San Francisco Muni says server data not accessed in ransomware hit

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency said late Monday that no data had been accessed from its servers in a ransomware attack on the Muni transit system and the agency has never considered paying the ransom asked by the attacker.The statement by the SFMTA follows reports that the alleged attacker has threatened to dump 30GB of data stolen from the agency, if the ransom of the equivalent of about $73,000 in bitcoin was not paid.“The SFMTA network was not breached from the outside, nor did hackers gain entry through our firewalls,” the agency’s spokeswoman Kristen Holland wrote in a blog post. She did not mention how the ransomware had got to the SFMTA systems, though there is the possibility that it may have been activated through a link in an email or a web link by an unsuspecting insider.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Teeny sensor system lets you effectively monitor electricity usage

Getting a handle on electricity use in the data center, home or even Navy ships at sea is no easy task, but a system under development by engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Office of Naval Research aims to tame that challenge. Office Of Naval Research/Bryce Vickmark  MIT researches have developed a system that could figure out exactly how much power is being used by every appliance, lighting fixture, and device in home or business...Office Of Naval Research . Credit: Bryce Vickmark   With backing from ONR, MIT have designed what they call a portable system to precisely measure and cheaply monitor the amount of electricity used by individual household appliances, lighting fixtures and electronic devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Teeny sensor system lets you effectively monitor electricity usage

Getting a handle on electricity use in the data center, home or even Navy ships at sea is no easy task, but a system under development by engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Office of Naval Research aims to tame that challenge. Office Of Naval Research/Bryce Vickmark  MIT researches have developed a system that could figure out exactly how much power is being used by every appliance, lighting fixture, and device in home or business...Office Of Naval Research . Credit: Bryce Vickmark   With backing from ONR, MIT have designed what they call a portable system to precisely measure and cheaply monitor the amount of electricity used by individual household appliances, lighting fixtures and electronic devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Teeny sensor system lets you effectively monitor electricity usage

Getting a handle on electricity use in the data center, home or even Navy ships at sea is no easy task, but a system under development by engineers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Office of Naval Research aims to tame that challenge. Office Of Naval Research/Bryce Vickmark  MIT researches have developed a system that could figure out exactly how much power is being used by every appliance, lighting fixture, and device in home or business...Office Of Naval Research . Credit: Bryce Vickmark   With backing from ONR, MIT have designed what they call a portable system to precisely measure and cheaply monitor the amount of electricity used by individual household appliances, lighting fixtures and electronic devices.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

50% off Shining Buddy Head Lamp, Water & Shock Resistant – Deal Alert

This highly-rated head lamp is ultra-bright, dependable, comfortable, and has an easy-to-wear design. A go-to tool for working around the house, or out for a late-night hike. Its no-slip strap is adjustable enough to accommodate everyone, from adults to children. Three AAA batteries (included) supply more than 12 hours of bright light before needing to be replaced. This head lamp averages 4.8 out of 5 stars from over 1,800 people on Amazon (read reviews), where its typical list price of $29.99 has been reduced 50% to just $14.97. See the discounted head lamp now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

27% off Fitbit Charge 2 Heart Rate + Fitness Wristband – Deal Alert

Make every beat count with Fitbit Charge 2, the all-new heart rate and fitness wristband built for all-day, workouts and beyond. PurePulse continuous heart rate makes it easy to maximize workouts, better track calorie burn and get a snapshot of your cardio fitness level, while all-day activity and auto sleep tracking, lets you see how your whole routine adds up. Record your workouts with multi-sport modes to see real-time workout stats on screen, or rely on SmartTrack to automatically record select exercises for you. The large OLED display helps you stay connected with call, text and calendar alerts, stay active with Reminders to Move, and find moments of calm with personalized guided breathing sessions. Plus, you can find a look that fits your style with customizable clock faces and interchangeable bands. With more advanced features in a sleeker package, it's the motivation you need to push yourself further-every step, every beat, every day. The Charge 2 is a #1 Amazon best seller with over 1,300 ratings averaging 4 out of 5 stars (read recent reviews). Its typical list price is $149.95, but it's currently available on Amazon at the discounted price of $110.To read this article Continue reading

