Berkman Buzz: December 22, 2014

Your reaction to the massive hacking of such a prominent company will depend on whether you're fluent in information-technology security. If you're not, you're probably wondering how in the world this could happen. If you are, you're aware that this could happen to any company (though it is still amazing that Sony made it so easy).

To understand any given episode of hacking, you need to understand who your adversary is. I've spent decades dealing with Internet hackers (as I do now at my current firm), and I've learned to separate opportunistic attacks from targeted ones.

The governments of Cuba and the United States want to rebuild diplomatic ties, reestablish trade relations, and reopen lines of communication that have been frozen for over fifty of years. The news is almost unreal, like a dream. But we heard it today, from the leaders of both nations.

In a live speech televised from the White House, Barack Obama described how the two governments worked together over the last 18 months to negotiate the changes announced today. On Cuban state television, in an address that was transcribed and published by Cubadebate, Raul Castro thanked the Vatican and the government of Canada for supporting the delicate process.

As part of the Digitally Connected events series, the Berkman Center, the Ministry of Justice and Human Rights of Argentina, and UNICEF co-hosted on December 9-10, 2014 a regional symposium in Buenos Aires called "Conectados al Sur" that brought together 90 experts from Latin America and the Caribbean to discuss children, youth, and digital media. At the event, we debated a broad range of issues that children and adolescents face in the digital environment, such as unequal access to technology and connectivity; the relationship between the right to privacy and freedom of expression; the link of the media with social networking; innovation to bring technology access to vulnerable populations; and spaces for participation and innovation.

My stupid refrigerator thinks I'm pregnant.

I reached for my favorite IPA, but the refrigerator wouldn't let me take one from the biometrically authenticated alcohol bin.

Our latest auto-delivery from peaPod included pickles, orange juice, and prenatal vitamins. We never have orange juice in the house before because I find it too acidic. What machine-learning magic produced this produce?

And I noticed the other day that my water target had changed on my Vessyl, and I wasn't sure why. I figured I must have just been particularly dehydrated.

Two days after the horrific Taliban attack on a military-run school in Peshawar killed more than hundred and thirty students, a controversial, Islamabad-based cleric Abdul Aziz refused to condemn the massacre, sparking rare protests against radicalism in the country.

Abdul Aziz also said that use of force against Taliban is not a "wise option". Aziz is the chief cleric at Lal Mosque, one of the biggest in the capital. The mosque and its attached seminary have a reputation for radicalism and was the scene of a massive 10-day military crackdown in 2007, which left more than a hundred dead, many were radical seminary students. Aziz's brother was the chief back then and was killed in the operation. Abdul Aziz tried to flee the mosque in a burka, but was caught. He was released on bail two years later. And has since reopened the mosque and become the chief cleric.