HTTPS, the cryptographic protocol used to secure web traffic as it travels across the Internet, has been in the news a lot recently. We’ve heard about security problems like Goto Fail, Heartbleed, and POODLE — vulnerabilities in the protocol itself or in specific implementations — that resulted in major security headaches. Yet the single biggest […]
PCLOB testimony on "Defining Privacy"
November 12, 2014 by
This morning I’m testifying at a hearing of the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, on the topic of “Defining Privacy”. Here is the text of my oral testimony. (This is the text as prepared; there might be minor deviations when I deliver it.) [Update (Nov. 16): video stream of my panel is now available.]
A technological approach to better living, for D.C. and beyond
November 3, 2014 by
Washington, D.C., could be a leader in the United States — and worldwide — in using technology to improve the lives of its residents and visitors. As a rapidly growing city with a diverse and highly educated population, the District is a leader in law, education, tourism and, of course, government. With this mass of […]
Bitcoin mining is NP-hard
October 27, 2014 by
This post is (mostly) a theoretical curiosity, but a discussion last week at CITP during our new course on Bitcoin led us to realize that being an optimal Bitcoin miner is in fact NP-hard. NP-hardness is a complexity classification used in computer science to describe many optimization problems for which we believe there is no algorithm […]
Four Fair Use Takeaways from Cambridge University Press v. Patton
October 23, 2014 by
The most important copyright and educational fair use case in recent memory (mine, at least) was decided by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals last week. The case, Cambridge University Press v. Patton, challenged Georgia State University’s use of e-reserves in courses offered by the university. The copyrighted works at issue were scholarly books–i.e., a […]
