A Google effort to push websites to implement encryption is expanding. Starting in October, the company will roll out new warnings to flag HTTP connections as insecure in its Chrome browser.For users, it means Chrome will display the words “not secure” in the browser’s address bar whenever they type any data into web pages that connect over HTTP.However, for users who like to browse through Chrome’s privacy-enhancing Incognito mode, the warnings will appear by default on all HTTP pages visited, not only when the user enters information onto the page.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I have detailed the crazy things that the TSA has found in airline travelers checked bags over the past few years but…every once and awhile, something new and cracked turns up. TSA/22MM tank round LAX
Recently the agency’s agents reported that a live 22 MM anti-tank round was discovered by TSA agents in a checked bag at Los Angeles (LAX) airport.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The legal fight between Apple and Qualcomm on licensing modem technology is turning uglier every day.Apple has filed lawsuits against Qualcomm in countries like the U.S., U.K., China and Japan, accusing the chipmaker of using its dominant market position to overcharge licensing fees.The iPhone maker itself doesn't pay licensing fees directly to Qualcomm. The fees are paid by partners like Foxconn, which makes the iPhone and iPad for Apple.Qualcomm is now accusing Apple of interfering with the licensing payments owed by those partners. Its revenue forecasts for the third quarter are affected, Qualcomm said.The chipmaker on Friday revised its revenue projections for the third fiscal quarter. It is projecting revenue to be between US$5.3 billion and $6.1 billion. That range runs between a decrease of 12 percent and an increase of 1 percent, compared to the same quarter last year. The forecast removes royalty revenues from Apple's contract manufacturers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Here's a Bluetooth keyboard for your computer that you can also use with your tablet and smartphone -- switch between all three effortlessly by just turning the dial. And unlike other Bluetooth keyboards, Logitech has integrated a cradle so your device stays propped up at just the right angle as you type. Works with Windows or Mac, Android or iOS, and features a key layout you'll be familiar with on any of those platforms. Logitech's multi-device keyboard currently averages 4 out of 5 stars from over 1,450 people (read reviews) on Amazon, where its typical list price of $49.99 has been recently dropped 54% to just $22.99. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices. Click here to subscribe. Companies that provide online transactional services to consumers or other businesses have to be concerned about fraud. Whether it is renting hotel rooms to travelers, selling books to avid readers, arranging shipping services for hard goods, or any of the thousands of other types of sales and services transacted online, the entity behind the online business needs to know if the end user and transaction can be trusted.The credit reporting company Experian says that e-commerce fraud attack rates spiked 33% in 2016 compared to 2015. Experian attributes this increase to the recent switch to EMV (those chip-based credit cards), which drove fraudsters to online card-not-present fraud, and to the vast number of data breaches in which users’ online credentials were stolen. The Federal Trade Commission says the number of consumers who reported their stolen data was used for credit card fraud increased from 16% in 2015 to 32% in 2016.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A couple years ago Microsoft embarked on a “Microsoft Loves Linux” initiative to bring Linux into the fold of everything Microsoft. For a company that has traditionally been known for Windows and Office that has not historically been seen as particularly too Linux friendly, there was a bit of a stretch of the imagination how Microsoft and Linux would end up playing well together.Roll forward a couple years, with the world very much a cloud-based environment, and 1 out of every 3 virtual machines running in Microsoft’s Azure Cloud being a Linux system (and growing), along with more and more Linux growth in the Microsoft ecosystem, the vision of a couple years ago is now very much a reality.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices. Click here to subscribe. Companies that provide online transactional services to consumers or other businesses have to be concerned about fraud. Whether it is renting hotel rooms to travelers, selling books to avid readers, arranging shipping services for hard goods, or any of the thousands of other types of sales and services transacted online, the entity behind the online business needs to know if the end user and transaction can be trusted.The credit reporting company Experian says that e-commerce fraud attack rates spiked 33% in 2016 compared to 2015. Experian attributes this increase to the recent switch to EMV (those chip-based credit cards), which drove fraudsters to online card-not-present fraud, and to the vast number of data breaches in which users’ online credentials were stolen. The Federal Trade Commission says the number of consumers who reported their stolen data was used for credit card fraud increased from 16% in 2015 to 32% in 2016.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Homemade musical instruments don’t usually work out very well. I remember the experiment we all had to do with the rubber bands and the empty tissue boxes and finding the resulting sound, well, pretty disappointing. How’s a fifth grader supposed to rock out and impress girls for reasons he only vaguely understands with this thing?!Perhaps unsurprisingly, the age of ubiquitous computers has made the possibilities of the homemade instrument a lot more exciting than the twanging rubber band or the musical comb. (Leaving aside professional stuff like That 1 Guy, who has been weird and excellent for a while.) What we have here is a wild digital “piano,” as inventor Andy Grove calls it, that combines a Raspberry Pi with motion sensors to create a unique musical toy:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
All-new game modes, new and deeper experiences in fan-favorite modes, and the best on-ice gameplay ever make NHL 17 the most exciting EA SPORTS NHL game to date.
