IDG Contributor Network: Mirantis shifts again, will offer managed solutions based on open-source technologies

Mirantis is (or, as we will see, was) known as the pure play OpenStack vendor. The company focused on offering large organizations products and services that helped them leverage the open-source, OpenStack cloud computing platform to build their own clouds for internal or external use.Over time, however, there has been some doubt cast upon how much of a market opportunity there is for these sort of OpenStack service providers. The OpenStack ecosystem has been the source of much angst as consolidation, rationalization and unrealized hopes and dreams too their toll.Mirantis' 'evolution' Mirantis was not immune from these impacts and last year announced its intention to move away from a pure-play OpenStack strategy and become an organization that helped its customers build infrastructure solutions based on a number of different platforms, OpenStack included. At the time, there were rumors that Mirantis wasn’t seeing the return customers it had hoped for and that most of its deals were one-time gigs that didn’t really allow it to build a recurring, sustainable business.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Native apps vs. mobile websites: A new battlefront opens

It’s one of the most challenging ongoing conflicts in mobile technology: native apps vs. mobile websites. Is it better to develop apps for specific mobile operating systems like Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android or instead turn to websites that are optimized for mobile browsing. Performance vs. flexibility Traditionally, the tradeoff has been that native apps can do more and perform faster because they can be tied more directly to the mobile operating system and the device hardware. Mobile web apps, on the other hand, are typically easier to develop and more flexible. You can build an app once, and it runs reasonably well everywhere—rather than have to develop multiple versions for every mobile OS. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

GOP senator alleges password-hijack attempts after blasting WikiLeaks founder

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) Saturday claimed that hackers were trying to gain access to his personal and government-issued devices through bogus password-reset notifications.In a short flurry of Twitter messages, Sasse blamed the hacking attempts on his criticism of WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, earlier in the week."Heads-up...I've been critical of Assange & WikiLeaks this week. So...big surprise: Am having multiple 'password reset' attempts right now," Sasse tweeted Saturday. The probing was hitting "basically every device, every platform, personal and govt," he added in a follow-up tweet.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

GOP senator alleges password-hijack attempts after blasting WikiLeaks founder

Sen. Ben Sasse (R-Neb.) Saturday claimed that hackers were trying to gain access to his personal and government-issued devices through bogus password-reset notifications.In a short flurry of Twitter messages, Sasse blamed the hacking attempts on his criticism of WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, earlier in the week."Heads-up...I've been critical of Assange & WikiLeaks this week. So...big surprise: Am having multiple 'password reset' attempts right now," Sasse tweeted Saturday. The probing was hitting "basically every device, every platform, personal and govt," he added in a follow-up tweet.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Intel races ahead in autonomous cars with $15.3 billion Mobileye buy

Intel has shifted its self-driving car efforts into high gear with a $15.3 billion deal to acquire computer vision and collision-avoidance company MobileEye.With the deal, announced Monday, Intel gets its hands on technology for machine learning, data analysis, localization and mapping for driver assistance systems and autonomous driving.Mobileye develops a full package of software and chips designed for use in autonomous cars.The deal is expected to close in nine months and calls for the combined global autonomous driving organization, which will consist of Mobileye and Intel's Automated Driving Group, to be headquartered in Israel and led by Amnon Shashua, Mobileye's co-Founder, chairman and CTO.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Digital innovation takes flight at SFO

Ian Law, CIO of San Francisco International Airport (SFO), is constantly at the intersection of a variety of business challenges. The obvious: running the technology powering air travel, passenger safety and well-being. The not so obvious: working with retailers, ride-sharing name brands and government agencies to make sure all operations are running smoothly.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Mayer to quit as CEO of new holding company after Yahoo sale to Verizon

After Yahoo sells its operating business to Verizon Communications, Marissa Mayer step down as CEO from the holding company that remains, according to a regulatory document posted Monday.However, Mayer and Yahoo still have not yet announced whether she will move with the operating business to Verizon or take another position. When Yahoo announced the deal with Verizon last July, Mayer said she planned to stay with the company."For me personally, I’m planning to stay," she said then. "I love Yahoo, and I believe in all of you. It’s important to me to see Yahoo into its next chapter."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The best ways to Celebrate Pi Day 2017

It’s that time of year again: Pi Day! Image by Flickr/kok_sexton Pi enthusiasts around the world wait each year for March 14 to celebrate the mathematical constant that represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Check out our tried and true tips for celebrating Pi Day, and be sure to check out our past year’s coverage for even more ideas.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The best ways to Celebrate Pi Day 2017

It’s that time of year again: Pi Day! Image by Flickr/kok_sexton Pi enthusiasts around the world wait each year for March 14 to celebrate the mathematical constant that represents the ratio of a circle’s circumference to its diameter. Check out our tried and true tips for celebrating Pi Day, and be sure to check out our past year’s coverage for even more ideas.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco jumps on ex-Juniper exec Davidson for service provider biz

That was fast. Networking veteran Jonathan Davidson is re-joining Cisco a little less than a week after resigning as rival Juniper executive VP and general manager. Cisco/Jonathan Davidson Davidson is joining Cisco’s Service Provider Business Unit and will report to Yvette Kanouff, the senior vice president and general manager that unit.+More on Network World: Cisco’s Jasper deal – one year, 18 million new IoT devices later, challenges remain+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cisco jumps on ex-Juniper exec Davidson for service provider biz

