Acer TravelMate 802.11ad notebook: An industry ‘first’ you might never need or use

When I was offered a review unit of the Acer TravelMate P648-MG-789T notebook, it was touted as the “industry’s first notebook with Tri-Band 802.11ad Wireless from Qualcomm”.Sure thing!, I thought, as I always enjoy trying out things that are new, especially ones that are an industry first.But then I went back and looked up 802.11ad - aka “Gigabit Wireless”, aka “60Gig”, and realized that this technology has been touted for about two years without much movement in the space from vendors. At CES earlier this year, Acer announced it was coming out with this notebook, and it’s finally here.Whoo-hoo?Here’s the thing - 802.11ad technology utilizes the 60 GHz wireless spectrum - it’s aimed at short range, high-volume data transfers, especially in smaller spaces. This also gives you some higher bandwidth than you’d get with an 802.11ac system, but you’re also limiting the distance between the client and the receiver in order to get that benefit.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Apple won’t reveal first-weekend iPhone 7 sales

Historically, the Monday after each new iPhone launch begins with a press release from Apple where the company boasts about how many new devices it sold over the weekend. And more often than not, each new iPhone release enjoys a more successful launch than the previous launch.But with the iPhone 7, Apple has decided to switch things up. For the first time in history, Apple not be releasing weekend launch sales figures for its new iPhone. In a statement provided to CNBC, Apple explained the rationale behind its somewhat surprising decision. Specifically, Apple believes that its weekend launch sales press release has become outdated, primarily because supply is always an ongoing issue. In other words, even if the iPhone 7 sells out, and Apple believes that it will, sales figures don’t provide a truly accurate or representative gauge as to the true demand for the device.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Canada-EU counter-terror data exchange is illegal, says top EU judge

An agreement to send Canadian authorities passenger name record (PNR) data for flights from the European Union cannot be entered into in its current form, a top European Union judge has said.That's because parts of the draft agreement are incompatible with EU citizens' fundamental privacy rights, according to Paolo Mengozzi, Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the EU, in a legal opinion issued Thursday.His opinion, on a case brought by the European Parliament, is only advisory, and it still remains for the CJEU to make a final ruling on the matter.But if the court follows his advice, it could disrupt the European Commission's plans for a new directive on the sharing of PNR data among EU member states and with other countries. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Canada-EU counter-terror data exchange is illegal, says top EU judge

An agreement to send Canadian authorities passenger name record (PNR) data for flights from the European Union cannot be entered into in its current form, a top European Union judge has said.That's because parts of the draft agreement are incompatible with EU citizens' fundamental privacy rights, according to Paolo Mengozzi, Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the EU, in a legal opinion issued Thursday.His opinion, on a case brought by the European Parliament, is only advisory, and it still remains for the CJEU to make a final ruling on the matter.But if the court follows his advice, it could disrupt the European Commission's plans for a new directive on the sharing of PNR data among EU member states and with other countries. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Cloud Apps And Pathways

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Applications are king. Forget all the things you do to ensure proper routing in your data center. Forget the tweaks for OSPF sub-second failover or BGP optimal path selection. None of it matters to your users. If their login to Seibel or Salesforce or Netflix is slow today, you’ve failed. They are very vocal when it comes to telling you how much the network sucks today. How do we fix this?

Pathways Aren’t Perfect

The first problem is the cloud focus of applications. Once our packets leave our border routers it’s a giant game of chance as to how things are going to work next. The routing protocol games that govern the Internet are tried and true and straight out of RFC 1771(Yes, RFC 4271 supersedes it). BGP is a great tool with general purpose abilities. It’s becoming the choice for web scale applications like LinkedIn and Facebook. But it’s problematic for Internet routing. It scales well but doesn’t have the ability to make rapid decisions.

The stability of BGP is also the reason why it doesn’t react well to changes. In the old days, links could go up and down quickly. BGP was designed to avoid issues with Continue reading

New Apple Watch strikes fine balance between new features and continuity

Apple yesterday announced a whole raft of useful improvements in the Apple Watch Series 2, but the biggest thing it got right may have been what it didn’t change. And while the company addressed many of the issues surrounding its smartwatch, one key limitation remains. First, let’s look at what Apple did to improve the Apple Watch: Made it water resistant to 50 meters, so you can swim and sweat and shower in it (don’t try this with one of the fancy leather bands) Upgraded the CPU to run 50 percent faster and the GPU to run much 100 percent faster Upgraded the display to be twice as bright, critical for use in direct sunlight Added new Siri integrations so you don’t have to mess with the tiny screen and fussy buttons as much Built in GPS, so runners and hikers can use it without being tethered to an iPhone. Introduced a Nike version that appears designed specifically for runners.  To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Bring on the iPhone 7 parody videos

Apple made it too easy on parody video producers, meme generators and comedians this week in announcing its iPhone 7 and 7 Plus smartphones and boasting of its "courage" in ditching the standard 3.5mm headphone jack in favor of a proprietary Lightning one.Jacksfilms, whose video had racked up more than 400K views as of Thursday morning, goes after Apple and its courage to sell $160 earphones that you need to charge, a typically out-there musical performance by Sia and Apple's special new dongle... The Challenge accurately pokes fun at the "mini hair dryers" that are the new Apple AirPods...To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Implementing secure WANs in the cloud age

