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Category Archives for "Networking"

First look: Visual Studio for Mac is here at last, almost

Visual Studio for Mac is something that many Microsoft developers have sought for more than a decade. As Mac OS X became interesting in the early 2000s, coders who spent most of their days working in Visual Studio on Windows wondered why they couldn’t use the same languages, frameworks, and tools for the Mac, rather than needing to learn Objective-C, Cocoa, and Xcode, all of which were substantially different from the languages and tools for Windows development.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

U.S. says cybersecurity skills shortage is a myth

The U.S. government has released what it claims is myth-busting data about the shortage of cybersecurity professionals. The data points to its own hiring experience.In October 2015, the U.S. launched a plan to hire 6,500 people with cybersecurity skills by January 2017, according to White House officials. It had hired 3,000 by the first half of this year. As part the ongoing hiring effort, it held a job fair in July.At the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), "We set out to dispel certain myths regarding cybersecurity hiring," wrote Angela Bailey, chief human capital officer at DHS in a blog post Monday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

U.S. says cybersecurity skills shortage is a myth

The U.S. government has released what it claims is myth-busting data about the shortage of cybersecurity professionals. The data points to its own hiring experience.In October 2015, the U.S. launched a plan to hire 6,500 people with cybersecurity skills by January 2017, according to White House officials. It had hired 3,000 by the first half of this year. As part the ongoing hiring effort, it held a job fair in July.At the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), "We set out to dispel certain myths regarding cybersecurity hiring," wrote Angela Bailey, chief human capital officer at DHS in a blog post Monday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cyber Monday 2016 tech deals sampler features Dell, Walmart

The line between what constitutes a Black Friday 2016 deal and a Cyber Monday one has pretty much disappeared, but what we have here are a handful of tech deals specifically available for Cyber Monday, which is Nov. 28.Cyber Monday got its start as an online-only alternative to once in-store focused Black Friday, but of course Black Friday, Black November, etc., is now a mishmash of online and in-store action. Nevertheless, some retailers still trot out the Cyber Monday marketing term, and we'll accommodate them briefly here by highlighting a few of their deals.(Black Friday & Cyber Monday watchers such as BFads and Best Black Friday have been a big help in keeping tabs on deals.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Make companies pay full cost of breaches to restore trust in the internet, says ISOC

Fake news, online banking thefts and data breaches: It's no wonder that trust in the internet is at an all-time low. But don't worry: The Internet Society has a five-step plan for restoring faith in the network of networks.The first step is to put users first, according to ISOC, which published its 2016 Global Internet Report on Thursday. That involves being more transparent (step two) about risk and the incidence of data breaches and prioritizing data security (step three) to ensure breaches don't happen.ISOC isn't just a talking shop, it is also the organizational home of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), source of many of the protocols and standards on which the internet relies. That adds weight to the more detailed recommendations on how to prioritize security contained in the ISOC report.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Make companies pay full cost of breaches to restore trust in the internet, says ISOC

Fake news, online banking thefts and data breaches: It's no wonder that trust in the internet is at an all-time low. But don't worry: The Internet Society has a five-step plan for restoring faith in the network of networks.The first step is to put users first, according to ISOC, which published its 2016 Global Internet Report on Thursday. That involves being more transparent (step two) about risk and the incidence of data breaches and prioritizing data security (step three) to ensure breaches don't happen.ISOC isn't just a talking shop, it is also the organizational home of the Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF), source of many of the protocols and standards on which the internet relies. That adds weight to the more detailed recommendations on how to prioritize security contained in the ISOC report.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

T-Mobile offers users a free iPhone 7 with qualifying trade-in

T-Mobile CEO John Legere has a penchant for making a big splash, and with Black Friday just a few days away, Legere on Tuesday announced an intriguing new promotion that prospective iPhone 7 buyers might want to keep on their radar.As part of the company's Black Friday push, T-Mobile is offering users either a free iPhone 7 or iPhone 7 Plus with a qualifying trade-in. In order to get a free 32GB iPhone 7, users can trade in the following devices: an iPhone 6s, an iPhone 6s Plus, Samsung's Galaxy S6, the S6 Edge, the S7, the S7 Edge and the Note 5. Other qualifying devices include the LG V20 and the LG G5.If you have an older device, there are still good deals to be had. Case in point: users can get $100 off a 32GB iPhone 7 if they trade-in any of the following devices: iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus, iPhone SE, Samsung Note 4, Samsung Galaxy S5, the LG G4 and the LG V10.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to make home IoT more secure: Assume the worst

Sometimes the truth hurts but you just have to face it. The internet advisory group BITAG lays it on the line for the IoT industry in a new report: No, consumers aren’t going to update the software on their devices.“It is safe to assume that most end users will never take action on their own to update software,” the Broadband Internet Technology Advisory Group said. Its recommendation: Build in mechanisms for automatic, secure updates.That bit of human nature is just one of the harsh realities BITAG acknowledges in the report, which came out on Tuesday. It also points out that some consumer IoT devices ship with weak built-in usernames and passwords like “admin” and “password,” can’t do authentication or encryption, or can easily be taken over by malware that turns them into bots.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to make home IoT more secure: Assume the worst

