Facebook has reportedly developed a software tool that will help keep certain content away from users’ news feeds in certain geographies, reflecting the company’s apparent willingness to meet Chinese government censorship demands part of the way.The social networking site has been banned in China since 2009 because of the government’s censorship rules and like many other U.S. technology companies would like to reenter the market with nearly 1.4 billion people.CEO Mark Zuckerberg has learned Mandarin, visited the country often and cultivated the local leadership including President Xi Jinping.The new tool suppresses posts from appearing to people in certain geographies but will not be used directly by Facebook, reported The New York Times on Tuesday, citing three current and former Facebook employees, who spoke on condition of anonymity as the tool is confidential.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
While most people associate Disney with Mickey Mouse, animation, and amusement parks, the company is forging a path in the open source software realm, encouraging contributions from its developers and releasing software of its own.Not surprising, several projects involve images, such as the OpenEXR high-dynamic-range image file format developed by Disney subsidiary Industrial Light and Magic. Others are less image-focused, including Munki, a set of tools to help MacOS X admins manage software installs and removals.[ Get the most out of collaborative programming with InfoWorld’s 20 essential pointers for Git and GitHub. | Keep up with hot topics in programming with InfoWorld’s Application Development newsletter. ]
The company’s GitHub repo highlights its Open Source Program, through which it encourages Disney developers to tap open source software, contribute to open source projects, and release what they create to the open source community at large. Disney’s GitHub repo “features” a few homegrown open source projects in particular, including Universal Scene Description (USD), which Disney notes as being the core of Pixar’s 3D graphics pipeline.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Visual Studio for Mac is something that many Microsoft developers have sought for more than a decade. As Mac OS X became interesting in the early 2000s, coders who spent most of their days working in Visual Studio on Windows wondered why they couldn’t use the same languages, frameworks, and tools for the Mac, rather than needing to learn Objective-C, Cocoa, and Xcode, all of which were substantially different from the languages and tools for Windows development.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
The U.S. government has released what it claims is myth-busting data about the shortage of cybersecurity professionals. The data points to its own hiring experience.In October 2015, the U.S. launched a plan to hire 6,500 people with cybersecurity skills by January 2017, according to White House officials. It had hired 3,000 by the first half of this year. As part the ongoing hiring effort, it held a job fair in July.At the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), "We set out to dispel certain myths regarding cybersecurity hiring," wrote Angela Bailey, chief human capital officer at DHS in a blog post Monday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The line between what constitutes a Black Friday 2016 deal and a Cyber Monday one has pretty much disappeared, but what we have here are a handful of tech deals specifically available for Cyber Monday, which is Nov. 28.Cyber Monday got its start as an online-only alternative to once in-store focused Black Friday, but of course Black Friday, Black November, etc., is now a mishmash of online and in-store action. Nevertheless, some retailers still trot out the Cyber Monday marketing term, and we'll accommodate them briefly here by highlighting a few of their deals.(Black Friday & Cyber Monday watchers such as BFads and Best Black Friday have been a big help in keeping tabs on deals.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Fake news, online banking thefts and data breaches: It's no wonder that trust in the internet is at an all-time low. But don't worry: The Internet Society has a five-step plan for restoring faith in the network of networks.The first step is to put users first, according to ISOC, which published its 2016 Global Internet Report on Thursday. That involves being more transparent (step two) about risk and the incidence of data breaches and prioritizing data security (step three) to ensure breaches don't happen.ISOC isn't just a talking shop, it is also the organizational home of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), source of many of the protocols and standards on which the internet relies. That adds weight to the more detailed recommendations on how to prioritize security contained in the ISOC report.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Most businesses aren’t aware of who BroadSoft is, but if they use a unified communications as a service (UCaaS) provider, they are likely using BroadSoft’s services. The company provides the building blocks for service providers to build cloud-based communications services such as voice, video, web conferencing and now team messaging and contextual services. Customers of BroadSoft are a veritable “who’s who” in the telecom world, including Verizon, Comcast, Vonage and Orange. Service providers have sold over 15 million BroadSoft seats, so the company may be the most important vendor that most businesses have never heard of.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
With virtual reality systems like HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR being the latest cool gaming gear around, it's not surprising that consumers haven't been offered a ton of Black Friday 2016 bargains. But some deals have started to trickle out.HTC itself has announced Black Friday and Cyber Monday promotions, offering $100 off Vive hardware platforms, which usually start at $800. HTC Vive provides an immersive full-room VR experience, as you don goggles and hold a couple of controllers to navigate your way undersea, through space or through other worlds.MORE: 50+ Black Friday 2016 tech dealsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
What separates a great Major League Baseball hitter like David Ortiz from some run-of-the mill player? Great eyesight and intelligence. Ortiz sees more than others and takes all of the rich information he sees to make an intelligent, actionable decision to swing a baseball or not. While lots of players claim to do this, only a few have the right combination of the two to separate themselves from the field. The same thing can be said for IT security. It takes visibility across the entire attack spectrum, plus analytics and real-world insight, to provide actionable threat intelligence. Many vendors claim to have threat intelligence, but they operate by looking for anomalies in the network to flag something that might be a breach. This can be valuable, but it addresses only part of the security continuum. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple has said that a few iPhone 6s smartphones are unexpectedly shutting down, confirming a problem reported last week by a Chinese consumer protection group.The company said the problem is restricted to a small number of phones within a limited serial number range that were manufactured between September and October last year.Apple said it was not a safety issue, and appeared to suggest that the problem would be resolved by a replacement battery which the company offered free. It did not say how many iPhone 6s phones were affected and in which markets.The China Consumers Association asked Apple to investigate problems with iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s phones that were automatically shutting off. The unexpected shutdowns were said to happen when the phone’s battery charge dropped to between 60 and 50 percent.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Aiming to boost its consumer security business, Symantec is acquiring LifeLock, a vendor of identity protection services, for US$2.3 billion in enterprise value.
