For better or worse, a security firm’s attempt to cash in on software bugs -- by shorting a company’s stock and then publicizing the flaws -- might have pioneered a new approach to vulnerability disclosure.Last August, security company MedSec revealed it had found flaws in pacemakers and other healthcare products from St. Jude Medical, potentially putting patients at risk.However, the controversy came over how MedSec sought to cash in on those bugs: it did so, by partnering with an investment firm to bet against St. Jude’s stock. Since then, the two parties have been locked in a legal battle over the suspected vulnerabilities. But on Monday, MedSec claimed some vindication.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
CyberPowerPC's $499.99 Gamer Ultra VR is the first desktop ready for the Oculus Rift headset that is priced under $500, but there's a caveat.You'll need to buy it with the Oculus Rift headset, which costs more than the PC at $599.99.The bundle will put you back $1,099.98, but that's still a good deal for an Oculus Rift plus desktop, which could otherwise get pretty expensive.The Gamer Ultra VR desktop is available on Best Buy and will also be sold by Amazon. The standalone price for the desktop without the headset is $649.99 on both Best Buy and Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In 1991, Harvard Business Review article Computerless Computer Company by Andy Rappaport and Shmuel Halevi explained how Microsoft’s PCs overwhelmed Apple’s Macs. Most of the article’s wisdom would hold true today if applied to Google and Android’s domination of the iPhone.Since Steve Jobs orchestrated Apple’s turnaround in the late 1990s, Apple has recovered from the near-death experience when when Jobs returned and Microsoft loaned Apple $150 million. Apple is now one of the world’s richest companies in the world and is no longer in what the authors called a battle for long-term survival when they asked the question:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Take control of your finances with Quicken's finance and budgeting software, updated for 2017. Quicken imports your bank transactions safely and automatically, even from loan, investment & retirement accounts. It categorizes your transactions and puts them in one place. Use it to create a plan to pay off your debt or save for college, a down payment or retirement. Quicken has been discounted 54% from its typical list price of $75, so you can buy it on Amazon right now for just $34.56. This software is for the PC disk or software download. Quicken has personal finance & budgeting software for the Mac currently discounted 40% right here.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Last week, President-elect Donald Trump received a comprehensive briefing on Russian hacking related to the 2016 Presidential election. In response, Trump released a statement that included the following:
"Whether it is our government, organizations, associations or business, we need to aggressively combat and stop cyberattacks. I will appoint a team to give me a plan within 90 days of taking office.”
These “teams” tend to be made up of a combination of Washington insiders with intelligence and/or military experience, as well as an assortment of industry folks. For example, President Obama’s recent Commission on Enhancing National Cybersecurity, included former NSA director Keith Alexander, former IBM CEO Sam Palmisano, etc.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In the space of a decade, Apple’s iPhone has gone from being a consumer craze to the single product that some say most affects the design and operation of enterprise IT, turning a controlled, top-down environment into something far more open.“I think the iPhone was probably one of the most impactful pieces of technology to come into the IT world since computing,” said VMware VP and chief information security officer Alex Tosheff, commenting on the 10th anniversary of the Apple iPhone, which was introduced on Jan. 9, 2007. VMware
VMware VP and chief information security officer Alex Tosheff: Feeling iPhone's impactTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple CEO Steve Jobs had the MacWorld crowd eating out of his hand and yukking it up when he introduced the first iPhone 10 years ago this Jan. 9.Among his gags: A photo of an iPod with a rotary dial on it. MORE iPHONE 10TH ANNIVERSARY COVERAGE: Whirlwind look back at every iPhone model | iPhone prototypes that never saw the light of day | 10 iPhone features that rocked the smartphone world | A look back at prognostications that the iPhone would be a flop | 10 years of the iPhone: How Apple changed pretty much everything in the enterpriseTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Internet-connected intelligent gizmos had a big showing at this year's Consumer Electronics Show, and there is one common thread between many ofthem: Amazon’s Alexa virtual assistant.Lenovo has a new speaker featuring the assistant. Volkswagen and Ford are building Alexa into their cars. Plus, there’s a whole flotilla of other connected devices featuring Alexa, including a high-tech refrigerator from LG.That’s not to say other virtual assistants aren’t doing the same thing, but Amazon is the clear winner by volume at CES.So, what does that mean for the virtual assistant market, which includes competitors such as Microsoft's Cortana, the Google Assistant and Apple's Siri? To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A highly anticipated U.S. intelligence report claims that Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered a campaign to covertly influence last year’s presidential election in favor for Donald Trump.However, the report – or at least the declassified version – offered no new evidence or sources to prove the Kremlin’s role in sponsoring the effort, which included hacks and online propaganda.The U.S. government published the 25-page document on Friday amid skepticism from incoming President-elect Trump over whether Russia was really involved.Outgoing President Barack Obama has nevertheless ordered sanctions against Russia and threatened covert action in retaliation for the cyber-meddling.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
