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Category Archives for "Network World Wireless"

WhatsApp copies Apple’s strong encryption defense

The decision by WhatsApp founders Brian Acton and Jan Koum to encrypt direct messages, group messages and voice calls drew a lot of attention to the Facebook subsidiary—given the recent dispute between the FBI and Apple.Security experts described how the improved WhatsApp protected users’ privacy and where it fell short. Security writers called it the FBI's worst nightmare. And pundits talked about recent reports that the White House withdrew its support for legislation that would allow judges to order WhatsApp to decrypt customers’ messages.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Consider the Panama Papers breach a warning

An MIT conference this week about the Internet of Things was fun until the topic of security came up. The audience stilled and focused at the mention.Sanjay Sarma, a professor of mechanical engineering at MIT, told this mostly startup crowd that he expects "a few disasters." Power plants will be taken down, as will a chemical plant. "I'm terrified of this," he said, about the cybersecurity risk.[ See infographic below for more on the scale of the Panama Papers breach. ] This week's hack of Panamanian law firm Mossack Fonseca is an illustration of how much damage can be caused by a breach. Law firms are valuable and vulnerable targets, and they attract people interested in making money.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Opportunities and risks in 5 global outsourcing locations

Everest Group’s 2015 outsourcing year in review report included a quick peek at some important trends taking place in five global outsourcing geographies around the globe including India, China, the United States, Latin America, and Ukraine. CIO.com talked to Aditya Verma, practice director in Everest Group’s global sourcing practice in detail about the opportunities and risks that are arising in these areas.[ Related: 10 Outsourcing Trends to Watch in 2015 ]1. United States: Inflows of military-trained talentTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FCC to fine Total Call Mobile record $51M for defrauding Lifeline program

Detailing a litany of blatant, widespread and systematic abuses, the FCC late yesterday announced its intention to fine wireless provider Total Call Mobile some $51 million for allegedly creating tens of thousands of phony Lifeline accounts that defrauded the Universal Service Fund of almost $10 million.The fine would be the largest ever levied against a Lifeline provider, according to the FCC.    The Lifeline program, established in 1996, provides discounted and free landline and mobile phone service to low-income consumers. Derided as “Obama phones,” the program has been controversial and plagued by fraud.“We reserve the strongest sanctions for those who defraud or abuse federal programs,” said Enforcement Bureau Chief Travis LeBlanc.  “Any waste, fraud, or abuse in the Lifeline program diverts scarce funds from the consumers they are meant to serve and undermines the public’s trust in the program and its stewardship.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Adobe fixes 24 vulnerabilities in Flash Player, including an actively exploited one

Adobe Systems released a security update for Flash Player to fix 24 critical vulnerabilities, including one that hackers have been exploiting to infect computers with ransomware over the past week.The company advised users Thursday to upgrade to the newly released Flash Player 21.0.0.213 on Windows and Mac and Flash Player 11.2.202.616 on Linux. The Flash Player Extended Support Release was also updated to version 18.0.0.343.As usual, the Flash Player build bundled with Google Chrome on all platforms, Microsoft Edge and Internet Explorer for Windows 10 and IE for Windows 8.1 will be upgraded automatically through the update mechanisms of those browsers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Korea’s working on a cool combination: 5G and the Winter Olympics

If you want to be one of the first to experience 5G mobile performance, get ready to bundle up.South Korean carrier KT has said it wants to launch the first 5G network at the 2018 Winter Olympics in PyeongChang. On Thursday, KT announced a successful trial of one potential 5G technology in the mountain resort region.The carrier tested a system from NEC that uses super-high frequencies to transmit data at speeds as high as 3.2Gbps (bits per second). Though the companies didn't mention the Olympic Games, and there's no guarantee the technology will be part of the 5G standard, it's no coincidence the trial took place high in the Taebaek Mountains.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Open-source vulnerabilities database shuts down

An open-source project dedicated to cataloguing a huge range of computer security flaws has closed its doors as of Tuesday, according to an announcement on the Open-Source Vulnerability Database’s blog.The OSVDB, which was founded in 2002, was meant to be an independent repository for security information, allowing researchers to compare notes without oversight from large corporate software companies.One of its founders was HD Moore, a well-known hacker and security researcher, best known for his development of the Metasploit framework, a software suite widely used for penetration testing. Moore recently left security firm Rapid7 for a forthcoming venture capital firm that will focus on infosec startups.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

