BY GINA MANTICA Messaging apps like WhatsApp and Signal use encryption to allow people to chat privately, but as a result they lack an easy way for users to report harmful content securely. The use of end-to-end encryption in these and other messaging apps prevents third parties from accessing data transferred between individuals. A team […]
BY GINA MANTICA Imagine there exists a digital dollar with all the privacy benefits of physical cash, but is recognized and regulated by the federal government unlike Bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies. This is one of many proposed policies that researchers in Boston University’s Center for Reliable Information Systems and Cyber Security (RISCS) are helping to […]
BY KYLEE NGUYEN Protecting individual’s data has become more important than ever. It is reported that at least 75 companies receive anonymous, precise location data from apps whose users enable location function. With social apps like Facebook, Instagram, and Snapchat being able to track users’ locations, people are now taking the issue of data privacy […]
BY KYLEE NGUYEN Cyberattacks are the fifth top-rated risk in 2020. It is estimated that cybercrime will cost companies worldwide an estimated $10.5 trillion annually by 2025. This year’s Cybersecurity Awareness Month celebrates its 18th anniversary by continuing to raise awareness about the importance of cybersecurity across the United States so that everyone is safer […]
BY GINA MANTICA Many people enter private information, like addresses and passwords, online regularly. But not many people know how to keep that sensitive information safe. Cybersecurity Awareness Month was created to ensure that people in the United States have the resources they need to be safer online. We asked one of our cybersecurity experts […]
Census data is hugely consequential, determining how electoral district boundaries are redrawn and how many Congressional representatives each state gets. The 2020 Census uses differential privacy to protect personal information, but some states have opposed the change because the method will affect redistricting. A group of data privacy experts, including three researchers from the Hariri […]
Secure messaging platforms aren’t necessarily private. Though the messages’ contents might be encrypted, or protected from unauthorized users, the apps can still collect other private information about the platform’s users and communications. This collection of information about users’ data, known as metadata, is what sparked the historic Federal Trade Commission (FTC) penalty on Facebook in […]
BY: NATALIE GOLD From November 10-12, the Center for Discrete Mathematics and Theoretical Computer Science(DIMACS) at Rutgers University held the Workshop on Co-Development of Computer Science and Law. The event focused on the future of converging computational techniques and legal principles, and the necessity of providing a computer science perspective on the legal and social […]
Last week Kristopher Grahame, FBI agent and member of the U.S. Department of Justice in Boston, delivered a talk titled “Disinformation in the Age of Social Media: A Foreign Influence Briefing” to a full house at the Hillel River Room. This talk was put on by BU Information Security and co-sponsored by the Hariri Institute for Computing and […]
In celebration of Cyber Awareness Month, BU Research published an article through their page on Medium covering cybersecurity and what we can do to protect ourselves. Over 80% of Americans have smartphones with mobile apps on them and this article outlines how hackers can get into your phone through your apps. The article quoted responses […]