In The News

Internet of Things: Have We Bitten Off More Than We Can Chew?

Alyssa Newcomb and Jo Ling Kent October 28, 2016
Hackers commandeered web cameras and possibly other devices to launch an attack on internet service management company Dyn. The company reports that it fended off multiple attacks in recent weeks. All types of gadgets for homes, cars and offices are linked to the internet to allow remote monitoring by users and updates from makers, and one security expert suggests that any device with an IP...

Will ExxonMobil Have to Pay for Misleading the Public on Climate Change?

Paul Barrett and Matthew Philips September 7, 2016
A handful of climate-change skeptics have convinced legislators in the United States and other nations to dismiss ample findings by climate researchers that the planet is warming. The Union of Concerned Scientists in 2007 compared fossil-fuel industry tactics “to manufacture uncertainty” on scientific findings with those of the cigarette industry. Investigative journalists in 2015 suggested that...

Asia Sentinel: Malaysia’s PM Sells His Country to China

Philip Bowring August 10, 2016
“The vulnerability of Southeast Asian countries to the combination of Chinese money and their own corrupt politicians has been laid starkly bare by a new report on Malaysia’s scandal ridden 1MDB,” reports Philip Bowring. International authorities are investigating Prime Minister Najib Razak for transferring 1MDB sovereign fund money into his personal accounts. The prime minister is accused of...

Black Lives Matter Is a Global Cause

Ishaan Tharoor July 13, 2016
The United States is in turmoil over gun rights, police shootings, and racial and political divides during a heated presidential campaign. Protesters associated with the Black Lives Matter movement gathered around the nation after police shootings of two black men in Louisiana and Minnesota. During a protest in Dallas, a sniper targeted police, killing five officers and injuring 11 others, and...

US Officials Say American Muslims Do Report Extremist Threats

Kristina Cooke and Joseph Ax June 16, 2016
The US has more than 3 million Muslims, about 1 percent of the population. A good relationship with the Muslim community is indispensable for law enforcement, notes James Comey, director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation: “It’s at the heart of the FBI’s effectiveness to have good relationships with these folks.” His statement countered claims by US presidential candidate Donald Trump who, in...

IMF: Global Corruption Costs Trillions in Bribes, Lost Growth

David Lawder May 16, 2016
Corruption destabilizes governments and the global economy as a whole. “Public sector corruption siphons $1.5 trillion to $2 trillion annually from the global economy in bribes and costs far more in stunted economic growth, lost tax revenues and sustained poverty,” writes David Lawder for Reuters about an International Monetary Fund research report. The indirect costs – erosion of trust and...

New Attack Reported by Swift Global Bank Network

Michael Corkery May 13, 2016
Technology has allowed banks to expand into behemoths and the assets of some number in the trillions. Thieves are using banking technology to conduct online bank robberies. “Thieves have again found their way into what was thought to be the most secure financial messaging system in the world and stolen money from a bank,” reports Michael Corkery for the New York Times. Swift, or Society for...