Hillary Clinton was "extremely careless" in her use of a private email server while she was U.S. secretary of state, but the FBI isn't recommending any charges be brought against her for mishandling classified information.Speaking to reporters on Tuesday morning, days after the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation interviewed the presidential candidate, FBI Director James Comey said his investigation had uncovered numerous instances of the system being improperly used for classified information. He also said it was impossible to rule out the possibility that the system could have been hacked.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 26 crazy and scary things the TSA has found on travelers
The controversy was thought to revolve around a single server, but Comey disclosed that over the years Clinton was secretary of state, she relied on a string of email servers. When new ones were installed, the older ones were removed but data was not always deleted.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Reading your favorite website may be a whole new experience in the near future. As part of its Chromium project Google is apparently working at bringing virtual reality support to its browser.According to Google’s François Beaufort, the Chrome Beta and Chrome Dev channels have a setting that “allows users to browse the web while using Cardboard or Daydream-ready viewers.”There’s an an experimental flag found at chrome://flags/#enable-vr-shell that enables a browser shell for VR. He offered a peak at how this could look with 360-degree videos.
Virtual reality is likely to gain wider traction with Google’s browser.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The many new DNS top-level domains (TLDs) were heralded as a way to take pressure off the older DNS TLDs. It seems, however, the new TLDs are almost uniformly the source of spammers and malware launchers.There might be valid web resources in the new TLDs. They seem rarely referenced beyond a handful of sites, though, as .com, .org, .net and even .co have common usage aside from country-specific addresses such as .us, .uk, .de, .jp, etc.But .xyz? Spam. I get about four dozen spam emails from that domain most days. The .click TLD? I’ve gotten about 400 embedded malware emails from there so far this year. Then there’s .xxx, .website and dozens of other new TLDs that are nothing more than difficult-to-block and nearly-impossible-to-kill spam/malware sources. It’s frustrating, and admins don’t have much chance to stanch the spam.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Businesses needing broadband connectivity while rapidly expanding are finding an alternative to traditional wide area network infrastructure. Service King Collision Repair Centers, for example, is using software-defined wide area network (SD-WAN) to support new auto repair centers, a move that has helped reduce the company's operational costs even as it grows its footprint across 23 states.
Service King's CIO Derek Kramer.
Service King's store locations have grown to more than 300 todayfrom 100 in 2012, necessitating rapid adoption of new network connectivity, says CIO Derek Kramer. Service King had relied on MPLS for several years but this no longer proving efficient as the chain expanded. "MPLS [Multiprotocol Label Switching] has done well, but can it grow as quickly as we're growing?" Kramer says. "We found more times than not that was a challenge."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The appeal of the cloud has long been that you don’t need to do everything yourself, leaving you more time and resources to concentrate on what makes your company stand out. A classic example is that you buy electricity from the grid rather than running your own fleet of generators because having electricity doesn’t make you unique. The same is true of internal software, which you need to be efficient and reliable, but in most cases you don’t need it to set you apart from your competitors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
"Plead guilty, then steal more" seems to have been the motto of a former corrupt federal agent involved in the Silk Road investigation.Ex-U.S. Secret Service Special Agent Shawn Bridges, who was part of Baltimore’s Silk Road Task Force and stole $820,000 in bitcoins during the investigation that led to Ross Ulbricht’s conviction, eventually pled guilty to money laundering and obstruction of justice. Bridges, who had served as the forensics and technical expert on the task force, was sentenced to nearly five years, 71 months, in prison. Yet newly unsealed court documents show that Bridges is suspected of stealing another $700,000 in bitcoins after he pled guilty about two months before he was sentenced.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A critical vulnerability that was recently found in the low-level firmware of Lenovo ThinkPad systems also reportedly exists in products from other vendors, including HP and Gigabyte Technology.An exploit for the vulnerability was published last week and can be used to execute rogue code in the CPU's privileged SMM (System Management Mode).This level of access can then be used to install a stealthy rootkit inside the computer's Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) -- the modern BIOS -- or to disable Windows security features such as Secure Boot, Virtual Secure Mode and Credential Guard that depend on the firmware being locked down.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google's DeepMind AI business unit is hoping to teach computers to diagnose eye disease, using patient data from a U.K. hospital.Using deep learning techniques, DeepMind hopes to improve diagnosis of two eye conditions: age-related macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy, both of which can lead to sight loss. If these conditions are detected early enough, patients' sight can be saved.One way doctors look for signs of these diseases is by examining the interior of the eye, opposite the lens, an area called the fundus. They can do this either directly, with an ophthalmoscope, or by taking a digital fundus scan. Another diagnostic technique is to take a non-invasive three-dimensional scan of the retina using process called optical coherence tomography (OCT).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Earlier this month, a monkey caused a nationwide power outage in Kenya. Millions of homes and businesses were without electricity. Which just goes to show that “not all disasters come in the form of major storms with names and categories,” says Bob Davis, CMO, Atlantis Computing.“Electrical fires, broken water pipes, failed air conditioning units [and rogue monkeys] can cause just as much damage,” he says. And while “business executives might think they’re safe based on their geographic location,” it’s important to remember that “day-to-day threats can destroy data [and] ruin a business,” too, he says. That’s why it is critical for all businesses to have a disaster recovery (DR) plan.