How to improve Dynamic Lock in Windows 10 Creators Update

When Microsoft released Build 15031 of the Windows 10 Insider Preview on February 8, 2017, it added a new OS feature for Bluetooth-equipped devices. It's called Dynamic Lock, and lets you control access to your PCs based on how close they — and your Bluetooth-paired phones — are to them. That is, if the phone you've paired with your PC (it works for laptops, notebooks, tablets and desktops) is not found within radio range of your PC, Windows 10 turns off the screen and locks the PC after 30 seconds have elapsed. Thus, Dynamic Lock makes a dandy new security feature in Creators Update, one that most business users (or their IT departments) will find worth turning on and using.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Windows Embedded’s future looks rocky

Ah, Windows Embedded. The Microsoft operating system that millions of devices and machines are running, typically with a custom application or skin running on top of it so that users don't automatically notice the OS. The operating system that underpins hundreds of thousands of medical devices, automatic teller machines, kiosks at airports and other crowded public places, industrial machinery and control planes, set top boxes, game consoles.Windows Embedded is a relatively unheralded version of Windows whose existence might surprise you. But it seems like Windows Embedded's existence might also surprise a lot of folks up in Redmond. Here, at the Microsoft campus, despite all of the hullabaloo about Windows 10 and device updates -- and the new Creators Update and Redstone versions that will be coming down the pike at an almost breakneck speed -- Windows Embedded suffers from an opposite problem. It appears unfortunately stuck in a place where no future has clearly been laid out for it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

21 hot programming trends—and 21 going cold

Programmers love to sneer at the world of fashion where trends blow through like breezes. Skirt lengths rise and fall, pigments come and go, ties get fatter, then thinner. But in the world of technology, rigor, science, math, and precision rule over fad.That's not to say programming is a profession devoid of trends. The difference is that programming trends are driven by greater efficiency, increased customization, and ease of use. The new technologies that deliver one or more of these eclipse the previous generation. It's a meritocracy, not a whimsy-ocracy.[ Find out how to get ahead with our career development guide for developers. | Keep up with hot topics in programming with InfoWorld's App Dev Report newsletter. ] What follows is a list of what's hot and what's not among today's programmers. Not everyone will agree with what's A-listed, what's D-listed, and what's been left out. That's what makes programming an endlessly fascinating profession: rapid change, passionate debate, sudden comebacks.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Enterprises get to work in the cloud

Enterprises are finding all sorts of reasons to moved their data and business processes to the cloud.Capital One Financial Corp., for instance, is using the cloud as it advances from a financial services provider to a tech company with collaborative workspace, IT workers with new skill sets, fast-paced apps, and a focus on leading with cutting-edge technologies.The American Heart Association is working with Amazon Web Services to set up a cloud-based system where scientists from around the world can store, share and analyze research data. Making that data available in the cloud could accelerate research and lead to a cure for cardiovascular disease, which is the top cause of death worldwide.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Predictive analytics can stop ransomware dead in its tracks

This past February marks the two-year anniversary when Livingston County, Michigan, was hit by ransomware. The wealthiest county in the state had three years’ worth of tax information possibly at the mercy of cybercriminals.As a local government, county CIO Rich C. Malewicz said they have been a target of ransomware, but in this instance they had backups at the ready. He said the most memorable ransomware attack was a result of a watering hole campaign using malvertizing to infect users visiting a local news website. “This attack was very clever in that all you had to do to get infected was visit the website, you didn't even have to click on the page. Once the user went to the local news website, they were immediately redirected to a site hosting exploit code and the infamous page appeared demanding a ransom with instructions,” he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Predictive analytics can stop ransomware dead in its tracks

This past February marks the two-year anniversary when Livingston County, Michigan, was hit by ransomware. The wealthiest county in the state had three years’ worth of tax information possibly at the mercy of cybercriminals.As a local government, county CIO Rich C. Malewicz said they have been a target of ransomware, but in this instance they had backups at the ready. He said the most memorable ransomware attack was a result of a watering hole campaign using malvertizing to infect users visiting a local news website. “This attack was very clever in that all you had to do to get infected was visit the website, you didn't even have to click on the page. Once the user went to the local news website, they were immediately redirected to a site hosting exploit code and the infamous page appeared demanding a ransom with instructions,” he said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Despite political uncertainty, employers bullish on hiring

U.S. employers are optimistic about the second quarter, with the vast majority planning to increase hiring or maintain current headcounts, according to the ManpowerGroup Employment Outlook Survey 2017, released on March 14.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

How to deal with the bot crisis on Twitter

You may have run into these bots a few times. What looks like an actual human being could have been a bot sending you Twitter spam...or even worse.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

How to deal with the bot crisis on Twitter

You may have run into these bots a few times. What looks like an actual human being could have been a bot sending you Twitter spam...or even worse.During the last election cycle and over the past few months in particular, it’s now widely known that Twitter bots -- many with zero followers -- promoted fake news stories. Often, the goal was to stir up dissension among voters, influence political viewpoints, and (more importantly) generate revenue when people viewed banner ads. Some would argue these bots helped elect President Trump or at least influenced people on social media to vote one way or another.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Swisscom Builds OpenStack Cloud Possibilities with Red Hat

A new case study discusses how Swisscom chose Red Hat to gain enterprise-ready open source technology and access to extensive guidance.

