Windows 7 updates have been broken for several days

If something goes wrong with a patch, it's usually a problem that emerges after people download and install the patch. But in this case, fixes issued for May's Patch Tuesday batch just plain won't install at all for some people.The most recent batch of bug fixes was issued on May 10, and within days people were complaining of problems with the installation. It's always the same problem: Windows Update runs for a long time stuck at 0% progress before finally failing to install.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco Meraki Adds Cloud-Managed Phone

IDG Contributor Network: Using IoT-enabled microscopes to fight epidemic outbreaks

Catching viruses before they spread is hard. They often originate in remote areas, and spread by insects. Further, location makes it difficult to analyze blood samples for infections in order to treat them early.The challenge is urgent. Once infectious diseases such as Yellow Plague and Ebola spread, they are much harder to contain and manage. That means it's essential to catch outbreaks quickly, especially when diseases can be spread rapidly by mosquitos. For if you can identify them quickly, you can quarantine and treat patients before they infect others.+ Also on Network World: Challenges for IoT: Connectivity, protocols, funding +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Developers cheer as Atlassian delivers continuously from the cloud

Atlassian is perhaps the quintessential example of how new companies are built. Founded in Australia, the company has scaled and is now firmly entrenched in the U.S. as a publicly listed company.The interesting thing about Atlassian, at least compared to better known SaaS companies such as Box or Salesforce, is that it has scaled without resorting to the traditional model of having high-paid, and high-pressure, salespeople. Atlassian seems to have mastered the viral approach to selling, and it has an almost rabid following within enterprise development shops.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

BGP Security and SPAM

Spam might seem like an annoyance in the US and other areas where bandwidth is paid for by the access rate—and what does spam have to do with BGP security? In many areas of the world, however, spam makes email practically unusable. When you’re paying for Internet access by the byte transmitted or received, spam costs real money. The normal process for combating spam involves a multi-step process, one step of which is to assess the IP address of the mail server’s previous activity for a history of originating spam. In order to avoid classifiers that rely on the source IP address, spammers have turned to hijacking IP address space for short periods of time. Since this address space is normally used for something other than email (or it’s not used at all), there is no history on which a spam detection system can rely.

The evidence for spam related hijacking, however, is largely anecdotal, primarily based in word of mouth and the rare widely reported incidents. How common are these hijacks, really? What sort of address space is really used? To answer this question, a group of researchers from Symantec and the Qatar Computing Research Center undertook a project Continue reading

Skeptics question Android on Chromebooks

Google's announcement last week that it will let owners of Chromebooks run Android apps was met with skepticism by analysts, who argued that it would not significantly change the market for the inexpensive notebooks that run the browser-based Chrome OS.Android apps "aren't designed for the keyboard, they're not scaled for the larger screen, so they aren't going to be ideal," said Bob O'Donnell, chief analyst at Technalysis Research. "Most people will find that frustrating."The combination of Android and Chrome OS will begin rolling out to a limited number of Chromebook models next month, with more slated for support, as the year unwinds, via updates to Chrome OS. Google Play, the Android app marketplace, will be available on Chromebooks, and those apps will run on the devices' minimalist operating system, Google has promised.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Big data and analytics spending to hit $187 billion

Worldwide revenues for big data and business analytics will grow from nearly $122 billion in 2015 to $187 billion in 2019, according to the new Worldwide Semiannual Big Data and Analytics Spending Guide from research firm International Data Corporation (IDC).That's an increase of more than 50 percent over IDC's five-year forecast period. [ CIO.com and Drexel to honor 50 analytics innovators. Nominate your analytics project today! ]To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google taps Caesar’s casino exec to lead enterprise sales

Google is hiring the Chief Commercial Officer of the Caesar’s Entertainment to lead its enterprise sales division.Recode was the first top report the news of Tariq Shaukat, who also formerly worked at McKinsey, as Google’s newest executive. While at Caesar’s Shaukat oversaw sales, marketing, distribution, analytics, gaming and ecommerce across the company’s hotels, casinos, restaurants and nightlife. Caesar’s is a $9 billion annual revenue company.The move is just the latest expert Google has attracted to help bolster it’s enterprise sales efforts. Last year Google bought on VMware co-founder Diane Greene (check out InfoWorld’s Q&A with her here). Last year Google recruited former Red Hat CTO Brian Stevens to the Googleplex too.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

French tax police raid Google’s Paris office

French police have raided Google's Paris office as part of an investigation into the company's tax affairs.The raid began at 5 a.m. Tuesday, Paris time, according to local newspaper Le Parisien, and involved five public prosecutors, 25 computer experts, and investigators from the French tax office and the Central Office for the Prevention of Corruption and Financial and Tax Crimes (OCLCIFF), the public prosecutors' office told local media.French prosecutors began investigating Google's finances last June, following allegations from the tax authorities that the company was involved in serious tax fraud.Google channels much of its European advertising sales through its Irish subsidiary, Google Ireland, profiting from low tax rates there. Tax officials in other European countries are concerned about the resulting loss in tax revenue.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

By the numbers: Cyber attack costs compared

Data breaches caused by malicious insiders and malicious code can take as long 50 days or more to fix, according to Ponemon Institute's 2015 Cost of Cyber Crime Study. While malware, viruses, worms, trojans, and botnets take only an estimated 2-5 days to fix.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Disaster recovery in a DevOps world

