Internet naming system not US property, says congressional watchdog

The U.S. Government Accountability Office has said that the internet domain name system is unlikely to be government property, ahead of the planned transfer by month end of the oversight of key technical functions supporting the internet, including the domain name system, to an independent multistakeholder body."It is unlikely that either the authoritative root zone file—the public 'address book' for the top level of the Internet domain name system—or the Internet domain name system as a whole" is U.S. government property, the GAO said in a legal opinion provided to legislators.The report by the Congressional watchdog comes ahead of a hearing on the issue Wednesday chaired by Republican Senator Ted Cruz from Texas. The Republicans are intent on blocking the transfer of the Internet Assigned Numbers Authority (IANA) functions, currently being operated by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) under a contract with the Department of Commerce, which expires on Sept. 30.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The most secure home computer ever

We’ve all heard tales of foreign intelligence entities breaking into hotel rooms and cloning a person’s hard drive while he or she is in the bar downstairs.You might dismiss it as the stuff of urban legend or Jason Bourne movies, but this style of attack does highlight one of the most basic weaknesses of today’s PCs: Their data is extremely vulnerable once an attacker has physical access to a machine. Cold boot attacks, USB exploits,or DMA attacks over FireWire, among other breaches, are all possible if a bad actor can get his or her hands on the hardware.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The most secure home computer ever

We’ve all heard tales of foreign intelligence entities breaking into hotel rooms and cloning a person’s hard drive while he or she is in the bar downstairs.You might dismiss it as the stuff of urban legend or Jason Bourne movies, but this style of attack does highlight one of the most basic weaknesses of today’s PCs: Their data is extremely vulnerable once an attacker has physical access to a machine. Cold boot attacks, USB exploits,or DMA attacks over FireWire, among other breaches, are all possible if a bad actor can get his or her hands on the hardware.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Review: Ansible shows the beef

At a time when the configuration management market was dominated by Puppet and Chef, an open source project called Ansible emerged with a simpler approach to automating IT environments. An agentless system that was easy to learn, Ansible quickly earned a name for itself. Before long, the developers behind the project formed a company to offer commercial support. That company -- first known as AnsibleWorks, then Ansible -- was acquired by open source leader Red Hat in October 2015.Docker. Ansible offers modules for building and running Docker containers, orchestrating containers across a Swarm cluster, and managing Docker images. There are advantages to building Docker images from Ansible playbooks instead of Dockerfiles. When you build an image from a Dockerfile, the application or environment can only be deployed in a  Docker container. But when you build an image using Ansible playbooks, the environments can easily be replicated on any infrastructure -- bare metal, cloud instance, virtual machine, or Vagrant.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Review: Ansible shows the beef

At a time when the configuration management market was dominated by Puppet and Chef, an open source project called Ansible emerged with a simpler approach to automating IT environments. An agentless system that was easy to learn, Ansible quickly earned a name for itself. Before long, the developers behind the project formed a company to offer commercial support. That company -- first known as AnsibleWorks, then Ansible -- was acquired by open source leader Red Hat in October 2015.Docker. Ansible offers modules for building and running Docker containers, orchestrating containers across a Swarm cluster, and managing Docker images. There are advantages to building Docker images from Ansible playbooks instead of Dockerfiles. When you build an image from a Dockerfile, the application or environment can only be deployed in a  Docker container. But when you build an image using Ansible playbooks, the environments can easily be replicated on any infrastructure -- bare metal, cloud instance, virtual machine, or Vagrant.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Apple Pay coming to 200,000-plus websites, not just in-store or in-app

Apple Pay on websites launched on Tuesday with the release of iOS 10 for the iPhone and iPad -- and will hit Mac desktops when macOS Sierra launches next Tuesday.More than 200,000 websites -- including small and large retailers -- plan to support Apple Pay on their sites in coming weeks, Apple said Tuesday. Many of the sites include online retailers using e-commerce platforms run by Shopify, Demandware and IBM.The move means that online shoppers with iPhones, iPads and Macs updated with the latest operating systems can save time when finishing an online purchase through the Apple's Safari browser. Retailers that have signed up for the service are expected to see an uptick in the number of customers that finish a web purchase, instead of giving up because typing in credit information was considered too complicated, awkward or time-consuming.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple Pay coming to 200,000-plus websites, not just in-store or in-app

