fbpx

Government Manufacturing Security & Privacy

A Gun Made from a 3D Printer? Techno-Challenges Grow More Complex

By  |  October 8, 2012, 12:00 PM

At Techonomy we believe that just about literally everything is being transformed by technology, especially Internet technology, and we also are quite psyched about 3D printing. It's another example of the empowerment of individuals—in the potent tradition of the PC, Web browser, Facebook, etc. But now guns are beginning to be made with 3D printers. There is likely nothing that can be done to stop that. It underscores another fundamental Techonomy point—that all of us, as citizens, leaders, and human beings—need to be thinking harder about what technology is doing to the world in which we live. Disruption is right.   More

(Via The New York Times)

Security & Privacy

Technology Helps Germany Reconstruct Its Painful History

By  |  October 8, 2012, 10:32 AM

The Stasi, the police arm of the East German government that crumbled in 1989 with the fall of the Berlin Wall, attempted to destroy millions of documents chronicling decades of spying on its own citizens. While many of the files are unrecoverable, Germans still want to know as much as much as they can about what they contained—over 70,000 have applied for access to the Stasi archives, prompting an effort to reconstruct shredded files. As reported by NPR's Philip Reeves, the German government is using technology to piece together the remnants, many of which were torn by hand in the last panicked days of the East German regime.   More

(Via NPR)

Government Security & Privacy

Obama Campaign Uses Big Data to Target Voters Block by Block

By  |  September 17, 2012, 1:41 PM 1 Comment

As reported by Richard McGregor in the Financial Times, one voter whose name, age, and address were published in the "Obama for America" app, which helps canvassers target doors to knock on, was decidedly nonplussed about having his personal information downloadable by anyone with a smartphone. "Everything is an invasion of privacy these days," he said. "If I got excited about it, I would have had a coronary by now." Others are less sanguine about the ways the Obama campaign is using technology, and data culled from social media, to micro-target voters. But both campaigns have tools that tell them a lot more about voters than their ages and addresses, and they're using them to "slice and dice" the voting population in a way Barack Obama could have never envisioned when he gave his seminal 2004 convention speech.   More

(Via Financial Times)

Security & Privacy Techonomy Events

Autonomy CEO Mike Lynch on Transparency and Privacy

Techonomy Video  |  August 27, 2012, 2:30 PM

In this session from Techonomy 2011, in Tuscon, Ariz., Techonomy's David Kirkpatrick talks to Mike Lynch, CEO of Autonomy, about how technology is changing the realms of transparency and privacy. Lynch claims that evolving technology will make it nearly impossible for anyone's actions to go unnoticed.   More

Security & Privacy Techonomy Events

Bret Hartman of RSA on Cyber Defense

Techonomy Video  |  August 27, 2012, 1:25 PM

In this video from Techonomy 2011 in Tucson, Ariz., Bret Hartman, CTO of RSA, talks about lessons his company learned when they faced a major cyber attack in early 2011. Hartman addresses the technological, legal, and political barriers to protecting our security, and discusses the severity of intellectual property theft as a global problem.   More