You’d think if someone had amassed personal information on nearly every registered US voter, and stored that information on an Amazon S3 storage bucket, that it would at least be protected with a password. But thanks to a misconfigured server, personal data of 198 million Americans voters could be downloaded by anyone who happened across it. It is believed to be the largest leak of voter records to have ever occurred anywhere in the world.That giant oops caused by Deep Root Analytics, a data analytics firm contracted to compile the information for the Republican National Committee, contained names, birthdates, home and mailing addresses, phone numbers, party affiliations, suspected ethnicities and religions, as well as analytics on who people would likely vote for and their stance on hot-button issues such as gun control and abortion.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Data lakes, storage repositories that hold extremely large amounts of raw data in its native format until the data is needed by users, are becoming increasingly popular within enterprises.Helping to fuel interest in data lakes are the digital transformation efforts underway at many enterprises, spurred by the emergence of the Internet of Things (IoT). The connected objects in the IoT will generate huge volumes of data.As more products, assets, vehicles and other “things” are instrumented and data ingested, it’s important that IoT data sets be aggregated in a single place, where they can be easily analyzed and correlated with other relevant data sets using big data processing capabilities. Doing so is critical to generating the most leverage and insight from IoT data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This tiny motion-sensing strip contains 6 bright LEDs, and sticks anywhere. Just the trick for illuminating an entryway door-lock, a kitchen cabinet, drawers, closet or the glove box in your car. Simply turns on when somebody is there, and turns off when no motion is sensed. And the part that sticks is actually a magnetic base, so you can pop the light off and take it with you as a torch if needed. Currently priced at 43% off, so right now you're paying just $16.99 for a two-pack. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you run a website of any significant size, odds are you utilize some form of content management system (CMS). Wordpress, Drupal, or the like.And, if you don’t use such a system, you probably employ rather extensive use of some form of server-side, scripted, page generation. PHP, ASP, Ruby… the list goes on and on.There are many scenarios where such a system makes a great deal of sense. But I’m here to tell you, right now, that it is highly unlikely that you actually need them… at least for the majority of your page. And, what’s more, if you migrate away from a CMS system you can not only make your webpages smaller and faster-loading for your visitors… but you can save significantly on your server infrastructure costs as well.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Ever since outgoing GE CEO Jeff Immelt opined upon his organization’s move from being an industrial machinery vendor to a software one, the world has been increasingly interested in the opportunities introduced by the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT).IIoT simply refers to the increasing trend towards industrial machinery being connected to the internet and pinging off all sort of interesting data that can then be monitored and analyzed. And while it is fair to say that connected industrial machinery has been around for a long time (via SCADA and PLCs), the difference today is that under the IIoT, it is general the public internet that has all this data traversing on it. Further, increasingly customers are looking to the IIoT to deliver efficiencies, create agility and reduce downtime.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When it comes to the cloud's impact on the network, there are two things I hear over and over again that I disagree with. The first is that the cloud commoditizes the network. This actually dovetails into the second fallacy where some believe that merchant silicon based products offer no differentiation and “good enough” will become the norm where price is the only way to compete. I do believe the cloud will have a negative effect on many technologies, such as spinning disks (not flash) and rack mount servers, but the network does not fall into this category.With the cloud, the network matters more than ever. In fact, the network will be one of the competitive differentiators for cloud providers and enterprises building out their own private or hybrid clouds. A good enough network means a good enough cloud experience, where a high quality, agile network enables greater cloud performance. Don’t get me wrong, the network needs to change from the monolithic, hardware centric solutions available today to something more agile with the ability to scale up and out at “cloud speed” but it’s more important than ever.To read this article in full or to leave a Continue reading
