Ubuntu Phone security updates end in June, app store closing

When Mark Shuttleworth, founder of Canonical (the company behind the Ubuntu Linux distribution), announced his company would not only be abandoning their custom desktop environment (Unity), but also halting development on their phone/tablet operating system, many questions were left unanswered.One of those questions: What happens to the existing phones and tablets running Ubuntu Touch that have already been sold? To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Ring Video Doorbell Pro Discounted $50 on Amazon – Deal Alert

With a motion-activated camera, two-way audio and HD video, you’ll never miss a visitor again. Ring detects motion and can alert you on your mobile device, even at night thanks to built-in infrared LED night vision. Optionally, video can be archived to the cloud for later viewing. See, hear and speak to whomever is at your door in real time from your smartphone, tablet or desktop. Day or night, rain or shine -- you’re always home. Right now the Ring Video Doorbell Pro is discounted 20%, or $50, on Amazon. Its typical list price of $249 has dropped to $199.99 (see Ring Video Doorbell Pro now on Amazon). That's a deal that doesn't come around very often.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Russian man receives longest-ever prison sentence in the US for hacking

A 32-year-old Russian hacker was sentenced to 27 years in prison in the U.S. for stealing millions of payment card details from businesses by infecting their point-of-sale systems with malware.The sentence is the longest ever handed out in the U.S. for computer crimes, surpassing the 20-year jail term imposed on American hacker and former U.S. Secret Service informant Albert Gonzalez in 2010 for similar credit card theft activities.Roman Valeryevich Seleznev, a Russian citizen from Vladivostok, was sentenced Friday in the Western District of Washington after he was found guilty in August of 10 counts of wire fraud, eight counts of intentional damage to a protected computer, nine counts of obtaining information from a protected computer, nine counts of possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices and two counts of aggravated identity theft.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Russian man receives longest-ever prison sentence in the US for hacking

A 32-year-old Russian hacker was sentenced to 27 years in prison in the U.S. for stealing millions of payment card details from businesses by infecting their point-of-sale systems with malware.The sentence is the longest ever handed out in the U.S. for computer crimes, surpassing the 20-year jail term imposed on American hacker and former U.S. Secret Service informant Albert Gonzalez in 2010 for similar credit card theft activities.Roman Valeryevich Seleznev, a Russian citizen from Vladivostok, was sentenced Friday in the Western District of Washington after he was found guilty in August of 10 counts of wire fraud, eight counts of intentional damage to a protected computer, nine counts of obtaining information from a protected computer, nine counts of possession of 15 or more unauthorized access devices and two counts of aggravated identity theft.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Join Us for the Docker Federal Summit on May 2nd 2017

 Docker is excited to announce that we are returning to the Newseum in Washington DC on May 2nd to host the second annual Docker Federal Summit event.  A one day event packed with breakout sessions, discussions, hands on labs and technology deep dives from Docker and our ecosystem partners.

 

This event is designed for federal agency developers and IT ops personnel looking to learn more about how to approach Docker containers, cloud and devops to accelerate agency IT initiatives to support critical civilian and defense missions.

  • Government agency registration: Complimentary
  • Industry and ecosystem partner registration is $100

Register to save your seat.

Featured Speakers and Sessions

Technology leaders from agencies like GSA, USCIS and JIDO will share their experiences in deploying containers to production and provide pragmatic guidance in how to approach this change from technology to process and culture.

 

 View the full agenda here.

Featured Breakout Sessions: A wide variety of breakout sessions feature technical deep dives, demonstrations and discussions around compliance and security.

  • Accelerating app development in the cloud
  • The latest initiatives around compliance for IT projects
  • How to scale and secure applications requiring FIPS
  • Docker technology deep dive from orchestration, security, management and more
  • Continue reading

11 technologies developers should explore now

New and evolving technologies are rapidly reshaping how we work—offering creative opportunities for developers who are willing to pivot and adopt new skills. We took a look at 11 tech trends experts say are likely to disrupt current IT approaches and create demand for engineers with an eye on the future.It isn’t all about The Next Big Thing. Future opportunities for developers are emerging from a confluence of cutting-edge technologies, such as AI, VR. augmented reality, IoT, and cloud technology ... and, of course, dealing with the security issues that are evolving from these convergences.[ Find out how to get ahead with our career development guide for developers. | The art of programming is changing rapidly. We help you navigate what's hot in programming and what's going cold. | Keep up with hot topics in programming with InfoWorld's App Dev Report newsletter. ] If you're interested in expanding your developer’s toolkit, check out these trending domains—and our tips on how to get ahead by getting started with them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

11 technologies developers should explore now

New and evolving technologies are rapidly reshaping how we work—offering creative opportunities for developers who are willing to pivot and adopt new skills. We took a look at 11 tech trends experts say are likely to disrupt current IT approaches and create demand for engineers with an eye on the future.It isn’t all about The Next Big Thing. Future opportunities for developers are emerging from a confluence of cutting-edge technologies, such as AI, VR. augmented reality, IoT, and cloud technology ... and, of course, dealing with the security issues that are evolving from these convergences.[ Find out how to get ahead with our career development guide for developers. | The art of programming is changing rapidly. We help you navigate what's hot in programming and what's going cold. | Keep up with hot topics in programming with InfoWorld's App Dev Report newsletter. ] If you're interested in expanding your developer’s toolkit, check out these trending domains—and our tips on how to get ahead by getting started with them.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

