Conferences Archives

Conferences

At MIT Conference, Warnings of Big Data Fundamentalism

October 9, 2013 Paul Roberts

A senior Microsoft researcher issued a stern warning about the negative consequences of the current mania for data harvesting saying that a kind of “fundamentalism” was emerging regarding the utility of what’s been termed “Big Data” that could easily lead to a Orwellian future of ubiquitous surveillance and diminished freedom. Speaking to an audience of around 300 technology industry luminaries at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s annual Emerging Technology (EMTECH) conference, Kate Crawford, a Principal Researcher at Microsoft Research in Boston said that the technology industry’s fetish for “Big Data” had blinded it to the limits of analytics, and the privacy implications of wholesale data harvesting. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s (MIT’s) annual Emerging Technologies (EMTECH) conference, a high-gloss event that throws entrepreneurs, venture capitalists and academics together to talk ‘big ideas’ on TED-inspired sets. Crawford’s speech, coming on the heels of a talk about transforming healthcare with big data […]

Video: Weaponizing Your Coffee Pot

October 7, 2013 Paul Roberts

The third annual DerbyCon wrapped up last week. Alas, I wasn’t able to make it down to Louisville, Kentucky and don a pork-pie hat with the smart people there. Still, there were some great presentations, and most of them are available online. One worth checking out if you’re into the Internet of Things hacking -thing is Daniel Buentello’s (@danielbuentell0) presentation of “Weaponizing Your Coffee Pot.” This is a repeat performance for Daniel, who also presented it at the ToorCon Conference in Seattle back in July. The first half of this talk is a high level overview of IoT and the security implications thereof. Mostly this is stuff you’ve read on this blog before. In the second half, Daniel goes down into the weeds on hacking a couple of classic IoT devices: Belkin’s WeMo IP enabled power outlet and Nest’s iconic thermostat. Without getting into all the details (its worth watching […]

Losing The Future: Schneier On How The Internet Could Kill Democracy

October 2, 2013 Paul Roberts

With his deep background in both cryptography and Internet security, Bruce Schneier is of the most thoughtful commentators on all matters cyber. So revered is he, that he even inspired a list of humorous Chuck Norris-style “Bruce Schneier” facts . In recent months, Bruce has been an invaluable sounding board amid the drip-drip-drip of details of ubiquitous government surveillance stemming from Edward Snowden’s leak of classified intelligence on NSA spying and cyber operations. In this video, from a recent speech Bruce did at the TEDxCambridge event up here in the Boston area, he goes a bit deeper: drawing out the current trend lines like hacktivism, Facebook- and Twitter-fueled popular revolutions, civil war and mass surveillance, and trying to discern what the future might look like. /div> Bruce’s theory: although nimble groups of activists, dissidents and hackers have been more adept at using the Internet and innovative technologies and platforms built on […]

FTC Bows Out Of IOT Conference Amid Shutdown

October 1, 2013 Paul Roberts

Attendees at a high-level summit to discuss the fast-emerging Internet of Things in Washington D.C. were informed that a scheduled talk by Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Chairwoman Edith Ramirez would not take place because of a U.S. Government shutdown that began at Midnight. Ramirez was scheduled to address the 2013 M2M & Internet of Things Global Summit on Tuesday morning on “The FTC’s Interest in the Internet of Things,” but conference attendees told The Security Ledger that Ramirez was forced to cancel her talk because of a government shutdown. “Attendees were told she could not give it due to the shutdown,” said Torrey Barrett, a marketing professional attending the event, reported via Twitter. Ramirez was scheduled to speak at 9:00 AM on Tuesday as one of a series of keynote speakers, just after Michael Nelson (@MikeNelson), Microsoft’s Principal Technology Policy Strategist and just ahead of Chris Vein, a former deputy […]

FDA Will Regulate Some Apps As Medical Devices

September 24, 2013 Paul Roberts

In an important move, the U.S. Food And Drug Administration (FDA) has released final guidance to mobile application developers that are creating medical applications to run on devices like the iPhone and Android mobile devices. Some applications, it said, will be treated with the same scrutiny as traditional medical devices.* The statement is the final word from the FDA on the approach it will take when enforcing federal regulations regarding the safety of medical devices to the large and fast-growing category of medical applications. The agency said on Monday that, while it doesn’t see the need to vet “the majority of mobile apps,” because they pose “minimal risk to consumers,” it will exercise oversight of mobile medical applications that are accessories to regulated medical devices, or that transform a mobile device into a regulated medical device. In those cases, the FDA said that mobile applications will be assessed “using the same […]