Ransomware on smart TVs is here and removing it can be a pain

It took a year from proof of concept to in-the-wild attack, but ransomware for Android-based smart TVs is now here. As one victim discovered this Christmas, figuring out how to clean such an infection can be quite difficult. Ransomware for Android phones has already been around for several years and security experts have warned in the past that it's only a matter of time until such malicious programs start affecting smart TVs, especially since some of them also run Android. In November 2015, a Symantec researcher named Candid Wueest even went as far as to infect his own TV with an Android ransomware application to highlight the threat. While that infection was just a demonstration, this Christmas, the owner of an LG Electronics TV experienced the real deal.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: Smile vector

Smile Vector is a Twitter bot that can make any celebrity smile. It scrapes the web for pictures of faces, and then it morphs their expressions using a deep-learning-powered neural network. Its results aren’t perfect, but they’re created completely automatically, and it’s just a small hint of what’s to come as artificial intelligence opens a new world of image, audio, and video fakery. Imagine a version of Photoshop that can edit an image as easily as you can edit a Word document — will we ever trust our own eyes again? —The Verge

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BrandPost: Latest Generation Of Wi-Fi Access Points Drive Multi-Gigabit Wired Ethernet Upgrade Cycle

Organizations from the Fortune 100 to the 28 million small businesses in the United States are embracing mobility, Big Data, social media and cloud computing. This digital transformation in turn is placing crushing capacity demands on enterprise and small and mid-sized business networks.And while these “third-platform” technologies promise agility and speed, for many SMBs, the promise of faster business is too often stifled by legacy network infrastructure. The problem is the Wi-Fi networks many organizations depend on have sped past the capacity of ubiquitous Ethernet cabling to handle the high speeds needed for today’s digital business. Wireless Access Points (APs) today can transfer data faster than the Ethernet cables and network switch can support.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Security Without Borders: Free security help for dissidents

Security researcher Claudio Guarnieri has experience working with journalists and human rights organizations which have exercised freedom of speech, reported on some form of corruption and wound up becoming targets because of it; their computers may be compromised with spying malware such as those in the hands of the Hacking Team, FinFisher or NSA to name but a few. Their electronic communications may be intercepted, messaging programs may be blocked. All of that may be because the journalists and human rights organizations in our modern connected society were standing up for what is right, being the voice of dissent, getting out the news about injustice.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Security Without Borders: Free security help for dissidents

Security researcher Claudio Guarnieri has experience working with journalists and human rights organizations which have exercised freedom of speech, reported on some form of corruption and wound up becoming targets because of it; their computers may be compromised with spying malware such as those in the hands of the Hacking Team, FinFisher or NSA to name but a few. Their electronic communications may be intercepted, messaging programs may be blocked. All of that may be because the journalists and human rights organizations in our modern connected society were standing up for what is right, being the voice of dissent, getting out the news about injustice.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco talks 2017 SD-WAN predictions

There certainly was a ton of hype in Software Defined-WAN arena in 2016 but to be fair there was a lot of actual deployment of technology and services as well.In December Gartner wrote that spending on SD-WAN products will rise from $129 million in 2016 to $1.24 billion in 2020. “While WAN architectures and technologies tend to evolve at a very slow pace — perhaps a new generation every 10 to 15 years — the disruptions caused by the transformation to digital business models are driving adoption of SD-WAN at a pace that is unheard of in wide-area networking,” Gartner wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco talks 2017 SD-WAN predictions

There certainly was a ton of hype in Software Defined-WAN arena in 2016 but to be fair there was a lot of actual deployment of technology and services as well.In December Gartner wrote that spending on SD-WAN products will rise from $129 million in 2016 to $1.24 billion in 2020. “While WAN architectures and technologies tend to evolve at a very slow pace — perhaps a new generation every 10 to 15 years — the disruptions caused by the transformation to digital business models are driving adoption of SD-WAN at a pace that is unheard of in wide-area networking,” Gartner wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco talks 2017 SD-WAN predictions

There certainly was a ton of hype in Software Defined-WAN arena in 2016 but to be fair there was a lot of actual deployment of technology and services as well.In December Gartner wrote that spending on SD-WAN products will rise from $129 million in 2016 to $1.24 billion in 2020. “While WAN architectures and technologies tend to evolve at a very slow pace — perhaps a new generation every 10 to 15 years — the disruptions caused by the transformation to digital business models are driving adoption of SD-WAN at a pace that is unheard of in wide-area networking,” Gartner wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: No excuse for airline system outages

