SEPTEMBER 28, 2017 | Merritt Baer

Cybersecurity can seem daunting. But you can’t afford to walk away from this area of expertise.

First, as a knowledgeable consumer and public citizen, being smart about technology choices can help you to be more productive and protected. This is the story on the IT level – which hardware and software you choose and how you navigate the wealth of resources that are out there. Being equipped with knowledge on these choices will help you to make more organized decisions and to limit your personal risk.

OCTOBER 5, 2017 | Merritt Baer

NOVEMBER 3, 2017 | Merritt Baer

You might not think of cybersecurity as a social justice issue, but it is. From your cell phone to your shopping habits to your employer, you are inheriting a set of practices that the businesses you interact with have invested in their products and services. Each of us inherits cybersecurity as a function of our relative wealth, and there are important ways that it is reverberating through every aspect of our daily interactions. I think it is time for a national conversation about this reality.

NOVEMBER 17, 2017 | Merritt Baer

Have you ever observed a class for children on the process of making social connections? They can be quite refreshing. This was one interaction I witnessed:

       Teacher: “Now ask Dan how his weekend was.”

       Liam: “But I don’t care how Dan’s weekend was.”

       Teacher: “Nobody does.”

How do we program social intelligence, the ins and outs of everyday interactions, into our children? How do we get ourselves better at it?

FEBRUARY 12, 2018 | Merritt Baer

Bhutan is a small Himalayan kingdom, wedged physically and politically between India and China. Their rapid internet development is a unique test case of the impact of technological growth, and understanding its development can inform how we view technology structures in the US.

FEBRUARY 27, 2018 | Merritt Baer

Emerging tech and cybersecurity are among the worst fields for hiring and retaining women. Concretized by uber engineer Susan J. Fowler’s blog post a year ago, we have seen increasing awareness of the fact that unfortunately, women in tech experience rough treatment across the board. 

APRIL 4, 2018 | Merritt Baer

2018 is the year of ransomware. It’s a sign of the times: threats that were once clearly delineated are blurring. Money-motivated versus state-motivated. Corporate level versus nation-state level.

APRIL 30, 2018 | Merritt Baer

Last week I wrote about upcoming roadblocks in prosecuting child pornography in a coherent form, now that technology allows for “deep fakes .” These questions sit interestingly within the ways that we share and distribute content online. In other words, even if we think that Facebook went too far with Cambridge Analytica, maybe we would want child pornography investigations to go extremely far—even when not conducted by the police.