With the presidential nominating conventions looming, the candidates are getting ready to add to the hundreds of millions they’ve already spent to tell you about themselves – but only what they want you to know about themselves.Meanwhile, they have also been spending millions of dollars collecting information about you – and you have no say in what is collected.Which means that, in the era of Big Data, if you’re a potential voter, they know a lot more about you than you know about them.[ ALSO ON CSO: When tech trips up presidential candidates ]To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Many 3D printers lack cybersecurity features, which presents opportunities to introduce defects as components are being built, a new study shows.The study, performed by a team of cybersecurity and materials engineers at New York University, concluded that with the growth of cloud-based and decentralized 3D printer production supply chains, there can be "significant risk to the reliability of the product."Additive manufacturing (3D printing) is creating a globally distributed manufacturing process and supply chain spanning multiple services, and therefore raises concerns about the reliability of the manufactured product, the study stated.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The creators of the widespread Locky ransomware have added a fallback mechanism in the latest version of their program for situations where the malware can't reach their command-and-control servers.Security researchers from antivirus vendor Avira have found a new Locky variant that starts encrypting files even when it cannot request a unique encryption key from the attacker's servers because the computer is offline or a firewall blocks the communication.Calling home to a server is important for ransomware programs that use public key cryptography. In fact, if they're unable to report back to a server after they infect a new computer, most such programs don't start encrypting files.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A smaller version of the popular Raspberry Pi 3 will go on sale in a few months.Raspberry Pi is developing a new version of its Compute Module, a single-board computer that plugs into specific on-board memory slots. The new Pi will be more like a mini-computer inside a computer, and it won't come with a power supply.The Compute Module will have similar circuitry to that of Raspberry Pi 3, a wildly successful computer that can be a PC replacement. But it will be smaller, with the memory, CPU, and storage embedded tightly on a board. The differences between the Compute Module and the Raspberry Pi 3 will be subtle. While the Compute Module will have a 64-bit ARM processor like the Pi 3, it won't have Wi-Fi, Eben Upton, founder of Raspberry Pi, said in an interview with IDG News Service.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco held its annual customer conclave in Las Vegas this week and aside from the actual heat – which averaged about 109 every day – it was clear from the start that security was the hottest topic. As one Cisco exec put it “it’s great to be at what’s becoming quickly the biggest security conference in the world.”There were of course some other technologies discussed at the show. Here we take a look at some of the hottest topics from Cisco Live!CEO Chuck RobbinsThis is Chuck Robbins first Cisco Live! as CEO and he put his stamp on the show. In his keynote he played up all manner of areas Cisco will need to battle in to stay out in front of competitors. In the security realm he said that the two things that are going to be most important in the future are security and innovating over and over quickly. "Our acquisition strategy is core. It's core to our overall innovation strategy," Robbins said. “We’ve bought over 190 companies. Since I was named CEO in May a year ago we’ve actually bought 15, so we’ve been sort of active.”To read this article in Continue reading
Cisco is known as many things: the market leader in networking, collaboration, security and other markets. The company is also widely regarded as a thought leader in both the enterprise and service provider segments. Investors consider Cisco to be strong, stable stock. Much of your opinion of Cisco depends on the lens through which you look at the company.
Cisco should also be known as being a great citizen of the world because of all the good work its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) team does. Using the company’s massive resources to make the planet a better place was always a passion of former CEO John Chambers and that’s carried over to current CEO, Chuck Robbins. Its Networking Academy has educated millions of people across the globe, including many in underdeveloped nations, giving people an opportunity to get jobs and be successful.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
The U.S. Federal Communications Commission has voted to open nearly 11 gigahertz of high-band spectrum to new wireless uses, hailing it as a "monumental step" that will greatly increase network capacity for 5G and the Internet of Things.The FCC on Thursday adopted new rules for spectrum above 24 GHz, in a vote that Commission Chairman Tom Wheeler described as one of the most important decisions commissioners will make this year."This is a big day for our nation," he said. "This is a big day for our agency."The commission's vote makes the U.S. the first nation to open up spectrum for the coming 5G services, and the decision may serve as a blueprint for other countries. The spectrum allows for data transfer rates of up to 10 Gbps, but signals can travel only short distances, meaning small cell deployments will be needed to deliver most wireless services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
This column is available in a weekly newsletter called IT Best Practices. Click here to subscribe. Michael Bruemmer's team is busy these days, and that's both good news and bad news for companies like yours. Bruemmer heads up the Data Breach Resolution group at Experian. This team provides the call center, notification and identity theft protection services to clients following a data breach.Over a span of 12 years, this arm of Experian has serviced nearly 17,000 breaches. In 2015, the group serviced 3,550 different incidents, from small breaches that affected just a few hundred people, to the headline-making breaches that affected tens of millions. The fact that Experian has been involved in responding to so many breaches is the bad news I alluded to.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Cisco is wrapping up its annual Cisco Live customer event. This year’s proceedings took over Las Vegas, occupying the Bellagio, Luxor, Mandalay Bay and MGM Grand hotel. At least for this week, Cisco was bigger in Vegas than Wayne Newton, Steve Wynn and even Carrot Top.
While digital transformation served as the main theme at Cisco Live, cybersecurity had a strong supporting role throughout the event. For example, of all of the technology and business initiatives at Cisco, CEO Chuck Robbins highlighted cybersecurity in his keynote presentation by bringing the GM of Cisco’s cybersecurity business unit, David Goeckeler, on stage to describe his division’s progress. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
On Monday, my brother who lives in San Diego sent me an email with the subject line: “Third time this week.” What had happened for the third time was that someone fell off the oceanside cliff near his home, something that happens there with frightening regularity.