T-Mobile touts first continental phone plan for North America

T-Mobile on Thursday announced that there would be no added charges for its U.S.-based Simple Choice customers when they call, text or use data to Mexico and Canada or when traveling there.The move, which takes effect Wednesday, makes T-Mobile the first carrier to offer continental phone service under a single plan anywhere in the world, company officials said.The new Mobile without Borders plan means that customers can call from the U.S. to both countries for no added cost as well as when they travel in both countries.MORE: 10 mobile startups to watch Both consumers and business customers will be eligible, although business customers will pay $1 more per phone line for accounts with more than 10 phone lines, with no added cost for the first 10 lines.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A ‘black market’ for wireless cell service has popped up in Canada

Two articles at iPhoneInCanada.ca and AlphaBeatic.com tell the story of one enterprising Canadian who takes advantage of a loophole to provide substantially cheaper wireless cell service for a one-time $100 payment.How exactly he does it appears to be unclear, but it involves pricing discrepancies in Canada, where lower-populated provinces like Manitoba and Saskatchewan see much cheaper cell service. Basically, the scheme involves signing up for an account in one of these regions, where Canadian wireless service provider Koodo offers a 5GB monthly data plan for $48, then selling the account to people who live in more populated regions of the country, where the same plan typically costs at least $90, according to the reports.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft shrinks smartphone ambitions with mobile restructuring

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella just unveiled the latest of the “tough choices” Microsoft is making to streamline its business, and it’s a doozy: the company is significantly cutting back its smartphone ambitions almost two years after announcing it would acquire Nokia’s Devices and Services business in an attempt to play a greater role in this market. In an email to employees, Nadella said that the company was moving away from being a phone manufacturer and towards creating a “vibrant Windows ecosystem” that includes a group of first-party devices. As a result, the company will be dismissing around 7,800 employees, with the majority of job cuts impacting people in Microsoft’s phone hardware business. The restructuring also included another aftershock from the Nokia acquisition: Microsoft will take a massive $7.6 billion write-down on the acquisition itself along with a restructuring charge of between $750 and $850 million.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft writes off $7.6B, admits failure of Nokia acquisition

Microsoft today wrote off billions of dollars related to its Nokia acquisition, saying it's taking an "impairment charge" of $7.6 billion, or nearly the full amount it paid for the Finnish firm's smartphone business and patents last year.The announcement slapped the failure sticker on the last major move made by former CEO Steve Ballmer, who pushed for the Nokia deal in his final months in office against objections by, among others, Satya Nadella before he was elevated to the chief executive's chair.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 10 (FREE!) Microsoft tools to make admins happier "It was a mistake to begin with," said Jack Gold, principal analyst at J. Gold Associates. "A monumental mistake. Microsoft had no business being in the cut-throat, low-margin phone business. Who's making money in phones besides Apple?"To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple Watch’s nose-dive predictions suggest Apple needs a new way to innovate

Slice Intelligence's Apple Watch estimates confirm that Apple needs a different narrative for innovation in new product categories. The company's Wizard of Oz –like assertion that it knows everything that consumers might ever want hamstrings its ability to introduce an Apple version of an evolving product category that's not perfect.Business Insider and MarketWatch have both announced the death of the Apple Watch, with data from Slice Intelligence pointing to a 90% decline in Apple Watch sales since the device's opening week on the market. It might just be a bad case of schadenfreude due to the ingestion of bad data. Literally translated from German, schadenfreude means damaging joy, but often is interpreted to mean evil glee. Apple, the most valuable brand, is under a microscope because of its success compounded by persuasive marketing. Now that a marketing survey may indicate a drop in Apple Watch sales, many observers are rejoicing with evil glee that the hugely successful company might fail. But the shipment data hasn't been verified by Apple, and no one knows the company's expectations for Apple Watch sales over the entirety of its debut year.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please Continue reading

Microsoft pulls back from phone business, announces 7,800 layoffs

Microsoft is scaling down its mobile phone activities, writing off the entire value of the former Nokia smartphone business it bought last year and laying off almost one-third of that business’ staff. The company will no longer try to build a standalone phone business, but instead plans to build a Windows ecosystem that includes its own devices, CEO Satya Nadella told staff in an email announcing the changes. Up to 7,800 jobs will be cut, most of them in the phone business. The cuts come in addition to 18,000 layoffs announced last year: Those cuts included around half of the 25,000 staff who joined Microsoft from Nokia. + A LOOK BACK: Bloodiest tech industry layoffs of 2014, so far +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft said to plan more staff layoffs