Apple Pay on websites launched on Tuesday with the release of iOS 10 for the iPhone and iPad -- and will hit Mac desktops when macOS Sierra launches next Tuesday.More than 200,000 websites -- including small and large retailers -- plan to support Apple Pay on their sites in coming weeks, Apple said Tuesday. Many of the sites include online retailers using e-commerce platforms run by Shopify, Demandware and IBM.The move means that online shoppers with iPhones, iPads and Macs updated with the latest operating systems can save time when finishing an online purchase through the Apple's Safari browser. Retailers that have signed up for the service are expected to see an uptick in the number of customers that finish a web purchase, instead of giving up because typing in credit information was considered too complicated, awkward or time-consuming.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

10 free iMessage apps to supercharge your Messages in iOS 10

There's an iMessage app for that!With the launch of iOS 10, Apple has opened the floodgates by integrating third-party apps within its stock Messages app—and you can find them all within Apple’s dedicated iMessage App Store. Check out some of the best free ways to animate, coordinate, and add some flair your messages.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The secret to boosting women in IT? Men

Kathy Fuertes has steadily climbed the corporate ladder during her 27 years in IT, often with a gentle push from male colleagues who had her back.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

Google offers $200K for top prize in new Android hack challenge

Google yesterday announced a six-month bug contest that will pay up to $200,000 for an Android "bug chain," one or more successful exploits of previously unknown vulnerabilities.Dubbed "Project Zero Prize," it differed from hacking contests that take place over one or two days: Researchers can submit entries from now until March 14, 2017. In that regard, Google's contest resembled the limited-time bug bounties that rival Microsoft has offered to focus on, among other areas and applications, in Windows 10's Edge browser.In the case of multi-exploit entries, Google also departed from the usual contest or bounty rules by encouraging researchers to submit each link in the bug chain as the flaws were uncovered, rather than wait until all were in place and exploitable.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Google offers $200K for top prize in new Android hack challenge

Google yesterday announced a six-month bug contest that will pay up to $200,000 for an Android "bug chain," one or more successful exploits of previously unknown vulnerabilities.Dubbed "Project Zero Prize," it differed from hacking contests that take place over one or two days: Researchers can submit entries from now until March 14, 2017. In that regard, Google's contest resembled the limited-time bug bounties that rival Microsoft has offered to focus on, among other areas and applications, in Windows 10's Edge browser.In the case of multi-exploit entries, Google also departed from the usual contest or bounty rules by encouraging researchers to submit each link in the bug chain as the flaws were uncovered, rather than wait until all were in place and exploitable.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Digital transformation boosts captive offshore center growth

Global in-house centers — wholly owned captive offshore operations that deliver offshore IT services to their parent companies — today provide a quarter of the offshore and nearshore digital services market, according to outsourcing research firm Everest Group. And that percentage is likely to grow as enterprise demand for digital transformation continues.[ Related: Digital transformation will shape 2016 ]“Global in-house centers (GICs) are typically more strongly integrated with the core business as they are perceived as an extended team of the parent or onshore organizations,” says Aditya Verma, co-director of Everest Group’s global sourcing practice. “They typically have specialized knowledge of the business as they cater to only one customer (the parent organization) as compared to a multi-tenant service provider.” Enterprises are typically more comfortable sharing core business knowledge or intellectual property with the company’s own employees than with a third-party service provider who works with other customers or even competitors.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft Intune to support Android for Work

Microsoft announced late Tuesday that it has joined Google's Android for Work program and will support Google's container technology for mobile application management in a future release of Intune, Microsoft's own enterprise mobility management (EMM) server. The Microsoft blog post gave no timeline.Android for Work, initially released in winter 2015 as part of an Android 5.0 Lollipop update, brought to Android the same level of enterprise-grade protection for mobile apps that had previously been available only to Apple's iOS devices or Samsung's Android devices running Samsung's own Knox technology.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Microsoft Intune to support Android for Work

