The Mac and iPhone exploits described in new documents attributed to the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency were patched years ago, according to Apple.WikiLeaks released a new set of files Thursday that supposedly came from the CIA. They contain details about the agency’s alleged malware and attack capabilities against iPhones and Mac computers.The documents, dated 2012 and earlier, describe several “implants” that the CIA can install in the low-level extensible firmware interface (EFI) of Mac laptop and desktop computers. These EFI rootkits allow the agency's macOS spying malware to persist even after the OS is reinstalled.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A lawsuit that challenged the fairness and legality of the H-1B lottery system, describing it as a "never ending game of chance," has been thrown out by a federal judge.The case was heard by U.S. District Court Judge Michael Simon in Oregon; in a 31-page opinion, Simon said that the government's random visa distribution method does not violate the law.The judge's ruling means that there will no changes to the H-1B distribution system this year.On April 1, the U.S. will receive visa petitions, or applications, for the 2018 fiscal year that begins Oct. 1. The U.S. holds a lottery if the petitions exceed the 85,000 cap -- an almost certain outcome.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Nearly three-quarters of Android devices on the five biggest U.S. carriers are running on security patches that are at least two months old, putting them at greater risk of being hacked.That finding was made in an analysis released Thursday by Skycure, a mobile threat defense vendor. The report also found that the city of Boston has had the biggest recent increase in smartphone and other wireless device threats — including malicious attacks — among 11 major U.S. cities. Incidents in Boston climbed by 960% in the fourth quarter of 2016. The analysis is based on millions of readings from network sensors that Skycure monitors globally.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The ungraceful death of the consumer version of Google Glass in 2015 may have had some grieving the early death of augmented reality. But the technology is being resurrected by companies on the manufacturing floor. Take for example Lockheed Martin. Technicians at the aerospace manufacturer use Microsoft's Hololens headset to design and examine models of spacecraft such as the Mars lander ahead of it's 2018 mission. Lockheed Martin
Technicians at Lockheed Martin's Collaborative Human Immersive Lab in Colorado examine a model of the Mars lander using Micorsoft's Hololens augmented reality headsets. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The price of a single Bitcoin passed that of an ounce of gold for the first time this month, and scammers were quick to get in on the action with Ponzi schemes and phishing sites spread via social media.Victims are lured in with fake Bitcoin wallets, fake Bitcoin search services, fake surveys about Bitcoin, too-good-to-be-true money making offers, and classic pyramid scams now dressed up with Bitcoins, according to a report released this week."The same characteristics that make Bitcoin attractive to people who want to make money distributing ransomware make it attractive to scammers," said Philip Tully, senior data scientist at security vendor ZeroFox, which published the report.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Simple, intuitive and easy to use. The Wii Remote Plus is a unique controller for the Wii and Wii U video game systems, now with the increased sensitivity of Wii MotionPlus built-in. The button presses of typical controllers are replaced by the natural, fluid motion of your hand. The Wii Remote Plus senses your every action and makes you feel less like a player and more like you're part of the game. This Wii remote is highly rated, and currently discounted 26% on Amazon to just $29.49.See this deal now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Help Wanted: Seeking Cognitive DeveloperIf the history of technology has taught us anything, it’s that change is constant. We’ve seen it with the birth of the computer, the internet, the cloud and now artificial intelligence (AI).As technology evolves, so does the role of developers who have become embedded in the fabric of these changing technologies. The developer of today is very different than the developer of three years ago and perhaps unrecognizable to the developer a decade ago. Driving the democratization of technology, developers are constantly evolving to continuously innovate and move with changing paradigms.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
With a regular list price of $149.99, the current discount makes the Jaybird X2 Sport is now available with a 53% discount for this deal. Features include:
Premium Bluetooth Audio For Skip-Free Music Outdoors
8 Hours of Music + Calls With Complete Remote Controls
Secure Over/Under-Ear Fit Options
Lifetime Sweat proof Warranty
Includes Comply Premium Sport Memory Foam Ear Tips, Patented Secure-Fit Ear Fins, Friction-Fit Silicone Sport Carrying Case, Silicone Ear Tips, Charging Cable & Cord Management Clips.
