The scoop: RearVision backup camera license plate bracket, by Pearl Auto, about $500.What is it? This package includes a license plate bracket for the back of your automobile, but it’s not an ordinary bracket. Inside are two video cameras that provide you with a view for behind your car. The system includes an on-board diagnostics adapter (OBD) that communicates with the camera via Bluetooth and Wi-Fi to your smartphone to provide the view. The cameras are charged via solar sensors, so you don’t need to have a professional installation in order to power up the cameras. To complete the package, the system includes a mounting bracket for either your car’s dashboard or air vents, depending on your personal preference (or state laws that prohibit dashboard mounts).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Foreign spies made off with an “unknown quantity of documents” after infecting Australia’s meteorology bureau with a RAT, but the fact that security controls at the bureau were “insufficient” even for common cybercrime threats only helped the “state-sponsored cyber adversaries.”After Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology systems was hacked, unnamed government officials immediately blamed China and China immediately denied the “groundless accusations.” When the hack hit the news in December 2015, the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) would not confirm if its systems had been compromised. In April, Australian’s Prime Minister did confirm there had been a “significant cyber intrusion” at the Bureau.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As readers are now no doubt aware, the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 phablet has been on fire lately. Literally. To the point where the Korean manufacturer has given up on fixing the design and killed the entire project. Buyers have been told to stop using the phones and return them in, get this, a fireproof box.+ Also on Network World: The Note 7 is dead: What Samsung must do now +Given the Galaxy Note 7’s propensity for spontaneous combustion and Samsung’s inability to definitively fix the problem, the move shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. Still, the fallout from Galaxy Note 7 debacle will be felt far and wide, and not just by Samsung and the users and sellers of this particularly flawed device.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Samsung has begun sending customers of its discontinued Galaxy Note7 smartphones special boxes designed to protect the fire-prone phablets from doing any damage on their way back to the vendor through the mail. The lithium-ion batteries in the phones are being fingered for the devices overheating, and in some cases, catching on fire.The shipping package, as discussed by XDA Developers, includes an instruction sheet that shows how the Note7 should be insulated before being sent off. First comes a static shield bag, then a small OEM replacement box, then another box and finally a thermal insulated box. Oh, and there's a set of gloves that you're supposed to put on before handling all of the contents.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In the world of videoconferencing, there’s a gap between the large conference room systems and lecture hall gear, and the individual’s webcam on their computer, tablet or smartphone. For smaller conference rooms, many of which have been renamed “huddle rooms”, neither option seems appropriate, because of cost (using a larger system) or convenience (2-4 people shouldn’t have to crowd around a laptop screen).Videoconferencing vendors continue to address this need, with Lifesize being the latest – the company announced today its Icon 450 system, a videoconferencing camera and audio system aimed specifically at the huddle room. The system connects to the Lifesize Cloud, the company’s cloud-based videoconferencing platform.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Highest-paying IT security jobsImage by ThinkstockData breaches, DDOS attacks, hacks and threats continue to dominate the headlines, so it's no surprise that some of the most in-demand IT jobs are in the security area. And with a massive skills gap, companies are willing to pay handsomely for skilled security talent at all levels.
"One area we're still seeing huge demand for is in cybersecurity, and hiring companies are willing to pay whatever it takes for talent that can help secure data and mitigate threats while simultaneously ensuring consistent and simplified accessibility from desktop to mobile devices. Companies are sending the message with their budgets: you can't put a price on that," says Jack Cullen, CEO of IT staffing firm Modis.
Here are the top 10 highest-paying security roles, culled from career site Dice.com clients' job postings and median salary range data from cloud compensation solutions firm PayScale.com.
1. Lead Software Security EngineerImage by ThinkstockTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Deploying new software to production can be hard -- really hard. If you’re among the many businesses adopting new infrastructure and deployment technology today, you’re keenly aware of how difficult it can be. Even as you adopt modern devops tools to streamline development, test, deployment, and ongoing management, and to bring development and operations teams closer together, it often seems you're only creating new silos.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
A University of California IT employee whose job is being outsourced to India recently wrote Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) for help.Feinstein's office sent back a letter addressing manufacturing job losses, not IT, and offered the worker no assistance.The employee is part of a group of 50 IT workers and another 30 contractors facing layoffs after the university hired an offshore outsourcing firm. The firm, India-based HCL, won a contract to manage infrastructure services.That contract is worth about $50 million over five years and can be leveraged by other university campuses -- meaning they could also bring in HCL if they so choose.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
It's not a stretch to say that most organizations have at least some old hardware and software still in use. An old computer that's still chugging along, running an old operating system and perhaps an application that is hard to replace, doesn't necessarily raise a red flag with IT staff. Why spend money on new equipment or software if what's already in-house is adequate and functioning?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Millions of IoT devices are misconfigured so that they can forward messages -- which, combined with default admin settings, allows them to be used to attack e-commerce and other websites, a new report says.The problem is well known and has been around for a more than a decade, said Ryan Barnett, principal security researcher at Akamai Technologies, which produced the report.The problem first came to Akamai's attention when the content delivery network noticed attacks against its customers where the attackers were checking to see whether particular user name and password combinations were valid on the site.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Set and forgetImage by ThinkstockWe talked to a host of tech experts about the state of security in the internet of things world, and found out the good, the bad, and the very ugly.Under attack by ... cameras?Image by ThinkstockTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Now that its source code has been released you can expect more attacks from Mirai, the malware behind the largest DDoS attack on record, which was powered by hijacked IoT devices.Since release of that code last week it has been responsible for smaller attacks that look like newcomers experimenting with the malware in preparation for bigger things, say security researchers at Imperva. “Likely, these are signs of things to come and we expect to deal with Mirai-powered attacks in the near future,” they say in their blog post.That concern is echoed by researchers at F5, who say, “we can definitely expect the IoT DDoSing trend to rise massively in the global threat landscape.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
From time to time, a vendor's PR rep sends me a note about the "problem" that is caused by mainframe systems being at the hub of enterprise computing. In reality, these systems often offer more integrated processing power, larger memory capacity and more efficient database operations than a distributed, x86-based solution.The most recent pitch I received included this sentence: "How the dusty old legacy mainframe holds back cloud initiatives... and how it can be modernized."What are the real costs?
