Almost half of all companies have been the victims of a ransomware attack during the past 12 months, according to a new report. And while globally, 40 percent of them have paid the ransom, 97 percent of U.S. companies did not.Specifically, 75 percent of enterprise victims paid up in Canada, 58 percent in the U.K., and 22 percent in Germany, according to an Osterman Research survey of hundreds of senior executives in the U.S., Canada, German and the U.K.ALSO ON CSO: How to respond to ransomware threats
This is partly due to the fact that, in the United States, the attacks were much more likely to hit lower-level employees. In the U.S., enterprises reported that 71 percent of lower-level staff were affected, compared to 29 percent in the U.K., 23 percent in Canada, and 14 percent in Germany.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Hotels are digitally dangerous places these days. And that's not idle speculation. Security researchers have been sounding the alarm on sophisticated attacks directed at hotel users for years.Most of the earliest reports pointed to surgical strikes on high-profile executives or representatives of government agencies, but they could prove to be precursors for more wide-ranging attacks on the general public. Modern business travelers, with their treasure troves of files and personal information, will be prime targets, and they're also more likely to let their guard down after an exhausting journey.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The threat of ransomware is becoming widespread among corporations, with almost half of U.S. businesses suffering an attack from the nasty form of malware recently, according to a new survey.Security firm Malwarebytes sponsored the study, which found in June that 41 percent of U.S. businesses had at least encountered between one to five ransomware attacks in the previous 12 months.Another 6 percent saw six or more attacks.The study surveyed corporations in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Germany to gauge how ransomware affected their operations.
The malware, which can infect a computer and take the data hostage, can be bad for business. 34 percent of the victim corporations in the countries surveyed reported losing revenue because the ransomware had prevented access to important files.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The long-running contretemps between the supporters of LTE-U and regular Wi-Fi, over the idea of the two wireless standards co-existing on the same frequencies, has moved into a new phase, as test plan parameters are expected to be rolled out at Wednesday’s coexistence workshop in San Jose.The workshop is a meeting of interested stakeholders from both parties. The LTE-U camp, primarily made up of Qualcomm, Ericsson and the major U.S. wireless telecoms, has long insisted that LTE-U technology will not interfere with existing Wi-Fi networks, despite using the same frequencies. Skeptics, which include the cable industry and many of the country’s biggest tech companies, including Google and Microsoft, are worried that the rosy coexistence picture presented by LTE-U’s backers is unrealistic.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A business-ready Office alternativeImage by LibreOfficeLibreOffice is a free and open source alternative to Microsoft's Office productivity software that boasts some 120 million users around the globe. Version 5.2 made its debut on Wednesday, and it's packed with new business features. Here's a look at what you'll find.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
You can find plenty of examples of sustainability on a quick spin around Wellesley College in suburban Boston, where solar panels shimmer above the athletic fields and Wells on Wheels supply water in an effort to dissuade disposable bottled water use. But when Wellesley College CIO Ravi Ravishanker blogged this past week about the "Creative (Re)Uses of Technologies," he focused less on environmental green and more on maximizing the green spent on various technologies.Ravishanker touted, for example, his team's resourcefulness in finding fresh uses for a drone acquired for teaching and learning -- and in fact, it was used by a college research team to film archeological sites in Greece. But since then, the drone has also been employed to map the school's Nehoiden golf course, and plans are to post the data online and maybe even work in some virtual reality technology to let people play a round remotely.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A digital currency exchange in Hong Kong has suspended trading after a security breach in which thieves made off with an apparent $63 million worth of bitcoin.The exchange, Bitfinex, reported the intrusion on Tuesday and said it was working with law enforcement.“We are investigating the breach to determine what happened, but we know that some of our users have had their bitcoins stolen,” the exchange said.Its statement doesn't say how many bitcoins are missing, but Zane Tackett, the site's director of community and product development, said on Reddit that the losses stand at 119,756 bitcoins. Bitfinex didn't immediately respond to a request to confirm that figure.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Become Your Office's Data Analytics Hero with These 4 Interactive Courses, discounted 85% for a limited time, from $276 down to just $39.
Successful businesspeople make the most out of the numbers available to them. If you're to succeed in the business world, you're going to need how to crunch and effectively analyze data. This course bundle teaches you how to interpret critical data, walks you through exercises, shows you how to present complex data to business and customer stakeholders, gives you access to professional spreadsheet models, and much more. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Netflix Effect has kicked off waves of disruption that are changing how the media business has run for decades. Similar to the Netflix Effect, the API Effect might fundamentally change the ground rules in the industries of companies that provide real-time communications applications to enterprise businesses. The implications for both universes have many parallels and portend possibly massive marketplace changes. What are the Netflix Effect and the API Effect?