Jump to Amazon now for additional details, and to explore buying options.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
More than 40 years after founding Apple Computer, Steve Wozniak has a lot to say about the early days of the world's richest company -- and about technology, learning, and being a born engineer.On stage at the IEEE TechIgnite conference in Burlingame, California, on Wednesday, he gave a glimpse into how a tech legend thinks.On open source
In the early Seventies, Wozniak read about phone phreaking, in which "phreakers" made free phone calls by using electronics to mimic the tones used for dialing each number. To learn how to do it, he went to the only place he knew that had books and magazines about computers: The Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. He went on a Sunday and walked right in. "The smartest people in the world don't lock doors," Wozniak said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
When Computerworld was founded in 1967, a 1-megabyte hard drive would have set you back by $1 million.Today, that same megabyte of capacity on a hard disk drive (HDD) costs (about two cents.Through those five decades, data storage was seen as little more than a support technology, when in actuality has always been one of five tech pillars -- like processors and software -- underpinning our modern computer systems, said Owen Melroy, vice president of Media Components at Western Digital Corp. (WD).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Going rogue! 10 scary examples of AI gone wildImage by geralt via PixabayScience fiction is lousy with tales of artificial intelligence run amok. There's HAL 9000, of course, and the nefarious Skynet system from the "Terminator" films. Last year, the sinister AI Ultron came this close to defeating the Avengers, and right now the hottest show on TV is HBO's "Westworld," concerning the future of humans and self-aware AI.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Imagine paying for a small lock on your house every year. Burglars continue to break in despite what you think is a strong security deterrent. You spend the same amount every year on this inadequate security despite the different products on the market that promise to protect your home better.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Watch what leaves the officeImage by ThinkstockEmployee turnover is common, as is the practice of employees taking sensitive and confidential data with them when they leave, particularly data that they were involved in generating. This creates a significant risk for employers whose data was misappropriated, resulting in potential data breaches that can trigger regulatory actions or legal actions, as well as a variety of other consequences. Most employers are not adequately prepared to deal with the aftermath of employee data theft and many do not take the steps necessary to mitigate these risks before they occur.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Data-only SIM cards can give you freedom from two-year contracts and high-priced smartphone hardware. They're also great if you're travelling internationally, or if you have an old smartphone or LTE-enabled tablet that you want to use off-contract.These seven pre-paid SIM cards will give you plenty of options, whether you're travelling internationally, looking for talk and text or just want monthly data.Things to know before you buy
Compatibility can get confusing when you start considering pre-paid SIM cards, but the most important thing you'll need to know is whether your device is GSM or CDMA. If you aren't sure what the difference is, this article from DigitalTrends lays it out clearly. Some devices, including newer models of the iPhone, can operate on both GSM and CDMA -- but it can get complicated depending on your carrier.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Last week, the Trump administration announced the appointment of a White House cybersecurity coordinator. That's a good first step, security experts say, but the government also needs to have a federal CISO."It's a big leadership vacancy," said Sanjay Beri, CEO and co-founder at cloud security vendor Netskope.The job of a federal CISO is very new -- it was only created last year and filled in September with the appointment of retired brigadier general Gregory Touhill. He was previously the deputy assistant secretary for cybersecurity and communications at the Department of Homeland Security.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft is in the process of finalizing the Windows 10 Creators Update, preparing new builds for what will eventually become Release Candidates (RC). Windows Insiders could get the first RC as early as next week, while the final version is expected to roll out to all Windows 10 users starting in April. With the change in strategy, Microsoft is shipping much more ambitious new functionality in its updates. It is delivering the equivalent of what it used to call Service Packs, minus the cumulative bug fixes, at a rate of one to two every year. RELATED: 11 hidden tips and tweaks for Windows 10
The Creators Update, so named because it's targeting creative professionals above all, has a wide range of new features, such as: To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Most technologies go through a stage when everything seems possible. Personal computers in the early 1980s, the internet in the late 1990s and mobile apps around the beginning of this decade were like that.But so was the first unboxing of a Galaxy Note 7. In time, either suddenly or gradually, reality sets in.The internet of things still looks promising, with vendors and analysts forecasting billions of connected devices that will solve all sorts of problems in homes and enterprises. But the seams are starting to show on this one, too. As promising as the technology is, it has some shortcomings. Here are a few.BAD DATAIoT systems are only as good as the data they capture, and some of it is not great.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Things were so simple in the old days when it was easy to place vendors. New Relic was firmly and squarely focused on performance monitoring. It helps organizations gain visibility into how their applications and infrastructure are working so that they can make decisions or take actions based on performance.Splunk was in an entirely different space and was all about allowing organizations to ingest a huge amount of their data in order to run analytics over that data. In doing so, Splunk promised to give organizations more visibility about what was going on.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Apple has acquired the Workflow automation app, which allows iOS users to trigger a sequence of tasks across apps with a single tap.A spokesman for Apple confirmed on Wednesday the company's acquisition of DeskConnect, the developer of the app, and the Workflow app, but did not provide further details.Workflow, developed for the iPhone, iPad, and Apple Watch, allows users to drag and drop combinations of actions to create workflows that interact with the apps and content on the device. It won an Apple design award in 2015 at its annual Worldwide Developers Conference.Some of the examples of tasks for which Workflow can be used are making animated GIFs, adding a home screen icon to call a loved one and tweeting a song the user has been listening to, according to a description of the app.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The truth is we really don't need more of a reason to get excited for Apple's iPhone 8. After all, Apple's next-gen iPhone will likely feature an OLED edgeless display, ushering in the first change to the iPhone form factor since 2014's iPhone 6.New display technologies aside, it's widely believed that the iPhone 8 will also feature facial recognition functionality, improved camera technology, improved internals and much more.+ Also on Network World: New iPhone 8 concept photos are jaw-dropping +
That said, a new report via Bloomberg relays augmented reality (AR) may very well be one of the iPhone 8's defining features. Apple is said to have assembled an incredibly strong and diverse team with expertise across all facets of the AR user experience. What's more, Apple may eventually complement the iPhone 8 with a pair of AR-based eyeglasses, echoing a number of previous rumors we've seen over the past few months.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here