In 2016, as multiple system outages led to long check-in lines, flight cancellations and passengers camping out in airports, several airlines’ reputations made unplanned descents. What could they have done differently to prevent these crises or to recover from them more rapidly?Let’s take a look at a couple of examples.Southwest Airlines' problem in July came down to a failed network router. Delta Air Lines' nationwide system outage in August was a result of a power surge that caused an automatic transfer switch to malfunction and take down 500 servers. Unfortunately, systems and equipment did not switch over automatically to back up power. The result of these mishaps? Each airline cancelled more than 2,000 flights and suffered negative media coverage, including a tweet storm from frustrated customers.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

17% off SteelSeries Nimbus Gaming Controller, Play New Minecraft Apple TV Edition – Deal Alert

One of the biggest games in recent history is now even more widely available. Minecraft was just released on Apple TV (see review here on TechConnect), and no, you don't have to control it with that little silver remote. Take full control of the game with this Bluetooth gaming remote from SteelSeries, currently discounted 17% from $60 to $50 on Amazon. The SteelSeries Nimbus remote has all the control sticks, buttons and triggers you or your kids will need to control Minecraft right on your TV. A rechargeable Lithium ion battery provides up to 40 hours of gaming on a charge. This gaming controller can ultimately be used for any Apple TV game, not just Minecraft, and can be paired to your other iOS devices as well. See the discounted SteelSeries Nimbus remote on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple watcher Gene Munster & team about to get hands-on as VCs

Gene Munster, one of the most watched Apple watchers as a longtime research analyst at Piper Jaffray, has now started a venture capital fund that promises to invest in exactly the sorts of startups Apple and its competitors are likely to buy.Loup Ventures (which gets its name for a word meaning "wolf" or "to leap/pounce" depending on which language you choose), also consists of former Munster colleagues at Piper Jaffray, Doug Clinton and Andrew Murphy.MORE: Yup, Apple made our list of 2016's Sorriest Tech CompaniesTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

January Events: Networking Field Day 14, Viptela, TWiT.tv

Its my privilege to attend Network Field Day 14 in January 2017

The post January Events: Networking Field Day 14, Viptela, TWiT.tv appeared first on EtherealMind.

BrandPost: The SD-WAN Journey Doesn’t Have to be Painful…if You Pick the Right Solution

In the last decade, cloud came about to address the need for agility, speed and cost savings. Along the way, several technologies came to enable the transition. This has triggered significant innovation in the network with SDxx to support the changing demands in app consumptions model, traffic patterns and automated and dynamic environments.Today, the hottest innovation in the network aimed at increasing agility to support the move to the cloud is SD-WAN for the branch office. A little more than two years ago, SD-WAN came about to address fundamental challenges in the WAN architecture. These challenges can be categorized as follows:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Millennials push for public cloud, innovation

Millennials in the workplace are increasingly taking on IT decision maker (ITDM) roles, and in pursuit of improved agility, they are pushing their organizations to embrace public cloud and adjust IT policies to better enable innovation, according to a study by Microsoft and Wakefield Research.As 2017 begins, millennials already represent a third of the workforce, and the Brookings Institute forecasts they will make up 75 percent of the workforce by 2025.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

It’s time to start planning for SQL Server on Linux

Bringing SQL Server to Linux is one of the bigger steps in Microsoft’s plan to help developers build any app for (and from) any platform. And despite the fact that it was only announced in spring 2016, you shouldn’t think of SQL Server on Linux as being a subset of the full Windows offering, says Rohan Kumar, general manager of the Microsoft database systems group.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Virtual assistants, chatbots poised for mass adoption in 2017

Experimentation with voice-activated assistants and text-triggered chatbots blossomed in 2016, enabling users to order from Taco Bell using Slack’s messaging interface, check the status of UPS packages and order office supplies from Staples.In 2017, some of these tools won't make the cut while others will proliferate across consumer and enterprise sectors, creating new workflows, operational efficiencies and opportunities for improved customer service. The early signs that Amazon.com's Alexa, though positioned as a home product, is poised to become the go-to platform for voice-based assistants for consumers and businesses. Wynn Hotels plans to equip nearly 5,000 rooms with Amazon.com's Echo device, which will allow people to query Alexa for room and hotel information.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Facebook gets 2017 tech industry Year in Apologies rolling

No sooner had we put our list of 2016's Sorriest Tech Companies to bed than Facebook rang in the new year with a fresh apology -- for blocking an Italian writer from using a photo of a well-known statue of nude sea god Neptune found in Bologna.As Mashable relays, a writer/historian named Elisa Barbari used a photo of the 16th-century work to highlight her Facebook page titled "Stories, curiosities and views of Bologna." Innocent enough it would seem, but the photo got snared by the social network's photo police for violations of its advertising policies, which prohibit use of images or videos of nude bodies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

10 roadmaps to IT career success

(Insider Story)

Tier 1 carrier performance report card for the month of December, 2016

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Network Dictionary: oligopsony

Define "oligopsony"

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