Tech leaders, activists call for Obama to pardon Snowden

Tech luminaries Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, and Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, have joined a new campaign pushing for a pardon of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.Other supporters of the PardonSnowden.org campaign, launched Wednesday, are Harvard law professor and tech policy author Lawrence Lessig; tech investor Esther Dyson; noted cryptographer and MIT professor Ron Rivest; and Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow.The campaign, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, asks supporters to sign a letter asking President Barack Obama to pardon the former NSA contractor. "Snowden’s actions ... set in motion the most important debate about government surveillance in decades, and brought about reforms that continue to benefit our security and democracy," the letter says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Tech leaders, activists call for Obama to pardon Snowden

Tech luminaries Steve Wozniak, co-founder of Apple, and Jimmy Wales, founder of Wikipedia, have joined a new campaign pushing for a pardon of National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden.Other supporters of the PardonSnowden.org campaign, launched Wednesday, are Harvard law professor and tech policy author Lawrence Lessig; tech investor Esther Dyson; noted cryptographer and MIT professor Ron Rivest; and Electronic Frontier Foundation co-founder John Perry Barlow.The campaign, supported by the American Civil Liberties Union, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch, asks supporters to sign a letter asking President Barack Obama to pardon the former NSA contractor. "Snowden’s actions ... set in motion the most important debate about government surveillance in decades, and brought about reforms that continue to benefit our security and democracy," the letter says.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FCC Chair’s update on 5G wireless, robocalls, business data services & more

The following statement was made by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler before the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation of the United States Senate during a hearing on "Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission" on Sept. 15.Chairman Thune, Ranking Member Nelson, and Members of the Committee, thank you for this opportunity to discuss our work at the Federal Communications Commission. Since we last met six months ago, the Commission has continued to make strong progress on our policy agenda.  While I am pleased with this progress, our work is far from done.  With each passing day, communications technology grows more important to our economy and quality of life.  That means there’s no letting up at the Commission.  We must continue to promote core values like universal access, public safety, consumer protection, and competition at the same bold pace we have consistently maintained. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FCC Chair’s update on 5G wireless, robocalls, business data services & more

The following statement was made by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler before the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation of the United States Senate during a hearing on "Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission" on Sept. 15.Chairman Thune, Ranking Member Nelson, and Members of the Committee, thank you for this opportunity to discuss our work at the Federal Communications Commission. Since we last met six months ago, the Commission has continued to make strong progress on our policy agenda.  While I am pleased with this progress, our work is far from done.  With each passing day, communications technology grows more important to our economy and quality of life.  That means there’s no letting up at the Commission.  We must continue to promote core values like universal access, public safety, consumer protection, and competition at the same bold pace we have consistently maintained. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

FCC Chair’s update on 5G wireless, robocalls, business data services & more

The following statement was made by FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler before the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation of the United States Senate during a hearing on "Oversight of the Federal Communications Commission" on Sept. 15.Chairman Thune, Ranking Member Nelson, and Members of the Committee, thank you for this opportunity to discuss our work at the Federal Communications Commission. Since we last met six months ago, the Commission has continued to make strong progress on our policy agenda.  While I am pleased with this progress, our work is far from done.  With each passing day, communications technology grows more important to our economy and quality of life.  That means there’s no letting up at the Commission.  We must continue to promote core values like universal access, public safety, consumer protection, and competition at the same bold pace we have consistently maintained. To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Moto G4 Play: Solid budget phone with a removable battery and microSD card

Testing the Moto G4 Play during the past week was pleasant, if not nostalgic.In a way, the Moto G4 Play’s removable battery, microSD card and one-handed, light, sturdy plastic form factor has a retro-design and feel to it. A metal and glass premium exterior is not a reasonable expectation because at $149 it is a budget-priced phone. In the budget category, it is good option.The removable batteries and microSD cards that were designed out of smartphones a few years ago over consumers’ objections are nice features. microSD cards have started to reemerge in some phones, offering 128GB of ROM and promising to increase that to 1TB when compatible cards become available. Few phones, though, have a removable battery.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