We keep seeing a common theme when it comes to spyware sold exclusively to governments, surveillance spyware which is marketed as lawful tools to help governments fight crime and terrorism; those remote intrusion solutions are increasingly used to spy on people who the governments consider to be a threat because those people are revealing the truth to the public. The latest example comes from Mexico, showing how powerful spyware was used to target journalists investigating high-level official corruption and human rights defenders investigating government-sponsored human rights abuses.The surveillance spyware Pegasus (pdf), sold by the Israel-based NSO Group, is meant to remotely take complete control of mobile phones. While this isn’t the first time the stealthy Pegasus has been abused by governments for purposes other than preventing and investigating crimes, Citizen Lab said it is the first time a minor has been targeted with infection attempts using governmental spyware. Why target a kid? To spy on his mother.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
We keep seeing a common theme when it comes to spyware sold exclusively to governments, surveillance spyware which is marketed as lawful tools to help governments fight crime and terrorism; those remote intrusion solutions are increasingly used to spy on people who the governments consider to be a threat because those people are revealing the truth to the public. The latest example comes from Mexico, showing how powerful spyware was used to target journalists investigating high-level official corruption and human rights defenders investigating government-sponsored human rights abuses.The surveillance spyware Pegasus (pdf), sold by the Israel-based NSO Group, is meant to remotely take complete control of mobile phones. While this isn’t the first time the stealthy Pegasus has been abused by governments for purposes other than preventing and investigating crimes, Citizen Lab said it is the first time a minor has been targeted with infection attempts using governmental spyware. Why target a kid? To spy on his mother.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This inexpensive smartphone charger from Anker is the size of a candy bar, and has enough juice to recharge any smartphone, including the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus, at least 1-2 times over. It's discounted 64% to just $18. The Astro E1 currently averages 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 8,200 people on Amazon (81% rate 5 stars: See reviews), and it's listed there as a #1 best-seller. See the attractively priced Anker Astro E1 charger now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
While the high-speed Professional USB 3.0 Dual-Slot Reader supports the latest high-speed CF and SD formats, it’s also backwards compatible with standard CF and SD cards, as well as USB 2.0. The Lexar Professional USB 3.0 Dual-Slot Reader has the ability to read from both card slots simultaneously, and it also allows for easy file transfer from one card to another. Leverages SuperSpeed USB 3.0 technology for high-speed file transfers, with USB interface speed up to 500MB/s. The reader averages 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 770 people on Amazon (read reviews), where the typical list price has been reduced 30% to just $24.45. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The devil is in the details – best describes IoT. Computing will vanish says Walt Mossberg. And the public and data scientists gush with optimism at the thought of 20 billion to 50 billion connected IoT devices emitting an endless stream of data.Getting the billions of devices connected will be no small task. The thought of all the IoT applications of all that data is nothing less than seductive. Cities will self-regulate motor vehicle and public transportation saving commuters hours of travel time. Sensors will alert us and doctors when mom is not keeping to her pharmaceutical regimen.And, all these IoT devices will give context to people’s daily lives. Lights dimming or illuminating to match our mood or actions, refrigerators will warn that we have either eaten too much or not exercised enough before opening the door. Our designer glasses with integrated Microsoft Hololens technology will project the most salient context of the moment at that location.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
With no change at the top of the latest Top500.org supercomputer list, you need to look further down the rankings to see the real story.Top500.org published the 49th edition of its twice-yearly supercomputer league table on Monday, and once again the Chinese computers 93-petaflop Sunway TaihuLight and 33.9-petaflop Tianhe 2 lead the pack.An upgrade has doubled the performance of Switzerland's GPU-based Piz Daint to 19.6 petaflops (19.6 quadrillion floating-point operations per second), boosting it from eighth to third place and nudging five other computers down a place. The top U.S. computer, Titan, is now in fourth.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
