IBM amps-up Watson cybersecurity experiences

Watson has gone through school and ready for first internship. IBM today said its Watson cognitive computing system continues its path to become part of a full-fledged cybersecurity service by announcing 40 customers have begun beta testing the technology as an enterprise protection tool.+More on Network World: IBM Watson/ XPrize open $5 million AI competition for world-changing applications+Watson has recruited enterprises from auto, banking and insurance realms -- including Sun Life Financial, University of Rochester Medical Center, SCANA Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group, California Polytechnic State University, University of New Brunswick, Avnet and Smarttech – to help research and develop new security applications that will use the systems natural language and machine learning techniques.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

4 top disaster recovery packages compared

Whether the disaster is a flood, a power outage or human error, IT departments have the critical role of getting business systems working again. And that requires reliable disaster-recovery software.Four of the top disaster-recovery (DR) software suites are Veeam Backup, Altaro VM Backup, Zerto Virtual Replication and VMware’s Site Recovery Manager (SRM), according to reviews written by users in the IT Central Station community.[ Also on CSO: Lessons from high-profile IT failures ] But what do enterprise users really think about these tools? Here, users give a shout-out for some of their favorite features, but also give the vendors a little tough love.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

4 top disaster recovery packages compared

Whether the disaster is a flood, a power outage or human error, IT departments have the critical role of getting business systems working again. And that requires reliable disaster-recovery software.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

AT&T means business with a 5G trial at Intel

5G and its multi-gigabit cellular speeds probably won’t hit the market until 2020, but one corporate customer of AT&T is about to taste what it may be like.AT&T is launching its first customer trial of 5G technologies – the first 5G trial for any business user in the U.S., the carrier believes. But this is no average customer that happened to draw a golden ticket. The trial will take place at an Intel facility in Austin, Texas. It will last about a month, use just one cell site, and cover an area with a radius of approximately 300 meters, AT&T said.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Integrating Threat Intelligence Into Your Network Security Strategy

Companies increasingly looking for hackers to attack their networks

The U.S. Army ventured into unfamiliar territory last week, the first day of its “Hack the Army” bug bounty program that challenges dozens of invited hackers to infiltrate its computer networks and find vulnerabilities in select, public-facing Army websites."We're not agile enough to keep up with a number of things that are happening in the tech world and in other places outside the Department of Defense," explained Army Secretary Eric Fanning in announcing the plan in mid-November. "We're looking for new ways of doing business," which includes a break from the past when government avoided working with the hacker community.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Companies increasingly looking for hackers to attack their networks

The U.S. Army ventured into unfamiliar territory last week, the first day of its “Hack the Army” bug bounty program that challenges dozens of invited hackers to infiltrate its computer networks and find vulnerabilities in select, public-facing Army websites."We're not agile enough to keep up with a number of things that are happening in the tech world and in other places outside the Department of Defense," explained Army Secretary Eric Fanning in announcing the plan in mid-November. "We're looking for new ways of doing business," which includes a break from the past when government avoided working with the hacker community.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tell-tale toys open bedroom door to strangers, consumer groups warn

Internet-connected toys subject children to hidden marketing messages and allow strangers to converse with them from a distance, consumer rights groups say.The groups highlighted breaches of security and basic consumer rights in two toys in particular, the i-Que robot and the My Friend Cayla doll.The toys connect via Bluetooth to smartphone apps that record children speaking and transmit the recordings to a voice recognition service provider in the U.S., Nuance Communications, allowing the toys to appear to converse with the children.But, the consumer groups say, there is no authentication or pairing of the Bluetooth connections, allowing strangers within radio range of the toys to detect them and connect with them to carry on a conversation with the children directly. Furthermore, they say, voice recordings that could contain personal information are transmitted to Nuance without explicit consent, and the toys inject messages into their conversations repeatedly endorsing Disney products.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tell-tale toys open bedroom door to strangers, consumer groups warn

Internet-connected toys subject children to hidden marketing messages and allow strangers to converse with them from a distance, consumer rights groups say.The groups highlighted breaches of security and basic consumer rights in two toys in particular, the i-Que robot and the My Friend Cayla doll.The toys connect via Bluetooth to smartphone apps that record children speaking and transmit the recordings to a voice recognition service provider in the U.S., Nuance Communications, allowing the toys to appear to converse with the children.But, the consumer groups say, there is no authentication or pairing of the Bluetooth connections, allowing strangers within radio range of the toys to detect them and connect with them to carry on a conversation with the children directly. Furthermore, they say, voice recordings that could contain personal information are transmitted to Nuance without explicit consent, and the toys inject messages into their conversations repeatedly endorsing Disney products.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Common security mistakes in collaboration tools