14% off Fitbit Charge 2 Heart Rate + Fitness Wristband – Deal Alert

Make every beat count with Fitbit Charge 2, the all-new heart rate and fitness wristband built for all-day, workouts and beyond. PurePulse continuous heart rate makes it easy to maximize workouts, better track calorie burn and get a snapshot of your cardio fitness level, while all-day activity and auto sleep tracking, lets you see how your whole routine adds up. Record your workouts with multi-sport modes to see real-time workout stats on screen, or rely on SmartTrack to automatically record select exercises for you. The large OLED display helps you stay connected with call, text and calendar alerts, stay active with Reminders to Move, and find moments of calm with personalized guided breathing sessions. Plus, you can find a look that fits your style with customizable clock faces and interchangeable bands. With more advanced features in a sleeker package, it's the motivation you need to push yourself further-every step, every beat, every day. The Charge 2 is a #1 Amazon best seller with over 1,300 ratings averaging 4 out of 5 stars (read recent reviews). Its typical list price is $149.95, but it's currently available on Amazon at the discounted price of $129.To read this article Continue reading

Worth Reading: Cybersecurity Due Diligence

Cybersecurity is no longer a corporate or private affair. What once was simply good business practice is now a legal obligation for ISPs, large and small. In Europe, this is the direct consequence of the upcoming EU Network and Information Security (NIS) Directive, to be implemented into national laws within the next few years, but such obligations are reflected in other international and national documents describing contemporary policies and future laws.

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Matson ships its data centers to Amazon’s cloud

Just two days ahead of the first keynotes at the AWS re:Invent conference, Amazon Web Services announced today that $2 billion international shipping giant Matson plans to close its data centers and go ‘all-in’ on the company's IaaS cloud platform.Matson is a 134-year old Hawaii-based publicly traded shipping company with 22 vessels that run routes primarily in the Pacific Ocean.“The shipping industry requires advanced IT capabilities to enable precise tracking of assets and customer shipments as they move around the world,” a press release announcing the news reads.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Upgraded Mirai botnet disrupts Deutsche Telekom by infecting routers

A new version of Mirai -- a malware that’s been enslaving poorly secured IoT devices -- has found a new victim: vulnerable internet routers from Germany's Deutsche Telekom.The spread of the new strain of Mirai has caused internet connection problems for close to a million Deutsche Telekom customers, the company reported on Monday.   Deutsche Telekom blamed the disruption on the notorious malware, which has already been found infecting more than 500,000 internet connected devices, including DVRs and surveillance cameras.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Upgraded Mirai botnet disrupts Deutsche Telekom by infecting routers

A new version of Mirai -- a malware that’s been enslaving poorly secured IoT devices -- has found a new victim: vulnerable internet routers from Germany's Deutsche Telekom.The spread of the new strain of Mirai has caused internet connection problems for close to a million Deutsche Telekom customers, the company reported on Monday.   Deutsche Telekom blamed the disruption on the notorious malware, which has already been found infecting more than 500,000 internet connected devices, including DVRs and surveillance cameras.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Spaceflight training jets, balloons create challenges for FAA

As the commercial space flight industry grows, the need for proper training and certification of support personnel and aircraft – which can include all manner of high-performance jets, balloons and hybrid jet/rocket systems – is going to be regulatory challenge for the Federal Aviation Administration.A recent report from the Government Accountability Office said companies they interviewed had received standard aircraft certification for their space support vehicle, but for others the standard certification process is lengthy and not designed for the type of vehicles they would like to use, such as unique, single-production aircraft or retired military jets.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Spaceflight training jets, balloons create challenges for FAA