Sometimes the truth hurts but you just have to face it. The internet advisory group BITAG lays it on the line for the IoT industry in a new report: No, consumers aren’t going to update the software on their devices.“It is safe to assume that most end users will never take action on their own to update software,” the Broadband Internet Technology Advisory Group said. Its recommendation: Build in mechanisms for automatic, secure updates.That bit of human nature is just one of the harsh realities BITAG acknowledges in the report, which came out on Tuesday. It also points out that some consumer IoT devices ship with weak built-in usernames and passwords like “admin” and “password,” can’t do authentication or encryption, or can easily be taken over by malware that turns them into bots.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

AWS is cutting and simplifying its storage prices

Amazon Web Services made a series of price cuts on Tuesday and simplified what customers pay for its storage products. The company's popular Simple Storage Service (S3) has had its six pricing tiers cut down to three, along with a corresponding price cut of roughly 16 percent to 25 percent.Glacier, AWS's storage service for data that doesn't need to be accessed frequently, now has a trio of retrieval options. Companies can have quicker access to their data if they pay more or get cheaper access if they're willing to wait. Glacier users also get a 43 percent price cut.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

12 tips for safer Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping

During Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2016, consumers should watch out for scams that come through spam, insecure public networks and apps that might seem legitimate but could be taking over your phones and computers, experts say.+ RELATED: How to dodge Black Friday schemes +Here are a dozen steps you can take to avoid becoming a victim. Only download or buy apps from legitimate app stores. Suspect apps that ask for too many permissions. Check out the reputation of apps and particularly the app publisher. Only enter credit card info on secure shopping portals. Avoid using simple passwords, and use two-factor authentication if you can. Be alert for poisoned search results when using search engines to find products. Don’t install software that sites require before you can shop. Don’t use free pubic Wi-Fi to make purchases. Be suspicious of great deals you learn about via social media or emails and don’t click the links. Turn off location services while shopping to minimize the potential personal data that could be compromised. Make sure the connection to e-commerce sites is secured (HTTPS). Double check the validity of the SSL certificate for the site. To read this article in full or Continue reading

12 tips for safer Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping

During Black Friday and Cyber Monday 2016, consumers should watch out for scams that come through spam, insecure public networks and apps that might seem legitimate but could be taking over your phones and computers, experts say.+ RELATED: How to dodge Black Friday schemes +Here are a dozen steps you can take to avoid becoming a victim. Only download or buy apps from legitimate app stores. Suspect apps that ask for too many permissions. Check out the reputation of apps and particularly the app publisher. Only enter credit card info on secure shopping portals. Avoid using simple passwords, and use two-factor authentication if you can. Be alert for poisoned search results when using search engines to find products. Don’t install software that sites require before you can shop. Don’t use free pubic Wi-Fi to make purchases. Be suspicious of great deals you learn about via social media or emails and don’t click the links. Turn off location services while shopping to minimize the potential personal data that could be compromised. Make sure the connection to e-commerce sites is secured (HTTPS). Double check the validity of the SSL certificate for the site. To read this article in full or Continue reading

How to dodge Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping hackers

Hackers are writing apps, setting up phony Wi-Fi networks and unleashing malware in attempts to turn legitimate Black Friday 2016 and Cyber Monday retailing into profits for themselves, according to security experts.Bad actors are stealing personal information like passwords and credit card numbers, compromising computers and phones, and blackmailing retailers with hopes of lining their pockets, researchers say.For example, researchers at RiskIQ found frequent cases of criminals linking the names of legitimate brands to sketchy applications and Web sites in order to lure unsuspecting shoppers.They looked at five popular e-commerce brands to see how often their names appeared along with the term Black Friday in the titles or descriptions of black-listed applications. The research didn’t reveal the names of the retailers, but found that they lined up with bogus apps from 8.4% to 16% of the time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How to dodge Black Friday and Cyber Monday shopping hackers

Hackers are writing apps, setting up phony Wi-Fi networks and unleashing malware in attempts to turn legitimate Black Friday 2016 and Cyber Monday retailing into profits for themselves, according to security experts.Bad actors are stealing personal information like passwords and credit card numbers, compromising computers and phones, and blackmailing retailers with hopes of lining their pockets, researchers say.For example, researchers at RiskIQ found frequent cases of criminals linking the names of legitimate brands to sketchy applications and Web sites in order to lure unsuspecting shoppers.They looked at five popular e-commerce brands to see how often their names appeared along with the term Black Friday in the titles or descriptions of black-listed applications. The research didn’t reveal the names of the retailers, but found that they lined up with bogus apps from 8.4% to 16% of the time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here