DevOps can be beneficialImage by ThinkstockOrganizational culture and its processes and technology are evolving at a pace we have never experienced before. As a result, we can’t just sit back and wait for the “DevOps fad” to fade away because it isn’t going to. It’s not a fad – it’s an evolved way of software development. Furthermore, security cannot be the elephant in the room that everyone avoids because it gets too complicated. Security must evolve, as well, segueing into SecDevOps.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
One of the potential frustrations of working in a corporate IT department is the constant reminder that "IT is not our business; IT is here to serve the business." There's an alternative, of course: You can get a job in IT services, where information technology is the business.Work in IT services is closely related to IT consulting (a field we covered previously), with a few key differences. Although some companies offer both IT consulting and IT services, and both types of businesses are looking to hire highly skilled IT professionals, there's a distinct difference between the two, sources say. That difference is essentially the difference between strategy and tactics: An IT consulting firm plans new systems, while an IT services provider maintains systems after they're deployed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
There’s a gaping hole in your security infrastructure right now. The front door is open, the side window is ajar, and there’s an open safe with a neon sign saying “steal my data” in flashing lights. While you might have locked down the network used for this software, instituted strict usage policies, and insist on having users stick to complex passwords, the data is leaking.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Big data has proven to be a big asset for corporations who are trying to collect information and make informed business decisions, but if the proper strategies for protecting that data are not in place, the risks to the enterprise can be costly.Earlier this year Cisco reported that worldwide mobile traffic is expected to grow eightfold from 2015 to 2020 reaching 30.6 exabytes, monthly. Planning for that data inflation raises a very important question: “How can organizations ensure their data is an asset and not a liability?” To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
We’re leaving the Information Age and entering the Network Age, at least that’s what Joshua Cooper Ramo argues in his compelling and thought-provoking business book, The Seventh Sense.As we move to digitize everything from retail and services to cities and healthcare, networks are the secret sauce at the center of new business models. They separate the winners from the losers. They transform industries, social movements, governments and our everyday lives.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A botnet responsible for a massive DDOS (distributed denial-of-service) attack was created thanks to weak default usernames and passwords found in internet-connected cameras and DVRs.The Mirai botnet grabbed headlines last month for taking down the website of cybersecurity reporter Brian Krebs with a huge DDOS attack. Unlike most botnets, which rely on infected PCs, this one used IoT devices to target its victims.It turns out the botnet was specifically designed to scan the internet for poorly secured products like cameras and then access them through easily guessable passwords like "admin" or "12345." Last Friday, the botnet's maker released its source code, and security experts have noticed it's built to try a list of more than 60 combinations of user names and passwords.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google Fiber's strategy to use wireless technology to supplant its fiber optic cable installations came into sharper focus Monday with Google's purchase of Webpass.Google Fiber President Dennis Kish, in a blog post on the deal, noted that Webpass helps Google Fiber with its strategy "going forward [with] a hybrid approach with wireless playing an integral part."Webpass has proven that point-to-point wireless is a reliable way to connect more people to high-speed Internet in a densely populated environment by setting up wireless transmission links between buildings," Kish added.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Running an enterprise wide area network (WAN) can entail installation, configuration and maintenance of a bewildering array of hardware that includes switches, routers, load balancers, VPNs, accelerators and firewalls.But would you still use separate devices for each core network function, if you could instead opt for standardized, off the shelf hardware that can be configured and updated as often as you need it? Looking at the manner in which virtualization has impacted other areas of enterprise infrastructure, the likely answer is a resounding ‘No’!That’s the rationale behind AT&T’s recent launch of a Network Functions Virtualization (NFV)-enabled Universal Customer Premises Equipment (uCPE) product. With the benefit that one standards-based, off-the-shelf server can perform any AT&T certified network function.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
We were happy and proud to learn that Frost & Sullivan had bestowed its 2015 Business Metro Carrier Ethernet Services Market Leadership Award to AT&T.In fact, AT&T has ranked number 1 in Frost & Sullivan’s market share analysis of the retail Ethernet market over the past 5 years. “AT&T continues to lead through a combination of deep metro network footprint, market leading Ethernet solutions and high-performance service level agreements (SLAs),” says Frost & SullivanAT&T and customers, old and new, are migrating from time-division multiplexing (TDM) private line technology to Ethernet service to take advantage of scalability, reliability, and cost efficient bandwidth.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A massive DDOS attack and weaknesses in critical systems have put security concerns front and center in the internet of things. IBM thinks a technology best known from the world of bitcoin could lock down at least one use of IoT.The company is using blockchain technology to ensure that everything’s in order with IoT transactions. Just as a public blockchain makes bitcoin transactions traceable and verifiable, the private, cloud-based system that IBM will operate for enterprises will verify non-monetary interactions between some devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