The deal will create what the two companies described as the world’s largest consumer security business with over $2.3 billion in annual revenue based on last fiscal year revenue for both companies.
The immediate opportunity for Symantec comes from the large number of consumers worldwide that have been victims of cybercrime, generating as a result greater user concern in digital safety. The companies estimate the market at $10 billion, and growing in the high single digits. In the U.S. alone, the total addressable market is estimated to be about 80 million people.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Some have begun referring to this month as Black November since pre-Black Friday, Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales have all blended together. Not all the supposed deals are actually deals at all – in many cases, the retailers are just trying to offload stuff – but there are plenty of bargains to be had on the hottest smartphones, tablets, PCs and gaming systems. Here’s a look at some of the best deals.Websites such as BFads.net, BlackFriday.com and BestBlackFriday.com have all been helpful in collecting this information. MORE: Best Black Friday Apple Watch dealsTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Given that the overall design of the iPhone hasn't changed much since the release of the iPhone 6 back in 2014, there's a lot of pressure on Apple to deliver a home run when the company launches the iPhone 8 later next year.Though next year's iPhone would ordinarily be called the iPhone 7s, it's widely believed that Apple's next-gen iPhone will represent such a compelling upgrade that Apple will opt to call it the iPhone 8 instead.Now as for what Apple has in store for us with the iPhone 8, the company's plans are beginning to crystalize slowly but surely. According to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo (via Apple Insider), Apple next year will introduce three distinct iPhone models.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
One and a half minutes is all it took after plugging in an internet-connected security camera for the camera be infected with malware.Unlike the average Jane or Joe Doe who would not want their security camera to be immediately infected with malware, Rob Graham, CEO of Errata Security, called it “fun” to watch the infection happen. He tweet-documented his experience.Graham purchased an inexpensive device – this $55 IoT security camera made by JideTech.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 11/28 only. Kindle's price sinks $30, Kindle Paperwhite is discounted $20, the Kindle Voyage drops $30, and the worry-free Kindle for Kids Bundle is reduced $30 as well. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
While Windows phone deals are not surprisingly few and far between for Black Friday 2016, plenty of other Microsoft Windows desktops and laptops, Surface tablets and Xbox gaming deals can be had this holiday shopping season. Come Nov. 25, and even earlier for Microsoft itself and retailers, here are some of the best deals around.(Websites such as BFads.net, BlackFriday.com and BestBlackFriday.com have all been helpful in collecting this information.) To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Michael Flynn, the man President-elect Donald Trump plans to name as U.S. national security advisor, believes the government is falling behind on cybersecurity.
Trump named Flynn to his cabinet on Friday after the former military intelligence leader acted as the top military advisor to Trump's presidential campaign. Flynn previously was director of the Defense Intelligence Agency and has served in U.S. intelligence operations in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Flynn holds strong views on cybersecurity. He’s called U.S. cyber capabilities “underwhelming.”
“We have competitors out there that are rapidly catching up with us,” he said in a speech posted online last year. In 2014, after retiring as a general, he started a consulting firm called Flynn Intel Group that specializes in preventing cyber threats for clients.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Digital certificates provide the backbone of information security and trust on the Internet. Demand for certificates is exploding as companies use them to secure and build trust in web transactions, email messages, application code, and devices such as those on the Internet of Things. The use case for digital certificates continues to expand as more people and devices become connected.
It’s not unusual for an enterprise organization to have 10,000 or more certificates in use. For example, a company might use certificates to digitally sign and encrypt email messages and attachments. Allowing for one certificate per email account, this can amount to tens of thousands of certificates for this use case alone.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In a twist, thieves in the U.K. hacked personal data to steal high-end smartphones, rather than hacking phones to steal personal data.The thefts came to light after mobile network operator Three noticed a recent increase in levels of handset fraud, the company said Friday.By accessing the system Three uses to manage handset upgrades, the perpetrators were able to intercept new high-end handsets on the way to the operator's customers.Three, however, said only eight devices have been illegally obtained through the upgrade activity -- compared to 400 stolen from its retail stores over the past four weeks.The company sought to reassure customers concerned that their personal information may have been accessed in the attempt to steal the upgrade phones.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Road trip this holiday season? The Bestrix universal headrest tablet mount provides an easy solution for using your tablet while mobile. It's designed for easy installation and removal, and instantly turn your car’s backseat into an entertainment center without blocking any of your tablet’s buttons or jacks. The mount can hold all tablets including all versions of Apple iPads, Samsung Tab and all tablets up to 11’’. Its 360 degree rotation feature allows all users to have a perfect view of the tablet from various or changing positions in the car. It currently averages 4.5 out of 5 stars from nearly 200 people on Amazon (see reviews) where its typical list price of $36 has been reduced 45% to $20. See the discounted Bestrix headrest tablet mount on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here