IDG Contributor Network: Authentic8 wants to protect users from bad websites

Many of us have experienced that moment of terror when clicking on a potentially risky link: Will it all be fine or will I start a torrent of bad outcomes from my action?But bad stuff sometimes happens and, sad as it sounds, sometimes the links we click on take us to dark places with bad outcomes. Authentic8 wants to limit those impacts by reducing the blast area of bad content.RELATED: Machine learning offers new hope against cyber attacks Authentic8, the vendor that created the secure, virtual browser Silo, today announced that its browser will enable organizations to selectively redirect particular URLs for safe rendering within an isolated browser. The idea of this approach is that rather than trying to block any suspect content, organizations can let it through, secure in the knowledge that it can do no widespread harm. Authentic8 was founded by the team from Postini (an email security product acquired by Google).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Authentic8 wants to protect users from bad websites

Many of us have experienced that moment of terror when clicking on a potentially risky link: Will it all be fine or will I start a torrent of bad outcomes from my action?But bad stuff sometimes happens and, sad as it sounds, sometimes the links we click on take us to dark places with bad outcomes. Authentic8 wants to limit those impacts by reducing the blast area of bad content.RELATED: Machine learning offers new hope against cyber attacks Authentic8, the vendor that created the secure, virtual browser Silo, today announced that its browser will enable organizations to selectively redirect particular URLs for safe rendering within an isolated browser. The idea of this approach is that rather than trying to block any suspect content, organizations can let it through, secure in the knowledge that it can do no widespread harm. Authentic8 was founded by the team from Postini (an email security product acquired by Google).To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Managing the Cloud Network: CPM or APM?

We all know the future of enterprises is in flux with the consolidation or demise of Avaya/Nortel, Brocade/Foundry, Force 10, H3C and BNT assets. This speaks to the major trend of enterprise applications migrating to the cloud, any cloud be it public, private or hybrid. As this rapid transition prevails with efficiencies and scale, traditional applications and tools cannot meet the needs of exponential cloud growth.

Enterprise Data Storage Shopping Tips

IDG Contributor Network: Skytap launches new container management solution

It was only a handful of years ago that the only time the topic of containers came up were at obscure open source conferences or, more usually, when someone was looking for a place to put the bulk load of gourmet kale they’d just opened for their on-site employer-supplied kitchen. Containers were plastic things with lids and, while handy, didn’t generate much excitement.But then Solomon Hykes, looking to pivot away from his ultimately unsuccessful platform as a service (PaaS) play, dotCloud, happened upon an existing technology that was in need of both some tech and some marketing luster. Docker (the project and the business) was borne, and Hykes went from being suave, motorcycle-jacket-wearing technologist to something of a playboy who was defining a new approach towards technology. (OK, playboy is a relative term. But given the dearth of sex symbols in the technology infrastructure space, Hykes will just have to do.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The IoT of bricks: Someone is bricking insecure IoT devices

I can’t justify the vigilantism, but someone is bricking vulnerable IoT devices. I ponder the morality of it all. It’s called BrickerBot. It finds IoT devices with dubious security and simply bricks/disables them.Insecure dishwashers, teapots, refrigerators, security cameras—all become part of vast botnets. The botnets can do many things, and we’ve seen them become the armies behind the largest internet attacks in history. How to cleanse these devices has become the crux of many cries, including numerous ones in this space.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The IoT of bricks: Someone is bricking insecure IoT devices

I can’t justify the vigilantism, but someone is bricking vulnerable IoT devices. I ponder the morality of it all. It’s called BrickerBot. It finds IoT devices with dubious security and simply bricks/disables them.Insecure dishwashers, teapots, refrigerators, security cameras—all become part of vast botnets. The botnets can do many things, and we’ve seen them become the armies behind the largest internet attacks in history. How to cleanse these devices has become the crux of many cries, including numerous ones in this space.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Fight firewall sprawl with AlgoSec, Tufin, Skybox suites

New and innovative security tools seem to be emerging all the time, but the frontline defense for just about every network in operation today remains the trusty firewall. They aren’t perfect, but if configured correctly and working as intended, firewalls can do a solid job of blocking threats from entering a network, while restricting unauthorized traffic from leaving.The problem network administrators face is that as their networks grow, so do the number of firewalls. Large enterprises can find themselves with hundreds or thousands, a mix of old, new and next-gen models, probably from multiple vendors -- sometimes accidentally working against each other. For admins trying to configure firewall rules, the task can quickly become unmanageable.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Fight firewall sprawl with AlgoSec, Tufin, Skybox suites

New and innovative security tools seem to be emerging all the time, but the frontline defense for just about every network in operation today remains the trusty firewall. They aren’t perfect, but if configured correctly and working as intended, firewalls can do a solid job of blocking threats from entering a network, while restricting unauthorized traffic from leaving.The problem network administrators face is that as their networks grow, so do the number of firewalls. Large enterprises can find themselves with hundreds or thousands, a mix of old, new and next-gen models, probably from multiple vendors -- sometimes accidentally working against each other. For admins trying to configure firewall rules, the task can quickly become unmanageable.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Fight firewall sprawl with AlgoSec, Tufin, Skybox suites

New and innovative security tools seem to be emerging all the time, but the frontline defense for just about every network in operation today remains the trusty firewall. They aren’t perfect, but if configured correctly and working as intended, firewalls can do a solid job of blocking threats from entering a network, while restricting unauthorized traffic from leaving.The problem network administrators face is that as their networks grow, so do the number of firewalls. Large enterprises can find themselves with hundreds or thousands, a mix of old, new and next-gen models, probably from multiple vendors -- sometimes accidentally working against each other. For admins trying to configure firewall rules, the task can quickly become unmanageable.To read this article in full, please click here(Insider Story)