Microsoft plans a new round of layoffs that could affect its hardware and smartphones businesses, besides other parts of the company, according to a newspaper report.The job cuts will be in addition to the 18,000 staff the company said it would let go about a year ago, The New York Times reported, quoting people briefed on the plans who requested anonymity. The announcement of the cuts could come as early as Wednesday, according to the report, which did not specify the number of staff that will be laid off. Microsoft had over 118,000 employees globally at the end of March, the report said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

New trial on damages ordered in Apple, Smartflash patent dispute

A federal court in Texas has ordered a new trial on damages in a patent infringement dispute between Apple and Smartflash that could modify an earlier US$533 million damages award to the patent-licensing company.District Judge Rodney Gilstrap of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas, Tyler division, ruled Tuesday that the earlier damages were set aside and vacated as the jury at trial may have not been properly instructed.Smartflash sued Apple in May 2013, alleging that iTunes software infringed on its patents related to serving data and managing access to data. A jury found in February that Apple infringed three Smartflash patents in order to produce and sell its iTunes software. It also found the three Smartflash patents to be valid. Smartflash had asked for $852 million in damages.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Android malware masquerades as Nintendo game emulator

A new family of Android malware adds insult to injury by making users pay for the data-stealing application.Palo Alto Networks found three variants of the malware, which it calls Gunpoder, masquerading as emulator applications used to play Nintendo games.Antivirus engines are having trouble detecting Gunpoder’s malicious code since it is packaged with an adware library called Airpush, wrote Cong Zheng and Zhi Xu of Palo Alto’s Unit 42 research group.“The malware samples successfully use these advertisement libraries to hide malicious behaviors from detection by antivirus engines,” they wrote. “While antivirus engines may flag Gunpoder as being adware, by not flagging it as being overtly malicious, most engines will not prevent Gunpoder from executing.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple Watch sales down 90% from opening week, report says

Since its first week on the market, during which Apple sold about 1.5 million Apple Watches, the company has seen a 90% decline in sales of its smartwatch, according to a MarketWatch article on data collected by Slice Intelligence.On a daily basis, Apple is now selling fewer than 20,000 Apple Watch units, and occasionally fewer than 10,000, according to the report. That's down from an estimated 200,000 sales per day in the first week the device was on the market.Slice, which often releases data on estimated sales of Apple products, also says that the lower-cost (starting at $349) Sport model has accounted for about two-thirds of Apple Watch sales. To date, Apple has sold fewer than 2,000 units of its gold, Edition model Apple Watch, which are priced at $10,000 and higher, according to the report.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to find cellular access when traveling (without international roaming)

My wife, two kids, and I just took a three-day trip to Vancouver, British Columbia, from our home in Seattle. Joining us were three laptops, two iPod touches, three Kindles, and two iPhones. We remembered to bring clothes and sunscreen, too.Traveling to Canada is just like going to another country—they have different currency and units of measurement, they spell “center” as “centre,” and they have different telecommunications companies. The variety of potato chips almost makes up for it.MORE: 10 mobile startups to watch Before we left, I did my usual research into how we’d keep online. We knew the Airbnb rental to which we were going had Wi-Fi, and I assumed that the profusion of free Internet service I was used to in the States would be as abundant. We were staying near Stanley Park, and there are hundreds of shops, grocery stores, and restaurants within a few blocks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Instagram bumps up photo resolution to 1080 pixels

Instagram is increasing the size of pictures users of its mobile app are allowed to post, finally opening the door of the photo sharing service to much more detailed images.The iOS and Android apps are gradually being updated to store and display photos that are 1080 pixels by 1080 pixels in size, an Instagram spokeswoman said Monday, adding that most users should already have this update. She declined to comment on when Instagram began rolling out the update and when it expects to finish.The spokeswoman also declined to comment if the resolution improvement will also be available in the version of the service accessed via desktop browsers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft’s new Tossup app tries to simplify getting friends together

Tossup, a new Microsoft app for Android and iOS, aims to make it easier for users to poll their friends and get together.Tossup lets people create quick polls and share them with their friends. The polls can be simple, consisting of a single yes or no question, or they can be more detailed, for example providing a list of local businesses to choose from for a meeting. After creating a poll, users are prompted to send it out to their friends as a link either via text message or email. After that, the people invited can answer the poll questions inside the app and add comments.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

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