U.S. President Donald Trump is seeking to channel populist anger to stem immigration, but tech companies want him to know that hiring immigrants is necessary for the country's economy and boosts overall employment.Apple, Facebook, Microsoft, Amazon and Alphabet are said to be writing Trump a letter expressing their concern about the order on immigration he signed last Friday, and other changes to immigration policy he may plan.The letter, a draft of which has been published by a number of media outlets, including Recode.net, highlights the companies' dependence on immigrants for their success, and warns that the new policy could affect many visa holders already contributing to the U.S. economy.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hewlett Packard Enterprise has acquired Niara, a startup that uses machine learning and big data analytics on enterprise packet streams and log streams to detect and protect customers from advanced cyberattacks that have penetrated perimeter defenses.
The financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Operating in the User and Entity Behavior Analytics (UEBA) market, Niara’s technology starts by automatically establishing baseline characteristics for all users and devices across the enterprise and then looking for anomalous, inconsistent activities that may indicate a security threat, Keerti Melkote, senior vice president and general manager of HPE Aruba and cofounder of Aruba Networks, wrote in a blog post on Wednesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Although vendor-written, this contributed piece does not advocate a position that is particular to the author’s employer and has been edited and approved by Network World editors.
Serverless computing, a disruptive application development paradigm that reduces the need for programmers to spend time focused on how their hardware will scale, is rapidly gaining momentum for event-driven programming. Organizations should begin exploring this opportunity now to see if it will help them dramatically reduce costs while ensuring applications run at peak performance.
For the last decade, software teams have been on a march away from the practice of directly managing hardware in data centers toward renting compute capacity from Infrastructure as a Service (IAAS) vendors such as Amazon Web Services (AWS) and Microsoft Azure. It is rare that a software team creates unique value by managing hardware directly, so the opportunity to offload that undifferentiated heavy lifting to IaaS vendors has been welcomed by software teams worldwide.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Mobile security firm Zimperium has launched an exploit acquisition program that aims to bring undisclosed attack code for already patched vulnerabilities out in the open.Paying for old exploits might seem like a waste of money, but there are technical and business arguments to justify such an acquisition system and they ultimately have to do with the difference between exploits and vulnerabilities.A vulnerability is a software defect with potential security implications, while an exploit is the actual code that takes advantage of that bug to achieve a specific malicious goal, often by bypassing other security barriers along the way.In practice, many vulnerabilities that get reported to vendors are not accompanied by working exploits. Showing that a programming error can lead to memory corruption is typically enough for the vendor to understand its potential implications -- for example, arbitrary code execution.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The middle of last year, Cisco held an event in New York to release its newest product, Tetration. The product moved Cisco into the analytics market, with the information being used to help customers better understand application performance and improve data center security. This week, Cisco announced the next version of Tetration Analytics, which is focused at providing security at the application layer. Cisco also released some new deployment options to make it easier for customers to get started with Tetration. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
During Apple’s earnings report last night, CEO Tim Cook did not mention why Apple squeaked by with 3 percent revenue growth. Almost every product category he spoke about was predicated with the words “record setting.” But a closer look reveals, Cook’s praise might be overstated, and Apple’s quest to produce another iPhone-scale new product to reignite growth continues.Radio Free Mobile’s Richard Windsor explained in an early-morning report from London what Cook did not. iPhone shipments at higher prices were driven by the defection of Samsung Galaxy Note customers due to the recall of the Note 7.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Well it’s bad news for some gamers and modders, about 4.5 million of them, as three different forums were hacked. If you are looking for the silver lining in the dark breach cloud, then none of the hacks were recent; the flipside? The email addresses, usernames and passwords have been “out there” since as far back as September 2015.The Witcher fans started receiving breach notifications from Have I Been Pwned, but the CD Projekt Red forum was compromised in March 2016. Have I Been Pwned
Nearly 1.9 million CD Projekt Red accounts were exposed; Have I Been Pwned numbered the burned accounts at 1,871,373.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.
Security for containers has evolved quite substantially over the past year, but there is still a lot of education that needs to be done. The key point being that the biggest difference in this new paradigm is that everything is based on continuously delivered, micro-service based, applications. The fact that the technology enabler for that paradigm is containers is really less of an issue.
