Several German firms are taking a stab at a single login process for accessing different online services -- an approach that could compete with U.S. offerings. The companies, which include automaker Daimler, insurance provider Allianz and Deutsche Bank, among others, announced the joint effort on Monday. Their goal: to create a platform that revolves around a “master key” for users that can access sites and services across industries.The platform will not only make online registration simpler, but also more secure, they said. To do so, the companies will incorporate top standards in data security, and comply with local European Union data protection laws.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It was just a week ago when Microsoft issued an update to Windows 10 for Insiders to test, and now, four build numbers later, it has another for testing with some new features added.Microsoft is currently full-on in development of “Redstone 3,” the next major update to its operating system. It has said it plans to issue two major updates per year to the OS, with the Creators Update in March being the most recent. The next update is planned for September.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Vendor partnerships usually don't raise too many eyebrows or pulse rates around here, but when I came across an announcement by Lemko and Federated Wireless promoting a joint effort on the Citizens Broadband Radio Service (CBRS) it did get my attention.CBRS, if you aren't familiar, refers to shared 3.5 GHz spectrum recently opened by the FCC for commercial applications, and everyone from the big carriers to the likes of Cisco and Google are throwing their weight behind it. One possible application would be LTE services, which could come in the form of extended carrier networks, new cable service provider networks, and even private enterprise networks for IoT or other connectivity.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission's website slowed to a crawl after comic and political commentator John Oliver urged viewers to flood the agency with comments in support of net neutrality, in what appeared to be a repeat of a 2014 incident.With the FCC headed toward a repeal of net neutrality rules it passed in early 2015, Oliver on Sunday echoed his "Last Week Tonight" commentary on the topic from three years ago. (Note to viewers: The link to Oliver's new diatribe is not safe for work.) As in 2014, the FCC's website seemed to buckle under the load late Sunday and early Monday, but the cause may have been more sinister than a flood of people expressing their support for net neutrality rules.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
For the umpteenth time, Dell Technologies has reiterated that PCs are important to the company, and it won't quit the market.But PCs occupied only a few minutes of CEO Michael Dell's opening keynote at Dell EMC World in Las Vegas on Monday. PCs are the engine that keep enterprises chugging, he said.Instead, Dell spent time educating attendees about the new Dell Technologies and its products. It's been less than a year since the US$67 billion Dell-EMC merger was finalized, and a lot of focus was on answering burning questions about the company's future.Dell did say the company would offer the PC-as-a-service worldwide by the end of the year, with more details about the program to be shared on Tuesday. HP and Microsoft are offering PC-as-a-service options, allowing customers to buy devices and support and pay on a monthly basis. That option reduces the hardware acquisition and support costs for companies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Dell's drive into open networking accelerated on Monday with the announcement of the first switches to ship with OS10, the company's network operating system that's based on open source.At Dell EMC World in Las Vegas, the company introduced two data-center switches running OS10 Enterprise Edition, an enhanced version of the open-source OS that Dell announced early last year.The software is based on technologies from the Linux Foundation and the Open Compute Project and is already available through an extended beta to customers who already have hardware. The Enterprise Edition is a complete software platform, including Dell's networking stack, but its open-source foundation means it can be extended with third-party software, said Jeff Baher, Dell EMC's executive director, networking.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Dell EMC is making one of its broadest rollouts of updated storage gear in years at Dell EMC World on Monday, packing more capacity and performance into several product lines.Coming several months after the completion of the Dell-EMC merger, the update includes the second generation of EMC's XtremIO all-flash array, a new architecture for its Isilon network-attached storage platform, and an improved flash module for the VMax line.Some of the gains made in these products flow from improvements that come like clockwork from other players in the industry. SSDs keep getting bigger, with up to 15.4TB units now available in some of this gear, and Intel CPUs advance with new and faster chipsets, including Haswell (in Isilon) and Broadwell (in VMax).