As an individual, you might have an old smartphone or tablet sitting around your house collecting dust. Before recycling it, you hire a company to wipe the drive clean of any personally identifiable information. With the storage on today’s smartphones, there could be credit card information sitting in the background.You feel relieved as you pass off the device to be cleaned. A load off your shoulders, you have taken another item out of your house that was cluttering up the living room. Right? Well the device might be gone, but the data might still live on.The National Association for Information Destruction (NAID) found such in a recent study that revealed 40 percent of the devices the group bought on secondhand markets had PII on them. NAID, which is an international watchdog trade and non-profit trade association for the secure destruction industry, conducting the study in the first quarter of this year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you were required to wear an ankle bracelet tracking device for electronic monitoring purposes, can you imagine how the conversation with police or probation officers would go down if the device falsely notified them that you had tried to tamper with the strap to remove it, when in fact you had not? It’s doubtful you would be believed if you tried to blame it on glitchy or defective technology. Yet in the UK, some offenders may have been wrongly sent back to prison after defective ankle bracelets alerted the authorities that they had been tampered with.The UK government admitted that ankle bracelets “used to electronically monitor offenders and suspects with a curfew” may have given false tamper reports to authorities and resulted in some people being wrongly imprisoned.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft has brought live, collaborative editing to its Excel app for Windows through a beta update it launched on Tuesday. The new feature lets testers collaborate with one another on the same file from inside the app.Live collaboration has been a major focus of Office 2016, which Microsoft released roughly a year and a half ago. The suite first offered real-time co-authoring for the desktop version of Word, then expanded those capabilities to PowerPoint. It’s a major change for Microsoft’s client applications, which previously kept editing to a fairly solitary experience.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In today’s data-driven economy, consumer expectations for services anywhere, anytime have led to a need for organizations to become more agile and increase their speed of deliver exponentially. Gone are the days when product and service updates were delivered on a monthly basis, instead we have reached a point where an environment of continuous development is becoming required to meet the ever-evolving needs of users.+ Also on Network World: Digital transformation progress. Or not… +
There’s no doubt that digital transformation is a major driver in this change in development methodology, partly as a response to the threat posed by agile startups that are disrupting markets globally. Most organizations have begun their digital transformation journey, but for many it’s still in its infancy. However, there is no doubt that for enterprises across a wide range of sectors, multiple IT technologies, processes, applications, systems and protocols need to be adopted and updated on a regular basis in order for businesses to remain competitive.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Capturing radio signals that are already in the air, then adding data and reflecting the combination back to passersby’s smartphones is how marketing and smart city communications should take place in the future, say researchers.By doing so, one can use everyday objects as radio stations, say scientists from University of Washington. A kind of smart-poster would be one use for the technology, they say.Bus stop billboards, for example, would be able to broadcast a message to be picked up by a transit customer’s FM radio already built into their smartphone. The “singing poster,” as they call it, wouldn’t need to be powered with any great oomph—the radio signal reflective technology consumes “close to zero power,” the researchers claim in an article on the university’s website.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Power Station from Nyko attaches to the side of the Xbox One console and charges 2 included rechargeable batteries for use in Xbox One Wireless Controllers, for up to 25 hours of play time. It's powered by USB so there are no visible cords, and is designed to look like a natural extension of your console. The Power Station averages 4 out of 5 stars from over 190 people on Amazon (read latest reviews here), where its typical list price has been reduced 9% to just $15.97. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If Microsoft orchestrates next month's Microsoft Windows 10 upgrade as it did 2016's mid-year Anniversary Update refresh, it will take about three months for the latest version to reach most eligible devices.According to advertising network AdDuplex, 60 days after the Aug. 2, 2016, introduction of Windows 10 1607 -- aka Anniversary Update -- just 35% of measured Windows 10 PCs were running the upgrade. By the 90-day mark, however, that number had soared to 80%, showing that Microsoft, after a purposefully slow start, had stomped on the update accelerator.[ Related: Windows 10 Redstone: A guide to the builds ]
There has been no sign from Microsoft that Creators Update, the company's label for April's feature upgrade, will be deployed any differently.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Earlier on Monday, my wife let me know that “Apple Support” had called about iCloud security. She was dubious, and rightly so. “Apple” then called five more times (and counting). Suffice it to say, it wasn’t Apple, but fraudsters trying to piggyback on reports that a major breach of iCloud credentials could render hundreds of millions of accounts vulnerable.Apple says no such breach occurred, and security researchers, like Troy Hunt of HaveIBeenPwned.com, say the group trying to extort Apple likely has reused credentials from other sites’ password leaks. (We recommend turning on two-factor authentication at iCloud regardless.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s bad enough when black hat hackers insert malicious backdoors into systems and software after vendors/makers have sold these into the marketplace. It is another matter when the vendors who create these devices and programs unwittingly or purposely leave backdoors inside their products.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Many of the best Google apps don't come pre-installedImage by Sarah Jacobbson PurewalYou already use plenty of Google apps. Android is a Google product, after all. And your phone almost certainly came with Google Maps and Gmail, for example.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Did you resolve to workout more this year? If you're like many, that resolution didn't last.One way to improve and strengthen your resolve is to track your workouts. But manually tracking sessions is messy. How many drills were done? What weights were used? How well did you perform the exercises? Should any adjustments be made?To help, PureCarbon has created IoT-enabled Delta Gloves. They help you keep your exercise resolutions and improve your workouts.The Delta Gloves