Following quarterly investor calls by phone makers, research firms released a storm of market reports. Most notable, IDC, a little surprised by stronger 4.3 percent market growth than forecasted, reported Samsung’s market leadership rebound.Richard Windsor of Radio Free Mobile summed up Samsung’s rebound saying:
“Despite this [the Note 7 disaster], the initial signs are good, as the reviews of the device are overwhelmingly positive despite the software shortcomings and pre-orders are pointing to no lasting damage having been done.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This handy P-touch labeler is lightweight, portable and easy to use. It features a Qwerty Keyboard and easy-view display. It comes with a variety of type styles, frames and symbols to easily personalize your labels. Great for home and home office use. Right now the PTM95 is significantly discounted 57%, for what will likely be a limited time. So instead of $23 you'll be paying just $10. See the deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Everyone loves the latest and greatest technology. A new iPhone comes out, and people camp out at the stores to buy one. Microsoft releases a new version of Xbox, and they’re sold out for months.Sometimes, though, the newest thing doesn’t make sense because the incremental value of the innovation is limited. In technology, this doesn’t happen very often, but I believe there’s a current “latest and greatest” that provides limited value—and that’s the 2x2 Wave 2 access points (AP) that are now available from many of the mainstream Wi-Fi providers.Before I explain my opinion on this, it’s worth doing a quick refresh of Wave 1 versus Wave 2 because it’s important to understand the principals of Wave 2. Below are the benefits of 802.11ac Wave 2 versus Wave 1: To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you're a network engineer, don't rush out and learn a programming language. To compete in the new world of software-defined networking, it might be more important to start thinking like a programmer.That was one of the ideas that emerged this week from an Open Networking User Group debate that generated healthy feedback from users in the audience.The days of managing individual switches and routers and configuring them with proprietary CLIs (command-line interfaces) are numbered, four panelists at the ONUG spring conference in San Francisco said on Tuesday. Though SDN hasn't worked its way into every enterprise, new approaches to enterprise IT and the availability of public clouds just a few clicks away are driving companies toward more agile and automated networks, they said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Eighty-five percent of enterprises will have started Windows 10 deployments by the end of 2017, with nearly two-thirds of organizations completing their Windows migration in less than a year. That’s the main takeaway from a new report from Gartner.Gartner surveyed firms in six countries (the U.S., the U.K., France, China, India and Brazil) between September and December of 2016, and they spoke to 1,014 respondents who were involved in decisions for Windows 10 migration.The time to evaluate and deploy Windows 10 dipped slightly, from 23 months for previous operating systems to 21 months for Windows 10. Large businesses that are yet to start the migration are delaying because of legacy applications, a typical problem with every OS version. They are delaying upgrading until 2018, according to Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As companies increasingly turn to artificial intelligence to communicate with customers, make sense of big data and find answers to vexing questions, some say it's time to think about hiring a chief A.I. officer.A chief artificial intelligence Officer – or CAIO -- could round out your C-level execs, sitting at the big table with your CIO, CFO, CTO and CEO.[ For more on A.I. in the workplace, see Computerworld’s Artificial intelligence in the enterprise: It’s on. ]
"A.I. is going to be really important to some companies – enough to have top officers who will focus on just that," said Steve Chien, head of the artificial intelligence group for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "And beyond that, you'll want every employee thinking about how A.I. can improve what they do and you'll want a chief A.I. officer overseeing all of that. They should be constantly thinking about how A.I. can improve things."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A survey sponsored by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. found that 64 percent of respondents are doubtful that their organization can prevent a mobile cyberattack, leaving employees' personal information vulnerable to theft.Alvaro Hoyos, chief information security officer at OneLogin, said that number does not surprise him. He said the employees might not know the ins and outs of their company's security controls. IT departments typically don’t go out of the way to communicate all the security controls that they are relying on to secure your IT environment.He said companies should use their security awareness training to help users understand what risks you their employers are addressing with technology.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Verizon released its tenth annual breach report this morning, and cyberespionage and ransomware were the big gainers in 2016.Cyberspionage accounted for 21 percent of cases analyzed, up from 13 percent last year, and was the most common type of attack in the manufacturing, public sector, and education.In fact, in the manufacturing sector, cyberespionage accounted for 94 percent of all breaches. External actors were responsible for 93 percent of breaches, and, 91 percent of the time, the target was trade secrets.Meanwhile, the number of ransomware attacks doubled compared to the previous year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Bill Coleman, a 25-year veteran of the tech industry, became Veritas Technologies' CEO a little over a year ago. He's been leading the charge to help the software vendor transition from selling legacy point storage products to creating an integrated information-management platform. The goal is to provide something that's agnostic -- will work in the cloud or on-premises or both -- and that won't require customers to invest in a constant stream of upgrades to get there.I want to spend some more time talking about the cloud strategy and go into a little more depth on that. Before we do that, when you are finished rolling out this data management platform, how will that change the competitive landscape? Who will you view as your competitors at that point and how will it change the existing competitive relationships?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
The relationship between enterprise IT and service providers can be difficult. IT has frustrations in achieving optimal service levels. Service providers, as it turns out, have an equal number of bugaboos when it comes to their enterprise clients' readiness for and acceptance of provider intervention.We asked providers across a range of services what advice they can offer to smooth out some typical bumps in the road for their clients. Here's a look at what they had to say.1. Focus on the business users' needs, not the technology.
One of the biggest mistakes that enterprise IT makes when engaging a service provider is focusing too much on finding technology to solve the problem instead of fully understanding the problem that needs to be solved.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Malicious hackers have outsize reputations. They are über-geniuses who can guess any password in seconds, hack any system, and cause widespread havoc across multiple, unrelated networks with a single keystroke—or so Hollywood says. Those of us who fight hackers every day know the good guys are usually far smarter. Hackers simply have to be persistent.Each year, a few hackers do something truly new. But for the most part, hackers repeat the tried and true. It doesn’t take a supergenius to check for missing patches or craft a social engineering attack. Hacking by and large is tradework: Once you learn a few tricks and tools, the rest becomes routine. The truly inspired work is that of security defenders, those who successfully hack the hackers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here