8 ways the iPhone 8 can beat the Galaxy S8

If there wasn’t already a mountain of pressure on Apple to deliver something spectacular with this year’s iPhone update, there surely is now. If you haven’t noticed, Samsung has released the Galaxy S8 and S8+, and they’re pretty remarkable. As a former iPhone 7 Plus user, the S8+ might very well be the best phone I’ve ever used, with a stunning screen, speedy processor, and, yes, a gorgeous design.But what makes the S8 so amazing is how unique it is. I got to spend a week with it while writing my review, and I came away stunned. For the first time in a while, Samsung is standing alone on the cutting edge with a phone that needs to be seen to be believed. From its barely there bezels to its brilliant wraparound screen, the Galaxy S8 truly gives Apple a run for its money. No joke, it actually makes the iPhone 7 look pretty stale.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Oracle floats Java hardware acceleration proposal

A proposal currently floating in the Java community would use hardware acceleration to improve bulk calculations in the platform.Project Trinity would explore enhancing execution of bulk aggregate calculations over Streams by offloading calculations to hardware accelerators. Streams in Java allow developers to express calculations so that data parallelism can be efficiently exploited, and the Stream capability in Java Standard Edition 8 is for processing data declaratively while leveraging multicore architectures.[ The big 4 Java IDEs reviewed: See how Eclipse, NetBeans, JDeveloper, and IntelliJ IDEA stack up. | Keep up with hot topics in programming with InfoWorld's App Dev Report newsletter. ] "Such calculations are prime candidates for leveraging enhanced data-oriented instructions on CPUs, such as SIMD instructions or offloading to hardware accelerators, such as the SPARC Data Accelerator co-processor," said Karthik Ganesan, from Oracle's performance and applications engineering group, in his proposal made Friday in an email-based OpenJDK discussion forum.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FAQ: What is blockchain and how can it help business?

Blockchain sounds like a way to keep boats anchored, which isn't a bad analogy, considering what the technology purports to do.While some IT experts herald it as a groundbreaking way of creating a distributed, unchangeable record of transactions, others question the nascent technology's usefulness in the enterprise, which has traditionally relied on centrally-administered databases to secure digital records.Even so, companies are moving fast to try and figure out how they can use it to save time and money. And IT vendors are responding to customers calls for info, with some already looking to include it as part of their services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FAQ: What is blockchain and how can it help business?

Blockchain sounds like a way to keep boats anchored, which isn't a bad analogy, considering what the technology purports to do.While some IT experts herald it as a groundbreaking way of creating a distributed, unchangeable record of transactions, others question the nascent technology's usefulness in the enterprise, which has traditionally relied on centrally-administered databases to secure digital records.Even so, companies are moving fast to try and figure out how they can use it to save time and money. And IT vendors are responding to customers calls for info, with some already looking to include it as part of their services.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

8 things lacking in Microsoft To-Do

Last week, Microsoft made the inscrutable decision to retire Wunderlist, the beloved to-do list app it acquired in 2015, and replace it with a new offering called Microsoft To-Do.Wunderlist isn’t going away yet, but it’s no longer getting feature updates, and its long-term fate is sealed. In a blog post, Microsoft said it will retire the app after incorporating “your valued feedback and the best elements of the Wunderlist experience into To-Do.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Healthcare records for sale on Dark Web

Last August a Baltimore substance abuse treatment facility had its database hacked. Patient records subsequently found their way onto the Dark Web, according to DataBreaches.net. The group noticed such things as dates of admission, whether the patients are on methadone, their doctors and counselors, and dosing information.In the DataBreaches.net blog, the hacker “Return,” who they think is Russian, described how he compromised the Man Alive clinic: “With the help of the social engineer, applied to one of the employees. Word file with malicious code was downloaded.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Healthcare records for sale on Dark Web

Last August a Baltimore substance abuse treatment facility had its database hacked. Patient records subsequently found their way onto the Dark Web, according to DataBreaches.net. The group noticed such things as dates of admission, whether the patients are on methadone, their doctors and counselors, and dosing information.In the DataBreaches.net blog, the hacker “Return,” who they think is Russian, described how he compromised the Man Alive clinic: “With the help of the social engineer, applied to one of the employees. Word file with malicious code was downloaded.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Securing risky network ports

Data packets travel to and from numbered network ports associated with particular IP addresses and endpoints, using the TCP or UDP transport layer protocols. All ports are potentially at risk of attack. No port is natively secure.“Each port and underlying service has its risks. The risk comes from the version of the service, whether someone has configured it correctly, and, if there are passwords for the service, whether these are strong? There are many more factors that determine whether a port or service is safe,” explains Kurt Muhl, lead security consultant at RedTeam Security. Other factors include whether the port is simply one that attackers have selected to slip their attacks and malware through and whether you leave the port open.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Securing risky network ports

Data packets travel to and from numbered network ports associated with particular IP addresses and endpoints, using the TCP or UDP transport layer protocols. All ports are potentially at risk of attack. No port is natively secure.“Each port and underlying service has its risks. The risk comes from the version of the service, whether someone has configured it correctly, and, if there are passwords for the service, whether these are strong? There are many more factors that determine whether a port or service is safe,” explains Kurt Muhl, lead security consultant at RedTeam Security. Other factors include whether the port is simply one that attackers have selected to slip their attacks and malware through and whether you leave the port open.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

6 leadership qualities to look for when hiring

Leadership qualities to look for when hiringImage by PexelsLeadership isn't confined to the C-suite. Companies increasingly look for solid leadership skills when adding to their workforce, whether the roles are entry-level or executive. Stephany Samuels, senior vice president of people strategy at IT recruiting and staffing firm Mondo, explains which qualities you should be looking for when hiring and how to identify the leaders in your talent pool.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here