Over the past few years most organizations have significantly increased their reliance on the Internet, primarily due to the outsourcing of utility applications like email, unified communications, ERP, CRM, etc. to SaaS providers. Cloud-based applications provide IT organizations with an agile and cost effective means for expanding the range of services they provide and delivering new productivity tools requested by teams, departments or lines of business.Despite this growing adoption of cloud services, many enterprises have resisted connecting their remote offices directly to application providers over the public Internet. This is due to the fact that direct access at every branch introduces compliance issues. The only way to mitigate these is by creating extensive security policies at each location. Imagine having 3,000 sites with each requiring its own set of policies that need to be set-up and maintained. This is the definition of a management nightmare.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: Implementing secure WANs in the cloud age

Over the past few years most organizations have significantly increased their reliance on the Internet, primarily due to the outsourcing of utility applications like email, unified communications, ERP, CRM, etc. to SaaS providers. Cloud-based applications provide IT organizations with an agile and cost effective means for expanding the range of services they provide and delivering new productivity tools requested by teams, departments or lines of business.Despite this growing adoption of cloud services, many enterprises have resisted connecting their remote offices directly to application providers over the public Internet. This is due to the fact that direct access at every branch introduces compliance issues. The only way to mitigate these is by creating extensive security policies at each location. Imagine having 3,000 sites with each requiring its own set of policies that need to be set-up and maintained. This is the definition of a management nightmare.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A USB device is all it takes to steal credentials from locked PCs

Most users lock their computer screens when they temporarily step away from them. While this seems like a good security measure, it isn't good enough, a researcher demonstrated this week.Rob Fuller, principal security engineer at R5 Industries, found out that all it takes to copy an OS account password hash from a locked Windows computer is to plug in a special USB device for a few seconds. The hash can later be cracked or used directly in some network attacks.For his attack, Fuller used a flash-drive-size computer called USB Armory that costs $155, but the same attack can be pulled off with cheaper devices, like the Hak5 LAN Turtle, which costs $50.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

A USB device is all it takes to steal credentials from locked PCs

Most users lock their computer screens when they temporarily step away from them. While this seems like a good security measure, it isn't good enough, a researcher demonstrated this week.Rob Fuller, principal security engineer at R5 Industries, found out that all it takes to copy an OS account password hash from a locked Windows computer is to plug in a special USB device for a few seconds. The hash can later be cracked or used directly in some network attacks.For his attack, Fuller used a flash-drive-size computer called USB Armory that costs $155, but the same attack can be pulled off with cheaper devices, like the Hak5 LAN Turtle, which costs $50.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

IDG Contributor Network: People know they shouldn’t click on links but do it anyway

Blatant nosiness is the reason why email users click on the links embedded within electronic messages, according to university researchers.This new evidence, discovered in a study, throws into question the basic premise behind phishing. That presumption is that when an iffy email looks like it comes from a legitimate organization, but contains a link to a bogus website where financial details are guzzled by bad guys, that gullible people are being bamboozled by the apparent legitimacy of the email.+ Also on Network World: 10 companies that can help you fight phishing +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

So Your Username and Password Where in a Data Dump. Now What?

Whether it’s Dropbox, LinkedIn, MySpace, PlayStation, or whatever the latest breach happens to be, it’s almost inevitable that you will be caught up in one of these breaches and have your username, password and possibly other information exposed in a data dump. Here’s how to respond when that happens.

How Does This Happen?

A data dump is what often happens after a website has been breached and information about that site’s users/customers is stolen. All that stolen data is often “dumped” on the Internet for all to see. Once the data is dumped, it’s at that point that all this information becomes public and along with it, your information.

Sometimes, as in the case of the Ashely Madison dump, that information can be personally damaging. Other times the information is limited to usernames and passwords.

This article is going to focus on how to respond if your username and password are part of a data dump.

Step 1 – Reset Your Password

This is obvious, but go and change your password. Do it right now, before something comes along and distracts you. Even if you’re a security concious person and you’re using Two-Factor Authentication Continue reading

Ireland to Europe: No, Apple doesn’t owe us

Ireland will join Apple in appealing the European Commission’s finding that Apple owes the country more than US$14 billion in back taxes.The Dail, Ireland’s parliament, voted 93 to 36 late Wednesday night to file an appeal against the ruling, which came out last week. The government is now set to ask the EC to reverse its ruling, which said Ireland’s tax treatment of Apple from 2003 to 2014 was illegal and distorted competition.Ireland could stand to gain €13 billion ($14.5 billion) in tax revenue from the ruling, but government officials and lawmakers said imposing the tax would hurt the country’s reputation as a good place to do business.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Lights out! Why IT shops are disabling wireless AP LEDs

Having seen all sorts of makeshift fixes – from post-it notes to bandages to condom wrappers – used to block wireless access point LEDs from beaming and sometimes blinking, some IT shops have begun turning off the lights altogether even though it can make their jobs a little tougher. Lively discussion broke out online this week among a forum of university IT pros after one member inquired about this “first-world problem,” as he contemplates whether to disable LEDs on APs across the board in an effort to improve dorm residents’ quality of life (i.e., help them grab more shuteye by reducing in-room light pollution). More than a dozen peers replied that they have indeed turned off the lights, some doing so in a wholesale manner, others taking it case by case. They say technicians can re-enable LEDs temporarily if need be for troubleshooting.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Rugged devops: Build security into software development

Devops is transforming how developers and operations teams work together to deliver better software faster. At its core, devops is about automation. When several tasks in development, testing, and deployment are automated, developers can make changes to code and deploy to production frequently. Amazon, a leading devops proponent, at one point claimed to have more than 1,000 deployments a day.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here(Insider Story)

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