Part of the reason mainframes won't die is that often they simply cost less to operate when all of the costs of ownership and workload operations are considered.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. National Science Foundation yesterday handed out 11 grants, totaling $12 million, to researchers working on bringing the benefits of the public airwaves to more Americans than ever before.The awards went to researchers at a diverse range of educational institutions, including the U.S. Naval Academy, Virginia Tech, Wisconsin, and Texas A&M, among others. The research itself tended to center on work that makes spectrum sharing easier, freeing up space across the increasingly crowded airwaves.Specifically the NSF said the awards were directed at four major areas, including:
Innovative radio hardware and access architectures to enable spectrum sharing.
Harmonious co-existence of heterogeneous wireless technologies.
Development of automated detection mechanisms and compliance certification methods.
Spectrum access for science services.
+ALSO ON NETWORK WORLD: With help from Docker, Google's Go jumps in popularity + Wi-Fi vs. LTE could be the start of a mobile rollercoasterTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Alienware co-founder Frank Azor has fond memories of the comany's early days. It was a wild time of building kick-ass PCs, gaming, lots of sci-fi shows and generally, having a good time.
"It was four guys in a tiny little office, sending in a couple of review machines, magazines saying they were great, and the phone beginning to ring very, very slowly. We would sell about one computer every day, maybe," Azor said.
October 15 marks 20 years of Alienware's existence. Now a part of Dell, Alienware has matured into a PC gaming powerhouse. It is also driving big changes for virtual and mixed reality, which Azor believes will drive PC growth in the coming decades.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
With the school year underway, I’m reminded about the critical role that education and technology play in our future. Whatever your role—parent, teacher, student, mentor, employer, employee—technology literacy needs to be a priority. For those involved with elementary school students, the best place to start is emphasizing education that promotes science, technology, engineering and math (STEM). + Also on Network World: STEM majors dominate salary-based college ranking +STEM programs offer an excellent opportunity to infuse technology into the learning process early on. Business and education experts agree that STEM education better prepares students and opens the door for greater career options. A STEM-based education is important because some element of science, technology, engineering and/or math is evident in most well-paying jobs. A recent article in Network World stated a majority of the highest-paying college majors are in engineering, led by petroleum engineers with a mid-career median salary of $172,000, according to Payscale. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
RIPGoogle has rolled out plenty of new things in 2016, from its Android-powered Pixel smartphones to its Daydream virtual reality platform to its Duo Facetime competitor. But as always, Google has had to make room for its new stuff by ditching some old offerings. Here’s a roundup of products, services and more that Google rid itself of in 2016. (Look back at Google’s 2015 Graveyard too.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Samsung Electronics has cut its revenue and profit forecasts for the third quarter, after the disastrous launch of its flagship Galaxy Note7, which eventually led to the company recalling the smartphones and stopping their production in the wake of reports of overheating batteries.The South Korean company said Wednesday that revenue for the quarter was likely to be about 47 trillion won (US$4.2 billion), down from the 49 trillion won that it had expected earlier this month in a preliminary forecast. Operating profit is expected to drop by about 2.6 trillion won to 5.2 trillion won.The company said it was revising its revenue and profit forecast because of the Note7 debacle.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Off to workImage by PixabayThe Linux world offers an incredible range of free and open source tools to do everything you can think of and lots of things you probably haven’t ever thought of. In this roundup we highlight seven command line utilities you probably haven’t run into before and we’ve got everything from monitoring file system events to running re-attachable ssh sessions to printing banners.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
While business intelligence software like Tableau helps companies better understand the data that they have saved up in systems of record like databases and CRM software, it can be hard to get the entire picture of a business from the plethora of different sources available.SkyGiraffe is launching a new connector Tuesday to help with that by allowing companies to take live data from a diverse set of systems of record and visualize it in Tableau. The connector is supposed to give businesses a single consistent means of visualizing data, without having to repeatedly configure a bunch of different integrations.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here