How to scrub your private data from ‘people finder’ sites

It doesn’t matter what you do online: The internet knows a ton about you, and that information is a mouse click away.Search any people finder site—Spokeo, PeekYou, Whitepages, to name a few—and odds are you’ll find a page listing your full name, date of birth, names of family members, current address, and phone number. Depending on the site's aggressiveness, it may offer (for a low membership fee or the price of registering an account) additional details such as past addresses, social media profiles, marital status, employment history, education, court cases such as bankruptcies, hobbies, and even a photo of where you live.[ 18 surprising tips for security pros. | Discover how to secure your systems with InfoWorld's Security Report newsletter. ] Forget the National Security Agency. Aggregator sites such as Intelius, Radaris, and PeopleFinder have data warehouses full of information about you, accessible to people without your permission, and used for purposes you know nothing about. While these sites ostensibly provide background checks and other public services, they also simplify identity theft, stalking, and doxxing (exposing personal information online to encourage harassment), which is both creepy and downright dangerous.To read this article in full or to leave Continue reading

Here’s why self-driving cars may never really be self-driving

It sounds like the beginning of a bar room joke.Two self-driving cars are headed down the highway when the lead car decides to   speed up to avoid being rear-ended by the second. That car, in turn, slows down to avoid hitting the first. Then a third car suddenly comes between the two, prompting  the slower car to change lanes to avoid and accident.The problem: There are cars in the lanes on either side of it.What's an autonomous car to do? The answer is no joke.The scenario is called "a ripple factor" and it's one of many researchers at Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) are studying to understand how embedded software could  address a myriad number of unexpected situations that could cause accidents as self-driving vehicles speed toward reality.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

iPad smackdown: Microsoft Office vs. Apple iWork vs. Google G Suite

The iPad makes a great laptop, and nowhere is that more obvious than in its productivity tools. Apple showed the way years ago with its iWork suite (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote), and Microsoft has validated the notion with its Office suite (Word, Excel, and PowerPoint). Of course there's also Google G Suite (Docs, Sheets, and Slides), which includes mobile versions of the apps for iOS.iPad productivity smackdown: Word processing comparediPad productivity smackdown: Spreadsheets comparediPad productivity smackdown: Presentations comparediPad productivity smackdown: File collaboration comparedTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Why AMD had to change the Zen name to Ryzen for its new chip architecture

You know when AMD’s Ryzen is launching, how much it’ll cost, and you even have a pretty good idea of its performance. But you might not know why AMD dropped the original Zen name for Ryzen, so we asked. And it all begins with what AMD couldn’t do with the brand.As John Taylor, corporate vice president of marketing for AMD, describes it, AMD was between a rock and a hard place. Mike Clark, an engineering fellow at AMD who led the Zen architecture development, had dubbed the architecture “Zen” for the balance it struck between various aspects of the design. Fans who had followed Zen’s development would buttonhole AMD execs and rave about the Zen name: “‘I love Zen...there’s something about it I’m just connecting with,’ they’d say,” Taylor said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why AMD had to change the Zen name to Ryzen for its new chip architecture

You know when AMD’s Ryzen is launching, how much it’ll cost, and you even have a pretty good idea of its performance. But you might not know why AMD dropped the original Zen name for Ryzen, so we asked. And it all begins with what AMD couldn’t do with the brand.As John Taylor, corporate vice president of marketing for AMD, describes it, AMD was between a rock and a hard place. Mike Clark, an engineering fellow at AMD who led the Zen architecture development, had dubbed the architecture “Zen” for the balance it struck between various aspects of the design. Fans who had followed Zen’s development would buttonhole AMD execs and rave about the Zen name: “‘I love Zen...there’s something about it I’m just connecting with,’ they’d say,” Taylor said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why DRaaS is a better defense against ransomware

