Users of Webroot's endpoint security product, consumers and businesses alike, had a nasty surprise Monday when the program started flagging Windows files as malicious.The reports quickly popped up on Twitter and continued on the Webroot community forum -- 14 pages and counting. The company came up with a manual fix to address the issue, but many users still had problems recovering their affected systems.The problem is what's known in the antivirus industry as a "false positive" -- a case where a clean file is flagged as malicious and is blocked or deleted. False positive incidents can range in impact from merely annoying -- for example, when a program cannot run anymore -- to crippling, where the OS itself is affected and no longer boots.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A Webroot antivirus signature update, which was supposedly live for only 13 minutes yesterday afternoon, flagged crucial Windows system files as malicious, causing chaos and 15 pages of customer complaints so far.The havoc began after Webroot flagged some Windows system files as the malware Win32.Trojan.Gen and moved key system files to quarantine. As legit files were shuffled around, thousands upon thousands of Webroot customers experienced OS errors or crashed Windows systems.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The number of large-scale, highly damaging data breaches over the past few years has led some to believe the market is on its way to another systemic crisis, similar to the Great Recession.Corporate greed, lax risk management procedures and insufficient oversight by regulators contributed to the 2008 financial crisis. Likewise, the perception that cybersecurity is just another cost center coupled with organizations’ tendencies to implement bare minimum security measures could be paving the way for a systemic cybersecurity crisis. + Also on Network World: How CISOs should address their boards about security +
There is a widespread notion that cybersecurity is one more hurdle for executives to deal with that drains company resources. Cisco surveyed more than 1,000 executives, and 74 percent of participants said the main purpose of cybersecurity is to reduce risk rather than enable growth. This ideology that cybersecurity is costly, hinders productivity and is maintained based on a company decision maker’s level of paranoia is not just inaccurate, it is harmful. As a result, many organizations underinvest in their cybersecurity programs, implementing minimal security measures that may be obsolete in a few short years as cyber threats evolve and new attack vectors emerge. Continue reading
Place MOCACuff on your wrist and let it do all the work, measuring heart rate, systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Results are displayed on-screen with corresponding American Heart Association's blood pressure standards. A simple button press syncs results to your iOS/Android device. Receive expertly curated health recommendations via MOCACARE's app to improve or maintain your health, and visualize health trends and see how your health is improving over time. The device is FDA-cleared, CE certified and comes in a carrying case for convenience and portability. The typical list price of $77.74 has been reduced on Amazon 16% to $64.99, for now. See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s not at all uncommon for competitors to snipe at one another but it still makes for good reading and it provides an interesting look into a company’s strategy – and perhaps a signal to a competitor they are in for a fight.Today’s round comes from Juniper which has a piece of marketing out there that says: “In March 2017, Extreme Networks announced it will acquire Brocade's data center networking business. This acquisition has hindered Brocade/Extreme's ability to meet your long-term goals. They can no longer deliver networking solutions that will help you embark on your digital transformation journey. Juniper Networks can.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
HipChat has reset all its users' passwords after what it called a security incident that may have exposed their names, email addresses and hashed password information.In some cases, attackers may have accessed messages and content in chat rooms, HipChat said in a Monday blog post. But this happened in no more than 0.05 percent of the cases, each of which involved a domain URL, such as company.hipchat.com.HipChat didn't say how many users may have been affected by the incident. The passwords that may have been exposed would also be difficult to crack, the company said. The data is hashed, or obscured, with the bcrypt algorithm, which transforms the passwords into a set of random-looking characters. For added security, HipChat "salted" each password with a random value before hashing it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I love to drink a latte (or three) in the morning. To get it, I rely on a “super-automatic” espresso machine.Just a single button press, and all the grinding, dosing, tamping, pre-brewing, etc. are done for me, the way I like it, every morning.Automation in the WAN is a much more powerful tool for an enterprise. It is one of the revolutionary ideas embodied in SD-WAN. Today I’ll outline the relationship between automation and business intent.In my last blog, I discussed the complexity inherent in the legacy WAN today, and how the move to cloud applications is forcing businesses to rethink their WANs. For instance, an assumption embedded firmly in the legacy WAN is that configuration happens at the device level—and that networking professionals must focus their skills and time on learning and applying complicated CLI commands, device by device.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
New and evolving technologies are rapidly reshaping how we work—offering creative opportunities for developers who are willing to pivot and adopt new skills. We took a look at 11 tech trends experts say are likely to disrupt current IT approaches and create demand for engineers with an eye on the future.It isn’t all about The Next Big Thing. Future opportunities for developers are emerging from a confluence of cutting-edge technologies, such as AI, VR. augmented reality, IoT, and cloud technology ... and, of course, dealing with the security issues that are evolving from these convergences.[ Find out how to get ahead with our career development guide for developers. | The art of programming is changing rapidly. We help you navigate what's hot in programming and what's going cold. | Keep up with hot topics in programming with InfoWorld's App Dev Report newsletter. ]
