The enigma machine was ground-breaking for its time. It was an electromechanical device that used three rotors and a series of plugs to encode messages. The brilliance of the device was that the letter L in the same message could be represented by multiple letters. So the word “ALL” could come out as “EQA”. The combination of the rotors and plug boards meant that there were 150 million million (no, that is not a typo, it is million twice) possible combinations.

In an article published by Engadget today, they reveal that the US border forces are seizing Americans’ phone data and storing it for 15 years. To the toon of as many as 10,000 Americans every year.

Imagine combining “geofence warrants”, with data on social media, with algorithms powered by Artificial Intelligence. It is now possible to write a piece of software that searches social media for posts that the software deems threatening, then reaching out to Google’s servers to find out where the person is in real time, then notifying the police that the person might be on their way to commit a crime.

Astroscale will test the spacecraft's ability to snatch a satellite and bring it down toward the Earth's atmosphere, where it will burn up. It will do this in a series of different maneuvers, with the mission expected to end in September or October of this year.

That plug in wifi security camera that you bought might be streaming the video from your front porch for the entire world to see. Many of those cameras come with a default user id and password set at the factory. Which means that the entire world can see what you’re pointing it at if you don’t change the password.

On August 4th, 1945 the Soviet Union presented Averell Harriman, American Ambassador in Russia, with a gift. It was beautiful carving of the American eagle. The Ambassador, taken with the work of art, hung it in his residential study, where it stayed for seven years.

Here is a brilliant deepfake of the Queen’s annual Christmas message. It demonstrates how convincing the technology has become. I touch on this in my novel, China Rising, and the danger that it poses to our political system. While the technology is poised to become mainstream in the coming years, I fear that we are unprepared to deal with the fallout.

In each of my novels I encrypt the dedication using a different methodology each time. If you like puzzles, you’ll find this true story fascinating. A team of three amateur cryptographers solved the Zodiak killer’s cypher. Learn how they did it in this amazing video.

I always loved to read the newspaper. Even as a kid, I would scour our local paper after my father finished reading it. What I didn’t know way back then, was just how important the people behind the written word were to a democracy. To our way of life.

Richard Browning wanted to fly. The intrepid inventor experimented, tested, and developed an incredible device, the Gravity Suit. Check out his Ted Talk and I promise you’ll be amazed at his story.