 410, EPFL Introduction Artificial Intelligence has the potential to revolutionize also software development and IT in general. To explore the implications of AI on these domains, we organize a roundtable discussion. The objective of this roundtable is to gather insights from visionaries and experts to understand the impact of (…)
I find this article interesting because it reveals how popular apps are being used to collect personal location data through real-time bidding (RTB), all without the knowledge of the app developers. The hacked Gravy Analytics files prove how apps, even those that are supposed to be private, can accidentally become part of this data supply (…)
Here is an article, in Cory Doctorow’s signature style, discussing social networks and what drives them and what makes people leave or stay. I like specifically how he dissects the way the once-good services these platforms used to provide got untethered from the profits their creators and CEOs were chasing over the years. Towards the (…)
The awesome Molly White throws light upon how to calculate the market cap of a crypto coin. I still think that decentralized systems like blockchains are very useful in some cases. However, the run for the coin with the most money seems very sad to me, and not just because of all the investors who (…)
The Ethics of Privacy and Surveillance by Carissa Véliz, Oxford University Press – 256 pages by Hector Garcia Morales “Privacy matters because it shields us from possible abuses of power”. Such a strong statement opens the introduction of the book, setting the grounds for the following pages. The thesis is that, in digital societies, there (…)
Meta lays out in this blog post their rationale behind axing third-party fact checking and sweeping changes in content moderation on Facebook, Instagram and Threads. It is important to read this (or watch Mark Zuckerberg’s video) with recent company history in mind: Facebook’s failure to properly moderate content helped fan the flames in the Rohingya (…)
In a sea of unsettling news, the US’s new Cyber Trust Mark labelling program is a welcome beacon of light. With consumers’ personal and home office spaces increasingly populated by connected devices, from door locks and doorbells, to baby monitors, vacuums, and TVs, the security of “smart home ecosystems” has never been more important. The (…)
Privacy Enhancing Technologies, or PETs for short, is an umbrella term for a wide range of technologies and tools designed to protect our privacy online. You may not realize it, but you probably already use PETs on a daily basis. Some common examples [1] include HTTPS, securing connections between you and websites End-to-end encryption, ensuring (…)