What is the Netflix Effect? In the media industry it is the waves of change set off by the disaggregation of content and content production from the traditional methods of creation and distribution (cable and television networks and movie studios).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The National Science Foundation will devote $35 million in research funding over the next five years to accelerate the safe, intelligent, design and control of unmanned aircraft applications.+More on Network World: Hot stuff: The coolest drones+The announcement was part of a wide-ranging White House Office of Science and Technology Policy proclamation to, as it said, promote the safe integration and innovative adoption of unmanned aircraft systems across the United States.The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy is today hosting a workshop on “Drones and the Future of Aviation.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Remembering passwords can be a headache; instead, why not log into your computer with a scan of your eye?The hardware and software to make iris scanning a key feature is now reaching smartphones and PCs. The process is simple: An infrared scanner on a device will scan your iris, and verify its authenticity against encrypted information stored on the device.It's a notable feature in Samsung's Galaxy Note7 smartphone, which was announced on Tuesday. The smartphone has an iris scanner -- used to log in -- on top of its screen.There's an uneasy feeling about the flash of light projected into your eye, but experts believe iris scanning is a more secure form of biometric authentication than fingerprints.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Dallas Cowboys running back Darren McFadden nearly worked his way into our next big list of real life ways people have been hurt using their phones.McFadden broke his elbow over Memorial Day weekend and his coach initially told the media that it happened when the running back attempted to catch a falling iPhone. That fit right in with injuries we came across when digging through a recent batch of U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission data, collected from about 100 hospitals reporting emergency room visits into the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. We discovered lots of trips and falls, not to mention a few animal bites allegedly caused by ringing phones startling the pets.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Millions of point-of-sale systems and hotel room locks can be hacked by temporarily placing a small, inexpensive device several inches away from their card readers.The device, due to be presented Sunday at the DEF CON conference in Las Vegas, is the creation of Weston Hecker, a senior security engineer at Rapid7. It was inspired by MagSpoof, another device created last year by security researcher Samy Kamkar.MagSpoof can trick most standard card readers to believe a certain card was swiped by generating a strong electromagnetic field that simulates the data stored on the card's magnetic stripe. Kamkar presented it as a way to replace all your cards with a single device, but Hecker took the idea and investigated what else could be done with it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It seems so simple, and I hope it’s not: Russia has invaded the U.S. and assaulted the U.S. presidential election, and they haven’t fired a single shot.It would seem all roads lead to the Russian government having their fingers in the U.S. Democratic National Committee and the Democratic Congressional Committee. And WikiLeaks now becomes the New New Gun poised at the collective heads of U.S. politicians—by their revelations and their intent.+ Also on Network World: U.S. cyber incident directive follows DNC hack +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There's a lot to like in Samsung's new Galaxy Note7, which will ship on Aug. 19.
The sharp screen is accentuated by a slight curve on the edges that makes the device easy to handle. It has a snappy, 64-bit processor, and it can rock games and virtual reality with the companion Gear VR headset. Samsung's attention to smaller details makes it a fine device. Here are seven things you need to know about Note7:
Many similarities with Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge
The Galaxy Note7 is a large-screen version of the Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, with a 5.7-inch 2560 x 1440-pixel display. The USB-C port is an improvement over S7's micro-USB 2.0 ports. Common features include a 12-megapixel rear camera, 5-megapixel front camera, 802.11ac Wi-Fi, NFC, Bluetooth and wireless charging. The Note7 is pre-loaded with Android 6.0.1, weighs 169 grams and is 7.9 millimeters thick. It has 64GB of internal storage and an SD card slot.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Being always-on, along with pressure to answer email out of work hours, is leading to dangerous levels of emotional exhaustion, a study has found. As a result, employees are experiencing burnout, absenteeism and low job productivity.The report suggests that managers are kidding themselves when they think workers checking email at home adds to productivity. The folks are, in fact, feeling like they never left the workspace and aren’t able to mentally detach from work, which is something experts say is necessary for family balance and emotional health.+ Also on Network World: How to avoid becoming overwhelmed with email +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Boeing's decision to run its aviation analytics applications on the Azure cloud computing software is a big win for Microsoft, which is chasing Amazon Web Services (AWS) in the high-stakes race to sell computing, storage and other infrastructure software over the internet. The aerospace giant based its choice largely on Microsoft’s willingness to help it develop applications to serve its 300 airline customers, which are starved for ways to optimize fuel efficiency and better manage fleets."The combination of technical acumen and depth, as well as where they're investing and how they're addressing the business customer, really matched up with our objectives," says Andrew Gendreau, director of advanced information solutions at Boeing's digital aviation unit. He tells CIO.com that Microsoft also impressed with its commitment to advancing its Cortana analytics and internet of things suites as well as augmented reality, which could play a big factor modeling aviation modeling.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
With an eye towards better handling bandwidth-ravenous video streaming and data center to data center traffic, Juniper today said it would buy fabless photonics manufacturer Aurrion for an undisclosed price.“We expect that Aurrion’s breakthrough technology will result in fundamental and permanent improvements in cost per bit-per-second, power per bit-per-second, bandwidth density, and flexibility of networking systems,” said Pradeep Sindhu, co-founder and CTO of Juniper Networks wrote in a blog announcing the acquisition.+More on Network World: The weirdest, wackiest and coolest sci/tech stories of 2016 (so far!)+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s a good thing cars can’t experience emotions or one specific 2014 Jeep Cherokee would be terrified every time security pros Charlie Miller and Chris Valasek come near it. That’s the vehicle they remotely hacked in 2015; now they used the Jeep to show how an attacker can control the steering, accelerator and brakes while the Jeep is driving at high speeds.Granted, this time they were in the vehicle with a laptop physically connected to the CAN network via the diagnostic port. They reverse-engineered the electronic control unit (ECU) firmware, basically knocking it offline, so they could send fake CAN messages to tell the car what to do, such as slam on the brakes, jerk the steering wheel or hit the gas.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A new video might give a sneak peek at what listening to content on your iPhone 7 will be like if Apple indeed nixes the traditional 3.5mm headphone jack in its next smartphone.Speculation has been rampant this year that Apple is planning to do away with the 3.5mm headphone jack in an effort to slim down its smartphone and perhaps take more control over audio accessories by having its proprietary Lightning connector take over. In fact, a video that surfaced last week features a Lightning-to-3.5mm jack dongle to take the edge off for some users.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here