Microsoft announced late Tuesday that it has joined Google's Android for Work program and will support Google's container technology for mobile application management in a future release of Intune, Microsoft's own enterprise mobility management (EMM) server. The Microsoft blog post gave no timeline.Android for Work, initially released in winter 2015 as part of an Android 5.0 Lollipop update, brought to Android the same level of enterprise-grade protection for mobile apps that had previously been available only to Apple's iOS devices or Samsung's Android devices running Samsung's own Knox technology.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Project management: To debrief or not to debrief

Many project managers may view the end of a project as a perfect opportunity to debrief, while others are onto their next project with very little time dedicated to debriefing. Some swear by the debriefing process and others simply bypass it altogether. Let's take a look at the process, its purpose, the benefits and, yes, the drawbacks.The debriefing process is conducted once the project activities have come to a close and the project is complete. It allows for transparent feedback by any/all participants in a non-stressful environment.Reasons for team debriefing sessions The purpose behind project debriefing is to allow the project team an opportunity to share thoughts, experiences and ideas in a more relaxed environment. It offers a means to evaluate whether the project has met all the requirements and stayed within scope. It helps in identifying issues that may have occurred as well as aids in determining possible root causes.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A single ransomware network has pulled in $121 million

A single ransomware author and distributor was able to collect $121 million in ransomware payments during the first half of this year, netting $94 million after expenses, according to a report released today."Ransomware has grown over the years, and in 2015 and 2016 we really saw a serious spike," said Vincent Weafer, vice president of Intel Security's McAfee Labs.Weafer estimated that total ransomware revenues could be in the hundreds of millions."And that's on the conservative side," he said.WHAT SHOULD YOU DO: How to respond to ransomware threats Total ransomware increased by 128 percent during the first half of 2016 compared to the same period last year. There were 1.3 million new ransomware samples recorded, the highest number since McAfee began tracking it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A single ransomware network has pulled in $121 million

A single ransomware author and distributor was able to collect $121 million in ransomware payments during the first half of this year, netting $94 million after expenses, according to a report released today."Ransomware has grown over the years, and in 2015 and 2016 we really saw a serious spike," said Vincent Weafer, vice president of Intel Security's McAfee Labs.Weafer estimated that total ransomware revenues could be in the hundreds of millions."And that's on the conservative side," he said.WHAT SHOULD YOU DO: How to respond to ransomware threats Total ransomware increased by 128 percent during the first half of 2016 compared to the same period last year. There were 1.3 million new ransomware samples recorded, the highest number since McAfee began tracking it.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tips for keeping Gen-Z and millennial workers happy

Forget everything you think you know about millennials and their successors, Generation Z, because your notions are probably false. What do these generations really want at work? Flexibility, in-person communication, a stable "home base" corporate office and the ability to travel, according to new research from Future Workplace, an HR executive network and research firm, and HR services and staffing company Randstad U.S.A.The research, the Gen Z & Millennials Collide @ Work report, was conducted by Morar Consulting across 10 global markets (U.S., UK, Germany, Mexico, Poland, Argentina, India, China, Canada and South Africa) between June 22 and July 11, 2016, and asked 4,066 respondents in two separate age groups (1,965 Gen Z members; 22 years of age and 2,101 millennials; aged 23 to 34) about their preparation for work, as well as expectations and experiences of their workplaces.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Meet Flock, a Slack rival that claims big productivity gains

Numerous Slack contenders have already thrown their hats into the enterprise-messaging ring, but Flock is hoping to win with hard numbers. According to Flock, not only does its software load 2.5 times faster than Slack on both desktop and mobile, but it also helps teams achieve productivity gains of at least 30 percent.Originally launched in India roughly two years ago, the company announced its expansion into the U.S. market on Wednesday and revealed a customer list that includes big-name brands such as Whirlpool, Ricoh, Victorinox and Tim Horton’s.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

8 Data Storage Experts You Should Follow