IT organizations are enjoying a slow but steady increase in budgets, but their capital expenses and hiring trends are essentially flat, reflecting the effect of the shift to cloud computing. That’s the takeaway from Computer Economics’ annual IT Spending and Staffing Benchmarks study for 2017/2018. The study finds that the greatest effect has been a decrease in the total amount of spending that goes toward the capital budget."Unless you are an IT equipment manufacturer, this is good news," said David Wagner, vice president of research at Computer Economics in a statement. "The cloud transition is far from over, and we're already seeing more efficient IT departments, particularly on a cost-per-user basis, which is at a new low. Business applications and network infrastructure are the top areas of new IT spending, while the data center, for the first time, is at the bottom. We take this as a sign the cloud transformation is continuing in earnest."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Fintech adoption and revenue have grown quickly and consistently enough to inspire some hand-wringing by banks and on their behalf, and to prompt speculation not just about which company will be the next unicorn, but how finance will react, and how the fintech industry as a whole will develop.Media coverage seeking the next dominant power — a fintech version of Amazon — may miss an important trend underlying the fintech industry growth. Fintech companies have tended to succeed through partnership and collaboration, reaching new markets and expanding services by finding mutual benefit with another company.“The fintech industry will only continue to grow, and this will be aided by an influx of collaborations between financial institutions and fintech companies to come,” wrote Alice Chen in a blog post for Due, a digital wallet for payments online.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Linux history command allows users to repeat commands without retyping them and to look over a list of commands they've recently used, but that's just the obvious stuff. It is also highly configurable, allows you to pick and choose what you reuse (e.g., complete commands or portions of commands), and controls what commands are recorded.In today's post, we're going to run through the basics and then explore some of the more interesting behaviors of the history command.The basics of the Linux history command
Typing "history" and getting a list of previously entered commands is the command's most obvious use. Pressing the up arrow until you reach a command that you want to repeat and hitting enter to rerun it is next. And, as you probably know, you can also use the down arrow. In fact, you can scroll up and down your list of previously entered commands to review them or rerun them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
For the first time since their debut on the market in the mid-2000s, 10 Gigabit Ethernet switches are set to lose share in the networking industry this year as service providers and hyperscale customers continue to adopt faster bandwidth 40 and 100 GbE switches, according to data from research firm IDC.IDC estimates that last year 10 GbE revenues stood at $6.15 billion, up from $5.44 billion in 2015. This year, IDC predicts 10 GbE switching revenues will fall to $5.94 billion.+MORE AT NETWORK WORLD: Nokia rolls out its first 'petabit-class' router | SD-WAN, what it is and why you'll use it one day +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Dash Wand is a wifi enabled kitchen assistant that helps you shop AmazonFresh and millions of everyday essentials on Amazon.com. Essentially free, since right now you get a $20 Amazon credit when you register the device. How does it work? Just scan a barcode on an item you need, or press the button and say:"How many teaspoons in a tablespoon?”"How many calories are there in Greek yogurt?""Alexa, ask Pizza Hut to place an order."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Verizon has closed on the purchase of search engine pioneer Yahoo, thus ending the independent run of one of the original internet firms that launched in the early 1990s and the reign of error of Marissa Meyer. But the company is still having a fire sale of its patent portfolio, and one of them is a unique data center design.The company announced in 2009 an unusual data center design in Lockport, New York. The building was shaped like a chicken coop and would use outside air for cooling with a flywheel-based energy storage system, and it would have an annualized PUE (Power Usage Effectiveness) of under 1.1, which was better than what Google was reporting for its data centers at the time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Still need to get Dad a gift? Or a gift for yourself? The Amazon devices below are currently discounted for Father's day. Yes, Father's day is only 3 days away, but don't panic -- if you're a Prime member, order today you'll have it shipped in time, and for free. If you're not a Prime member, sign up for a free trial and you'll get the free 2-day shipping you need if you want to pull off this last minute plan.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Fave Raves is an annual feature from Network World that invites enterprise IT pros to share hands-on assessments of products they love. Several IT pros raved about their favorite network tools. Here’s what they had to say, in their own words. For more enterprise favorites, check out the full Fave Raves collection.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)