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Best Deals of The Month - Deal AlertCheck out this roundup of the best deals on gadgets, gear and other cool stuff we have found in the past month. All items are highly rated, and dramatically discounted.58% off RAVPower FileHub Wireless Hard Drive, WiFi Bridge & Sharing Media StreamerYou may find many uses for this versatile and powerful file hub from RAVPower, currently discounted 58% on Amazon from $75.99 down to just $31.99. This hub Let up to 5 devices wirelessly connect to the FileHub wireless network, to access its SD card and/or USB storage to share files. It also has Media server capabilities, allowing wirelessly connected devices to stream audio and video from any attached storage device.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Since the initial release of Windows 10 last July, Microsoft has been working to improve the look and feel of its flagship desktop operating system and has solicited user input and feedback through the Windows Feedback app, which has been integrated into all Windows 10 versions. And the company shows every sign of reading, considering and often acting upon user requests for interface changes and improvements. Thus, you'll see lots helpful, if small, changes to the Windows 10 UI, as the company works to complete what is now called the "Anniversary Update," which will be released on August 2. Here are the most noteworthy of those changes and additions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Today's workforce is less concerned with perks like ping-pong tables, dry cleaning services and on-site massages than they are with their future, according to recent research. If your organization is struggling to attract and retain IT talent, perhaps it's time to rethink your benefits and perks strategy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
I've shared a lot of security knowledge in my tenure as InfoWorld's Security Advisor. But what I've never shared before is that much of my initial computer security defense knowledge, which I turned into my first book, came from trying to stop my teenage stepson from being a malicious hacker.I was newly dating his mother and he was a precocious 15-year-old who liked messing around with electronics and computers. He and his closest friends also flirted with malicious hacking, including harassing "ignorant" users, DoS-ing popular computer networks, making malware, and all sorts of unquestionably illegal and unethical hacking behavior.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Caught in the middleImage by LookoutDoes the screen above look familiar? It should. Millions of people around the world connect to public Wi-Fi networks on their mobile devices as they travel and try to stay connected. The problem is, not all networks are official. The image above is that of a fake, or spoofed, hotel Wi-Fi network, but you can’t tell just by looking at it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you're looking for a good lesson in enterprise security, there might be a few sitting in the parking lot. The automotive field is a glaring example of "worst practices" in security, say several automotive experts. And, the problem is only getting worse, not better.Over the past few years, the cars have come under fire for many things -- constant recalls, safety hazards, and diesel-engine tricks to name a few-- but security experts have noticed a disturbing trend.While it might be hard to break into a BMW unless you have a rock handy, there hasn't been as much effort in protecting wireless signals, establishing standards, creating new regulations and laws, and patching much more aggressively.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As Lord Kelvin almost said, "To measure is to know." But this simple dictum is surprisingly hard to follow. For it really has two meanings.The first meaning is obvious: You cannot really know about something without measuring it. If you want to know how quickly an application works, for instance, take some key functions of the application and measure how long they take. "Good performance" is defined by the function taking less time than the acceptable threshold, and poor performance is defined by the function taking more time.+ Also on Network World: Measurement is key to cloud success +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Analogies help people understand things. Examples include such clarity as: hard drives are like closets, and defragmenting a hard drive is like cleaning a closet.They’re popular, and work for humans, but scientists are now asking whether the comparisons could also work for computers as the machines take on new roles that involve learning. Scientists at Northwestern University think so. Computers, too, will learn through analogies, they believe.Indeed, future computers are going to learn just like humans do, and that will include spontaneously using analogies to solve problems, including moral dilemmas, they say.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Attackers can exploit vulnerabilities in Android devices with Qualcomm chipsets in order to extract the encrypted keys that protect users' data and run brute-force attacks against them.The attack was demonstrated last week by security researcher Gal Beniamini and uses two vulnerabilities patched this year in Qualcomm's implementation of the ARM CPU TrustZone.The ARM TrustZone is a hardware security module that runs its own kernel and Trusted Execution Environment independent of the main OS. On Qualcomm chips, the Trusted Execution Environment is called QSEE (Qualcomm Secure Execution Environment).The full-disk encryption feature on Android devices relies on a randomly generated key called the device encryption key (DEK). This key is itself encrypted with another key derived from the user's PIN, password or swipe pattern.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Freshly minted CISOs as well as other mid-career professionals with a need for a broad grounding in cybersecurity can get an advanced degree in the topic through a new program at Brown University.The Executive Master in Cybersecurity set to launch in October is a 16-month program to instruct students in technology, law and policy, human behavior, and leadership-skills development. “What the industry is crying out for is interdisciplinary training,” says Alan Usas, the program director.The idea is to prepare cybersecurity leaders who not only understand the technical needs of protecting data and privacy but who can also talk effectively to the boards of directors about these issues in a way that nets results for security and for business goals, he says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Data stolen from a bank quickly becomes useless once the breach is discovered and passcodes are changed. But data from the healthcare industry, which includes both personal identities and medical histories, can live a lifetime.Cyberattacks will cost hospitals more than $305 billion over the next five years and one in 13 patients will have their data compromised by a hack, according to industry consultancy Accenture. Accenture
And a study by the Brookings Institution predicts that one in four data breaches this year will hit the healthcare industry.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here