That was fast. Networking veteran Jonathan Davidson is re-joining Cisco a little less than a week after resigning as rival Juniper executive VP and general manager. Cisco/Jonathan Davidson Davidson is joining Cisco’s Service Provider Business Unit and will report to Yvette Kanouff, the senior vice president and general manager that unit.+More on Network World: Cisco’s Jasper deal – one year, 18 million new IoT devices later, challenges remain+To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Carnegie Mellon director recognized for devotion to diversity in CompSci

The Computing Research Association has recognized Carnegie Mellon University’s Carol Frieze as its 2017 A. Nico Habermann Award winner in recognition of her efforts to promote diversity in computer science.Frieze directs Women@SCS, a student/faculty organization fostering opportunities for women, and the student-run SCS4ALL initiative to bring more underrepresented groups into the computing field. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Rapid7 discloses multiple vulnerabilities in telepresence robot

You know the telepresence robots that roll around offices with a camera, microphone and iPad attached in order to give remote users a way to participate “face-to-face” in meetings? It would be trippy if an attacker were able to take control of such a robot, but also entirely possible. Today, Rapid7 revealed three security flaws it discovered in the mobile conferencing device Double Telepresence Robot. Rapid7 researcher Deral Heiland discovered three vulnerabilities: unauthenticated access to data, static user session management, and weak Bluetooth pairing. Two of three vulnerabilities disclosed to Double Robotics were patched in January, a really quick response considering the fixes were deployed about a week after the flaws were disclosed to the company.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Rapid7 discloses multiple vulnerabilities in telepresence robot

You know the telepresence robots that roll around offices with a camera, microphone and iPad attached in order to give remote users a way to participate “face-to-face” in meetings? It would be trippy if an attacker were able to take control of such a robot, but also entirely possible. Today, Rapid7 revealed three security flaws it discovered in the mobile conferencing device Double Telepresence Robot. Rapid7 researcher Deral Heiland discovered three vulnerabilities: unauthenticated access to data, static user session management, and weak Bluetooth pairing. Two of three vulnerabilities disclosed to Double Robotics were patched in January, a really quick response considering the fixes were deployed about a week after the flaws were disclosed to the company.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Old nemesis spam becoming significant way for attackers to subvert data

Spam is once again raising its ugly head as a chief way for attackers to grab protected data.IBM’s X-Force Threat Intelligence group said today that one of the key findings from its forthcoming Threat Intelligence Index for 2017 is that spam volume grew dramatically throughout 2016, bringing with its host of new malicious attachments harboring banking Trojans and ransomware.+More on Network World: IBM technology moves even closer to human speech recognition parity+“Attackers are not limited to a single set of tools, however. The ongoing expansion of domain name choices has added another instrument to the spammer’s toolbox: enticing recipients to click through to malicious sites, ultimately allowing attackers to infiltrate their networks,” wrote Ralf Iffert, Manager, X-Force Content Security in a blog about the spam findings. “More than 35% of the URLs found in spam sent in 2016 used traditional, generic top-level domains (gTLD) .com and .info. Surprisingly, over 20% of the URLs used the .ru country code top-level domain (ccTLD), helped mainly by the large number of spam emails containing the .ru ccTLD.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Old nemesis spam becoming significant way for attackers to subvert data

Spam is once again raising its ugly head as a chief way for attackers to grab protected data.IBM’s X-Force Threat Intelligence group said today that one of the key findings from its forthcoming Threat Intelligence Index for 2017 is that spam volume grew dramatically throughout 2016, bringing with its host of new malicious attachments harboring banking Trojans and ransomware.+More on Network World: IBM technology moves even closer to human speech recognition parity+“Attackers are not limited to a single set of tools, however. The ongoing expansion of domain name choices has added another instrument to the spammer’s toolbox: enticing recipients to click through to malicious sites, ultimately allowing attackers to infiltrate their networks,” wrote Ralf Iffert, Manager, X-Force Content Security in a blog about the spam findings. “More than 35% of the URLs found in spam sent in 2016 used traditional, generic top-level domains (gTLD) .com and .info. Surprisingly, over 20% of the URLs used the .ru country code top-level domain (ccTLD), helped mainly by the large number of spam emails containing the .ru ccTLD.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How much are vendor security assurances worth after the CIA leaks?

Following the recent revelations about the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's cyberespionage arsenal, software vendors reiterated their commitments to fix vulnerabilities in a timely manner and told users that many of the flaws described in the agency's leaked documents have been fixed.While these assurances are understandable from a public relations perspective, they don't really change anything, especially for companies and users that are the target of state-sponsored hackers. The software they use is not less safe, nor better protected, than it was before WikiLeaks published the 8,700-plus CIA documents last Tuesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

How much are vendor security assurances worth after the CIA leaks?

Following the recent revelations about the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's cyberespionage arsenal, software vendors reiterated their commitments to fix vulnerabilities in a timely manner and told users that many of the flaws described in the agency's leaked documents have been fixed.While these assurances are understandable from a public relations perspective, they don't really change anything, especially for companies and users that are the target of state-sponsored hackers. The software they use is not less safe, nor better protected, than it was before WikiLeaks published the 8,700-plus CIA documents last Tuesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here