Monthly Archives: February 2004

Did A Computer Virus Bring Down The Soviet Union?

Did software, deliberately programmed by the CIA to fail, hasten the end of the Soviet Union? The Washington Post reports (registration required) that “President Ronald Reagan approved a CIA plan to sabotage the economy of the Soviet Union through covert transfers of technology that contained hidden malfunctions, including software that later triggered a huge explosion… Read More »

Who’s In Charge? The Machines, Or Us?

Are we liberated by technology, or its captive? I love my handphone and I congratulate myself, as I’m checking my email in the middle of some dusty Indonesian kampung, that I have harnessed technology and not the other way round. But sometimes I wonder. A recent poll by Siemens callled the Mobile Lifestyle Survey (no… Read More »

Counting The Cost Of Online Crime

Phishing is beginning to bite. British police at a high-tech crime congress (noted by USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review) say that 83% of Britain’s 201 largest companies reported experiencing some form of cybercrime. The damage has cost them more than £195 million ($368 million) from downtime, lost productivity and perceived damage to their brand or… Read More »

Going Public With Sensitive Data

Forget phishing for your passwords via dodgy emails. Just use Wi-Fi. Internet security company Secure Computing Corporation have today released a report prepared by security consultants Canola/Jones Internet Investigations which “documents the serious risks of password theft that business travelers encounter when using the Internet in hotels, cafes, airports, and trade show kiosks.”  The full… Read More »