Two years ago, a fledgling social-networking site called Blippy accidentally posted the credit card numbers of its users online. While that was a particularly egregious example, such inadvertent information leaks happen all the time: In April, for instance, the Texas attorney general’s office sent civil-rights groups information on 13.1 million registered voters — including, accidentally, […] … learn more→

The cost of protecting ourselves against cybercrime can far exceed the cost of the threat itself. This is the conclusion of a recent report ‘Measuring the cost of cybercrime’ by an international team of scientists led by the University of Cambridge. On the basis of the findings – which provide the first systematic estimate of […] … learn more→

Greece is a land of high drama. As fires ranged across the south of the country, stretching the emergency services to the limit; in the afterglow of their national soccer team’s astonishing win over Russia in the European Cup and thus advancing to the quarter-finals against (ironically!) Germany; and on the eve of the G-20 […] … learn more→

Last month marked another burst of developments in the world university rankings sector, including two ‘under 50’ rankings. More specifically: • 29 May 2012: QS launches QS Top 50 Under 50 • 31 May 2012: Times Higher Education (with Thomson Reuters) launches THE 100 Under 50 A coincidence? Very unlikely. But who was first with […] … learn more→

Since the middle of the last decade, well before the worldwide run-up in fuel prices during 2008, it has been widely believed that we are entering a new era of scarcity in carbon-based fuels such as oil and natural gas. Such concerns are not new, having first become prevalent in the 1970s. But a rather […] … learn more→

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When it comes to faculty dissent, my perspective is perhaps somewhat unusual if not unique. As a department chair and dean, I often encountered dissent when presenting and enforcing administrative policies that in some cases I didn’t agree with, either. And as a faculty member, I have on occasion played the role of dissident myself. […] … learn more→

Apple’s Siri (Speech Interpretation and Recognition Interface) was launched in October of 2011 as an integral—and heavily advertised—part of iOS 5, the operating system for the iPhone 4S. Six months later, many users are blown away by Siri’s functionality, but not everyone is satisfied. Some users are asking, “Siri, how useful are you really?” … learn more→

There’s no doubt social media enables us to organize our real-world relationships, and even meet new people outside the digital realm — both of which can be great, life-enhancing things. But could social networking have an adverse effect on our quality of life? Consider this: 24% of respondents to one survey said they’ve missed out […] … learn more→

When it comes to publishing, Charles Dickens was half right. It’s the worst of times, and it always has been. Ten years ago, when preparing for a panel on the future of book publishing, I jotted down some quotes from Publishers Weekly that still sound fresh, a decade and a technology revolution later. “Too few […] … learn more→