As the commercial space flight industry grows, the need for proper training and certification of support personnel and aircraft – which can include all manner of high-performance jets, balloons and hybrid jet/rocket systems – is going to be regulatory challenge for the Federal Aviation Administration.A recent report from the Government Accountability Office said companies they interviewed had received standard aircraft certification for their space support vehicle, but for others the standard certification process is lengthy and not designed for the type of vehicles they would like to use, such as unique, single-production aircraft or retired military jets.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

BrandPost: The Future of Networking

Editor’s note: Nick Applegarth, VP of sales, EMEA for Silver Peak, recently answered a series of questions about digital transformation, networking and SD-WAN. Read his comments here on the future of networking. Q. What are the emerging hot (technology) topics for CIOs and why? A. The digital transformation is fully upon us and CIOs are increasingly embracing virtualisation and cloud services to enhance business responsiveness and agility. Connecting users to applications across geographically distributed organisations is introducing new challenges that traditional wide area networks (WANs) were never engineered to address. Unpredictable application performance impacts user productivity and, ultimately, holds companies back from fully embracing and maximising their return on digital technology investments. Indeed, while the rest of the infrastructure has become more fine-tuned for a cloud and virtual world, the WAN continues to be subject to the limitations associated with traditional private MPLS networks and branch office infrastructure.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: ‘Complexity’ will halt network upgrades in 2017

Tricky network upgrades are causing many enterprises to throw up their hands and simply not do any upgrading at all, according to Cato Networks.Nearly half of the organizations the company recently surveyed (40 percent) say they have “no plans to upgrade their network” at all in 2017. If that’s true, security will likely suffer.The Israel-based firm, which offers security solutions that function in the cloud rather than locally, says although enterprises know there are security threats out there, such as a rise in ransomware, many are simply not going to do anything about it next year—at all.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: ‘Complexity’ will halt network upgrades in 2017

Tricky network upgrades are causing many enterprises to throw up their hands and simply not do any upgrading at all, according to Cato Networks.Nearly half of the organizations the company recently surveyed (40 percent) say they have “no plans to upgrade their network” at all in 2017. If that’s true, security will likely suffer.The Israel-based firm, which offers security solutions that function in the cloud rather than locally, says although enterprises know there are security threats out there, such as a rise in ransomware, many are simply not going to do anything about it next year—at all.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google security expert says antivirus apps don’t work

A senior security engineer at Google told a hacker conference that traditional antivirus apps that use intrusion detection are useless and companies should switch to meaningful methods such as whitelisting applications. At Kiwicon X, the New Zealand equivalent of the Black Hat conference held in the United States, Darren Bilby called many existing tools ineffective "magic" that engineers are forced to install for the sake of compliance but at the expense of real security. "Please no more magic," he said, according to The Register. "We need to stop investing in those things we have shown do not work." To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google security expert says antivirus apps don’t work

A senior security engineer at Google told a hacker conference that traditional antivirus apps that use intrusion detection are useless and companies should switch to meaningful methods such as whitelisting applications. At Kiwicon X, the New Zealand equivalent of the Black Hat conference held in the United States, Darren Bilby called many existing tools ineffective "magic" that engineers are forced to install for the sake of compliance but at the expense of real security. "Please no more magic," he said, according to The Register. "We need to stop investing in those things we have shown do not work." To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How industrial IoT is making steel production smarter

A new project between General Electric and Gerdau, a large steel manufacturer in Brazil, had a simple objective: Improve productivity by reducing equipment failure and related problems. Early indications suggest that goal was achieved with flying colors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Feds provide legal loophole to hacking IoT devices

It was an especially happy Thanksgiving for security researchers, thanks to what they have called long-overdue exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).Those exemptions, which took effect Oct. 28, provide a two-year window allowing “good-faith” researchers to break into the software that controls most consumer and commercial Internet of Things (IoT) devices – those used in everything from “smart” homes to smartphones, cars, medical devices, voting machines and more – without violating copyright laws.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here