The cyberwar between China and the US has spread from computers into the halls of diplomacy. In a report this week, the Pentagon said for the first time that the Chinese government and military have been launching cyber attacks against the US. Today, Chinese state media called the US “the real hacking empire” and said the country has “an extensive espionage network.” Read More »

As if we needed more evidence that we have more technology than we know what to do with, a collaboration between an artist and an engineer has yielded something both whimsical and potentially useful. It gives houseplants autonomy. Read More »

Apple, within days, is set to finish clearing two safety hurdles that had kept the iPhone and iPad out of fingers’ way in the Defense Department and some civilian agencies. Read More »

China views cyber warfare as the essential element to attack U.S. forces operating in the western Pacific, the Defense Department reported today in its annual analysis of that country’s military capabilities. Read More »

Veterans Affairs Department spokesman Josh Taylor defended VA’s system of paying executive bonuses, telling Nextgov the payments are necessary to “attract and retain the best and brightest leaders.” Read More »

What if we were all wrong about the Obama campaign’s vaunted technological advantage? That’s what two Harvard researchers are suggesting. In a new head-to-head comparison of voter turnout in battleground states, what many believe gave President Obama an edge—his data-driven efforts at getting out the vote—might not have mattered much after all. Read More »

The chairman of the House Veterans Affairs Committee proposed legislation that would ban all bonuses for senior executives in the Veterans Affairs Department for the next five years. The move by Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., is in response to VA’s disability claims backlog and patient deaths in VA hospitals. Read More »

Yessterday was May 7, the day that Anonymous and various explicitly anti-USA and anti-Israel hacking groups promised to take down the websites of the Pentagon, White House, FBI, Bank of America, Chase bank, and all the other usual symbols of oppression. Except the attacks appeared to be a complete failure... Read More »

The pharmaceutical industry is held in remarkably low esteem right now. It's seen as a bunch of nefarious pushers who pay off vulnerable doctors to prescribe their latest expensive, mediocre product. Physicians who work with pharma companies are considered especially suspect, routinely described as "cozy," "in bed with industry," and "on the take." Read More »

The “cloud” is great for places that enjoy uninterrupted power and Internet connections. But for large swathes of the world, where blackouts are common and connections unreliable, accessing files stored remotely on the Internet is a massive hassle. Forget about downloading Adobe Creative Suite. Simply working on a Google doc can be aggravating. Read More »