In Part 3 of my epic series “Building a Raspberry Pi-powered Barkometer”, I covered how to capture audio using the arecord command and how I’d discovered that I got better sound out of an old USB webcam than the fancy-schmancy (but very cheap) USB sound card I started out with. I wound up in Part 3 collecting 60-second sound files in WAV format in a subdirectory on the Raspberry Pi, each named for the sample’s start time (e.g. 2016-09-07-04-42-27.wav).We need to get these files off of the RPi so we can analyze them. In theory, this could be done on the board but for now we’ll FTP them to another machine for analysis. So, to get the recordings to somewhere we can slice and dice them, we’re going to use ncftpput, an FTP utility included the ncftp package. To install ncftp we'll run the following command on the RPi command line (as always, when installing a new package, you should run sudo apt-get update first):To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This past week, Atlanta was host to about 25,000 visitors for Microsoft Ignite. During the Day 1 keynote, Jeff Teper, Corporate Vice President for OneDrive and SharePoint, took the stage for 15 minutes to introduce the continued investments Microsoft has made in SharePoint that were previewed in San Francisco on May 4, 2016. The SharePoint announcements were only part of an incredible array of announcements across the Office 365 family, including some major infrastructure and security announcements and some awesome features for Office that I can’t wait to try!To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Best Deals of the Week, September 26th - September 30th - Deal AlertCheck out this roundup of the best deals on gadgets, gear and other cool stuff we have found this week, the week of September 26th. All items are highly rated, and dramatically discounted.Discounts on New Amazon Echo Dot (2nd Gen) BundlesEcho Dot is a hands-free, voice-controlled device that uses Alexa to play & control music (either on its own, or through a connected speaker/receiver), control smart home devices, provide information, read the news, set alarms, and more. Right now Amazon is discounting 3 bundles featuring an all new Echo Dot:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
If you were watching TV at 2:20 p.m. EDT, Wednesday, Sept. 28, you would have heard and seen a test of the Emergency Alert System. You might not have thought much about it, as similar tests have been done in the past.What made this test different was that it was a retest of a failed EAS test conducted five years ago. A live code was used to activate a national Emergency Action Notification (EAN) message that was broadcast. Five years ago, the test failed—some heard audio but saw no text, while some saw text but heard no audio. On Wednesday, the test was a success—the audio and text were successfully transmitted.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Google rebranded and enhanced its productivity suite Thursday with new intelligent capabilities that help it better compete with Microsoft Office 365.G Suite is the new name for the group of applications that include Gmail, Google Calendar, Docs, Sheets, and Slides. It's a group of apps that the company is trying to push on organizations looking to make their employees more productive, with an emphasis on collaboration capabilities.Docs, Sheets, and Slides are each getting new features aimed at making it easier to create files quickly with the help of Google intelligence. In addition, Google Calendar is getting an update to make it easier to schedule meetings, and Drive has a new feature making it easier for teams to use.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The value for zero-day exploits targeting Apple's iOS software is jumping. On Thursday, a company called Zerodium began offering as much as US $1.5 million for them.Zerodium is the same company that offered $1 million last year for an exclusive iOS zero-day exploit that can remotely jailbreak a device. However, that bounty was only temporary, and it was eventually awarded last November.Zerodium's new $1.5 million bounty is asking for a remote jailbreak exploit targeting iOS 10. The bounty will be offered all year long, Chaouki Bekrar, the company's CEO, said in an email. The company's original offer was a maximum of $500,000.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The weak effort from Microsoft surrounding the Windows Mobile line has made it pretty clear that the handset business isn't a priority. Now we have a clear statement from a Microsoft executive that the company is indeed giving up on mobile, at least for a time. The new president of Microsoft France gave an interview with a French publication where he said the company was indeed giving up on mobile. Vahé Torossian was introduced recently as the new president of the company's French subsidiary. He was previously corporate vice president of the Worldwide Small, Mid-market Solutions & Partners Group.And in an interview with Le Point, Torossian reiterated the current strategy Microsoft is pursuing: To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
As a parent of three children who have been exposed to technology since they were born (we called our second child “iBaby 2.0”), the issue of filtering and parental controls has been on my mind for several years. I’m not particularly advocating that every parent filter content or use “nanny software” to become a babysitter for Internet content. On the other hand, I’ve seen a LOT of examples where kids have been exposed to things on the Internet that they probably shouldn’t be exposed to. Call me wishy-washy, but I’m going to play this one right down the middle – my approach is a combination of talking to my kids about the dangers of the Internet, mixed in with parental controls and filters. It also helps that I can always say to them, "I work in the tech industry, I know all of the different things you can do and how to try to get around them."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft really, really wants to own all of your office work, so it keeps finding new tools it hopes you will add to your Office 365 portfolio. (All require an Office 365 account to use.) The latest are Delve for file discovery, Sway for modern-style presentations, and Planner for task management. But are they any good? To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)
Three out of four U.S. physicians believe that electronic healthcare records (EHRs) increase practice costs -- outweighing any efficiency savings -- and seven out of 10 think they reduce productivity, according to a new survey.Deloitte's "2016 Survey of US Physicians" released this week found little had changed since its last report two years ago, when doctors surveyed at the time generally held negative opinions of EHRs.The latest survey found nearly all physicians would like to see improvements in EHRs, with 62% calling for them to be more interoperable and 57% looking for improved workflow and increased productivity.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here