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Kids these daysImage by Ólafur Páll GeirssonThe National Collegiate Cybersecurity Competition (NCCDC) is an annual event that seeks to get college students involved in cybersecurity. This year, as usual, the kids were playing defense, but many of the competitors had certain black-hat incidents in their past, having hacked systems as varied as insulin pump, a connect avionics system, and a beer kegerator.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There’s a decent chance you're part of Oracle’s next big business. Not selling products to you, but selling you as a product. That's the idea behind the Oracle Data Cloud, a massive pool of information about consumers and companies.The tech titan has put it together by tracking people across the web and buying data from a variety of sources. People who have their data included may not even know that they’ve opted in for that data collection.There’s no big red button that someone has to click in order to be a part of the company's data collection machine. Instead, its base of user data is fed by a network of third parties. The Data Cloud is primarily fed by three types of sources: publishers, like Forbes and Edmunds, retail loyalty programs, and traditional data brokers like Experian and IHS.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The MM300 is a high endurance, pro-grade cloth mouse pad for high-DPI gaming mice. Reinforced stitched edges guard against surface peeling, and the optimized textile-weaved surface design gives superior control and precision tracking for absolutely lethal in-game accuracy. With multiple sizes available, from small to extended, the MM300 has just the right size to fit your needs. This gaming pad currently averages 4.7 out of 5 stars from over 840 people (read reviews) on Amazon, where the extended version's typical list price of $29.99 has been recently dropped 17% to just $24.95. See this deal now on Amazon To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Just a few years back, Dell said it didn't want to mimic sloppy behemoths like IBM or HP and, instead, wanted to be lean and focus on the mid-market.But after a US$67 billion merger with EMC in 2016, the new company called Dell Technologies is a full-bodied systems integrator, offering hardware, networking, storage, and services.In the meanwhile, the company's rivals slimmed down. The new Hewlett-Packard Enterprise focuses on data-center hardware, while IBM focuses on software.Dell Technologies is taking a page from Alphabet, a bunch of autonomous companies like Google working together. Dell Technologies includes hardware company Dell and storage provider EMC, with many independent operational units that have combined to strengthen the company's infrastructure stack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I’ve been covering Mirantis for the longest time. They’re an easy company to write about. Seemingly every drama in the IT industry has some kind of Mirantis involvement, and while that might be a slight exaggeration, it’s fair to say that they’re good at providing fodder for the peanut brigade.Most recently, Mirantis has been undergoing something of a transformation, as market dynamics and the realities of their initially chosen areas (that of being a specialist OpenStack service shop) didn’t really prove viable. In recent months, Mirantis has significantly cut staffing levels and pivoted somewhat to being a service provider across a variety of open-source cloud operating systems (most notable Kuberenetes).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There should be prizes for this. Let’s call them The Oopsies. The most bafflingly easy servers to hijack, turn out to be those running Intel’s Active Management Technology (AMT).People warned me about this, and I pooh-pooh’d it. Please hand me a scraper so that I can wipe the egg off my face. The servers are so wickedly simple to jack that a third-grader can log into them and merrily do essentially root damage.+ Also on Network World: The insecurities list: 10 ways to improve cybersecurity +
That the largest server CPU provider on earth doesn’t fall all over itself in sincere apologies (United Airlines gone wrong?) doesn’t surprise me. No one falls on their sword anymore. No one takes product managers out behind the cafeteria and strips the access key fob from the management toy room. It’s all just jolly. Oops. Sorry, folksTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
For anyone eagerly anticipating the release of the iPhone 8, we have some good news to share. Amid reports that production difficulties and component shortages may have resulted in the iPhone 8 hitting stores as late as November, a new report via Digitimes saysiPhone 8 mass production is on track and that the device will go on sale sometime in October.According to the report, Apple's key partners in the supply chain will begin ramping up component production in June. Specifically, TSMC will reportedly begin producing Apple's next-generation A11 processor towards the later half of June. What's more, some of the yield issues that Apple was previously facing have reportedly been addressed. All that said, mass production is reportedly on track to get underway sometime in August or September.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