70% off Omaker M4 Portable Bluetooth Shower and Outdoor Speaker with 12 Hour Playtime – Deal Alert

The M4 speaker from Omaker is IP54 rated, so its rugged splash, shock and dustproof design makes it ideal for shower and outdoor use. The latest Bluetooth 4.0 technology helps it pair quickly with your device (tap-to-pair with NFC capable devices) and maintain a long 33-foot connection range. Crystal clear sound quality and robust bass is realized through a 3W audio driver and passive subwoofer. The M4 is capable of producing 12 hours of music at 80% volume, up to three times longer than similar-sized portable speakers. It  fully recharges in just 3 hours using an included Micro USB cable. The unit averages 4.5 out of 5 stars from over 4,400 people on Amazon (read reviews), many of which report sound quality that rivals more expensive speakers. Amazon indicates that its list price has been reduced significantly to just $26.99. See the discounted Omaker M4 speaker now on Amazon.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

NFV PoC: Proof of Collaboration

Download the 451 Research Advisory NFV PoC: Proof of Collaboration to gain valuable recommendations for moving forward with an NFV plan.

SAP turns to NTT to add driver data to its connected car analytics system

Safer passengers and healthier drivers might be among the outcomes of a new trial by a German software company and a Japanese telecommunications operator.NTT, the Japanese co-inventor of a sensing fabric used in health-monitoring clothing, is pairing up with business software developer SAP to collect and process real-time data on drivers' heart rate and alertness.SAP already sells a real-time analytics tool, Vehicle Insights, for processing data from connected vehicles.In the trial with NTT it will add information from NTT's IoT analytics platform to the database, allowing the analytics system to look for -- and perhaps act on -- links between drivers' state of health and other vehicle telemetry.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Clinton dodges H-1B question, but Trump wants changes

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump responded to series of questions about science policy, including two questions on immigration.What the answers reveal is this: Clinton and Trump are as divided as night and day on H-1B reforms. Trump supports reform and U.S. worker protections; Clinton simply avoided answering the question.But both candidates support the idea of making it possible for foreign students who graduate from U.S. schools to remain in this country. The only difference is that Clinton outlines a way to accomplish this policy objective, and Trump does not.The questions were put together by ScienceDebate.org, a group representing dozens of professional scientific organizations. The candidates' answers were released Tuesday.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

7 ways to avoid alert fatigue

So much noiseImage by ThinkstockAs a company grows, more tools are required, and with more tools come more alerts and often a breakdown of processes and procedures to handle them. Soon enough, the alerts coming from each of your systems and tools sound like an obnoxiously loud cocktail party, everyone having different conversations about different things. As a result, Security and DevOps teams become so desensitized to these alerts that even when the system flags a truly anomalous activity, it may get ignored due to burnout.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Awareness training: How much is too much?

Security experts agree that humans are the weakest link in the security chain. Virtually all of them agree that security awareness training can strengthen many of those weaknesses.But how best to do that can generate some debate.Lysa Myers, a security researcher at ESET, summarized in a recent post what she said was a collective message from several presentations at the recent Black Hat conference: While it is possible to train employees to be "hyper-vigilant, it can create more problems than it solves.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

The best messaging apps with end-to-end encryption

There is a growing consciousness about the desire to keep one’s messages private. Some are concerned about hackers, or worry about the government spying on them, but most people just agree with the general principle that what you say in your chat conversations ought to stay between you and the people you chat with.It’s not a pleasant idea to think that your messages could be archived for perpetuity on a large company’s server or analyzed by some algorithm. The quest for privacy has birthed a whole generation of apps that promise to give you exactly that. Services like Telegram and Signal have turned the phrase “end-to-end encryption” into a popular discussion. We're here to help you figure out what this is all about and which apps to try.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Sophos rolls out Intercept X for endpoint protection

