IDG Contributor Network: Fitness device security inadequate

Smart fitness device makers Xiaomi and Microsoft are among those making products that are susceptible to man-in-the-middle (MiM) attacks, says AV-Test, the German independent IT security institute.MiM attacks are where a hacker intercepts and changes communications between parties who think they are communicating with each other.“Some manufacturers are continuing to make disappointing errors,” the lab, which tested seven fitness bands and the Apple watch, says in its report, published last week.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Fitness device security inadequate

Smart fitness device makers Xiaomi and Microsoft are among those making products that are susceptible to man-in-the-middle (MiM) attacks, says AV-Test, the German independent IT security institute.MiM attacks are where a hacker intercepts and changes communications between parties who think they are communicating with each other.“Some manufacturers are continuing to make disappointing errors,” the lab, which tested seven fitness bands and the Apple watch, says in its report, published last week.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel is developing AR smart glasses for interactive collaboration

Intel seems to be developing a pair of augmented reality smart glasses, and we may see them at the company's developer show next month.The Intel Remote EyeSight, a set of head-worn AR smart glasses, is built around the idea of remote collaboration. The company will offer details at a technical session during next month's Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco.Further information about the AR smart glasses wasn't immediately available, but they seem like a cross between Microsoft's HoloLens and Google Glass.The technical session page describes the AR smart glasses as a product that uses Intel's Collaboration Suite for WebRTC video capabilities to "transform Intel's enterprise collaboration experiences with secure, cost-effective, hands-free and augmented reality technologies."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

10 ways to celebrate Sysadmin Day

Sysadmin Day – last Friday of July, first Friday in our heartsYes, Sysadmin day is just around the corner again, as we prepare to recognize business IT’s foot soldiers in the war against downtime and general stuff-not-working-right-ness. Here are 10 ways to celebrate these great and deserving people. (MORE: Our 2015 look at Sysadmin Day)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Feds unleash $4.5B push to promote electric car adoption

The White House last week launched a number of steps it hopes will spur the development and further adoption of electric vehicles – including $4.5 billion to help build-out the country’s electric charging grid.“In the past eight years the number of plug-in electric vehicle models increased from one to more than 20, battery costs have decreased 70%, and we have increased the number of electric vehicle charging stations from less than 500 in 2008 to more than 16,000 today – a 40 fold increase,” the DOE stated.+More on Network World: What’s hot in driverless cars?+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Feds unleash $4.5B push to promote electric car adoption

The White House last week launched a number of steps it hopes will spur the development and further adoption of electric vehicles – including $4.5 billion to help build-out the country’s electric charging grid.“In the past eight years the number of plug-in electric vehicle models increased from one to more than 20, battery costs have decreased 70%, and we have increased the number of electric vehicle charging stations from less than 500 in 2008 to more than 16,000 today – a 40 fold increase,” the DOE stated.+More on Network World: What’s hot in driverless cars?+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

10 ways to celebrate Sysadmin Day

Sysadmin Day – last Friday of July, first Friday in our heartsYes, Sysadmin day is just around the corner again, as we prepare to recognize business IT’s foot soldiers in the war against downtime and general stuff-not-working-right-ness. Here are 10 ways to celebrate these great and deserving people. (MORE: Our 2015 look at Sysadmin Day)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Worth Reading: The Microsoft Ireland Case

Back in December 2013, federal law enforcement was conducting a criminal narcotics investigation. During the course of this investigation, the government sought a search warrant, pursuant to Section 2703(a) of the SCA, to seize the contents of an email account belonging to a Microsoft customer. Microsoft complied with the warrant to an extent, turning over any account information that was being stored in the United States. However, the actual emails, and their contents, were stored overseas in Dublin, Ireland. Microsoft balked at turning over the overseas content, and the district court held the corporation in civil contempt for its failure to comply with the warrant. —Lawfare

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IDG Contributor Network: Is corporate sustainability shaping your cloud adoption strategy?

As corporate sustainability increasingly exercises influence on IT decision making, the question becomes how will it affect technology adoption trends. Will cloud adoption accelerate as result?Resources consumed The public cloud provides a good story for corporate sustainability in its "reveal" of resources consumed.Measured resource utilization (MRU) billing can be easily converted into corporate sustainability metrics of carbon emitted or averted, the equivalent to cars off the road, etc. And with the "shared" nature of public cloud equipment, it also tells a story more akin to public transportation. Meanwhile extant enterprise IT’s reputation of low-utilization assets, comatose equipment and rate card chargebacks seem more analogous to traffic jams of one person per vehicle.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Is corporate sustainability shaping your cloud adoption strategy?

