All Passcode Voices

Apple's showdown with the FBI over access to the San Bernardino, Calif., shooter's iPhone might seem like a potential blow to privacy, but it also shows that privacy may not be dead after all.

President Obama's Cybersecurity National Action Plan rightly aims to make digital security a higher priority. But Washington needs to work more with states and cities to boost awareness of cyberthreats and the adoption of best practices.

Spending more on cybersecurity is a start but it's certainly no panacea. President Obama's new spending plans should come with policy proposals and organizational initiatives that stand in the way of protecting US networks from malicious hackers.

If China blunts North Korea's increasingly aggressive hackers, and keep them from operating on its side of the border, that would go a long way toward improving security on the Korean Peninsula.

Adm. Michael Rogers, director of the National Security Agency, wants to combine the agency's cyber defenders and its architects of espionage. While that may streamlines processes at the agency, it won't create more openness and trust when it's needed most.

The new arrangement between European and US negotiators to replace Safe Harbor and ensure that data continues flowing across the Atlantic may not be strong enough to withstand likely legal challenges from privacy watchdogs.

In the wake of European terror attacks and the ongoing refugee crisis, many Germans are backing away from staunch opposition to their country's close cooperation with US spy agencies. Now, Germans are willing to accept a more reasonable balance between security and privacy.

On Data Privacy Day, it's sobering to remember how many people have been personally affected by devastating breaches. But many of those hacks could have been prevented if companies simply employed a more than 20-year-old principle known as Privacy by Design.

When the European Court of Justice invalidated Safe Harbor, it became clear that a single data agreement couldn't account for all the ways countries balance privacy, freedom of expression, and national security.

Whether referring to technology or political ideology, open source is about self-determination. It's also an attitude and approach the European Court of Justice embraced in its decision to invalidate Safe Harbor.

More schools are using social media services such as Facebook and Twitter to reach out to students, parents, and local communities. But educators may not understand the privacy consequences that those accounts have for students and parents.

In 2011, Iran spoofed – or faked – Global Positioning System signals to send a CIA drone off course. Did it do the same to trick Navy vessels into Iranian waters? 

While fresh reports of digital assaults on critical infrastructure facilities have stirred the cyberwar saber rattlers, it's worth remembering that squirrels cause far more destruction to the grid than rogue nation hackers.

Attacks that use malware to encrypt victims' data until they pay hefty ransoms are on the rise. Individuals and organizations can stay ahead of these ransomware assaults with some added digital vigilance. 

Tuesday's Republican presidential debate in Las Vegas touched on some of the hottest issues in tech but many candidates are way off base when it comes to understanding the Internet.

It's not because of Stuxnet. Iran has been developing cyberweapons long before the cyberattack as nation-states have moved toward strategies of asymmetric warfare.

Instead of drafting yet another report saying collaboration is important for improving cybersecurity, we built a prototype, Web-based toolkit that provides cybersecurity pros a way to start more multidisciplinary cooperation.

The debate over encryption technology that intensified after the Paris attacks is dominated by cyberlibertarians on one side and law and order proponents on the other. But any resolution will require reframing the discussion and figuring out how to apply democratic controls to our digital infrastructure. 

Instead of pushing to diminish tools that are meant to protect modern communications and safeguard speech, our leaders should work toward lasting solutions that can actually thwart terrorism. 

The worst laws are those that are unenforceable, so what would we hope our lawmakers say about data collecting and sharing technologies that are not yet critical but soon will be?