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Category Archives for "Networking"

Apple users having trouble auto-updating QuickTime on Windows 8, 10

A glitch with Apple's QuickTime multimedia program has left some Windows users wondering why they're having trouble updating to the latest version.QuickTime has an auto-update mechanism, but it appears to not work on Windows 8 and 10, wrote Alton Blom, a Sydney-based security researcher, in a blog post.Blom wrote that he found inconsistencies in how QuickTime and Apple's Software Update tool interacted with each other depending on the versions of Windows and QuickTime installed.For example, on Windows 8, QuickTime reported that it was up to date, but Apple's Software Update tool said the application needed to be upgraded to 7.7.8, which is the latest version, Blom wrote.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

UK police arrest third person in TalkTalk breach investigation

UK police arrested a third suspect on Saturday relating to the breach at communications provider TalkTalk, which said the amount of data exposed is less than initially thought.A 20-year-old man was arrested after police executed a search warrant at an address in south Staffordshire, the Metropolitan Police said Sunday.The man, who was not identified, was arrested on suspicion of violations of the Computer Misuse Act and was later bailed.  UK police arrested a 15-year-old boy in County Antrim, Northern Ireland, on Oct. 26, and a 16-year-old boy in Feltham, England, on Thursday. Both boys have been bailed.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Snapchat now has the rights to store and share selfies taken via the app

If you still believe your snaps will self-destruct, you might want to review Snapchat’s newest policy changes as the company can now potentially keep your photos forever and share them. Oh, and by using the app, you grant Snapchat the rights to your photos.Users who update their Snapchat app must tap “Accept” to signify agreeing with the app’s newly updated Privacy Policy and Terms of Service. “Scary stuff,” is what actor Kal Penn, the former White House Associate Director of Public Engagement, called Snapchat’s new privacy and legal policies. Kal Penn Snapchat, which became popular because messages were supposed to go poof after 10 seconds, gave rise to other third-party apps meant to capture and keep the messages. If you recall “The Snappening” in Oct. 2014, the third party app Snapsaved was hacked and selfies that were supposed to self-destruct were instead leaked. But it couldn't be considered a “leak” if users agree to Snapchat’s newly revised privacy policy and terms of service that take the company on a radical shift away from the idea upon which it was founded.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tor Messenger: Anonymous instant messaging beta released

Anyone who values their privacy will be aware of Tor, the distributed “onion routing” network that makes it possible to avoid surveillance (though it is thought that even the sophistication of the Tor system may not be enough to avoid NSA scrutiny if they really want to get the login for your Ashley Madison account). While Tor is great for hiding your browsing until now, it hasn’t been able to anonymize instant messaging. That changed yesterday with the beta release of the open source Tor Messenger. Available for Windows, Linux, and OS X the Tor Messenger:To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

10 use cases where NoSQL will outperform SQL

This vendor-written tech primer has been edited by Network World to eliminate product promotion, but readers should note it will likely favor the submitter’s approach.

Once only used by the likes of Google, Amazon and Facebook, many industries are now adopting NoSQL database technology for crucial business applications, replacing their relational database deployments to gain flexibility and scalability. Here are 10 enterprise use cases best addressed by NoSQL:

* Personalization. A personalized experience requires data, and lots of it – demographic, contextual, behavioral and more. The more data available, the more personalized the experience. However, relational databases are overwhelmed by the volume of data required for personalization. In contrast, a distributed NoSQL database can scale elastically to meet the most demanding workloads and build and update visitor profiles on the fly, delivering the low latency required for real-time engagement with your customers.

To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Good news for hackers: People still plug found USB sticks into their computers

Of 200 USB sticks distributed at public places in Chicago, Cleveland, San Francisco and Washington, D.C., earlier this year, 17 percent wound up plugged into computers – some of them by IT pros - where they could have done all sorts of damage had they been loaded with malware.Not only were they plugged in, the finders followed instructions on them to email a specified address and include what they did for a living, according to a study by the IT industry association CompTIA.MORE: Sorriest network companies of 2015To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

PlexxiPulse—Don’t Let Scalability Spook You

Last week, our director of product marketing, Bob Noel, penned a blog post that identified the five new networking requirements being driven by IoT and Big Data. This week, we are shining the spotlight on one of the third era of IT requirements Bob highlighted – scalability. In today’s dynamic application environments, the ability to scale gracefully to be able to handle distributed applications is critical. The network must be scaled to match demand, but the challenge (and a pain point for many) is how. Traditional “scale up” techniques were about replacing outgrown processing and storage capacity with bigger boxes and migrating data onto the new platform. Now, as the environment grows, more physical devices will be connected to the network. Providers need to think beyond adding capacity through bigger pipes and consider how to support a rapidly growing number of storage and compute nodes. It can be spooky thing to consider, but at Plexxi we make scaling your network to meet Third Era demands a treat, not a trick.

Below please find a few of our top picks for our favorite news articles of the week. Happy Halloween!

Enterprise Networking Planet: Better Networking Through the API
By Arthur Cole
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Black Friday, er, Black November tech deals include cheap iPads, free shipping

Online tech retailer Newegg isn’t messing around with just Black Friday anymore. It’s calling all of next month Black November as it gears up for holiday sales in what’s looking to be another all-out battle for techies’ wallets.Newegg hasn’t released specific sale information yet, but has outlined plans to kick off deals on more than 900 products Nov. 1-3, gaming bargains Nov. 4-9, a Black Friday preview sale Nov. 10-26, big savings on Black Friday (Nov. 27) itself, and then of course some more deals on Cyber Monday. More and more, we’re seeing retailers describing their holiday sales plans, in a less than detailed manner, with promises of specifics on dates to come.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Book Review: ‘The Peripheral’ By William Gibson

William Gibson is working at the height of his abilities in The Peripheral. Characters move back and forth between near present-day and an unusual post-apocalyptic future, and the book blends high-tech, visionary showpieces with themes of class, opportunity, and economic injustice.

The post Book Review: ‘The Peripheral’ By William Gibson appeared first on Packet Pushers.

All CoinVault and Bitcryptor ransomware victims can now recover their files for free

If your computer was infected with the CoinVault or Bitcryptor ransomware programs you're in luck -- at least compared to other ransomware victims. Chances are high that you can now recover your encrypted files for free, if you still have them.Researchers from Kaspersky Lab and the Dutch Public Prosecution Service have obtained the last set of encryption keys from command-and-control servers that were used by CoinVault and Bitcryptor, two related ransomware threats.Those keys have been uploaded to Kaspersky's ransomware decryptor service that was originally set up in April with a set of around 750 keys recovered from servers hosted in the Netherlands.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here