If you're interested in expanding your developer’s toolkit, check out these trending domains—and our tips on how to get ahead by getting started with them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If there wasn’t already a mountain of pressure on Apple to deliver something spectacular with this year’s iPhone update, there surely is now. If you haven’t noticed, Samsung has released the Galaxy S8 and S8+, and they’re pretty remarkable. As a former iPhone 7 Plus user, the S8+ might very well be the best phone I’ve ever used, with a stunning screen, speedy processor, and, yes, a gorgeous design.But what makes the S8 so amazing is how unique it is. I got to spend a week with it while writing my review, and I came away stunned. For the first time in a while, Samsung is standing alone on the cutting edge with a phone that needs to be seen to be believed. From its barely there bezels to its brilliant wraparound screen, the Galaxy S8 truly gives Apple a run for its money. No joke, it actually makes the iPhone 7 look pretty stale.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A proposal currently floating in the Java community would use hardware acceleration to improve bulk calculations in the platform.Project Trinity would explore enhancing execution of bulk aggregate calculations over Streams by offloading calculations to hardware accelerators. Streams in Java allow developers to express calculations so that data parallelism can be efficiently exploited, and the Stream capability in Java Standard Edition 8 is for processing data declaratively while leveraging multicore architectures.[ The big 4 Java IDEs reviewed: See how Eclipse, NetBeans, JDeveloper, and IntelliJ IDEA stack up. | Keep up with hot topics in programming with InfoWorld's App Dev Report newsletter. ]
"Such calculations are prime candidates for leveraging enhanced data-oriented instructions on CPUs, such as SIMD instructions or offloading to hardware accelerators, such as the SPARC Data Accelerator co-processor," said Karthik Ganesan, from Oracle's performance and applications engineering group, in his proposal made Friday in an email-based OpenJDK discussion forum.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Blockchain sounds like a way to keep boats anchored, which isn't a bad analogy, considering what the technology purports to do.While some IT experts herald it as a groundbreaking way of creating a distributed, unchangeable record of transactions, others question the nascent technology's usefulness in the enterprise, which has traditionally relied on centrally-administered databases to secure digital records.Even so, companies are moving fast to try and figure out how they can use it to save time and money. And IT vendors are responding to customers calls for info, with some already looking to include it as part of their services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Last week, Microsoft made the inscrutable decision to retire Wunderlist, the beloved to-do list app it acquired in 2015, and replace it with a new offering called Microsoft To-Do.Wunderlist isn’t going away yet, but it’s no longer getting feature updates, and its long-term fate is sealed. In a blog post, Microsoft said it will retire the app after incorporating “your valued feedback and the best elements of the Wunderlist experience into To-Do.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Last August a Baltimore substance abuse treatment facility had its database hacked. Patient records subsequently found their way onto the Dark Web, according to DataBreaches.net. The group noticed such things as dates of admission, whether the patients are on methadone, their doctors and counselors, and dosing information.In the DataBreaches.net blog, the hacker “Return,” who they think is Russian, described how he compromised the Man Alive clinic: “With the help of the social engineer, applied to one of the employees. Word file with malicious code was downloaded.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Data packets travel to and from numbered network ports associated with particular IP addresses and endpoints, using the TCP or UDP transport layer protocols. All ports are potentially at risk of attack. No port is natively secure.“Each port and underlying service has its risks. The risk comes from the version of the service, whether someone has configured it correctly, and, if there are passwords for the service, whether these are strong? There are many more factors that determine whether a port or service is safe,” explains Kurt Muhl, lead security consultant at RedTeam Security. Other factors include whether the port is simply one that attackers have selected to slip their attacks and malware through and whether you leave the port open.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Leadership qualities to look for when hiringImage by PexelsLeadership isn't confined to the C-suite. Companies increasingly look for solid leadership skills when adding to their workforce, whether the roles are entry-level or executive. Stephany Samuels, senior vice president of people strategy at IT recruiting and staffing firm Mondo, explains which qualities you should be looking for when hiring and how to identify the leaders in your talent pool.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
We normally think of Passpoint, the Wi-Fi Alliance certification, as a feature for Wi-Fi hotspots owned and operated by service providers. Passpoint enables comprehensive inter-carrier roaming, with discovery, authentication and accounting.But, as with any good protocol, the possible applications greatly outstrip the scenarios originally considered. Enterprise access points already support Passpoint. And as implementation in phones moves forward, slowly but surely non-carriers are finding interesting new applications.9 tips for speeding up your business Wi-Fi
Passpoint’s big innovation is decoupling service advertising from the Service Set Identifier (SSID). An access point can advertise, in addition to its SSID, a number of service providers that provide roaming possibilities. When a device starts authentication, the access point relays to the respective service provider’s authentication server, then provides an internet connection.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
With today’s gigabit-plus speeds, broad features and capabilities, and impressive price/performance, one might assume that we’re approaching the time when we can close the wireless LAN patent office.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
(Editor’s Note: Second in a series of articles on how to successfully and securely deploy smart home technology. See the introduction to this series.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
New products of the weekImage by AcalvioOur roundup of intriguing new products. Read how to submit an entry to Network World's products of the week slideshow.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you had been living under a rock, then you might actually believe that President Trump plans to protect the environment and support science.Trump’s Earth Day statement began:
Our Nation is blessed with abundant natural resources and awe-inspiring beauty. Americans are rightly grateful for these God-given gifts and have an obligation to safeguard them for future generations. My Administration is committed to keeping our air and water clean, to preserving our forests, lakes, and open spaces, and to protecting endangered species.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here