A while back I wrote my feelings about the term unified communications. My point in different words is that unification regarding enterprise communications technologies is a type of marketing Camelot. Paraphrasing The New Arthurian Encyclopedia, like the legendary city, an imaginary enterprise communications environment is said to exist with some “impressive architecture … and the chivalry and courtesy of its inhabitants.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Today is World Password Day but a range of alternative authentication methods is challenging passwords so that within the foreseeable future the day of awareness could become obsolete.Biometrics and cell phones are important to this replacement, with ongoing trials of how effective they might be. There is a flurry of activity in these areas to do away with passwords:
The Samsung Galaxy S8 phone has an upgraded retinal scanner that can be used to unlock the phone, but that could be used as a second factor in authenticating to any number of online services. The phones also feature the more common fingerprint scanner.
Rumors have LG adding facial recognition software to their LG G6 phones that could be used in a similar manner.
Also, Alabama’s revenue department is trialing a face-recognition app from MorphoTrust that uses iPhones to scan taxpayers’ drivers licenses and to scan their face. The backend verifies the identity of the taxpayer by comparing the license image and uses that to authenticate the person filing an electronic return.
Phones are also used to receive texts of one-time passwords, which does involve a password, but not one the user generates or changes at some point or has Continue reading
Two lawsuits being heard this week before India’s Supreme Court question a requirement imposed by the government that individuals should quote a biometrics-based authentication number when filing their tax returns.Civil rights groups have opposed the Aadhaar biometric system, which is based on centralized records of all ten fingerprints and iris scans, as their extensive use allegedly encroach on the privacy rights of Indians. “Aadhaar is surveillance technology masquerading as secure authentication technology,” said Sunil Abraham, executive director of Bangalore-based research organization, the Centre for Internet and Society.The Indian government has in the meantime extended the use of Aadhaar, originally meant to identify beneficiaries of state schemes for the poor, to other areas such as filing of taxes, distribution of meals to school children and payment systems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Get ready to be bombarded with “May the Fourth be with you” puns regarding your passwords and identity, as this year May 4 is not only Star Wars Day but also World Password Day.Leading up to World Password Day, I received dozens of emails about how bad our password hygiene still is, studies about poor password management, reminders to change passwords, pitches about password managers and biometric options to replace passwords, reminders to use multi-factor authentication (MFA) as well as the standard advise for choosing a stronger password. Some of that advice contradicts NIST-proposed changes for password management.Although NIST closed comments on for its Digital Identity Guidelines draft on May 1, VentureBeat highlighted three big changes. Since this is NIST and changes to password management rules will eventually affect even nongovernment organizations and trickle down to affect pretty much everyone online, it’s important to look at them. Those changes, according to VentureBeat, boil down to:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google Docs was pulled into a sneaky email phishing attack on Tuesday that was designed to trick users into giving up access to their Gmail accounts.The phishing emails, which circulated for about three hours before Google stopped them, invited the recipient to open what appeared to be a Google Doc. The teaser was a blue box that said, “Open in Docs.”In reality, the link led to a dummy app that asked users for permission to access their Gmail account. Reddit
An example of the phishing email that circulated on Tuesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
How do you find someone in an organization who can answer a burning question? That’s what Slack is trying to answer with an update to its search feature that was released for larger teams on Wednesday.Users who search on topics, such as hiring procedures or sales contracts, will see a bubble pop up in the search results that highlights relevant users and channels for that topic. It’s designed to keep employees from wasting time navigating their companies.Improved search is important for Slack, which faces growing competition from rivals like Microsoft and Google. Microsoft Teams already has a bot that’s supposed to make it easier for users to find coworkers to answer questions.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.Organizations are used to appliances being the workhorse of their protection needs. There are appliances for everything from firewalls, to Intrusion Detection Systems, Web Security Gateways, Email Security Gateways, Web Application Firewalls, and Advanced Threat Protection.But as crucial as security appliances are today, they are eventually going to die out as they get increasingly less effective, requiring detection to be pushed to the machines that need protection. Here are the nine reasons why:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There are now so many cyberattacks that many enterprises simply accept that hackers and bad actors will find ways to break into their systems.A strategy some large businesses have developed over the past two years has been to quickly identify and isolate these attacks, possibly by shutting down part of a system or network so the hackers won't get days or weeks to root around and grab sensitive corporate data.This enterprise focus on rapid detection and response to various attacks on networks and computers doesn't replace conventional security tools to prevent attacks. Instead, businesses are relying on both prevention software and detection software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft may have stuck to its script Tuesday when it unveiled a Windows 10 spin-off aimed at the K-12 educational market, but the new operating system will be enticing to businesses as well, analysts said today."They were very focused on Windows 10 S as an education play, but no question, this will also appeal to enterprises," said Carolina Milanesi of Creative Strategies.Microsoft yesterday announced Windows 10 S -- the "S" isn't a placeholder for something specific, the company maintained -- for school settings. The operating system is Windows 10, but comes with important restrictions, the most notable that users can only install and run apps from Microsoft's Windows Store. This summer, Microsoft will begin testing a version of its Office suite that will be available from the store in September.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In a brand-new research report that you might want to take with a huge grain of salt, analysts at Deutsche Bank say the release of Apple's highly anticipated iPhone 8 may be pushed back until 2018.While we've seen reports that the iPhone 8 release date might be delayed sometime until October or November, this is the first projection we've seen claiming we might not see a brand-new iPhone 8 model in 2017 at all.The research note, obtained by Business Insider, reads in part:
