Current-generation Wi-Fi technology lives in the 5GHz band. Almost all of the major innovation in wireless standards takes place in the relatively untroubled frequencies around 5GHz (and well above), where there’s little radio competition and the living is easy.But wireless LAN users can’t just stay comfortable in the 5GHz realm – the older 2.4GHz frequency bands are a necessary part of most wireless implementations, and they’re rarely a favorite of the people who have to build and operate Wi-Fi networks.+ ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: Toward a bigger, faster, denser Wi-Fi WorldTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Enterprises authenticate users based on their knowledge, possession, or inherence of some evidence that they are the party with the given right of access. Some experts see the context of the user’s authentication such as the time, their network IP and device, and their location as the fourth factor of authentication.Stephen Cobb, senior security researcher at ESET says you can assure greater security with each additional factor of authentication that you add.MFA is more important than ever as attackers are increasingly breaking into accounts that use single-factor authentication and sometimes even those with two factors. In one example, attackers tried to get the second factor by using phishing texts that asked users to send over their tokens.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Have security gadgets, will travelImage by Kensington, Anonabox, Yubikey The highly digitized and hyper-connected world that we live in today has heightened the security stakes for us all. But if work frequently takes you away from the home office, you have some particular security and privacy concerns.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There is an old cliché that says a company's most valuable assets walk out the door at the end of the day. However, according to a recent security report, some other valuable assets are walking out the door as well, and they're not coming back.In a survey from Osterman Research, 69 percent of organizations polled say that they have suffered significant data or knowledge loss resulting from employees who took information resources with them when they left the business.Any form of data loss is a threat to a business, but the report notes that problems can arise both from employees actually taking data with them when they leave, and when departing employees have parked corporate information in locations like cloud storage services that are unknown or inaccessible to their former employer.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
At least one of the major reasons for the ongoing exponential increase in ransomware as a criminal business model could be summed up with the iconic line from the prison boss in 1967’s “Cool Hand Luke”: “What we got here is a failure to communicate.”That was a recurring theme from those on a “Ransomware Panel” Thursday at SOURCE Boston 2017, moderated by Paul Roberts, founder and editor in chief of The Security Ledger.The communication breakdown occurs at all levels, the panelists said, starting with victims.
■ MORE FROM SOURCE Boston: Cyber infrastructure: Too big to fail, and failing
Frank McLaughlin, a Boston Police detective, said when a business gets hit with ransomware, “the police are the last people they want to call, for obvious reasons. It becomes a public record.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Backup Plus Slim Portable Drive is the simple, one-click way to protect and share your entire digital life. At 12.1 millimeters thin and a generous 2TB of storage, it’s ready to take with you and go. All your photos, movies, and videos can be backed up using the downloadable Seagate Dashboard software, including the ones you’ve shared on Facebook, Flickr, and YouTube. Run a one-click backup or schedule an automatic backup plan to protect your files on your Backup Plus Slim Portable Drive at your convenience. High-speed USB 3.0 and 2.0 connectivity offers plug-and-play functionality without the need of an external power supply. Compatible with both PC and Mac systems. The drive averages 4 out of 5 stars from over 11,600 people on Amazon (read reviews). The typical list price has been reduced 13% to just $69.99 for the 2TB model. See it now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. military, which continues its interest in bug bounty programs as a way to improve cybersecurity, is launching a new contest next month.Called “Hack the Air Force,” the new program will put certain of the branch’s Web sites up as targets for a set of international hackers who have been vetted by HackerOne, which is running the program.+More on Network World: IBM: Financial services industry bombarded by malware, security threats+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
“Wake up!” the good folks a Merriam-Webster just tweeted. “Sheeple is in the dictionary now.” Merriam-Webster via Twitter
And while the induction of such casual slang is sure to offend some, none will likely take great umbrage than Apple zealots, whose zealotry is cited by the dictionary as an example of the proper use of the word.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The SanDisk Extreme PRO USB 3.0 Flash Drive features a sizable 128GB of storage, and read speeds of up to 260MB/s lets you easily transfer a full-length movie in seconds. The sophisticated design and durable aluminum metal casing help to protect against every day wear and tear on the outside, while the included SanDisk SecureAccess software provides 128-bit AES file encryption and password protection on the inside for your private files. The SanDisk Extreme PRO USB 3.0 Flash Drive is backed with a lifetime limited warranty. It currently averages 4.6 out of 5 stars on Amazon from over 530 people (80% rate the full 5 stars: see reviews here), and its typical list price has been reduced generously to just $52.10. See this deal on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Humans are developing extreme emotional connections with their virtual assistants—so much so that about a quarter of regular users say they have sexual fantasies about those digital voice assistants.That’s according to new research by J. Walter Thompson and Mindshare (pdf).The virtual assistants include devices such as Amazon’s Alexa and Echo brands and Apple’s Siri smartphone virtual assistant. They’re used for giving verbal instructions to and consequently operating residential Internet of Things applications, playing music and reading the news out loud, among other things.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Look around the cybersecurity infrastructure at any enterprise organization, and here’s what you’ll see—dozens and dozens of cybersecurity tools from just as many vendors. Now this situation wasn’t planned; it just happened. Over the past 15 years, bad guys developed new cyber weapons to exploit IT vulnerabilities. And large organizations reacted to these new threats by purchasing and deploying new security controls and monitoring systems. This pattern continued over time, leading to today’s patchwork of security point tools. + Also on Network World: Is your company spending on the right security technologies? +