After meeting with U.S. intelligence leaders on Friday, President-elect Donald Trump withheld any direct endorsement of their findings that Russia tried to meddle with the recent election.Rather, he focused on whether the hacking efforts -- from any country -- had an effect on the election’s outcome. In his view, there was “absolutely” none."While Russia, China, other countries, outside groups and people are consistently trying to break through the cyber infrastructure of our governmental institutions, businesses and organizations including the Democrat National Committee, there was absolutely no effect on the outcome of the election," Trump said in a statement. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple will steal a march on Microsoft this year when for the first time this century shipments of devices powered by its operating systems outnumber those running Windows, research firm Gartner said today.In 2017, Apple's combination of iOS and macOS -- the former on iPhones and iPads, the latter on Macs -- will take second place from Windows on the devices shipped during the year. The gap between the two will widen in 2018 and 2019, with Apple ahead of Microsoft both years.According to Gartner, which provided Computerworld with its latest device shipment forecast broken out by operating system, in 2016 Windows powered about 260 million devices of the 2.3 billion shipped during the year. Windows accounted for approximately 11.2% of the total devices, which overwhelmingly ran Google's Android.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. The 2016 holiday shopping season is barely in the rearview mirror and already the retail analysts are claiming that sales via mobile devices hit a new all-time high. According to Google Analytics data, 30% of all online shopping now happens on mobile devices.That’s good news for e-commerce companies—assuming they provide shoppers with a secure application that isn’t leaking sensitive information such as user credentials and financial transaction data. How long will it be before we hear of a significant data breach due to a poorly secured mobile app?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Intel is known for cranking up PC speeds to new highs, and it's doing the same for storage with the super fast Optane.Optane, which Intel claims will replace today's SSDs and DRAM, is exciting for many reasons. Game play, PC booting, and productivity applications will be much faster with the new class of storage and memory.Intel has said Optane could be up to 10 times faster than conventional SSDs, but real-world tests on the storage have yet to be done. The first Optane storage was announced at CES, but it's only in the form of low-capacity 16GB and 32GB units to be used as cache and not as primary storage.The initial Optanes will not have a meaty capacity, but it will be a good start to test and play with the storage, said Pat Kannar, marketing director for Precision desktops at Dell.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Back in May of 2016, I reviewed the (then current) Dell XPS 13 Developer Edition laptop. At just a bit over $2,000 it wasn’t the world’s cheapest machine, but for a Linux user looking for a high-end (but very portable) notebook, that XPS proved to be a remarkable rig. Well, Dell has a new model of the XPS Developer Edition. And I pestered them until they sent me one to test. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The global sourcing industry has seen a surge in setup activity in onshore location in recent years, according to outsourcing consultancy and research firm Everest Group.[ Related: Grading our 2016 IT outsourcing predictions ]After seeing significant declines in onshore location expansion in 2013 and 2014 due to a global slowdown, the percentage of new onshore versus offshore delivery locations among the top 20 service providers rose from 45 percent in 2014 to 52 percent during 2015 and the first half of 2016, according to Everest Group. That brings the proportion of onshore locations to an unprecedented high in the industry.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple CEO Tim Cook's total compensation took a dive for 2016, as the company missed its financial targets for the year.The company's earnings for the year to Sept. 24 dropped 14 percent compared to a year earlier.As a result, Cook's total compensation dropped 15 percent -- despite a 50 percent rise in base salary.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD Tech's biggest CEO raises and pay cuts +He certainly won't have to start eating ramen noodles -- he made US$8,747,719, after all -- but he and fellow senior executives lost out on a few million each because of the poor performance.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Groups of attackers have adopted a new tactic that involves deleting publicly exposed MongoDB databases and asking for money to restore them. In a matter of days, the number of affected databases has risen from hundreds to more than 10,000.The issue of misconfigured MongoDB installations, allowing anyone on the internet to access sensitive data, is not new. Researchers have been finding such open databases for years, and the latest estimate puts their number at more than 99,000.On Monday, security researcher Victor Gevers from the GDI Foundation reported that he found almost 200 instances of publicly exposed MongoDB databases that had been wiped and held to ransom by an attacker or a group of attackers named Harak1r1.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
These screen cleaning cloths from iCloth currently average 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 800 people (read reviews) and its list price is currently discounted 25% to $18.74 for a pack of 100, individually packaged. The aerospace-grade soft fabric wipes are made from high quality and extremely low-linting Dupont Sontara fabric, and are premoistened with a purified water-based formula containing a isopropyl alcohol (not harmful ethyl alcohol) and proprietary ingredients that are safe on all sensitive optics and specialty coatings. So they are ideal for tablets, smartphones and laptops, but will work equally well on your sensitive eyewear. iCloth wipes are made in America, and come with a money-back-guarantee if you're not satisfied. See the discounted 100-pack now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The International CES trade show is so big now that you can’t possibly see everything on display here, even if you had superpowers like Iron Man (speaking of Iron Man, there was a very cool Iron Man-branded massage chair on display). For the most part on Day 1 (officially now, although it’s my second full day of meetings and booth visits), I stuck to the Sands Expo Center, which featured mainly Smart Home products, robots, 3D printers, kid tech, fitness tech and wearables. The Sands Expo also features the Eureka Park section, a whole floor dedicated to startups that brings a LOT of people to its very narrow aisles. I can’t tell whether a product or company is very popular because of the crowds or because they (probably) pack them in tight to give them the appearance of popularity (probably a little bit of both).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Despite more and more companies outsourcing workloads to the public cloud, legacy technology stalwarts Cisco and HPE remain the most popular enterprise infrastructure vendors, new estimates from Synergy Research suggest.
Synergy tracked enterprise infrastructure spending across seven categories for the 12 months leading up to the end of Q3 2016: Data center servers; switches & routers; network security; voice systems, WLAN; UC Apps and telepresence. In aggregate it estimates revenues were $88 billion across these segments, with spending down about 1% from the same time period in 2015.
+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: This company is transferring 50 Petabytes of data to Amazon's cloud +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here