The safety of our online lives has become increasingly important. Whether it be interference in elections, attacks by hostile forces, or online fraud, the security of the web feels fragile. Cybersecurity has reached a crossroads and we need to decide where it goes next. The outcome will touch each of us – will we pay more and yet still be less safe? Will we face higher insurance premiums and bank charges to cover the rising number of cyber-incidents?

Apple finally announced the iPhone X this week, complete with a facial recognition system that Apple calls FaceID. Preliminary impressions are that FaceID will be difficult to trick, and should be secure for the average user, but researchers are eager to test its robustness. Consumer facial recognition has been around, but not yet at this scale, inviting questions about what its implications will be, particularly for privacy. Apple's new iOS 11 mobile operating system does have more crucial privacy protections against muggers and government officials alike but researchers detailed doubts this week about the "differential privacy" techniques Apple uses that are meant to aggregate and analyze customer data without invading their privacy. Over at the astounding, ongoing dumpster fire that is the Equifax data breach, Equifax admitted that hackers accessed its network through an Apache Struts web application vulnerability that had a patch available for two months before the initial intrusion.