Recovering from a ransomware attack doesn’t have to take daysImage by Eric E CastroIt’s one thing for a user’s files to get infected with ransomware, it’s quite another to have a production database or mission-critical application infected. But, restoring these databases and apps from a traditional backup solution (appliance, cloud or tape) will take hours or even days which can cost a business tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Dean Nicolls, vice president of marketing at Infrascale, shares some tangible ways disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) can pay big dividends and quickly restore systems in the wake of a ransomware attack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why DRaaS is a better defense against ransomware

Recovering from a ransomware attack doesn’t have to take daysImage by Eric E CastroIt’s one thing for a user’s files to get infected with ransomware, it’s quite another to have a production database or mission-critical application infected. But, restoring these databases and apps from a traditional backup solution (appliance, cloud or tape) will take hours or even days which can cost a business tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars. Dean Nicolls, vice president of marketing at Infrascale, shares some tangible ways disaster recovery as a service (DRaaS) can pay big dividends and quickly restore systems in the wake of a ransomware attack.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Are you afraid your car will be taken over?

In 2013 Charlie Miller and Chris Valesek showed how easy it was to take over a connected car. It was a monumental moment that made the auto industry stand up and take notice of the vulnerability of the connected cars they manufactured.Miller and Valesek were not maliciously running cars off the road, but they did give demonstrations so that the auto industry would begin to take security seriously. As seen in this video, the two researchers had the capability through their laptops to shut down the vehicle's engine on the highway or spew window washing fluid onto the windshield, which could startle an unsuspecting driver to perhaps jerk the wheel and hit another car. They identified more than seven major categories of remote attack surfaces, based on their study of 20 models (2014 to 2015) from different car manufacturers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Are you afraid your car will be taken over?

In 2013 Charlie Miller and Chris Valesek showed how easy it was to take over a connected car. It was a monumental moment that made the auto industry stand up and take notice of the vulnerability of the connected cars they manufactured.Miller and Valesek were not maliciously running cars off the road, but they did give demonstrations so that the auto industry would begin to take security seriously. As seen in this video, the two researchers had the capability through their laptops to shut down the vehicle's engine on the highway or spew window washing fluid onto the windshield, which could startle an unsuspecting driver to perhaps jerk the wheel and hit another car. They identified more than seven major categories of remote attack surfaces, based on their study of 20 models (2014 to 2015) from different car manufacturers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

MWC 17: What’s coming, what’s not, and what we really want to see

After reading leaks, rumors, and tea leaves for months, Mobile World Congress is finally almost here. In just about a week, we’ll get a look at some of the most anticipated phones of the year; all of them vying for our attention with their dual cameras, skinny bezels, and big, beautiful screens.And even with Samsung making us wait a little longer for the Galaxy S8, there will still be loads of phones, tablets, watches, and gadgets on display in Barcelona. But if you can’t wait until the big event, we’ve got everything you need to know right here.What’s we know is coming LG G6 LG swung and missed with its modular-minded G5, so it’s no surprise that it’s gone back to the drawing board with the G6. And from the looks of it, they got it right this time. While we’ll be losing one of the last phone lines that still had a removable battery, LG has opted to put a premium on design, with a glass-and-metal frame, tiny bezels, and a 5.7-inch Full Vision” Quad HD LCD screen. It’ll also be waterproof, come with a dual camera system, and feature a Quad digital-to-analog converter like Continue reading

The Logical Happens: Open-O Merges with ECOMP

It brings AT&T together with big Chinese operators.

