fbpx

Tag Archive for cyberpunk

Cybercrime and Transparency

February 21, 2015 future, Writing Comments Off on Cybercrime and Transparency

 

Image courtesy kapersky.com

Obama Signs Executive Order Encouraging Private-Sector Companies To Share Cyber Security Information

Transparency is creeping ever closer.  I know people online bitch and moan about the lack thereof, but the truth of the matter seems to be that, inch by inch, policy by policy, transparency is seeping into our lives (whether we like it or not).  President Obama recently signed an executive order regarding the sharing of information between the govt. and private corporations with an eye towards combating cybercrime in a more wholesale fashion, which (for a change) pushes the latest steps in airing our undergarments to governmental/corporate collaboration (rather than exploring the boundaries of personal liberties).

But is a monolithic front to cybercrime really the most ideal solution?  Hackers (the really l33t ones at least) seem to be individualists, they have target preferences, unique ways of looking at problems that might not be easy to defend against as a single data-crunching system.  There is a certain amount of nimbleness required, which is why the bounty system (where corporations pay a bounty to programmers for each bug or hack reported and proven) seems to be as effective as it is, rather than engaging rooms full of people combing through the code.

Catch and Destroy

February 16, 2015 future, Videogames, Writing Comments Off on Catch and Destroy

Image from Astrobiology Magazine online

http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/ja507983x

 

Walter Jon Williams may have described it most clearly in his novel “Aristoi”, the idea that any nano-technological critter, given the ability to reproduce, can go bad and take over a whole environment, devouring everything it can reach.  If you are a cyberpunk/hard sci-fi fan, you may have heard of it as “Mataglap” or “Grey Goo”.  It begs the question, how do you control against a microscopically sized organism?  Or more to the point, how can you control against them on the fly, away from lab facilities and clean rooms?

Here and now, for biological organisms, there is a solution.  Specialized adhesive tapes that can be impregnated with chemical compounds to neutralize biological organisms.  The kinds of germs, bugs and viruses that many imagine the architecture of future nano-particles will be based upon.

As always, the link’s there at the top so you can read the original article for yourself and decide if you’re going to be taping the cracks around your windows closed in case the Measles epidemic comes to your street in suburbia.

 

« Older Entries   Recent Entries »