When it comes to containerized applications, everyone seems to be in agreement - statically analyzing what an application can do inside a container and rejecting non-security compliant images and/or vulnerable images is a must. However, no matter how good a job you do with vulnerability scanning and container hardening, there are unknown bugs and vulnerabilities that may manifest in the runtime and cause intrusions or compromises. That is why it’s so important to outfit your system with real-time threat detection and incident response capabilities.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IoT—Internet of Things: Talk about a broad term. It’s like air—it’s everywhere, and everyone knows it’s important, but there’s no consistent way to discuss it.Bill Cosby, back when he was associated with comedy, poked fun at the different perspectives of air. He said philosophy majors ponder why air exists, but physical education majors know that air exists to fill volleyballs, basketballs and footballs.Clearly, it’s a matter of perspective, so let me attempt to organize the IoT opportunity into three containers: consumer, government and enterprise.+ Also on Network World: IoT is the ‘new industrial revolution,’ says Vodafone +
The consumer stuff is going to be big, but dull. Yes, there will be some big developments in products such as thermostats and toothbrushes. I may even buy a few. But that’s not what excites me about IoT. The consumer sector will be limited for two reasons.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The latest “whole home coverage” system to cross paths with the Cool Tools testing team is from Amped Wireless. The ALLY Plus system includes a router and extender unit that looks a bit like a wireless mesh system (since both units have somewhat the same design), but in fact is more in line with a traditional router/extender offering. However, like those wireless mesh systems, the ALLY Plus is installed via mobile app that makes setup go quicker for those non-techie types. In addition, features such as in-depth parental controls and a security partnership with AVG means device protection for all clients connecting through the router.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A trend that has grown over the past decade or so to become pretty much the default view of infrastructure is to “software-ize” functionality that was formerly the domain of specialist hardware.It all started (arguably) with the idea of virtualization. Instead of needing a physical server for every task, software would allow numerous virtual servers to run on a piece of physical kit. The upshot of virtualization of servers was that far greater efficiencies could be generated, and utilization rates went from being dismal to almost absolute. All good outcomes if you’re worried about the economics of technology.+ Also on Network World: Is infrastructure relevant in a software-defined world? +
But it wasn’t just compute that got this dose of software goodness. Next came storage, then networking. And seemingly the sky is the limit as to what parts of infrastructure can be made virtual. (And in the next realm of innovation, we have serverless computing where, in effect, stuff happens without even having to think about servers—physical or virtual. But that’s another story.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple is behind with its taxes, but the tax inspector doesn't mind.Last August, the European Commission closed a three-year investigation of Apple's tax affairs with an order to the Irish government that it should recover about €13 billion (US$14.5 billion) in taxes that it believed Apple had underpaid over the last decade.Ireland has missed the deadline for recovering the billions, but Competition Commissioner Margrethe Vestager, who gave the Irish government four months to collect the taxes, is proving very understanding about the delay.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
One year ago, in the first quarter of 2016, Apple reported a record-breaking profit: $18.4 billion on $75.9 billion in revenue. That was great news, but setting the bar so high was a mixed blessing—Apple’s huge uptick in growth ended there, with declining iPhone sales and profits in the three quarters since.But the company turned that around with the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, Apple CEO Tim Cook said in Apple’s Q1 earnings report on Tuesday. The company broke its own record with $78.4 billion in revenue for the quarter ending December 31—and $54.3 billion of that came from iPhones, of which Apple sold 78.3 million. That’s another record, in case you were wondering.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Tablet might be struggling to find a place amongst hybrids, but there are still plenty of devices to get excited about in the coming year. These five tablets are slated to be some of the most exciting devices of 2017, and each offers a traditional tablet experience.
iPad Air 3
Apple
Apple typically announced iPads in the fall, but last spring it surprised everyone by announcing the 9.7-inch iPad Pro. But come fall, Apple was mum on a third generation iPad Air. That has some speculating that Apple will ditch the Air lineup, instead offering a third, entry-level iPad Pro.
However, NeuroGadget reports it's likely Apple will release a 16GB iPad Air 3, with a thinner, water-resistant design, for $600. Either way, sources are confident that Apple plans to announce three tablets - a 9.7, 10.5 and 12.9-inch model - in Spring of this year. NeuroGadget also reports that, to compete with the Microsoft Surface, the iPad Air 3 is expected to ship with the Apple Pencil.
Galaxy Tab S3
Samsung
The Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 took a strong swing at the Apple iPad Air 2, offering a similar design and level of performance. It became Continue reading
Read professional reviews of Apple’s new MacBook Pro lineup, and you’ll come away thinking the new laptops have great battery life.Dive into a customer forum, though, and the upshot will be exactly the opposite: The new MacBook Pros have “piss poor” battery life.That characterization came from user yillbs on MacRumors.com. “I don’t think anyone can convince me that this thing isn’t just flat out the worst battery life ever on a MacBook,” yillbs wrote, clearly frustrated. “I’ve been defending it like mad, but at this point... how can you? 4.42 hours is just bad.” To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Macs are really no more secure than a PC, but for many years there just weren’t as many out there because of the expense of the hardware and other issues. They've historically been a much less popular choice among both consumers, enterprises, and hackers alike.The PC attack surface is much wider; therefore, criminals develop malware that works on PCs because the payout is much higher. James Plouffe, lead solutions architect at mobile-security company MobileIron, said there are, however, a couple of oft-overlooked things that also protect Macs.First, Plouffe said, "MacOS is actually BSD Unix derivative. Granted, it's heavily customized but this meant that, unlike Windows (which had a long tail of viruses reaching back to the days of MS-DOS), bad actors had a lot more heavy lifting to do to be able to attack macOS."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
No single antimalware engine can keep up with all the malware out there. But how about 57 of 'em?[ 18 surprising tips for security pros. | Discover how to secure your systems with InfoWorld's Security Report newsletter. ]
In this video, you'll learn how to download and run Windows Sysinternals Process Explorer to test all currently running executables on your Windows system against VirusTotal's 57 antivirus engines, which together offer the best accuracy you can ever get (with a small percentage of false positives that are pretty easy to spot).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
President Donald Trump may face protests from scientists and technologists like no other president before him.It's not just the tech industry that may battle Trump. New forces are arising, some grassroots, such as Neveragain.tech and a planned massive "March for Science," in Washington and elsewhere. The tech industry protest over the seven-country immigration ban is just a preview.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here