With the release of the Windows 10 Creators Update in early April, Microsoft changed the default command-line environment in Windows 10 from the Command Prompt (aka cmd.exe) to PowerShell. There, the old black-and-white command-line interface gives way to a new, blue-and-white style in the latest version of Windows 10.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Last week open source company Red Hat held its annual summit. I didn't actually attended the event, but I took the opportunity to follow along virtually. Many of my analyst friends were there, and between their missives, some back-channel conversations and interaction with their AR/PR team, I got a pretty good handle on what was up.This comes at an interesting time for Red Hat. Its original business, Red Hat Linux in all its flavors, is going well, but newer open-source initiatives (OpenStack, OpenShift, Docker, etc.) have muddied the waters and created a requirement for Red Hat to embrace different areas.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This 4GB USB drive from Centon is just a little over $3 right now -- so cheap that Amazon won't ship it on its own. But if your cart totals $25 or more, toss in some of these sticks right now for dirt cheap. The flash drive is built with a sturdy aluminum housing, works on both PC and Mac, and is a cheap & simple way to move files around. It's listed on Amazon as an add-on item, meaning its cost prohibitive to ship on its own, but if your cart totals $25 or more, take advantage of this deal and get yourself 4GB of portable storage for a whopping 81% off its typical list price. The sticks right now are listed for just $3.33. See this deal on Amazon. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Mom or Dad's day gift alert, here. The Rambler 20 oz. bottle is next-level, and the perfect addition to rough commutes, day hikes, or kayak sessions. Features a no-sweat design and tough 18/8 stainless steel construction -- kitchen-grade, durable, and rust-proof to last a lifetime. Yeti has over-engineered these double-wall insulated tumblers to ensure your drink still keeps its temperature no matter how much of a beating this cup takes. Its clear, dishwasher-safe and shatterproof cap protects your truck cab or day pack from spills. The Rambler 20 oz. bottle stands 6 7/8 inches high, and has a lip diameter of 3.5 inches, sized to fit in standard sized cup holders. The popular Yeti bottle's list price has been reduced 25% to $22.49. See the deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Another political campaign has been hit by an email dump. This time, the target is French presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron.On Friday, his campaign said a massive and coordinated hack had breached the email inboxes of several staffers. This came after a mysterious user named “EMLEAKS” apparently dumped the stolen data through torrent files on text storage site Pastebin.It’s unclear if the information in the dump is genuine. Allegedly, the dump contains a 9GB trove of emails and photos. The torrent files, which were hosted on Archive.org, are no longer available there.But Macron’s campaign said the leaked files have been spreading over social media as the country prepares to vote for a new president on Sunday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A few years ago, next-generation firewalls (NGFWs) came out of nowhere to become a network security staple. These devices combined traditional L3/L4 packet filtering with deep packet inspection, IPS, and other network security services along with knowledge about users and applications. This broad functionality packaging changed the network security paradigm—everyone needed, or at least wanted a NGFW at the perimeter or within the internal network.Fast forward to 2017, and the bloom is coming off the NGFW rose for several reasons:
Requirements have changed. NGFWs followed in the footsteps of earlier firewalls—physical appliances installed inline to protect private networks from the public Internet. Back then, mobile and remote office workers VPNed into the corporate network and traffic was backhauled for Internet ingress/egress. This model is changing rapidly, however. As cloud computing, SaaS, mobility and broadband networks evolved, mobile and remote worker connection are often dual homed, offering direct connections to the public internet. Once this happens, NGFWs lose their usefulness, offering no visibility or control of network traffic.
Software is eating the world. Remember Marc Andreessen’s famous essay about the rise of software? Ironically, his publication doesn’t dedicate a single word to cybersecurity, but make no mistake, software is eating Continue reading