Sophos is coming out with Intercept X, its new name for endpoint protection that’s based on technology acquired when it bought SurfRight last year to broaden its endpoint strategy.The product uses behavior-based screening to detect malicious behavior on endpoints rather than signature-based protection that requires constant updating and can lag behind attackers’ efforts to create new versions.The software looks at the behavior of processes, specifically watching for 24 techniques that malware uses as part of attacks, says Dan Schiappa, senior vice president of the Enduser Security Group at Sophos. That boosts the chances of finding zero-day attacks that use a common set of techniques.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Sophos rolls out Intercept X for endpoint protection

Sophos is coming out with Intercept X, its new name for endpoint protection that’s based on technology acquired when it bought SurfRight last year to broaden its endpoint strategy.The product uses behavior-based screening to detect malicious behavior on endpoints rather than signature-based protection that requires constant updating and can lag behind attackers’ efforts to create new versions.The software looks at the behavior of processes, specifically watching for 24 techniques that malware uses as part of attacks, says Dan Schiappa, senior vice president of the Enduser Security Group at Sophos. That boosts the chances of finding zero-day attacks that use a common set of techniques.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

SD-WAN: The MSP Connection

The Server At Peak X86

One of the reasons why Dell spent $60 billion on the EMC-VMware conglomerate was to become the top supplier of infrastructure in the corporate datacenter. But even before the deal closed, Dell was on its way – somewhat surprisingly to many – to toppling Hewlett Packard Enterprise as the dominant supplier of X86 systems in the world.

But that computing world is set to change, we think. And perhaps more quickly – some might say jarringly — than any of the server incumbents are prepared to absorb.

After Intel, with the help of a push from AMD a decade ago, …

The Server At Peak X86 was written by Timothy Prickett Morgan at The Next Platform.

The best messaging apps with end-to-end encryption

There is a growing consciousness about the desire to keep one’s messages private. Some are concerned about hackers, or worry about the government spying on them, but most people just agree with the general principle that what you say in your chat conversations ought to stay between you and the people you chat with.It’s not a pleasant idea to think that your messages could be archived for perpetuity on a large company’s server or analyzed by some algorithm. The quest for privacy has birthed a whole generation of apps that promise to give you exactly that. Services like Telegram and Signal have turned the phrase “end-to-end encryption” into a popular discussion. We're here to help you figure out what this is all about and which apps to try.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

What the rise of permissive open source licenses means

"If you use any open source software, you have to make the rest of your software open source." That's what former Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer said back in 2001, and while his statement was never true, it must have spread some FUD (fear, uncertainty and doubt) about free software. Probably that was the intention.This FUD about open source software is mainly about open source licensing. There are many different licenses, some more restrictive (some people use the term "protective") than others. Restrictive licenses such as the GNU General Public License (GPL) use the concept of copyleft, which grants people the right to freely distribute copies and modified versions of a piece of software as long as the same rights are preserved in derivative works. The GPL (v3) is used by open source projects such as bash and GIMP. There's also the Affero GPL, which provides copyleft to software that is offered over a network (for example as a web service.)To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here

Flash vs. HTML5: The last stand

Believe it or not, Flash still has an ardent fan club. The once-ubiquitous media player for browsers has taken its lumps, thanks in large part to security issues. However, diehards remain in Flash’s corner in its battle with HTML5, despite the sense that Flash may be on the ropes, as HTML5 continues to close any functionality gaps it might have had with its proprietary predecessor.Occupy HTML5, a Facebook page that pitches itself as “The movement to rid the world of HTML purism,” is one such outlet taking up Flash’s mantle. The page stresses it “is not an anti-HTML5 movement, but rather an opposition to purism, biased supremacy, and corporate bullying.” Flash, Occupy HTML5 says, is mature. “It's supported by all major desktop browsers. It's stable when used properly. If not, it crashes a lot, just like every other technology.” The page, which has more than 700 Likes, was created by ardent Flash advocate Stephane Beladaci, who said recently he has been planning to relaunch the site.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here