Securing the World Cup

At the FIFA world championships, those responsible for ensuring the public's safety will have a few high-tech tricks up their sleeves.

6 min read

Even if Germany fails to win the World Cup taking place on its home turf for the second time in 30 years, the country could earn plenty of recognition from security experts for making the planet’s largest sporting event one of the safest ever.

More than 3 million people will be attending the 64 games, running from 9 June to 9 July. An additional 10 million are expected to flood into the 12 cities hosting the games and other large cities to watch the competition in some 400 public viewing areas and party in the streets and pubs. Billions around the world will be glued to their TV sets watching the action.

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How Police Exploited the Capitol Riot’s Digital Records

Forensic technology is powerful, but is it worth the privacy trade-offs?

11 min read
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 Illustration of the silhouette of a person with upraised arm holding a cellphone in front of the U.S. Capitol building. Superimposed on the head is a green matrix, which represents data points used for facial recognition
Gabriel Zimmer
Green

The group of well-dressed young men who gathered on the outskirts of Baltimore on the night of 5 January 2021 hardly looked like extremists. But the next day, prosecutors allege, they would all breach the United States Capitol during the deadly insurrection. Several would loot and destroy media equipment, and one would assault a policeman.

No strangers to protest, the men, members of the America First movement, diligently donned masks to obscure their faces. None boasted of their exploits on social media, and none of their friends or family would come forward to denounce them. But on 5 January, they made one piping hot, family-size mistake: They shared a pizza.

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