Under this catchy name, the Association for Computing Machinery provides a summary, about twice weekly, of news items having to do with various collision points between us humans and our silicon creations. The Forum covers a pretty wide gamut, including surveillance, possibly counter-productive legislation to improve encryption at ATMs, Personal Electronic Devices on Commercial Aircraft, zapping RFIDs (those new anti-theft devices on consumer products), 'Smart' highway systems collecting too much information on our comings and goings, and problems with electronic voting machines. Concerns are raised not only about design and function, but also about legal
There's a table of contents for each year's Archives, and the archives are also searchable. There are between 80 and 90 issues each year; I found it hard to stop browsing through them: Car computer systems at risk for viruses, 'Insane' Quebec Govt Online PAC ID system, Partisan e-mail censorship masquerading as spam filtering during the run-up to the 2004 election, and on...Paypal risks to buyers, Encryption Illegal in Minnesota... I had to search out CNN's report on this one, I couldn't believe it--yes, according to CNN "A Minnesota appeals court has ruled that the presence of encryption software on a computer may be viewed as evidence of criminal intent". It's not quite as bad as it sounded--the presence of encryption software is not prima facie evidence, doesn't make the case all by itself, but it helped to demolish claims of innocence after child porn was found on a guy's computer.
Finally, one entry of particular interest is from Peter Neumann, the moderator of RISK. Around the program's 20th anniversary in 2005, he suggested that the organization might want to consider some way of conveying to the public the potential for harm from the computerized systems that we all use with such nonchalance. Public-interest radio spots were suggested, since one member of the team has the relevant expertise, but this would require some funding. My search of subsequent issues didn't turn up anything more on this yet.
Finally, one entry of particular interest is from Peter Neumann, the moderator of RISK. Around the program's 20th anniversary in 2005, he suggested that the organization might want to consider some way of conveying to the public the potential for harm from the computerized systems that we all use with such nonchalance. Public-interest radio spots were suggested, since one member of the team has the relevant expertise, but this would require some funding. My search of subsequent issues didn't turn up anything more on this yet.