Police arrest man suspected of building million-router German botnet

Last year, someone turned a German internet service provider into a million-router botnet. German police think they will soon have the culprit.The U.K.'s National Crime Agency (NCA) made an arrest on Wednesday in connection with the November 2016 hack on Deutsche Telekom. The agency said it arrested a 29-year-old man at Luton airport, acting on a European Arrest Warrant issued by the public prosecutor's office in Cologne, Germany.The German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, or BKA), which led the investigation, said it had worked with British law enforcement officials to arrest the man, a Briton.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Police arrest man suspected of building million-router German botnet

Last year, someone turned a German internet service provider into a million-router botnet. German police think they will soon have the culprit.The U.K.'s National Crime Agency (NCA) made an arrest on Wednesday in connection with the November 2016 hack on Deutsche Telekom. The agency said it arrested a 29-year-old man at Luton airport, acting on a European Arrest Warrant issued by the public prosecutor's office in Cologne, Germany.The German Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt, or BKA), which led the investigation, said it had worked with British law enforcement officials to arrest the man, a Briton.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Amid cyberattacks, ISPs try to clean up the internet

If your computer’s been hacked, Dale Drew might actually know something about that.He's CSO (chief security officer) at Level 3 Communications, a major internet backbone provider that's routinely on the lookout for cyberattacks on the network level. The company has linked more than 150 million IP addresses to malicious activity worldwide.That means all of those IP addresses have computers behind them that are probably involved in distributed denial-of-service attacks, email spam, or breaches of company servers, Drew said.Hackers have managed to hijack those computers to "cause harm to the internet," but the owners don't always know that, Drew said. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Amid cyberattacks, ISPs try to clean up the internet

If your computer’s been hacked, Dale Drew might actually know something about that.He's CSO (chief security officer) at Level 3 Communications, a major internet backbone provider that's routinely on the lookout for cyberattacks on the network level. The company has linked more than 150 million IP addresses to malicious activity worldwide.That means all of those IP addresses have computers behind them that are probably involved in distributed denial-of-service attacks, email spam, or breaches of company servers, Drew said.Hackers have managed to hijack those computers to "cause harm to the internet," but the owners don't always know that, Drew said. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Amid cyberattacks, ISPs try to clean up the internet

If your computer’s been hacked, Dale Drew might actually know something about that.He's CSO (chief security officer) at Level 3 Communications, a major internet backbone provider that's routinely on the lookout for cyberattacks on the network level. The company has linked more than 150 million IP addresses to malicious activity worldwide.That means all of those IP addresses have computers behind them that are probably involved in distributed denial-of-service attacks, email spam, or breaches of company servers, Drew said.Hackers have managed to hijack those computers to "cause harm to the internet," but the owners don't always know that, Drew said. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Frequently Asked Questions: Submarine Cables 101

Useful background information on oceanic cabling from Telegeogrphy.

I’ve been involved with TeleGeography’s research on submarine cables since 2000. Over the years I’ve fielded numermous questions about the submarine cable industry from journalists, investors, family, and friends.

It seems as good a time as any to provide a compilation of answers to some of the most commonly asked questions.

Worth a read.

Frequently Asked Questions: Submarine Cables 101

The post Frequently Asked Questions: Submarine Cables 101 appeared first on EtherealMind.

IDG Contributor Network: Software development genetics, part 2: Microservices, containers and the DevOps connection

In part one of this two-part post, I walked through how DevOps and the development philosophies of lean and agile are related. In part two, I make the case that similar to the dynamics I described in Recombinant Communications, where the application programming interface (API) economy and as-a-service industries are making possible revolutionary innovations in the enterprise communications market, these "genetics" concepts also apply elsewhere.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How would you handle these tough job interview questions from tech companies?

Sure, you might be a bit unsatisfied with your current job as a technology professional, but consider that if you head out into the wild you could get nailed with interview questions such as:*How do you explain a vending machine to someone who hasn’t seen or used one before? (Bloomberg L.P. for global data analyst job)*How many fire hydrants are there in Los Angeles County? (Disney Interactive Studios, for software engineer)*Prove that hoop stress is twice the longitudinal stress in a cylindrical pressure vessel?OK, that last one comes from Elon Musk’s rocket-building SpaceX, and the average person isn’t going to be qualified to work there as a test operations engineer, but plenty of other tough interview questions for more mainstream tech jobs can be found among the list put forth this week by online jobs marketplace Glassdoor.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Support For Ops Speeds DevOps Progress