As corporate sustainability increasingly exercises influence on IT decision making, the question becomes how will it affect technology adoption trends. Will cloud adoption accelerate as result?Resources consumed The public cloud provides a good story for corporate sustainability in its "reveal" of resources consumed.Measured resource utilization (MRU) billing can be easily converted into corporate sustainability metrics of carbon emitted or averted, the equivalent to cars off the road, etc. And with the "shared" nature of public cloud equipment, it also tells a story more akin to public transportation. Meanwhile extant enterprise IT’s reputation of low-utilization assets, comatose equipment and rate card chargebacks seem more analogous to traffic jams of one person per vehicle.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Kimpton Hotels is investigating a possible payment card breach

Kimpton Hotels, operator of boutique hotels across the U.S., is investigating reports of a possible payment card data breach. If confirmed, it would become the latest in a string of successful attacks on hotel chain operators in the last year.The San Francisco-based company said it was "recently made aware of a report of unauthorized charges occurring on cards that were previously used legitimately at Kimpton properties."As a result, it has hired a computer security firm to investigate whether its systems were compromised and guest data stolen. In the meantime, it advised guests to monitor their card statements for unauthorized charges.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Kimpton Hotels is investigating a possible payment card breach

Kimpton Hotels, operator of boutique hotels across the U.S., is investigating reports of a possible payment card data breach. If confirmed, it would become the latest in a string of successful attacks on hotel chain operators in the last year.The San Francisco-based company said it was "recently made aware of a report of unauthorized charges occurring on cards that were previously used legitimately at Kimpton properties."As a result, it has hired a computer security firm to investigate whether its systems were compromised and guest data stolen. In the meantime, it advised guests to monitor their card statements for unauthorized charges.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

GE Issues Kits to Get IoT Developers Onto Predix Faster

Making IoT more plug-and-play.

Net-Centric 2016 (ISOCORE)

I will be speaking at Net-Centric 2016 in the Washington DC area—you can find more information on the ISOCORE web site.

The post Net-Centric 2016 (ISOCORE) appeared first on 'net work.

Verizon’s Yahoo deal creates tracking powerhouse, privacy groups warn

Verizon's planned US$4.8 billion acquisition of Yahoo is likely to create an international consumer tracking powerhouse, and that's raising serious privacy concerns.Combined with other recent acquisitions, the Yahoo deal will allow Verizon to track consumers not only on the web, but also at their physical locations, said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocacy group.Verizon's acquisition of Yahoo's core digital advertising business, "when combined with the capability to gather information from its wireless devices, broadband networks, and set-top boxes, gives it control over the key screens that Americans use today," Chester said by email. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Verizon’s Yahoo deal creates tracking powerhouse, privacy groups warn

Verizon's planned US$4.8 billion acquisition of Yahoo is likely to create an international consumer tracking powerhouse, and that's raising serious privacy concerns.Combined with other recent acquisitions, the Yahoo deal will allow Verizon to track consumers not only on the web, but also at their physical locations, said Jeffrey Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocacy group.Verizon's acquisition of Yahoo's core digital advertising business, "when combined with the capability to gather information from its wireless devices, broadband networks, and set-top boxes, gives it control over the key screens that Americans use today," Chester said by email. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A10 Networks makes pivot to cloud with Appcito acquisition

A10 Networks, with its acquisition this week of startup Appcito, has become the latest Application Delivery Control (ADC) company to make a big push into supporting cloud applications.Many traditional ADC vendors have focused their platforms on helping customers manage applications in their own data centers. As more and more applications are hosted in the cloud, however, ADC companies have begun evolving their platforms to support cloud-based application management. In doing so, they find themselves competing with new, cloud-native open source ADC tools and offerings directly from cloud vendors.“A10 is pivoting to the cloud, and that’s something they have to do to address the changing application profiles and application-delivery requirements of enterprise customers,” says IDC analyst Brad Casemore.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Why every tech pro should learn to code

Coding is one of the hottest skills on the tech market. According to a recent survey from Burning Glass, programming jobs are growing 12 percent faster than the average. According to the survey in 2015 there were seven million job openings that required coding skills.To discover trends around occupations, skills, credentials and salaries, Burning Glass evaluated its database of 26 million unique job postings collected in the U.S. in 2015. The study found that in the "career track" category -- defined as jobs that pay at least $15 per hour -- the positions that required coding skills paid, on average, $22,000 more per year than those that didn't. But interestingly, coding wasn't confined to programming jobs; it emerged as a necessary skill in data analysis, arts and design, engineering, information technology and science. That's why it might be time to learn how to code -- and if you have kids, it's time to get them on the bandwagon too.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Nextdoor: Tool for good or another paranoid cog in the spy machine?

I’ve lived in some really great places as well as some that were not; at one point when I lived in a city that had been crowned most dangerous and had the most number of violent crimes, then I might have welcomed the community-based social networking app Nextdoor.Dubbed a “private social network,” Nextdoor is a gated local community-based social network to share information about what is happening in your neighborhood. Users must prove they are a member of their neighborhood by entering a code received via snail-mail. Then they can access only the information pertaining to their neighborhood. Nextdoor via Google Play Although it launched in 2011, within the last month, Nextdoor has been in the news after even more police departments have joined; a few examples include the Delaware State Police, Louisville Metro Police, St. Joseph Police Department in Missouri, Boynton Beach Police and Leon County Sheriff's Office in Florida.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

GE waves developers onto its huge IoT stage

It takes a village to raise an IoT infrastructure. That’s the way it looks as the major players in the internet of things pair up in one partnership after another, while also reaching out to developers from startups and enterprises. The potential uses of IoT are so diverse, especially in the industrial realm, that specialized knowledge is a key part of the formula. General Electric has more than a century of industrial experience, but its five-year-old GE Digital division hopes to leverage outside expertise in its IoT mission. This week the company is hosting the first developer conference for its GE Predix software platform, where it will announce developer kits to help get the ball rolling on new IoT projects.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here