The challenge with monitoring exercise workouts is that they require small sensors with low power requirements and the ability to work without connectivity. PureCarbon’s Delta Gloves use piezoresistive sensors, Bluetooth and advanced data analytics to track weights lifted, exercises performed and the number of reps performed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The recent document leak detailing CIA spying campaigns and hacking techniques has fostered conversations and news stories on how to balance intelligence gathering with privacy, as well as discussions on the agency’s extensive spying capabilities. What hasn’t been discussed as much is what enterprises (and governments in one case) can learn from the WikiLeaks Vault 7 leak.To me, three key takeaways are that leaks can happen to any organization, figuring out what entity carried out an attack is difficult to do, and we’re in an era when nation-state weapons end up in the hands of criminals. Collectively, these development make practicing information security more complex than ever. Now, let’s explore each one in more detail.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The only constant in work is that work changes. It shifts. It pivots. It requires new skills, new training, new ideas. This has always been the case. But today, with everything becoming connected to the internet and digitization reshaping the definition of value in entire industries, the rate of change is increasing dramatically.In IT specifically, automation technology is driving a new wave of change, making many rote operations tasks that we’ve performed manually for decades a thing of the past. All of this is great news; after all, how many of us truly enjoy the laborious and time-intensive process of manually configuring and troubleshooting devices using Command Line Interface (CLI)?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Traditionalists are notoriously hard sells. I don’t mean politically; I mean technologically.While remote working might not sound controversial, the ideological divides are clearly drawn.Over the past few years, Google, Yahoo and Best Buy have all made headlines with their “no remote working” policies. The most recent entry into this hardline approach is IBM. Just last month, CMO Michelle Peluso announced in a private video to marketing staff: Move on site, or move out.After 19 straight quarters of declining revenue, the decision to relocate their dispersed teams to one of six “strategic” offices is driven not just by the bottom line, but by an underlying assumption about what makes great teams great. As Peluso explained:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Products based on the IEEE 802.11ad (WiGig) standard have really only begun rolling out over the past year, but an effort to deliver an enhancement dubbed 802.11ay that promises to deliver faster and longer range W-Fi networks is gaining steam. Here’s the lowdown on this newest in the 802.11 WLAN series… I can’t believe I have another 802.11something-or-other to keep track of. Believe it. Though really think of 802.11ay as an enhancement of 11ad in the unlicensed 60 GHz millimeter wave band of spectrum, so it should be a pretty natural upgrade. And it could really be worth any trouble given potential speed and range improvements.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Peraso Technologies, one of the early players in 802.11ad (WiGig) gigabit wireless networking, is also readying for enhanced Wi-Fi technology called 802.11ay that promises higher speeds and greater reach.
The Toronto-based company, whose semiconductors enable smartphones, tablets and other devices to exploit unlicensed 60 GHz wireless technology, is bullish on 11ay to support an even wider range of products than 11ad.
(See Also: Our FAQ on 802.11ay)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Amazon has quietly released another good set of deals on its popular Kindle series of e-readers, and this time the discount runs through 4/3 only.
$30 off: Paperwhite, Kindle, and Kindle for Kids Bundle
$50 off: Voyage and Paperwhite Essentials Bundle
$75 off: Voyage Essentials Bundle
To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco Talos today warned of a flaw in the X.509 certificate validation feature of Apple macOS and iOS that could let an attacker remotely execute code and steal information.X.509 security certificates are widely used and integral to many Internet protocols, including TLS/SSL, which is the basis for HTTPS, the secure web browsing protocol.+More on Network World: 5 burning questions with new IETF Chair and Cisco Fellow Alissa Cooper+“For most people, securely connecting to a website seems as simple as checking to make sure the little padlock in the address bar is present. However, in the background there are many different steps that are taken to ensure you are safely and securely connecting to the websites that claim they are who they are. This process includes certificate validation, or making sure that the servers that users are connecting to present “identification” showing they are legitimate. This helps to protect users from fraudulent servers that might otherwise steal sensitive information,” Talos wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel will begin shipping its next-generation non-volatile Optane memory for PCs beginning April 24.Intel, which developed the Optane memory with its partner Micron under the name "3D Xpoint," said the new storage will allow PCs to boot twice as fast and increase internal storage performance by 14 times.Additionally, Intel claims the mass storage devices will launch applications faster. For example, Microsoft Outlook will launch up to 5.8 times faster; games will launch up to 67% faster; and files stored in memory can be located up to four times faster.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Three people from Illinois last week sued Microsoft, claiming that the free Windows 10 upgrade they had installed on their PCs caused "data loss and damage to their computers."Lawyers for the trio asked a Chicago federal court Thursday to grant the case class-action status, which would allow other Americans to join the litigation."Many consumers have had their hard drives fail because of the Windows 10 installation," alleged the complaint. "Many consumers have had their existing software and data rendered inoperable by the Windows 10 installation."All three of the plaintiffs asserted that after accepting the free Windows 10 upgrade -- a one-year deal that ran from 2015 to 2016 -- some data on their Windows PCs had been destroyed. One said that she had had to purchase a new personal computer after the one upgraded to Windows 10 was crippled.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here