I asked my brother why this keeps happening.
“Gravity,” was his reply.
Me: “Ha-ha. I mean are they just trying to get a better look? Or flying one of those stupid flying things? Or playing Pokemon Go? (Oh, sweet heaven, that would be such a *great* rumor to start today even if it's not true.)”
Two days later it’s true, though not at the exact same cliff.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
A U.S. appeals court has quashed a search warrant that would have required Microsoft to disclose contents of emails stored on a server in Ireland, in a case that has broad ramifications for privacy, diplomatic relations and the ability of American companies to sell web services abroad."We think Microsoft has the better of the argument," said Circuit Court Judge Sarah Carney, in an opinion written for a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit in New York.The panel based its judgment on the 30-year-old U.S. Stored Communications Act. The act, Carney wrote, "does not authorize courts to issue and enforce against U.S.‐based service providers warrants for the seizure of customer e‐mail content that is stored exclusively on foreign servers." The opinion was posted Thursday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
You might be familiar with the Cell on Wheels (COW) concept that carriers have deployed to bring temporary wireless service to busy venues or disaster relief areas. Now AT&T is giving the COW acronym a new high-flying meaning: Cell on Wings.The carrier at its Shape Tech Expo at AT&T Park in San Francisco this week provided an update on its drone (unmanned aerial vehicles) efforts, including what it calls flying COWs. John Donovan, chief strategy officer and group president for AT&T Technology and Operations, wrote in a blog post that AT&T this week was starting the trial phase of its national drone program.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Juniper Networks has fixed several vulnerabilities in the Junos operating system used on its networking and security appliances, including a flaw that could allow hackers to gain administrative access to affected devices.The most serious vulnerability, rated 9.8 out of 10 in the Common Vulnerability Scoring System, is located in the J-Web interface, which allows administrators to monitor, configure, troubleshoot and manage routers running Junos OS. The issue is an information leak that could allow unauthenticated users to gain admin privileges to the device.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
You can have the most secure system in the world, but hackers will always seek out the path of least resistance. When your defenses are good, the weak link is often your employees. Data breaches are most likely to be the result of employee error or an inside job, according to the ACC Foundation: State of Cybersecurity Report.It’s good to focus on firewalls, malware defenses and data protection, but too often employees are an afterthought.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
I’m sure it has not gone unnoticed by those who keep a close eye on the industry: Several large companies have announced they will set up or expand captive centers in countries like India to take on new work or, in some cases, existing work from their outsourcing partners. The companies are from a range of industries, including financial services, retail and oil, and gas.Captive centers have long been considered a superior choice when the nature of certain work is proprietary, too complex to hand off to a third party, or requires a higher degree of control. It often means a company is weighing value over cost efficiency for a particular project or line of work.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Privacy fears about the Pokemon Go app have been largely addressed, but dozens of other apps that piggy back on the popular game have raised further concerns.Since the game launched last week, a swarm of unofficial apps has emerged and is trying to capitalize on the title’s success. And many are hungry for your personal data.These unofficial apps have been offering cheats, tips and even songs from the hit game. But in exchange, they demand permission to access sensitive data on your phone, said Chad Salisbury, a security engineer with RiskIQ, which monitors mobile malware.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Big IoT partnerships are coming thick and fast these days. A deal between IBM and AT&T to help developers turn IoT ideas into reality is just the latest tie-up involving major enterprise vendors in this field.The partnership will combine AT&T’s connectivity with IBM’s Watson and Bluemix analytics platforms. Through APIs (application programming interfaces) and development environments, plus open-source tools, the two companies say they’ll make life easier for developers.IoT involves so many parts that it’s almost inevitable enterprises will be working with several vendors to get their infrastructure up and running. Devices that collect data, clouds that analyze it, and networks that link the two are just the main components of systems that can rival the complexity of anything in IT.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Noted iPhone leaker OnLeaks (aka Steve Hemmerstoffer of Nowhereelse.fr) published an interesting tweet earlier today indicating that the iPhone 7 may finally address one of the more longstanding complaints about Apple's iconic smartphone: battery life. To be clear, Apple has made tremendous improvements in the iPhone's battery technology over the years, but as we continue to demand more and more from our smartphones, many people find that they can't even go a full day on their iPhone with a single charge.That being the case, OnLeaks's tweet relays that the iPhone 7's battery will have nearly 15% more capacity than the iPhone 6s battery.
Pretty reliable (not 100% but almost...) source told me #iPhone7 battery = 1960mAh (#iPhone6s = 1715mAh)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Looking to help business customers ensure their Software Defined Networking products and applications work and perform properly, the University of New Hampshire InterOperability Laboratory (UNH-IOL) this week said it would form consortium to perform controller and switch interoperability, conformance and benchmark testing.
The Software-Defined Networking (SDN) Consortium expects to open for business August 1 and the 28,000 square foot lab will be working with Spirent Communications and Ixia to develop performance tests said Timothy Winters, UNH-IOL Senior Executive, Software and IP Networking.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
Microsoft is doing new things with its Surface tablets, and hoping that enterprises will find a lot to like.The company is taking steps to tailor the tablets to the needs of enterprises. The goal of customization is to differentiate the Surface from look-alike products, and to tie devices closely to a company's operations."We're going to meet the enterprise on their terms," said Hayete Gallot, general manager of Microsoft Devices, in an interview with the IDG News Service.Surface tablets have been successful with consumers and professionals, and Microsoft is giving it an additional enterprise twist. The effort comes as companies look to upgrade to Windows 10 PCs, with tablet-laptop hybrids like Surface being popular replacements.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here