According to a 2015 survey by IT Revolution Press in conjunction with Puppet Labs, organizations using DevOps deploy code 30 times faster than others, doing deployments multiple times per day. Moreover, change failure gets cut in half with DevOps and services are restored up to 168 times faster than they are at non-DevOps organizations.DevOps: Failing more quickly, and recovering faster Let’s focus on those last two points for a moment. One thing is for certain: Embracing DevOps also pays off from a disaster recovery standpoint, because the tools and procedures that you use to move applications from development to testing to production and back to development again can also be applied to failing over and recovering from disasters and service interruptions. The same tools that automate the entire DevOps life cycle can also help you make the most use of the resources you already have for recovery purposes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

By the numbers: Cyber attack costs compared

Data breaches caused by malicious insiders and malicious code can take as long 50 days or more to fix, according to Ponemon Institute's 2015 Cost of Cyber Crime Study. While malware, viruses, worms, trojans, and botnets take only an estimated 2-5 days to fix.Unsurprisingly, attacks by malicious insiders are also the costliest to fix ($145,000 according to the Ponemon study), followed by denial of service ($127,000) and Web-based attacks ($96,000).The consequences and cost of cyber attacks are also unevenly distributed, with business disruption and information loss taking the biggest share, followed by revenue loss and equipment damages, according to Ponemon. But the cost of remediation in person-days can also be substantial. Involvement of a programmer, a QA person, project manger, product manager and corporate lawyer will cost you more than $300 per employee per day, according to data from payscale.com — and that's before you consider the cost of the CEO, CISO and CFO's time.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Disaster recovery in a DevOps world

According to a 2015 survey by IT Revolution Press in conjunction with Puppet Labs, organizations using DevOps deploy code 30 times faster than others, doing deployments multiple times per day. Moreover, change failure gets cut in half with DevOps and services are restored up to 168 times faster than they are at non-DevOps organizations.DevOps: Failing more quickly, and recovering faster Let’s focus on those last two points for a moment. One thing is for certain: Embracing DevOps also pays off from a disaster recovery standpoint, because the tools and procedures that you use to move applications from development to testing to production and back to development again can also be applied to failing over and recovering from disasters and service interruptions. The same tools that automate the entire DevOps life cycle can also help you make the most use of the resources you already have for recovery purposes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Datameer gets an overhaul to make big-data analytics easier

The rise of the citizen data scientist has placed a new premium on easy-to-use analytics tools, and on Tuesday Datameer announced a fresh version of its namesake platform designed with that imperative in mind.New in Datameer 6 are a simplified front end as well as an expanded tool for selecting the best processing framework for the job.Datameer 6's new front end combines the previously linear steps of data integration, preparation, analytics and visualization into a single screen. Shifts in context, tools or teams are no longer required every time a data change is needed, the company says. Instead, users can toggle among different phases of the workflow, with visualization along the way to illustrate the effects any changes have made.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Should Brocade Go Private?

Private equity is a popular route but may not be right for Brocade.

KEMP Technologies DemoFriday Q&A: Bridging the Gap – Leveraging Network Visibility for Application User Experience

Thanks to all who submitted questions during the KEMP Technologies DemoFriday. You can read the full Q&A here.

To fix long security checkpoint lines, kick the TSA out of airports

You go through TSA security checkpoints and leave without the carry-on items you sent through the conveyor belt to be scanned.That happens a lot; things go missing in ways other than TSA confiscating items. Just ask Eric Cheng, a photographer, technologist, drone expert and author, who said the TSA handed his $2,800 MacBook Pro to some random stranger.“After following TSA security protocols, TSA gave my $2,800 computer away to another passenger whom they were unable or unwilling to identify and track down,” he wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

To fix long security checkpoint lines, kick the TSA out of airports

You go through TSA security checkpoints and leave without the carry-on items you sent through the conveyor belt to be scanned.That happens a lot; things go missing in ways other than TSA confiscating items. Just ask Eric Cheng, a photographer, technologist, drone expert and author, who said the TSA handed his $2,800 MacBook Pro to some random stranger.“After following TSA security protocols, TSA gave my $2,800 computer away to another passenger whom they were unable or unwilling to identify and track down,” he wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US state officials worry about their ability to respond to cyberattacks

Many states aren't confident of their ability to respond to cyberattacks on physical infrastructure such as water and electric systems, U.S. emergency response officials say.The U.S. government could do several things to help states improve their response to cyberattacks, including increased funding for technology training programs, cybersecurity experts told a House of Representatives committee Tuesday.States have difficulty hiring top cybersecurity employees, said Steven Spano, president and COO of the Center for Internet Security. Cybersecurity workers are a "high-demand, low-density asset," the former Air Force general told two subcommittees of the House Homeland Security Committee.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

US state officials worry about their ability to respond to cyberattacks

Many states aren't confident of their ability to respond to cyberattacks on physical infrastructure such as water and electric systems, U.S. emergency response officials say.The U.S. government could do several things to help states improve their response to cyberattacks, including increased funding for technology training programs, cybersecurity experts told a House of Representatives committee Tuesday.States have difficulty hiring top cybersecurity employees, said Steven Spano, president and COO of the Center for Internet Security. Cybersecurity workers are a "high-demand, low-density asset," the former Air Force general told two subcommittees of the House Homeland Security Committee.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here