Working togetherImage by Rebecca SiegelCollaboration tools have become widely used across organizations today, as people come to rely on these handy tools to work more efficiently. They reduce reliance on email, increase conversation between teams and provide an easy way to share information with colleagues. However, with many workplace applications today, there are so many gaps where security settings can fail, and corporate IT is beginning to take notice. Mike McCamon, president at SpiderOak, recommends staying away from these common security and privacy mistakes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Common security mistakes in collaboration tools

Working togetherImage by Rebecca SiegelCollaboration tools have become widely used across organizations today, as people come to rely on these handy tools to work more efficiently. They reduce reliance on email, increase conversation between teams and provide an easy way to share information with colleagues. However, with many workplace applications today, there are so many gaps where security settings can fail, and corporate IT is beginning to take notice. Mike McCamon, president at SpiderOak, recommends staying away from these common security and privacy mistakes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Surface Book i7 vs. MacBook Pro: Fight!

Now that Apple’s introduced the first major update to its MacBook Pro lineup in years, it’s time to square off the best of the best in Mac and PC laptops to see who currently prevails in this age-old rivalry.  It’s benchmarks at dawn between the new MacBooks, the new Surface Book i7, and a posse of other Windows laptops.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

HPE Adds Natural Language Question Answering to IDOL

It's like an enterprise-grade, machine learning personal assistant.

Cloud Service Brokers: Key Considerations

Using IoT to help protect the U.S. food supply

When you warehouse and ship billions of pounds of food in the U.S.—food that is sold in Walmart, Costco and your local grocery store—food safety is a priority. Product must be protected and in the most energy-efficient way possible. That’s the challenge Lineage Logistics faces daily. A food processing, warehousing and distribution company, Lineage Logistics controls 20 to 25 percent of the U.S. third-party cold food chain, said Elliot Wolf, director of analytics at the San Francisco-based company. “We move an average of 20 billion to 30 billion pounds of food through our warehouses each year,” he said.  To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft Word vs. Google Docs: Which works better for business?

Have you been thinking of re-assessing which word processor your business should standardize on? The obvious choices are the two best known: Microsoft Word and Google Docs. But which is better?Online photos and researchTracking changes in a documentTo read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Response: On the Death of OpenFlow

On November 7th SDx Central published an article saying “OpenFlow is virtually dead.” There’s a first time for everything, and it’s a real fun reading a marketing blurb on a site sponsored by SDN vendors claiming the shiny SDN parade unicorn is dead.

On a more serious note, Tom Hollingsworth wrote a blog post in which he effectively said “OpenFlow is just a tool. Can we please find the right problem for it?”

Big Switch Rolls Out BigSecure Architecture to House its Products

Big Monitoring Fabric now monitors clouds, VMs, and containers.

Privacy groups urge investigation of ‘internet of toys’

Privacy groups in the U.S. and seven European countries will ask consumer protection agencies to investigate the maker of two internet-connected toys for violations of laws designed to protect children's privacy.The complaints are scheduled to be filed Tuesday against Genesis Toys, maker of the My Friend Cayla and I-Que Intelligence Robot toys, and Nuance Communications, the provider of voice-recognition software for the products.The complaints, to be filed in the U.S., France, Sweden, Greece, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Norway, may be only the beginning of actions taken by consumer and privacy groups targeting a lucrative slice of the internet of things market, the so-called internet of toys.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Privacy groups urge investigation of ‘internet of toys’

Privacy groups in the U.S. and seven European countries will ask consumer protection agencies to investigate the maker of two internet-connected toys for violations of laws designed to protect children's privacy.The complaints are scheduled to be filed Tuesday against Genesis Toys, maker of the My Friend Cayla and I-Que Intelligence Robot toys, and Nuance Communications, the provider of voice-recognition software for the products.The complaints, to be filed in the U.S., France, Sweden, Greece, Belgium, Ireland, the Netherlands, and Norway, may be only the beginning of actions taken by consumer and privacy groups targeting a lucrative slice of the internet of things market, the so-called internet of toys.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here