Tech in Times of COVID
2020 was the first year that this US decennial survey was offered to all households online. This survey counts the number of people living in the US, determines the number of representatives each state gets in Congress and how federal funding is distributed.
What is the census?
This insecure password was guessed by a hacker trying to get into the US President's Twitter account.
What is maga2020?
"What can bleach cure?" "Bernie Sanders said what?" This term describes knowledge that is more fiction than fact, propagated through social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, leading to actions by citizens and governments alike that range from quirky to inhuman; the U.N. recently stated that there is a worldwide epidemic of this.
What is misinformation?
This platform was used to hack high-profile accounts of celebrities and politicians, asking millions of followers to send money to a bitcoin address; hacked accounts included former President Barack Obama and Elon Musk.
What is Twitter?
This technology powers New York's contact tracing app "Covid Alert NY," which senses proximity to another phone instead of using your location.
What is bluetooth?
The healthcare sector has historically been particularly vulnerable to this type of attack, which makes the organizations data unavailable to their own offices, though not necessarily available to their attacker.
What is ransomware?
Everything in moderation is what we were taught, but it's easier said than done; these guidelines "outlining minimum levels of transparency and accountability that [we] hope can serve as the basis for a more in-depth dialogue in the future."
What are the Santa Clara Principles?
This type of information has been used by tech journalists and researchers to identify fake accounts on social media.
What is metadata?
This video conferencing platform became very popular during the pandemic, but has also come under fire for various controversies, including its use by pranksters and hackers to invade calls and display disruptive content.
What is Zoom?
This company was victim to a hack that became known as the Sunburst hack; with no known culprit as of yet, the hack is said to have affected 6 government agencies, Microsoft and many more.
What is SolarWinds?
A string of cell phone towers were set on fire due to the spread of conspiracy theories concerning this technology standard.
This vulnerability, which occurs when an attacker sends untrusted data to an interpreter as part of a command or query, topped the Open Web Application Security Project's top 10 list for 2020.
What is injection?
This common cyber scam capitalizes on fear and misinformation to trick victims into providing sensitive information or install malware on their computers, often via links in malicious emails or texts. COVID-themed attacks of this type often include messages with inaccurate and alarming health information as bait to click on links.
What is phishing?
This hack become Donald Trump's cybersecurity advisor, famously needing the Apple Genius Bar to help him unlock his phone after he had forgotten his password; his comments on the election were critiqued by former cybersecurity official Chris Krebs as "dangerous."
Who is Rudy Giuliani?
A story purported that this billionaire "has created or financed the creation of Covid-19 in order to sell vaccines, and gain power over the world."
Who is Bill Gates?
This organization is responsible for .org domains, which were under threat this past year to be sold off to a private equity firm.
What is ICANN?