Entries by CHHS Research Assistants & Externs

Volt Typhoon Takedown: FBI Successfully Combats Chinese Cyberattacks on Critical Infrastructure, But Cyber Warfare Is Far From Over

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By CHHS Extern Dominique Mendez Americans rely on critical infrastructure entities such as telecommunications, transportation, energy, water, and wastewater systems. However, these sectors face the constant threat of undetectable cyberattacks capable of causing power outages and communications failures. In May 2023, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), National Security Agency (NSA), and Federal Bureau […]

It’s Time for the FAA to Start Doing its Job (Again)

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By CHHS Research Assistant Alana Coopersmith Note: The views expressed do not necessarily represent those of CHHS or the University of Maryland, Baltimore.  Boeing, the Commercial Airliner and Defense giant, has had a disastrous start to 2024. In only three months, there have been four reported commercial plane malfunctions. It would be unsurprising to find […]

The Supreme Court’s Vacation of the Injunction and What it Means for Border Security

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By CHHS Extern Andrew Conn There are 29 entry points between the U.S. and Mexico along the 1200-mile-long border. Recently, the amount of illegal border crossings has grown exponentially. In 2020, Customs and Border Patrol (CBP) agents encountered 458,000 crossings. In 2021, this number rose to 1.7 million and in 2022 this number once again […]

Is It Too Late To Convince Europeans They Can Trust The U.S. With Their Data?

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By CHHS Extern Mercedes Subhani On January 4th, Microsoft announced that it was upgrading its cloud computing service to let European customers store all their personal data only within the European Union. Microsoft claims this move, that will affect Azure, Microsoft 365, Power Platform, and Dynamics 365, is directly aimed to ease customers’ privacy fears […]

Dawn of a Historic Election Year

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By CHHS Extern Dallin Richardson On August 10th, 2023, President Biden, through the Stafford Act, issued a major disaster declaration in response to Hawaii Governor Joshua Green’s petition for aid from the wildfires which devastated Lahaina. By August 11th, various social media posts asserted that a space-based directed energy weapon started the fire. The video […]

Big Tech vs. Digital Privacy: Introduction of the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act

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By CHHS Extern Alexandra Barczak U.S. lawmakers have introduced legislation called the Banning Surveillance Advertising Act, designed to prohibit advertisers and advertising facilitators, such as Google and Facebook, from using personal data to create targeted advertisements, with the exception of broad location targeting. It further protects against advertisers using a protected class of information, such […]

Is the Threat of Lawsuits Against Powerful AI Tools Like ChatGPT a Good Thing?

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By CHHS Extern Daniela Eppler Since the launch of ChatGPT in November 2022, people’s interest in artificial intelligence (AI) has been heightened. There has been excitement surrounding the capabilities of powerful AI tools and their ability to contribute to innovations across industries, such as enhancing telemedicine, improving customer service, and predicting passenger demand to optimize […]