Report suggests no new iPhone 8 this calendar year. As we have written in previous [research notes], several supply chain reports have suggested that key component shortages and technical challenges could delay the release of a high-end iPhone 8 device this fall. We believe this report further underscores the uncertainty around the timing of Apple's next- generation iPhone model.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It has been a busy 2017 for augmented reality (AR). Often perceived as the lesser-known cousin to virtual reality (VR), AR is now stealing the spotlight. Over the past few months, there have been augmented reality developments from nearly all the leaders in tech. From Facebook’s announcements at its F8 developer conference to Apple’s rumored AR glasses, there is no doubt that the AR space is heating up.However, with so many newsworthy happenings, it can be challenging to keep up with it all. To help you, here’s your quick guide to where the big AR players stand today.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Let’s be honest, almost no one likes meetings. They can be disruptive, tend to go on for too long and often feel like a waste of time.But meetings don’t have to be boring, drawn out affairs. Meetings, when done right, can produce new ideas, solve problems and help move projects forward.Here are 15 ways you can make your organization’s meetings must-attend gatherings that make attendees feeling like they accomplished something.[ Related: How to make meetings more productive ]To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A linguistics degree traditionally prepares students for careers in academia, professional writing or translation, but as technology continues to advance, these graduates are finding their skills in high demand from an unlikely place-positions in artificial intelligence.Companies in the AI market are turning to those with linguistic backgrounds to help aid in things like product development and customer service, says Caterina Balcells, chief linguistic officer at conversational search technology company Inbenta."Linguistics is important to better understand users and how they're communicating with a company. If we can develop tech that uses natural language processing to help customers find what they're looking for, then that reduces the need to have a person do that, and it improves customer satisfaction at the same time," Balcells says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft's Office applications haven't changed much over the past 25 years. Indeed, a time-traveller from 1992 who knew how to use Word 5.5 for DOS or Mac System 7 would have to get used only to the tools moving from vertical menus to the horizontal ribbon. Yes, Microsoft successfully brought Office back to the Mac after years of neglect. It also used the acquisition of Accompli and Sunrise to quickly get high-quality email and calendar apps onto iOS and Android — those teams are revitalizing the Outlook applications on PC and Mac, and the new To Do service is trying to do the same thing, based on the popular Wunderlist app. Yes, there are some clever new tools in Word and PowerPoint that use machine learning to improve spell checking and automate slide design, and the monthly updates keep adding more features. And, yes, the hidden gem that is OneNote is finally getting significant investment to make the note-taking tool more useful on more platforms.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft has added a new laptop to its growing stable of Surface devices, and it's amazingly thin and fast.The Surface Laptop has performance, features and design that will redefine the category, said Panos Panay, corporate vice president at Microsoft during an event in New York City on Tuesday.The 13.5-inch laptop is the first pure laptop in the product line and offers an elegant design. Microsoft's other portable Surface devices include the Surface Pro, which is a tablet, and the Surface Book, which is a 2-in-1.The Surface Laptop is 14.5 millimeters thick and weighs 1.25 kilograms. It runs on Intel's Core i5 or i7 processors based on the Kaby Lake architecture, and has up to 1TB of SSD storage.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft will sever the update ties between Windows 10 and its default browser, Edge, to give company developers a way to refresh the browser more often than twice a year, according to an online report."Users will finally be able to get updates to the Edge browser via the Windows Store, which will allow Microsoft to add new features more frequently," wrote Rich Woods of Neowin Monday, citing unnamed sources within Microsoft.Since the mid-2015 launch of Windows 10, Edge feature updates have been limited to the times when the operating system itself was upgraded. There have been four iterations of Edge thus far: The original of July 2015, dubbed version 12; then November 2015's version 13; August 2016's version 14; and April 2017's version 15.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Red Hat is beefing up its OpenShift containerization-as-a-service offering with a new developer tool for packaging apps into containers, foundations for incorporating microservices into those applications, and tighter integration of Amazon Web Services functionality with the platform. The biggest news, as far as Red Hat is concerned, is that it will offer native access to AWS from within OpenShift Container Platform later this year. That will make it possible for enterprises to configure AWS services from within the same interface they use to create and deploy containerized applications.It made the announcements at the Red Hat Summit in Boston on Tuesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco today said it would offer its virtual switch users technology to get around VMware’s recent elimination of support for third party virtual switches such as Cisco’s Nexus 1000V.VMware in March announced that going forward it would no longer support third party virtual switch (vSwitch) programs and that customers should just work with VMware’s vSphere products.+More on Network World: Cisco grabs-up SD-WAN player Viptela for $610M+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The powerful 20000mAh PowerCore 20100 from Anker weighs just 12.5 oz, but fully charges most phones and tablets to 100% several times over without needing to be recharged. It charges the iPhone 6s seven times, the Galaxy S6 five times or the iPad mini 4 twice. Industry leading output of 4.8 amps provides enough power to simultaneously charge any combination of devices at full speed. Surge protection, short circuit protection and more advanced safety features keep your devices safe. For additional peace of mind, the Anker PowerCore 20100 comes with an 18 month warranty and easily accessible customer service. It currently averages 4.7 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 9,200 people (84% rate it 5 stars -- read reviews). With a regular list price of $79.99, Amazon has it discounted by $46, making it available right now for just $33.99. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco, the acquisition machine, is at it again. It’s been about three months since the company plunked down $3.7 billion for AppDynamics, so I’m sure all that cash was burning a hole in Chuck Robbins pockets and making another acquisition seem long overdue. Well, speculation about who Cisco might buy next ended yesterday when the company announced its intent to acquire SD-WAN vendor Viptela for $610 million. The price tag seems fairly modest for a company that was valued at $875 million about a year ago. Even at the lower price, Viptela investors should be satisfied with the return, given the total investment in the company was about $110 million. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here