So, what’s the problem? Point tools aren’t really designed to talk with one another, leaving human beings to bridge the communications, intelligence and technology gaps between them. Furthermore, each individual tool requires training, deployment, configuration and ongoing operational support. More tools, more needs.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The financial services industry is the target of a whopping 65% more targeted cyber-attacks than the average business, according to security watchers at IBM’s X Force.The number of financial services records breached skyrocketed 937% in 2016 to more than 200 million. Financial institutions were forced to defend against a 29 percent increase in the number of attacks from 2015, IBM stated.+More on Network World: IBM: Tax-related spam up 6,000% since Dec.; Darkweb tactics net billions+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It’s an all-too-familiar story: Naïve but well-intentioned people get taken advantage of by an OEM that over-engineers and/or over-charges for equipment during a Request for Proposal (RFP).Remember the cautionary tale about the West Virginia officials accused of wasting $5 million of federal money on enterprise-class Cisco routers that weren’t needed? While that story is 4 years old now, the significance isn’t lost because it remains top of mind when IT staffers kibitz about how the RFP process can go wrong—awfully wrong.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The Hajime botnet is nearly 300,000 strong, making it a latent threat nearly as powerful as the notorious Mirai botnet that devastated high-profile websites last fall, leading some to think the internet had been broken.Researchers at Kaspersky Lab lured devices infected with the Hajime worm to announce themselves to a Kaspersky honeypot, checked out whether they were actually infected and added them up. They came up with the number 297,499, says Igor Soumenkov, principal researcher at Kaspersky Lab.An earlier estimate by Symantec put the size at tens of thousands. Estimates of the number of infected devices in Mirai botnets have put it about 400,000, but the number of devices that might be infected with the Hajime worm is 1.5 million, says Dale Drew, the CSO of Level 3, which has been building a profile of behavioral classifiers to identify it so it can be blocked.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Tomorrow's leadersImage by ThinkstockWith today’s push across the education landscape for more emphasis on STEM studies, it’s not surprising that top leaders and innovators in technology would be a draw as college commencement speakers. Here’s a roundup of some of the bigger names.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Samsung Electronics said Thursday it was planning to launch in the second half of this year a new flagship phone, leading to speculation that the company is planning an alternative to the ill-fated Galaxy Note7 that had to be recalled last year.The launch of a new flagship smartphone this year and continuing sales of the Galaxy S8 and S8+ will help Samsung counter Apple’s launch of a new version of its iPhone. Apple usually unveils new phones in September."Samsung does announce a S series phone in the first half of the year and a Note series in the second half," said Kiranjeet Kaur, research manager for client devices at IDC Asia/Pacific. "So I am not sure if Samsung is alluding to the next Note or if they want to introduce a new series to avoid any questions or doubts that may arise because of the Note7 debacle."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
One of the brilliant things about Uber, and Lyft for that matter, is that it allows riders to rank drivers and for drivers, in turn, to rank passengers. This is a clever way to not only ensure that drivers are up to the task, but to also to provide users with an incentive to refrain from unruly behavior.Historically, Uber has allowed users to check what their own personal rating is, though doing so often required users to jump through a few hoops. Earlier today, however, Uber made the entire process much more seamless. Which is to say, if you're curious as to what Uber drivers think of you as a passenger, it's now easier than ever to access that information.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In announcing its Q1 earnings yesterday Juniper company executives were delighted about the company’s returns on its cloud computing directions.In the results conference call Juniper CEO Rami Rahim said cloud computing sales grew 25% year-over-year and noted that four of the company’s top 10 accounts were cloud-related. Specifically, the cloud vertical earned $331.6 million in the first quarter, over $264.8 million a year ago.“As the industry evolves, cloud architectures are no longer the exclusive domain of the cloud providers. Customers across all verticals are developing strategies for moving to cloud service delivery models and this aligns with our strategy to power the cloud transformation,” Rahim said [Seeking Alpha has a full transcript of the call here]. “The cloud is a massive paradigm shift that is reshaping all industries, and I'm excited about the opportunity we have in front of us.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The hackers spreading ransomware are getting greedier. In 2016, the average ransom demand to free computers hit with the infection rose to US$1,077, up from $294 the year before, according to security firm Symantec.“Attackers clearly think that there’s more to be squeezed from victims,” Symantec said in a Wednesday report.In addition, the security firm has been detecting more ransomware infection attempts. In 2016, the figure jumped by 36 percent from the year prior. That doesn’t bode well for the public. Ransomware is notorious for taking over computers, and essentially holding them hostage. To do so, the malicious coding encrypts all the data inside, and then demands a fee, usually in bitcoin, in exchange for releasing the machine.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The digital technology and media and entertainment industries are beginning to come together to solve a common problem—how to extract, unlock, harness and make better use of the massive amounts of video content and data they produce. Anyone who has ever appeared in or produced a movie, commercial or business video is aware that many times a good portion of the footage winds up on the proverbial cutting room floor. The same is true of digital data. It is estimated that more than 80 percent of enterprise data is considered “dark”—created but never used.+ Also on Network World: Machine learning proves its worth to business +
What if there were a way to pick up this data equivalent of cutting room discards and turn them into new assets? What if technologies such as IBM Watson could work with video editors to unearth data treasures that benefit and excite both producers and audiences? Sounds like the plot to a blockbuster movie, but it is now more fact than fiction.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here